Mayhem & Chaos Blog

MusicBrainz

MusicBrainz Summit Concludes

The MusicBrainz Summit 5 just concluded and I must say that I had a blast talking about MusicBrainz, AudioScrobbler/Last.fm and MusicMoz for several hours. A ton of things got discussed and cooperation plans between AS and MusicMoz have been mapped out. Check out the MusicBrainz Summit5 Wiki page for many details about our discussions. I want to send out a big thanks to Jamie Munro and Viva Network for hosting us. And big thanks go out to RJ, Russ and John from AudioScrobbler, Richard Fuller from MusicMoz and Dave Evans from MusicBrainz. I look forward to working with you (more) in the future.

MusicBrainz

MusicBrainz Summit

Yesterday was the first day of the MusicBrainz summit -- we've got some audio recorded on minidisc and we'll work to make that available sometime soon. For some immediate gratification, check out the Summit Wiki page -- we're keeping notes on decisions at the bottom of the page. Day two is about to get started.

Blogging

I'm off

I'm off to .uk, .nl and .de -- first stop is London/Bedford/Oxford for the MusicBrainz summit. I'll do my best to blog from the road, but you never know where and when you'll find a decent net connection. So, who knows.

Legal/Government

Another ludicrous bill in congress

Senators John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. introduced the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act to enable jail term sentences for people who offer to share movies before they are released:

The threat of a three-year prison term kicks in when anyone makes an illicit copy of a movie "available on a computer network accessible to members of the public," when the film "was intended for commercial distribution but had not been so distributed at the time." Once the film is commercially distributed, the felony penalties appear to no longer apply.

But, it gets even better:

Peter Jaszi, a professor at American University who teaches copyright law, said he is "deeply troubled" by the wording of the draft legislation, because it does not say any actual copyright infringement must take place--only that the file be available in a shared folder, Web site or FTP (File Transfer Protocol) site. "It says we don't care if anybody got any of these copies," Jaszi said. "We're going to conclude that at least 10 people did. It relieves the copyright owner of having to prove that any violation of their rights actually happened."

It would be illegal to place an unreleased movie onto a network where someone else can grab a copy. Never mind if someone got a copy -- you're going to jail. Hmmm. Innocent until proven guilty -- anyone remember that concept? Sounded good a couple of hundred years ago, but now that we have the movie industry we obviously have to give up certain freedoms in order to protect the revenue of the people who already have too much money.

Thankfully my yearly trip to visit free countries starts next week.

Music industry watch

WalMart: Yet another download service

Looks like WalMart is going to offer online music downloads. I wonder if they will drive the margins down to near zero and abuse their workforce in this market too.

Music industry watch

'certain' mp3.com assets bought by C-Net

While back I talked about how mp3.com was on its death bed. And it was all true -- C-NET is going to aqcuire the domain and certain assets from mp3.com:

Please note, however, that promptly following the removal of the MP3.com website, all content will be deleted from our servers and all previously submitted tapes, CD-ROMs and other media in our possession will be destroyed.

I won't miss it one bit.

Legal/Government

Bush -- no way Jose

I've been thinking about what would happen if Bush got reelected next year, and I've come to the conclusion that he doesn't stand a chance to be reelected.

Well, he wouldn't be reelected anyway. Perhaps elected for the first time, but there is no way that's going to happen. Here are some observations that lead me to believe this:

1. Driving around CA and here on the roads in SLO, I've seen a a bunch of bumper stickers for Dean and for Clark. Perhaps a dozen or more. But only one for Bush.
2. Bush has screwed up everything he's touched, and calls to investigate Bush/Cheney are getting more numerous and louder.
3. Bush's foreign policy is just plain whacked -- we knew that. But Bush is travelling to London the same day as I am and he is demanding that central London be sealed off to protestors during his visit. Scottland Yard responds: "... the powers requested by US security chiefs would be unprecedented on British soil."
4. Iraq. 'nuff said.

No one outside the US is hot on Bush either. It seems that only the bible belt here in the states actually thinks he is doing a good job. Fortunately I think the bible belt will be overruled next November. Less than 500 days with Bush in office, and yet the end is not coming soon enough.

Music industry watch

New copyprotected CDs from Sony

Roj blogged about Sony's new copyprotected CDs. I'm agree with Roj, but I'd like to read a little more into this development from Sony. Reuters says:

But Sony thinks it has an appealing approach: Give customers added incentives to buy copy-protected CDs.

