‘RIAA-written’ Net radio bill served to Senate
This is an interesting take on the whole internet radio thing in the US, that raises two issues that nobody else seems to have considered:
1) Why is it HR.5469 or nothing?
2) Why is it all about the distinction between big business webcasters and small business webcasters – and protecting either or both of their interests?
Whether HR.5469 passes or (as is widely suspected) gets thrown out, everyone else loses – from hobbyist broadcasters to religious and underground political broadcasters – because their broadcasting motive is not a business motive.
The United States Senate today will consider the bill to “save Internet radio”, HR.5469. It’s a bill which does nothing for education, religious, non-profit or hobbyist radio. Many webcasters were stunned when the bill morphed from a two paragraph “stay of execution” into an alternative royalty scheme after a splinter group decided to negotiate a closed-door deal with the Recording Industry Association of America, the RIAA.
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Mitchell ‘ashamed’ of music biz
Boy, the South African press don’t take kindly to pop stars berating the music biz… Joni does a publicity tour to promote her new album, and the only push it gets is a reluctant mention of the title (‘Travelogue’). They make a point of reminding people that her first name is really Roberta, and drag out the Crosby line about her being “as humble as Mussolini”. Idiots…
Hell hath no fury like Joni Mitchell on the subject of the music industry. The veteran singer/songwriter, on the promotional trail for a new album, says she is “ashamed” to be part of the music business and may stop recording.
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Palm invests in new publishing company
Isn’t it great how this technology gets more and more desirable by the day… and here’s me still without a cellphone – or a computer at home, for that matter. Now, I’m no technophobe by any stretch of the imagination – it’s just that having a palm pilot makes about as much sense to me as having a four wheel drive cross-country landrover to get to New World to do the grocery shopping. Or a phone that takes photographs. Everyone can justify having stuff after they’ve got it. I’d like to be able to justify those sort of purchases before going out and getting them.
When stuff like this ‘more content for palm pilots’ happens, the temptation gets ever greater to go out and get the latest cool stuff. However, I’m having difficulty coming up with an argument convincing enough to persuade even me. In the meantime, I’ll keep checking my messages at home and ringing people back when it’s convenient for me, making notes in my old-style book-type diary – and using vowels when I leave people messages.
Palm has become one of the leading investors in a new content company that will be selling Secure Digital and MMC cards. The hope is that more cards means more devices to read them, especially Palm devices.
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Woman gives birth to her own granddaughters
Remember when this sort of stuff was only ever found in the pages of News Of The World, next to an article about Elvis’s two-headed alien lovechild? This is actually from CNN.
When Trish Roberts was 14, she learned she was born without a uterus, leaving her unable to bear children. “We told her at that time, if the good Lord was willing, I would carry for her when the time came,” said her mother, Sharon Dunn.
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