Raise the Hammer

Normally I'd apologize for sounding contrarian...but I'm laid-up with a sinus infection, so not this time.

And the more I think about it, I'm not sure where to start.

I guess my first question would be 'Just what are you trying to say, here?'

What's your point? You seem to be crafting some kind of 'us and them', 'right vs wrong', 'rich vs poor' slant, but it's not quite there...

Are you jumping on board the Apple-bashing bandwagon? Are you trying to point up the absurdity of such an expensive device being marketed when there's such a need for technology –and access to it– at the other end of the spectrum? Is it a mild rant against geek-fueled consumerism?

Before I really try to repond, could you please clarify?

Normally I'm agaisnt this sort of behaviour, But every other company is doing and apply didn't start doing well until it followed suit.

[quote]
If you want to burn the music you purchased onto a CD so you can play it in your car, you'll need to strip the copy-protection mechanisms from it, a time-consuming process that is challenging for most people.
[/quote]

I'm afraid I must call BS. iTunes software lets you select songs, albums, playlists, etc. and then click "Burn" and your selections are burned to a CD, sans the FairPlay DRM. What kind of people are you hanging out with that would find this too challenging? My mother can do this (and in fact does).

I think the author is making more of a social commentary than a geek rant. It is an interesting comparison not only of disparities in cultures but the author is also paralleling the i versus we in the product names. Although I do have to agree, iTunes is remarkably easy to use. Great article overall though.

Interesting piece. Not to stray to far from the topic at hand, but I have a comment/question about iTunes and digital rights.

I firmly believe in paying artists for their work by not using on-line services to share music files. As such, I purchase only from Napster and iTunes (and other artist official sites). Well....mostly iTunes because I like how music synchs seamlessly with my iPod, which I love, which I know is evil at some levels.

However, other iTunes users will know that each country has its own iTunes store. With a Canadian address on my credit card, I can buy only from the Canadian iTunes store. Why is that? The U.S. iTunes store has all sorts of stuff, like movies and TV shows which I cannot pay for legitimately. The U.K. store has all sorts of music I'd love to purchase, but can't because it isn't available in the Canadian store.

Can someone explain to me why, with the technology we have, I am not able to purchase these things? Doesn't iTunes U.K./U.S. want my money? What sort of "rights" things are going on here? I just don't get it.

Ryan:

Thanks for the links to the articles, which were most interesting. I have heard the horror stories. A friend of mine from high school was involved with a band called the "Munday Nuns", whose membership in large part (and excluding my friend) went on to become the "Killjoys". Remember them?

Speaking with him, he told me his friends and former bandmates were doing anything but getting rich off their fame. The Killjoys were a fairly well-known Canadian act around 10 years ago, having signed a multi-album deal with one of the big labels.

I'm not a sophisticated music indsustry type person, but I do love my iPod and I am purchasing from iTunes pretty much exclusively for two reasons:

1. The seamless integration with my beloved iPod; and
2. My understanding is that it is a legitimate form of purchasing music.

It is in the latter part where I gather I am being misled, insofar as, as the articles and my friend have pointed out, artists generally tend to get "fucked". However, I am earnest in my desire to do the right thing, but wouldn't feel entirely comfortable sending envelopes with cash to artists whose music I have file-shared.

The difference between now and when we loaned each other vinyl is the ease with which music can be copied in a very high-quality fashion. If you loaned me Rush 2112 (the red one), I may grow to like it so much that I need to go out and buy a copy for myself. No need to do that in the digital age.

I understand the motives of the "Right to Tinker" movement, but in an age where file sharing is so easy, is it realistic to expect that we can enjoy such rights without killing the music industry itself? Or am I sounding like one of those middle-aged, balding hipsters who calls everyone "baby"?

I am so frustrated by this sites divided line of thought, to where I have felt the need to comment, which I have never done before any where else on the web. A couple things first about the writer of the article and the commenters. The article itself is a piece of dung and, although had interesting information, was biased quite a bit. Apple owes all of its success really to Steve Jobs and his vision and Marketing savvy. His products “were” easy at one point but are basic items marked up so high and he can get away with it. But to compare Apple to an opensource project like OLPC just seems ludicrous they are not even on the same playing field.
The links posted by Ryan were more interesting than the article. Thank you,
But on the other hand the comment that stirred me to write about this was also one of Ryan's. His file sharing is “tedious and time-consuming. Pulling together enough decent quality songs to fill an album can easily take far longer than an hour; assuming $20 per hour, the opportunity cost of the time spent doing this is actually comparatively poor.” Now torrenting is another form of file sharing which has actually worked where, common sense providing, one can find those higher quality files for little time.
Now, as for myself, my budget and tastes lend me to take this route. I listen to Japanese music and would like to watch Japanese movies but finding quality on the store shelves is hard when I am inexperienced in as to what is out there. Now that is where Ryan's comment comes true in many cases, only that is directed to a “brick and mortar” store where finding a single quality product for their price point can be tedious. Torrenting has netted others quantity which can be sorted little by little to learn and find those quality pieces which can be transferred into buying similar items at stores. Its happened a lot that way.
Kinokunia bookstores is a mainstream store found in America where one can purchase Japanese items but due, music specific, Sony's record label is like the “Big Four” taking huge cuts from artists setting the price for their CD which in turn, through the channels of distribution, in which stores like Kinokunia take huge mark-ups to cover importing costs and store overhead. Japan is an expensive place and as such I am not surprised by their costs where a full album can cost eighty dollars and a singles CD will cost thirty-five.
DRM protection and Sony's style of protection found on their CD's will stay in place for a quite long time and until Record Studios realize the artists and public at large is fed up. I will continue to support bands like Nine inch Nails who's leader Trent Razor has stood up for not only himself and his music rights but for the public telling his fans to “Steal my music, torrent it freely, give it to your friends and family..” to where not only does he give away his albums on his website but will also make CD's at a lower cost since it is all his own profit not the Record Labels.
There are different ways of looking at so much and if either purchasing at a store or using electronic methods both are truly viable and both companies and web domains which provide content freely should learn to work together not wholly against each other. Companies could see this as a incident to change practices to advance and not continue outdated, stagnant business practices. But as we in America are Captailist's and money rules policy won't change. I cannot offer a solution to the problem but only an opinion and an insight to learn that there are other forms out there. Thanks for inciting me a lot “Raise the Hammer” and other commenters.