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| Thursday, March 28, 2002 |
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Not Machiavelli? 
| | Yes, Microsoft twisted the market's Invisible Hand until all it could do was salute smartly in the direction of Redmond. But the market is still capable of containing Microsoft's hegemony. Just barely. Maybe. |
| | I am far more worried about the entertainment-legislative complex. Because the market has emphatically rejected its business model, it's perilously close to rewriting the software and hardware rules to force the market to comply. The government is both venal and stupid enough to do it. |
| | Couldn't have understated it better myself. |
| | He goes on to invite Mr. Gates back over to the Light Side: |
| | Swing your mighty sword in favor of building the most vibrant marketplace for ideas and creativity the earth has ever seen. Storm the halls of Congress. Make it your personal compaign, Bill. You'll help grow your market so radically that you won't need to own it all to be the richest man on the planet. And you'll also be one of the most loved. We all applaud the Gates Foundation, but this is your real chance to change history. Become the digital millennium's Medici, not its Savonarola. |
Small promos, loosely joined
Consuming dysinterests
| | My first report on PC Forum for Linux Journal is the latest SuitWatch: 25 Years at the Beginning. It has some fresh thought on identity. A sample: |
| | But it wasn't until one of the late panels, "Identity on the Frontier" (with heavies from Microsoft, Sun and General Motors), that a problem and its solution became clear to me. There was a missing party at this table: the *customer*. All these guys were looking for ways to impose yet another identity management system on "the consumer". Yet our most personal identities, like the Net itself, are unmanageable. |
| | Identity is something that proceeds from the inside out, from me to the world, not from the world to me. All the identities by which the world labels me are secondary, not primary. My primary identity is mine alone. I should be able to remain anonymous (or pseudonymous) or do business with other parties on my terms as well as theirs. "Natural markets are about relationships", my third-world friends tell me, "not just transactions." |
| | This was the piece I finished up at the Lemur's place, by the way. Speaking of which, here's a closeup of the man who calls himself "a loudmouth with a Website" and whose first job was "deadtree content delivery." |
Dunk the Mouse
| | My old business partner David Hodskins was the source of many wise quotes. One of his best was "trust usually breaks down first over money." |
| | When Michael Eisner pontificates about "internet pirates" while making over $700 million personally in a business where most of its practitioners make squat, there's bound to be a breach. And when his congressional sycophants start reaching for their scalpels to start lobotomizing our computers, it's time to start throwing tea in the harbor. |
| | Today Amy joined the ranks of the Extremely Pissed, and ordered us all to write to our congresspersons, now, adding I don't want the government in my computer and I suspect you don't either |
| | Of course if you live in Burbank, you might just want to go over and yell at Rep. Schiff personally. |
You mean nobody's patented luck yet?
| | Most people who tell you about the patent system have a stake in it, and so they want you to like it. But patents are like the lottery because they only rarely bring benefits to people. Lotteries invite you to think about winning, never about losing, and it is the same with the patenting system. |
You mean they haven't yet?
| | I only hope no one tries to call people who copy digital media "software terrorists." |
Let's give them a lesson in democracy
| | Glenn Reynolds points out that the Anti-Mammal Dinosaur Protection bill is not Fritz Hollings' alone. All five of its co-sponsors (its author, basically, is Disney) are Democrats: Inouye of Hawaii, Breaux of Louisiana, Feinstein of California and Stevens of Alaska. And all are paid sock puppets of the entertainment industry (Glenn lists how much each received). To be fair, the main Senate opponent of this kinda crap is what's-his-name from Virginia (no time to look him up, and feeling kinda dumb not remember ing it.. something with a B?). [Later... Rick Boucher.] |
| | At some point, the government must come to its senses, stop listening to industry executives (many of whom are in bed with the entertainment industry), and talk directly to some scientists and engineers to find out what's possible. </i |
Maybe it's just one ass in nine
A whup from The Book
| | In commerical radio, nothing matters more than The Book. That's what they call the latest Arbitron ratings. Stations live and die by it. Everybody hates it, curses it, quotes it and relies on it utterly. An amazing thing. If you had told me, when I was in the business back in the 70s, that it would still be around, meaning exactly the same thing a quarter century later, I'd have thought you were nuts. |
| | But it's still around, still all-important. |
| | Arbitron, by the way, has a Webcast Services business (I had no idea). They feature the open letter at the top of its home page. Also a press release. |
| | If the proposed fees are enacted, we foresee that very few companies if any would be able to pay the cost. Already, a number of radio station group owners and webcasters have indicated that they will cease streaming as a result of the proposed new fees. Thus, the proposed fees are likely to create a business/regulatory environment that will limit competition, stifle innovation, reduce consumer choices and diminish diversity by concentrating the distribution of music to a handful of sources. |
| | This is a very big deal. Arbitron is the most powerful company in radio, bar none. |
| | By the way, check out Arbitron's Top Downloads page. Some of the items there are very interesting. I hate their "what consumers want" angle, but the data they compile is extremely interesting. |
Small pieces, loosely found
Pow! Right in the sock puppet
| | The proposed Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) you and Senator Stevens are sponsoring will make it impossible for independent editor like myself, to remain in business. Why? Because the proposed SSSCA does not differentiate between someone illegally duplicating DVDs or video tapes for sale, from me trying to earn a living by editing a commercial spot from my home. |
TiDoc
| | I'm back home. Can't wait to crash in bed. But before I do, I want to give another huge thanks to the Head Lemur for giving me some fine coffee, company and bandwidth when I needed them really bad this afternoon before I hopped on the bird out of Phoenix. I wish I'd had more time to visit .Also that my face didn't appear to be sliding off my skull in the Lemur's pic. I can hear ya'll saying, Shit...he looks like that? "Fraid so. I think the same thing. But hey, I kinda match the laptop, don'cha think? All that gray kinda goes. Call it my titanium look. |
| | Also a second thanks to the Lemur for pointing us to Michael Fraase's When Elephants Dance. I gave it a good read on the plane, and dig how lucidly and fairly Michael lays out all the issues with DMCA, CARP and the rest of it. |
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