Apple didn't buy Universal thank god. It would have been "cool" but beyond that I can't imagine how Apple would have managed should record sales and computer sales decline together. With the iTunes store Apple has created by far the most solid music service to date. I've played with this service quite a bit and so far its an almost there sort of thing. I'm still not too comfortable paying a full dollar for what is essentially a compressed sound file. If I am paying the full price I should get the highest quality available so something that is akin to the quality of a 320kbps MP3. Yes I know this is computer audio but for some of us computer audio is the only audio and I for one demand full quality especially if I'm paying for it. An alternative implementation would have Apple selling the 128kbps quality file for $0.50 with progressively higher qualities selling for higher prices and the 320kbps quality file selling for $0.99. This sounds good from the consument point of view but introduces vastly higher storage costs for Apple. Regardless of what the marketing says $0.99 for a 128kbps quality file is too much, give me high quality recordings and this deal becomes perfect.
Another idea about this service that I wonder if Apple has explored is the possibility of allowing independent artists to sell their material via the iTunes store. This would have the same effect on the independent music industry that blogging has had on the personal web-publihing world. Apple could take a small cut of all sales and in turn indie artists get amazing exposure. The interested artists create an account with Apple then pay a fee and upload their music via some sort of template based system and boom, instant presence. This sounds very much like mp3.com doesn't it? Yea it does, but this is mp3.com done right, good inter face and proven technology and the backing of a stable technological innovator. Although this sounds very utopian, in the capitalistic sense of the word, but I'm sure the labels have already covered their bases and don't allow Apple to do this. What if someone made it ridiculously easy to connect the musician with an audience willing to pay for her music, how would the record execs eat?! The horror!
So one of my favourite online reads Penny-Arcade was presented with a cease and desist letter by America Greetings for "abusing" the Strawberry Shortcake trademark. I don't at all see this as any sort of abuse, I see it as mere parody. Clearly the American Greetings nazis don't agree. Looking at that comic I'd have thought that American McGee would have had the biggest problem with it due to the obvious links to Alice, but clearly I was mistaken. I wonder on what basis they consider this a trademark violation because the strip has a sexpot male fantasy whereas the real Strawberry Shortcake is a young girl's play toy. If the parodied material was at all close to the source trademark than this would atleast have somewhat stable footing to walk on. However this does bring up the question of when exactly does regular speech begin to infringe on the rights of copyright holders. Gabe made a very intersting point in his post; "I can hardly have thoughts without utilizing brands." This is so true. A lot of brand names and other forms of corporate intellectual property have become part of the common cultural vernacular. Should gcorporations give up their rights on their coveted products when these products become everyday common? Obviously any corporation's goal is to produce profit, but when potential profits and freedom of speech are at such opposite sides of the argument how can there be a solution? This is only going to become more of an issue in the future because the world has just begun to take the first few steps in the era where corporations gain such power over not just financial markets but the very intellectual fabric of our culture. Eventually its going to boil down to whether society deems it more important to preserve the right of corporations to profit or the right of individuals to express themselves.
So the other day I was sitting at work and just chatting with CassiB about life and the meaning therein and etc. and she pops, what i thought was a tremendous concept. Pool is a racially motivated game. The striker ball is white and heavier than the rest of the coloured balls. The white ball is the last ball left standing on the table. The white ball strikes out at the balls as they are divided up by colour and in one game pockets all the balls first and saves the black ball for last. Is this whitey's way to dominate subliminally or just a simple game using colours to create entertainment and intrigue?
Quoteses:
"That wasn't a gibberish sentence? Awesome." - The Captain
"BRB... bowl." - Angry Mike
Linkses:
Not go on the intenet?! That unpossible!
Segway...post ricing
The man just wanted to sell some doughnuts
So it wasn't bird poop afterall
American entrepreneurship at its best
