It's just a cheesy name for a regional test marketing effort. Companies do it all the time, and yes, sometimes you discover products that you really love that end up getting cancelled.
I wish I could find Bluebird's Red Velvet Cakes, they're like Red Velvet Twinkies, or Diet Mountain Dew Voltage, or basically every variation of Dew they've ever made except that horrible Code Red stuff. I'm a big fan of Diet Dew and I've also liked all the different variations they made throughout the 2000s, except for Code Red, the oldest one. Guess which one ended up being permanent? Well, Voltage is now permanent, too, it seems, and it's fine, but I've only ever seen the Diet version once.
We'll be having that when 3D printers become cheap and ubiquitous and people are downloading the plans for someone's copyrighted or patented or whatever device, printing it and having, I don't know, DMCA takedowns of physical objects.
Then there's 3D simulacra of actors. Someone will be able to fire up, I don't know, Adobe Premiere 2020 and download Angelina Jolie and make movies with her and she will have to sue to protect her likeness. By then, of course, Windows 13 will automatically delete any files related to a DMCA takedown notice without any intervention by the issuer, the rights holder or the user of the computer.
Is there a part of Copyright Law that specifies how a work must be created?
How do you define "creatively" vs. "algorithmically"? How can you draw the line? There were algorithmic schemes for creating music a hundred years ago.
Are you telling me if someone wrote code to create a cool piece of music that he would not be allowed to copyright it?
Believe it or not, this is already being done, and while the results might not be considered groundbreaking, it's only a matter of time until machine-generated melodies will be mistaken for ones written by a human composer.
If someone who creates this software publishes the sheet music to one of its creations, he deserves no copyright protection?
These days, it seems that the default strategy of too many lawyers is to make an endless series of empty threats in the hopes of scaring some poor victim into capitulating. Of course, when large companies do this, they can simply win by virtue of being able to throw more money than a small victim, denying the victim's ability to defend himself. A small victim will have to destroy itself financially to fight back, and then may still not win because you can find a judge to make just about any ruling you could want if you shop around.
Try mailing lists. I've been members of e-mail lists for groups like Spock's Beard and the Flower Kings for more a decade and trust me, I am totally hooked into what's going on in the Progressive music world without having to invest a lot of time and energy. Ditto Facebook and other similar places. People are always willing to share their discoveries as am I in return. When you find people that like what you like, you will discover new things you haven't heard about yet.
Frankly, I'm discovering more great music now than I can afford and have been for quite a few years. Of course, I am willing to put in some effort, and furthermore, my tastes are such that I'm very unlikely to find anything I'm interested through other means. I think the last time I bought something because I heard it on the radio and liked it was about 1991. Commercial radio used to be a great marketing tool for a wide variety of music, but now it's all been boiled down to claustrophobic playlists of cookie cutter artists in formats so rigidly pre-programmed it's like all radio stations of a similar genre are clones.
Even the "classic rock" stations which generally play stuff I still like are awful. 3/4 of the their programming makes up about 2% of my music collection. If they play it and I don't have it, it's almost always because I simply don't want to buy it. And with newer stuff... well, it's blander and more homogenized than at any time in my life.
Well, if that's really the case then Hulu didn't think this thing through very much. I don't have much sympathy if they expose the functionality to the world and then complain when people "abuse" it. Welcome to the world, Hulu.
In general, I like Hulu a lot and use their service almost every day. I can't imagine Hulu will survive for long, however. They provide too much service with too little hassle. I'll enjoy it while I can and find something else when it's gone.
Yes, because those of us who are familiar with the District know that if you slow down, you are more likely to get hit by gun fire.
Seriously, though, if Red Light Cameras were there to improve safety, I'd support them. People do dangerous things at red lights. I used to live in a high-rise apartment 12 floors above a busy intersection and I used to see accidents at the intersection on a regular basis. There's no doubt that running red lights was a huge factor in this problem.
But in too many cases, this is all about increasing revenue. Shortening yellow lights is downright evil because it increases accidents. Just another money grab from corrupt officials.
"60 Minutes" is only watched by people gullible enough to believe stuff they see on "60 Minutes". Kind of a vicious circle.
The MSM continues to be become irrelevant. Not only do most people not watch the news shows of the old "big 3 networks", I doubt few people under 30 have _ever_ watched them.
