Category: Music

NPR : Seattle’s Death Cab for Cutie in Concert DCFC got an NPR feature. This is their year, if you haven’t heard them, listen.

After 32 years, landlord says lease for CBGB’s won’t be renewed.

So, you may have heard that Ozzy Osbourne diagnosed with Parkin Syndrome. Oddly, Google thinks that Ozzy is the only person on earth with the disease. You know you’ve accomplished a dizzying level of partying achievement when they invent a disease just for you. Well done for him, he wins yet another first in rock history. He comments:

A doctor in Los Angeles tried to tell me I had multiple sclerosis. And I believed him until I had a second opinion. When I told my sister she said, “Not you as well? Mum had that and Auntie Elsie and your grandma.” I’m like, “Thanks for fucking telling me.” Me walking around thinking I’ve got some drug paralysis.

Steve Burns formerly of Blues Clues has an album, “Songs For Dustmites“, produced by members of the Flaming Lips is turning out not to be so bad after all. Perhaps this is a good move for him, especially if he carries his fanbase with him.

A document leaked on the thesmokinggun.com, indicates that Michael Jackson was cleared in Feb of sexual abuse of the same boy he faces charges for now. It seems that about the same time as the Jackson special aired, someone at the boys school called the DCFS hotline.

The memo notes that the boy, now 14, and his 12-year-old brother–who also denied sexual abuse–expressed “a fondness for the entertainer and stated they enjoyed visiting his home, where they would often ride in the park, play video games, and watch movies.” The pair’s sister, now 17, told a social worker that she accompanied the boys on “sleepovers at the entertainers home,” but had “never seen anything sexually inappropriate between her brothers and the entertainer.”

But, the LA county prosecutors are pressing on with formal felony sexual abuse charges next week.

Please sign the EFF’s RIAA Petition. Stop them from suing 12 year old girls, grandmothers, and you.

Did the RIAA get your name? Are you next in court? The EFF’s RIAA Subpoena Database can give you some idea and some tips on how not to get caught.

By Ted Bridis
Associated Press
Saturday, July 19, 2003

The music industry has won at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users suspected of sharing copyrighted music files on the Internet, with roughly 75 new subpoenas being approved every day, U.S. court officials said yesterday.
(more…)

Tim “Ripper” Owens is out. Rob Halford is back in.

If you recall, the film “Rockstar” was loosely based on the story of Owens. Despite the fact that Warner Brothers and Judas Priest both say that it was not. If you don’t know, the story is that Owens was fronting a Judas Priest tribute band and had a good following. Two fans of the band sent a video tape of Owens just about the time that Halford left Judas Priest. They were blown away and hired him. The rest is fairytale style folklore history.

RIAA announced that, as of yesterday, they will begin to prosecute individual file sharers. Using the file sharing networks and information about your machine that is widely available on those networks, they will force your ISP to provide your identity. Thanks to the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA), they will sue you for the penalties that are provided for up to $150,000.00 for each violation.

Many record company industry executives vehemently cite internet file sharing as the cause for the 25% dip in revenues. Which, according to most reports I find, have fallen from $14.6 billion in 1999 to $12.6 billion in 2002.

Some points to consider:

1). Record company profits have declined at the same rate that other “luxury” consumable item profits have declined. In a bad economy, here at paxtonland, we buy bread and not CD’s with our money. It’s just as simple as that. I’m comfortable with the notion that this scenario is playing out across the country. Common sense tells me that you can’t arrest, terrorize and sue the public or, into providing your missing profits. That only works in other countries and your company name has to start with “Bech” and end in “tel.”

2). Add to that the fact that they aren’t getting away with packing 1 – 2 good songs and 8 – 10 bad, filler songs on a CD that basically sucks. They just can’t get away with it anymore. Meanwhile, while CD sales are down, they still have to spend the money to promote an artist, produce the video, and back a tour… all based upon the salability of 1 or 2 songs… that’s just a bad business model. Which may have worked in the past but, won’t work now. People are testing the quality of albums with file sharing programs. If file sharing has hurt the record industry, it’s because they are sampling the hype and deciding, rightfully so, that it’s not work spending money on. RIAA can’t force me to buy crap, no matter how hard they try. What about you?

3). Whether RIAA sues you or not, the artists will still make very little money from their efforts. A CD costs about .20 to produce, in mass quantities, the resale value is about $14.00, about a 7000% markup. There is something basically wrong with that and no business model can survive under that construct. Meanwhile, the artist earns less that a percent or two of that figure. That is, unless they are with an independent label or, they self distribute. Therein lies the real crux of the matter. Many artists have fled the large and greedy labels due to the fact that the labels simply aren’t paying their work. Meanwhile the independent labels are all saying the same thing, “We’re having the best year we’ve ever had! Whooo hoo!”

4). File sharing is, as defined by the DCMA, not stealing. In fact it is a copyright violation. This is an important distinction to make. Notice that, this is not like Comcast and other cable companies who used the FBI to arrest “usage violators” and charge them under new and poorly conceived hacking laws.

5). Don’t think for a moment that they really care about the individual sharer. They are more concerned with the file sharing networks themselves. Since they couldn’t stop Grokster and KaZaa from doing their thing and providing the mechanism for sharing. They are attempting to frighten you into not sharing your files. If you ask me, it’s a very effective strategy. Imagine, KaZaa with 10,500,000 leachers and not many sharers? Anyway, like the war on drugs, RIAA, in a veiled effort, is saying that they are targeting the “dealers” and not the “users.”

The bottom line for me is this: the artists that I like, I support and buy their CD’s and other things when I have the money to do so. If I have mp3 versions of their songs, it’s because I have already bought the album, then the 8 track, then the cassette, then the CD… hey, how many times do I have to buy the license to use the material before I’m not asked to pay again?

There will be a couple of cases that will emerge, fairly quickly. Like the collage students this winter that were sued, they will probably attempt to settle out of court rather than fight. Hopefully, they will fight but, it is likely that they will not. Anyway, the last time that I checked, paxtonland labs exposure according to the DCMA would be worth about $487,500,000.00 owed to RIAA. Calculate yours, just of fun… I’ll write RIAA a check if you will.