RIAA: Lose or go to Court

In this case (here) the RIAA must either concede defeat and pay the individual's legal fees (case "dismissed with prejudice") or go to court. We might finally get some kind of ruling.

Apples Fake Competition with Microsoft

Microsoft, a software company, sells Windows, Microsoft Office, the Xbox, and (of all things) computer mice. Apple, a consumer electronics and hardware company, makes Macs, ipods, sells media, and plans to sell phones and computer to television hardware devices. On what fronts do these two companies compete?

Operating systems right? But wait, your operating system depends on your hardware (mostly). If you have a PC, you have Windows. If you have a Mac, you run OSX. Apple can't sell OSX to a PC owner, to them it is useless. Windows can run on a Mac, but Apple doesn't care, it already sold you the hardware (and OSX for that matter) anyway. That's how they make their money. Where's the competition? In what scenario doesn't a person stand in a OfficeMax and decide if he wants to buy Windows or OSX to install on his machine at home? There is none.

Microsoft makes software; Apple makes hardware. The only direct competition is between the ipod and the zune, and that's no competition. They only successful consumer electronic device Microsoft has ever made is the Xbox. Which Apple has no counterpart, no competitor. Microsoft Office and other Microsoft software work on a Mac. This isn't competition, this is called: cooperation.

So why the act? Why all the hype --people claiming that they are competing with the other. The answer: Microsoft sorely needs a competitor. Microsoft needs apple to be there so they don't get sued. Apple's OSX and Safari are important to Microsoft, much like Novel and Linux, in that they are things that Microsoft can point and call competitors. Without it Microsoft would cease to exist as we know it.

Why Viacom is BRILLIANT

I'm not being sarcastic. Viacom is freaking brilliant, and I didn't realize it until now.

The Daily Show and The Colbert Report (both of which Viacom owns) are all over YouTube. Does this hurt Viacom? After each season does it go to DVD for sales? No. Once an episode is a month old how useful is the news in that show? Useless. So what are old episodes good for. The answer is: Publicity and Advertisement.

So what is Viacom's great plan? Let them be on YouTube. There they will be using Google's bandwidth, and get all the publicity they want. It's brilliant. But why do they send take down notices and sue Google for it? That's easy: to make money.

You see content isn't taken down unless you send a take down notice, therefore, a content company who wants to keep their content on YouTube can do so merely through inaction. But wait, Viacom sends take down notices, how are there are still some of their clips YouTube? Have you ever searched for the Colbert Report on YouTube? You can still find many. Viacom sends enough notices so they appear to be protecting copyright while still leaving enough clips for publicity. All so they look like they have a reason to sue for a billion dollars. Brilliant.

Killing Internet Radio

The internet scares content companies. "Internet Radio" has the word "Internet" right in it --so, logically, it must die. How can we do this? Make them pay 3 times more than radio stations to play their music over the next couple years. This will kill Internet radio as we know it. Maybe they can move to Indie or unsigned artists. I just hope it doesn't go through, everyone involved will lose. Internet radio companies won't be able to make a profit using signed music, and content companies will lose one of their sources of revenue. Good job RIAA.

SCO also sucks -- Linux doesn't Infringe on Anything

The code SCO is suing IBM over is finally revealed. 320 lines, many of them comments or header files. Who cares? They didn't want to reveal the code because if it was infringing code then the Linux developers could just get ride of the offending code. But no, SCO doesn't care about it's property, it cares about getting money out of Linux Companies. And as it turns out, the whole thing is bogus anyway.

Microsoft OneCare Apparently Sucks

A lot of Microsoft stuff sucks, but in a recent study Microsofts OneCare security software got dead last. It's debatable whether we should even have to pay for the software. Microsoft designs an Operating system that has security holes, and software separately to plug up the holes? It's horrible software, and it's Microsoft's fault you need it in the first place. It may delete your entire collection of emails if it detects a virus? Just don't use OneCare.

Want to Upgrade to Windows Vista?

If you want to upgrade your current PC to Windows Vista and you're not sure, I say nay!

If you're a hardware upgrading fool who just added another gig of RAM to your tricked out Millennium Falcon shaped Intel Core 2 Duo machine then why the heck do you want my advice, you know better than me if you want Vista!

But if your unsure, don't get it (for heaven sake don't get 64 bit!). Wait till you get a new PC and get Vista with it. Having Windows preinstalled only adds somewhere around $35-$50 to the final price. Much more desirable to the pretty Vista CD at Best Buy that Costs hundreds. If you like to upgrade every once in a while -- wait a while (without upgrading) and get a new PC. But if you upgrade all the time, do what you want, you know more about what you need that I do.

Jobs: "DRMs haven’t worked [...] to halt music piracy"

On February 6th the posting "Thoughts on Music" Steve Jobs' declares that: "DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy" and Apple would "Apple would embrace [DRM free music sales] in a heartbeat," if it weren't for the requirements imposed on them by the record companies.

Everyone's been blaming Apple for DRM. Countries in Europe have legislated against Itunes in certain situations, but whose fault is our broken system? Is it the record companies that don't want to move forward? The rights to much of the earth's musical art is held by corporations, not artists. This is bad -- corporations don't care as much about art as they do money.

Still, as Alex Albrecht said on Diggnation about Apple, maybe it's just a publicity stunt. Apple comes out as the good guy, fighting DRM, but at the end of the day -- whose still selling DRM music?

America's Tech Illiterate Legal System

Boston shuts down after LED boards are found depicting the Mooninite characters on Cartoon Network's Aqua Teen Hunger Force. (Guess who's ratings are going up now? :P). DL.TV's Robert Heron said it best when he said "What's in the water in Boston?!." What is in the water?

A substitute teacher in Connecticut faces up to 40 years for a school computer pr0n storm in a classroom. The school doesn't protect the computer (the filter software was out of date -- the school's fault), they just wanted a fail guy.

And the judges and juries of the don't understand these things, sometimes experts aren't even allowed to testify. The public doesn't understand technology and neither does the legal system.