Infinity and Beyond

RealNetworks has suspended selling the RealDVD software after Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of U.S. District Court in San Francisco temporarily barred the company from selling it. RealDVD is a program that allows users to copy DVDs onto the hard drives of their computers. The software has only been on sale for about a week and on the same day the product launched the legal fight began. In all, six major studios are suing the Seattle based company. This is not the first time RealNetworks has made waves in the industry, their Chief Executive Rob Glaser has danced with Steve Jobs and Microsoft, so taking on all of Hollywood would seem like the natural next move.

The Tuesday the product launched and the lawsuit was filed Glaser wrote “great products should not be bullied out of the market by people trying to misuse the law to suppress legitimate innovation.” So, what exactly does the law say? Well, for starters just pop in any DVD you have lying about and you’ll find out a pretty good interpretation:

DVD FBI Warning

“The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a find o $250,000.”

This isn’t a case where you have to capitalize on the copied product by selling a copy. The warning is clear, ANY unauthorized reproduction is illegal. Having “users [be] on the honor system” to not rent a movie from Blockbuster or Netflix, burn the DVD, and return it isn’t enough for Hollywood. While Glaser might consider there to be an alternative interpretation of that warning from the FBI, ‘The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998‘ tends to put any doubts to rest. While this product will certainly grab the attention of the film industry it could potentially set a precedent going forward as a way to clarify the law. Depending on the outcome it could either lead to RealNetworks stepping out of their recent slump within the industry or it could see them with a takeover offer to make this problem go away.

I for one hope the precedent is perfectly clear. The more ambiguous the law is in regards to digital copyright issues the harder it is to create solid foundations for future capitalist success. I fully support the film studios in this totally legitimate claim against RealNetworks. I’m tired of being the only person I know not willing to use BitTorrent, or something else to illegally download movies, music and computer software. While my friends and peers continue to take advantage of the film/music industry with no penalties I still harbor some sense of moral indignation for such actions. I don’t steal my music or my movies. In fact it pisses me off when people do. I’m obviously a huge supporter of future technologies and ways to provide content to consumers in easily accessible ways. There is no denying that big changes are coming to the music and film industry over the next 5-10 years. However, copying rented movies to personal hard drives is, to me, a clear violation of the laws as they stand now. As with most copyright laws I’ll be watching how this one plays out, they tend to be game-changers depending on the outcomes.

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Music DVDs seem to be all the rage these days, and every band must have at least one. Everyone loves the “behind the scenes” videos and clips of band members doing things that, were they not your favorite band, would otherwise be not funny and entirely stupid.

LiveDaily is reporting that Morrissey is bucking this trend and asking fans to boycott the “Morrissey Live at the Hollywood Bowl” DVD because it is in breach of contract. What I enjoy more however:

The singer also said the DVD is the work of cash-hounds, and the sleeve art is appalling.

I hate appalling sleeve art.

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The debate over whether or not “the U.S. gov’t may owe royalties on the song that has been blared over and over and over again to weaken detainee’s” at the Guantanamo Bay may finally have an answer, no. The song you might ask is none other than one of my all time favorites: David Gray’s hit from 2000, ‘Babylon.’ No matter how much I like the song, Gray agrees “that is nothing but torture.” He told the BBC: “That is nothing but torture. It doesn’t matter what the music is - it could be Tchaikovsky’s finest or it could be Barney the Dinosaur. It really doesn’t matter, it’s going to drive you completely nuts.”A spokesman from Gray’s record label said that the company does not license to military bases. And, given the circumstances of the base itself it is unlikely that with ASCAP relying on the user of their content or third parties to pay the royalties, that they’ll be seeing any kind of compensation for all the times ‘Babylon’ has been blasted over their speakers (can you really blast that song anyway, what a strange choice?).

If you are curious to find out what it sounds like to be a prisoner at Gitmo just cover your head with a bag, handcuff yourself in your bathroom, turn the lights low and grab a copy of ‘White Ladder’ by David Gray.

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Here, in its entirety is the new album from Sigur Ros. Even though it’s a big departure from what you might be used to hearing from the Icelandic group this new sound does not disappoint.

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A quick congratulations to the boys of ‘Death Cab for Cutie’ on their #1 album ‘Narrow Stairs’.

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Reuters reports that longtime U2 manager Paul McGuinness took ISPs to task to curb music stealing on the interwebs.  Interestingly he states that, “There’s a lot of money in the music business, but it has stopped coming to the artists.”  That’s interesting–I thought there’d always been a lot of money in the music business and most of it never made it to the artists.  He also compared ISPs to being like a magazine that lists stolen vehicles and watches the money being exchanged.  Peter Gabriel also added his support to Paul’s statement, and said ISPs should be beaten with a sledgehammer.