I was browsing the jazz section and saw an album with 3 tracks, totalling about 39 minutes, which is a really short album. 12 credits to download.
This is insane. If it were a 78 minute album, I could see that, but this is half the length of a CD but they are arbitrarily charging the same as they would for twice as much material.
I was a dedicated and enthusiastic customer for eMusic for 3 and a half years, and did everything I could to promote them on online forums and by word of mouth.
I no longer feel it's appropriate to promote them and I am considering cancelling my subscription soon.
Thanks eMusic. I can promise you will lose a ton of loyal customers, especially the kind that reject iTunes and Napster, etc. I guess the only bad thing you _haven't_ done is adopt DRM, and at the rate things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see that. It seems you've sold out to Sony and the losers will be the indie groups and their fans.
I think the word you are looking for is "alludes".
Also, the change hasn't happened yet. eMusic has said the Sony thing will occur in "early July". As far as I can tell the download policy hasn't changed yet.
Of course, since music comes and goes to eMusic like the wind, there are already tons of things I can't re-download that I've bought over the years, but I'm a compulsive backup-er, so it's not a problem for me.
I've used it a few times out of convenience, but never out of necessity.
Worse, those human stains in Congress are rushing through new legislation that is probably vaguely worded and unconstitutional and definitely chilling of free speech because they have this uncontrollable urge to give the appearance of Doing Something, even though what they usually do is make the problem worse.
No new laws are needed. This woman is already convicted, and yet those useless gasbags on Capitol Hill have to waste more paper making something illegal, illegal.
I was delighted a few years ago to see that eMusic carried a big chunk of FZ's catalog. I'm glad I got what I wanted because they disappeared some time since.
I wonder if Mrs. Zappa is more interested in the seeing that letter of the law is followed or preserving her husband's legacy because she seems to doing a poor job of both.
Seems like yet another case of dead tree (or dead polymer) media hamstringing themselves and sticking to their best and most loyal customers.
Nothing new here, except you would think WotC, of all people, should get it. It seems however, the **AAs don't have the monopoly on lack of common sense, or a monopoly on trying to pretend the revolution that happened over a decade ago still doesn't exist.
And you're absolutely right. You don't want to tick off the geeks, they have the wherewithal and the obsessive personality types to exact payback from WotC. Those are practically a prerequisite to be a user of their products in the first place.
Somehow, we've gone from "The Customer is always right." to "The Customer is our enemy." and it will be a long time, if ever, until things get back to something sane that actually serves customer and vendor alike.
"Limited Edition"?
I wish I could find Bluebird's Red Velvet Cakes, they're like Red Velvet Twinkies, or Diet Mountain Dew Voltage, or basically every variation of Dew they've ever made except that horrible Code Red stuff. I'm a big fan of Diet Dew and I've also liked all the different variations they made throughout the 2000s, except for Code Red, the oldest one. Guess which one ended up being permanent? Well, Voltage is now permanent, too, it seems, and it's fine, but I've only ever seen the Diet version once.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
We'll be having that when 3D printers become cheap and ubiquitous and people are downloading the plans for someone's copyrighted or patented or whatever device, printing it and having, I don't know, DMCA takedowns of physical objects.
Then there's 3D simulacra of actors. Someone will be able to fire up, I don't know, Adobe Premiere 2020 and download Angelina Jolie and make movies with her and she will have to sue to protect her likeness. By then, of course, Windows 13 will automatically delete any files related to a DMCA takedown notice without any intervention by the issuer, the rights holder or the user of the computer.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Is there a part of Copyright Law that specifies how a work must be created?
How do you define "creatively" vs. "algorithmically"? How can you draw the line? There were algorithmic schemes for creating music a hundred years ago.
Are you telling me if someone wrote code to create a cool piece of music that he would not be allowed to copyright it?
Believe it or not, this is already being done, and while the results might not be considered groundbreaking, it's only a matter of time until machine-generated melodies will be mistaken for ones written by a human composer.
If someone who creates this software publishes the sheet music to one of its creations, he deserves no copyright protection?
Re: The answer is simple
Re: Re: these would not be 'exact' reproductions
Re:
The default strategy of lawyers...
Re:
Re: Re: "At Birth"
Re: Sadly, Silverman appears to have a good point...
