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Whether you're a piratin' granny, single mom or a full-on haxxor, you no longer have to dread waking up to an RIAA summons. They still might rat you out to your ISP, though.
Back in the era of floppy disks, before programmers figured out how to implement DRM, they had to rely on no-name rap stars to keep kids from pirating software. That's right, rap stars. The video really speaks for itself, so watch it now—and remember, Don't Copy that Floppy! [-Thanks Stephanie!]
Muxtape, the simple, awesome and insanely popular online mix tape creator went offline last month with a brief explanation: "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA." Since then, we haven't heard anything about it. Until now. Justin, the creator of Muxtape, just posted a long, detailed account of what exactly happened and what the future of the site holds. It's a pretty great inside look at just how stupid and confused the music industry is right now.
We all know about Pandora's troubles paying their ever-increasing rent to the RIAA Copyright Royalty Board, but now another one of our favourite internet music spots could be succumbing to corporate pressure as well. Muxtape, the site that allowed users to make 12-song playlists of their music and share them online has been (temporarily?) shut down. Their page is left with the simple message "Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA." And once again, the RIAA does its job to ensure that no one anywhere gets excited about music. [Muxtape via OhGizmo]
Pandora, the internet radio station built around your tastes, will probably be going out of business soon. After getting slapped by the CRB with exorbitantly high royalty rates to continue playing music, founder Tim Westergren says the company is facing a "pull-the-plug" situation. There's one congressman trying to help Pandora and it's million plus users, but the service is bleeding money in the meantime and its future looks grim. I'll be very sad to see it go, since being reintroduced to it recently through their excellent iPhone app. What great idea do you have for us next, RIAA? [ReadWriteWeb]
Posted by Nick Broughall at 2:47 PM on July 28, 2008
When will these people get a clue? News.com.au is reporting that the next time you travel with your iPod, those friendly customs officials could pull you aside, slap on the latex and give your iPod a full-body cavity search for pirated music.
The push - which originates from the RIAA in the US - is global in scale, and the Australian government has openly admitted it is partaking in the discussions (although they haven't agreed to any aspect of the arrangement).
There's also a lot of confusion over exactly what will be considered as commercial levels of piracy.
If the government is foolish enough to vote this draconian ruling in, I think it would be a good time to join one of those floating communities in the Pacific... How the government can even be considering such a stupid proposition is beyond me.
[News.com.au]
After a frustrating few months of searching for a solution to the audio problems he encountered while ripping on-screen video with his Dell laptop, a ripten editor discovered that others were experiencing the same issue--and that the problem was not confined to Dell laptops. Apparently, the lack of a sound card Stereo Mix recording option is to blame--and numerous forum threads have suggested that the RIAA has put pressure on laptop manufacturers like Dell, Gateway and Pac Bell to remove it.
In a recent study by British Music Rights, 14- to 24-year-olds were polled as to how much stolen music they carried around on a daily basis. The finding was that almost half of said music was never purchased. 842 of the 1,770 tracks held on the average digital music player were reported as stolen--that's 48 percent.
As CNET points out, when Sony BMG became the last major label to sell DRM-free tracks, we pretty much declared DRM deader than HD DVD or Tony Stark if he got in a fight with Batman (at least for the music industry; movies are another story). But RIAA tech chief David Hughes told a panel yesterday that DRM is tech's Obi-Wan Kenobi: It's coming back and will be powerful than we can possibly imagine, but it won't be giving sage advice to budding Jedi.
XM Satellite Radio and EMI Music have settled the 