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Roman Polanski, Oscar Wilde, The Dixie Chicks, Elia Kazan. A child molester, a homosexual, liberal country singers, and a ‘namer of names’. The controversies that follow these artist and many like them can at times overshadow the great works of art they have created. Do we know more about Polanski’s indiscretion with a 13 year-old or his  Academy Award winning film ‘The Pianist’? Did ‘naming names’ hurt the career of Elia Kazan who went on to direct Marlon Brando in ‘On the Waterfront’ and James Dean in ‘East of Eden’? What of the 5 Grammy’s the politically charged Dixie Chicks won this past year or the immortality Wilde has achieved even after imprisonment for committing homosexual acts?

While technology advances and allows for the easier distribution of content some of that content can be overshadowed by the personal missteps that the creators of content can make. I mention this because today is Tuesday and when looking through the list of new dvd’s and cd’s coming out today one in particular caught my attention. ‘Blackout’ by Britney Spears. I haven’t heard any of the music off the album, although I did see her MTV “performance” a few weeks ago, but I have heard a great deal about her personal life. Drugs, divorce, custody battles, etc. For whatever it is worth Britney Spears has sold over 83 million records and has had incredible success despite any personal failings. It does seem though that talent and success aren’t as connected as they used to be.

Wilde and Kazan are standing up to the test of time and even though Kazan received a cold reception when accepting his Lifetime Achievement Oscar how will Polanski or the Dixie Chicks be remembered in years to come? For their wonderful art or will they move to the ever growing category of tabloid celebrities? We can only hope that when the content is greater than the sin of the creators the future will remain bright.

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The Seattle based online music service announced that they would be partnering up with Facebook and Billboard. The goal is to create another chart for Billboard that will display the top 25 songs that facebook users (with the iLike application) have added to their profile pages. They will also be setting up charts to show the top 25 songs that users are adding to their iPods and iTunes libraries. No word yet from myspace on the snub.

Facebook recently opened the door to 3^rd party developers who can now be found on Google or Yahoo! now that the Application Directory and application “about” pages have been opened to non-users. This is good for the developers and of course facebook. Developers who create sweet applications have a greater potential to be discovered and this way facebook can get a band application up there and take away the common-man’s last reason to ever visit myspace.

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This past Tuesday hopefully everyone went out and bought “Chase This Light” by Jimmy Eat World. After all these years and an audience that has now started to enter into adulthood some of the lyrics have grown up but the sound and emotion that made them great years ago continues on their latest.

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Yesterday, in a move that is turning heads in the record industry, Radiohead released their latest full-length album to the masses.

In a characteristically surprising and short message from the band’s Jonny Greenwood on October 1, 2007:

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it’s coming out in 10 days;

We’ve called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.

Jonny

The album was set to be released as a digital download on October 10th, 2007, and then a regular CD/vinyl release sometime in December.  What Jonny didn’t mention is that the album would cost you…whatever you felt like paying.  No, really…”It’s up to you” says the download site.

Some fans–about a third polled by the Times in the UK–aren’t paying anything at all.  Others are paying about $82 US for the made-to-order boxed set.  As of this writing, the site still seems to be getting hit pretty hard with traffic, so regardless of how much money is being generated, a ton of fans are flocking to get the album.  CNN has collected some choice comments by readers as well on the name-your-price strategy.

It also is getting good reviews.  I have only had a chance to listen to it once all the way through, but I was very impressed myself.  I have also always been a fan of paying for music I enjoy.  I often purchase CDs from bands at their shows.  I rarely buy a whole album online however, as I still enjoy the physical CD (and vinyl as of late) and the liner notes.  But I frequently download choice songs from iTunes–although in rare cases I have wanted an entire album, or enough songs to make it cost effective to purchase the album in it’s entirety, to buy online.  I think Radiohead also has a large and ultra-dedicated fan base who would go out of their way to find the albums website and work their way through the rather cryptic site to obtain the album.  I’m not so sure many Brittney Spears fans would do likewise.  And I’m not sure most bands would be able to release all their albums for whatever the buyer wishes to pay.  That being said, if people spend $5 on the Radiohead album, they’re probably seeing a significantly larger portion of that money than if the CD had been released through a major label.  Will other bands follow suit?  And will this change the music industry’s stance on digital downloads?

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