Frankly, I'm discovering more great music now than I can afford and have been for quite a few years. Of course, I am willing to put in some effort, and furthermore, my tastes are such that I'm very unlikely to find anything I'm interested through other means. I think the last time I bought something because I heard it on the radio and liked it was about 1991. Commercial radio used to be a great marketing tool for a wide variety of music, but now it's all been boiled down to claustrophobic playlists of cookie cutter artists in formats so rigidly pre-programmed it's like all radio stations of a similar genre are clones.
Even the "classic rock" stations which generally play stuff I still like are awful. 3/4 of the their programming makes up about 2% of my music collection. If they play it and I don't have it, it's almost always because I simply don't want to buy it. And with newer stuff... well, it's blander and more homogenized than at any time in my life.
Re: Re: Re:
In general, I like Hulu a lot and use their service almost every day. I can't imagine Hulu will survive for long, however. They provide too much service with too little hassle. I'll enjoy it while I can and find something else when it's gone.
Re: Re: The solution is, unfortunately for Mr. Masnick, to use more cameras. . .
Seriously, though, if Red Light Cameras were there to improve safety, I'd support them. People do dangerous things at red lights. I used to live in a high-rise apartment 12 floors above a busy intersection and I used to see accidents at the intersection on a regular basis. There's no doubt that running red lights was a huge factor in this problem.
But in too many cases, this is all about increasing revenue. Shortening yellow lights is downright evil because it increases accidents. Just another money grab from corrupt officials.
Re: Re:
The MSM continues to be become irrelevant. Not only do most people not watch the news shows of the old "big 3 networks", I doubt few people under 30 have _ever_ watched them.
Re: Crimes
eMusic succumbs to stupidity
This is insane. If it were a 78 minute album, I could see that, but this is half the length of a CD but they are arbitrarily charging the same as they would for twice as much material.
I was a dedicated and enthusiastic customer for eMusic for 3 and a half years, and did everything I could to promote them on online forums and by word of mouth.
I no longer feel it's appropriate to promote them and I am considering cancelling my subscription soon.
Thanks eMusic. I can promise you will lose a ton of loyal customers, especially the kind that reject iTunes and Napster, etc. I guess the only bad thing you _haven't_ done is adopt DRM, and at the rate things are going, I wouldn't be surprised to see that. It seems you've sold out to Sony and the losers will be the indie groups and their fans.
Re: WSJ Says: Wat?
Re:
Also, the change hasn't happened yet. eMusic has said the Sony thing will occur in "early July". As far as I can tell the download policy hasn't changed yet.
Of course, since music comes and goes to eMusic like the wind, there are already tons of things I can't re-download that I've bought over the years, but I'm a compulsive backup-er, so it's not a problem for me.
I've used it a few times out of convenience, but never out of necessity.
Worse Congress feels the need to Do Something(tm)
No new laws are needed. This woman is already convicted, and yet those useless gasbags on Capitol Hill have to waste more paper making something illegal, illegal.
Re: interesting interview
I was delighted a few years ago to see that eMusic carried a big chunk of FZ's catalog. I'm glad I got what I wanted because they disappeared some time since.
I wonder if Mrs. Zappa is more interested in the seeing that letter of the law is followed or preserving her husband's legacy because she seems to doing a poor job of both.
Re: Someone help me out, please!
Nothing new here, except you would think WotC, of all people, should get it. It seems however, the **AAs don't have the monopoly on lack of common sense, or a monopoly on trying to pretend the revolution that happened over a decade ago still doesn't exist.
And you're absolutely right. You don't want to tick off the geeks, they have the wherewithal and the obsessive personality types to exact payback from WotC. Those are practically a prerequisite to be a user of their products in the first place.
Somehow, we've gone from "The Customer is always right." to "The Customer is our enemy." and it will be a long time, if ever, until things get back to something sane that actually serves customer and vendor alike.
More comments from ConceptJunkie >>
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by ConceptJunkie.
Submit a story now.
Tools & Services
TwitterFacebook
RSS
Podcast
Research & Reports
Company
About UsAdvertising Policies
Privacy
Contact
Help & FeedbackMedia Kit
Sponsor/Advertise
Submit a Story
More
Copia InstituteInsider Shop
Support Techdirt