...

he CD's also allow users to connect to Web sites with exclusive features such as bonus songs and concert tickets. The features are only available if you have the original CD.

...

Sony will evaluate customers' reaction to the new technology before introducing it in other countries. Wiser declined to specify a timetable for which the technology will be available in the United States.

It is not explicitly said that the first CD session is copy protected. If that is true than this is a step in the right direction. If the CD can still be played in all bonehead CD players than I'm not all against this new format.

I agree with Sony that adding more value to music is an interesting way of keeping your fans engaged and buying your products. I first thought of this appraoch when Napster first appeared on the scene, and I'm glad to see a major label embracing this approach.

What is also interesting is that Sony is just floating a trial balloon and not adopting it whole hog. Sounds like they've gotten bitten in the past and they are attempting to be smarter by testing out what consumers think of more value rather than less value. I'll be keeping my eyes on this development -- I think the outcome of this wrinkle may shape the future of digital music sales.

UPDATE: Reading the Wired News coverage leads me to believe that the first session is actually copyprotected:

The disc can be played on almost any device conventionally, said Phil Wiser, Sony Music's chief technology officer.

If it doesn't play in all, it's not Redbook compliant, which means its copyprotected. Stupid fools -- you almost made the right decisions!

Music industry watch

Growing concern over incompatible music stores

A few weeks ago I first mused about the potential dangers of incompatible online music stores and it seems I wasn't far off the mark. I just stumbled across two more articles that lament the same issue. C-NET talks about stalemate on digital content and Salon talks about musical snares:

Because iTunes won't play my Windows Media music files. And the Windows Media Player won't play songs purchased from the iTunes store.

That's not the future I want to pay for. In the 21st century era of late capitalism, the consumer is supposed to be king -- my every desire is supposed to be reflected by marketplace offerings. Instead, the market is ordering me to get Steve Jobs' smirking grin tattooed on my butt, and while that may be an improvement on being branded with a Microsoft iron, I'd still rather keep my skin as it started, unblemished.

and, from C-NET:

"People don't like that," Kalanik said. "Until these services have standards, and they're compatible, and you can play whatever you have on whatever device you have, people are going to resort to the services that do give them that. And those are illicit."

I guess these services make it easier to buy than to steal. However, they still need to make listening to purchased music as easy as listening to stolen music. The C-NET article talks about how various companies are working to create interop standards, but given how SDMI panned out, I'm not holding my breath.

Music industry watch

Sony Music and BMG hitching up

Looks like Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group are getting hitched:

Sony Music and BMG, the second and fifth-biggest record companies worldwide, signed a non-binding agreement to form a 50-50 joint venture, and are now pledged to work towards a final agreement later this year.

. . .

Both deals (M&C: the Sony/BMG and EMI/Warner deals) reflect the increasing competition in the music business, which is suffering from slowing global demand and the effects of unofficial online music sales.

What are they referring to with unofficial music sales?? Are they talking about iTunes/MusicMatch/et al? And slowing global demand is not really correct, is it? Given the popularity of file sharing networks, I don't think demand for music is slowing -- demand for the crap produced by these companies is slowing. But, they have to spin themselves to look good, right??

Dumbshit Dept.

AudibleMagic's CopyNonsense

AudibleMagic recently issued a press release about their CopySense product that uses digital audio fingerprints to detect and prevent P2P file sharing users. Gordon takes this idea to task:

Thus this hardware solution -- requiring physical installation, weekly database updates, and a deployment cost that scales linearly with the amount of traffic to be monitored -- can be rendered permanently moot by a one-time fixed-cost software upgrade, using free code libraries, making P2P traffic opaque to passive eavesdropping.

As I noted in a comment to Gordon's post, I think that using digital fingerprints for enforcement is a bad idea. Fingerprints are barely robust enough for identification in a friendly environment, much less in a hostile environment where people are trying to trick the system.

Fingerprints, just as digital watermarks are useful technologies when applied in a limited domain. Hostile environments like enforcement are not in that category, so even if CopyNonsense could be applied in the short time that users are using unencrypted services, people will be able to figure out a way to circumvent this dumbass program.

I wonder how long this product will be around before it gets quietly shoved under the carpet. 6 months?? 3?

Random stuff

The nightmare is over

I've moved into the new house and we finally have DSL. I can finally go about my regular business and catch up on important things... like blogging.