Merin's Blog

Don't Copy Music Onto Your Computer - It's ILLEGAL!!!
(Mon 12/31/2007 08:39am)
The Washington Post story . . .

Here it comes - they (lawyers for the recording industry) have stated blatantly, in court papers, that if you transfer music from a CD that you purchased onto your own computer, you are stealing.
You are stealing, apparently, from yourself, with yourself as the recipient.  If you make a mix CD of music from various CDs you own, you are stealing for EACH SONG you put on there.  Even if you never even show anyone else the mix CD, you only use it yourself, and all the original purchased CDs are on your shelf.
You know that means if you copy your CD collection onto your 8 GB iPod that you are in for some hefty fines now.

Can anyone believe this BS?

As the article goes on to point out (quoting here)
As technologies evolve, old media companies tend not to be the source of the innovation that allows them to survive. Even so, new technologies don't usually kill off old media: That's the good news for the recording industry, as for the TV, movie, newspaper and magazine businesses. But for those old media to survive, they must adapt, finding new business models and new, compelling content to offer.

The RIAA's legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only "created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," Beckerman says. "Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they started."

All their lawsuits are doing is demonizing themselves to their customers.  As the article states, and as I've read elsewhere, their efforts have done NOTHING to stop the growing decline in CD sales and the increase in online file-sharing.

Horse buggy whip manufacturers, trying desperately to stop people from buying cars.

iTunes has shown them that digital sales is mega-profitable.  They have to adapt, not fight change.

They need to stop trying to prevent it from raining, stop trying to punish people from going out in the rain, and  instead start selling umbrellas and rain slickers.

Quesada and Bendis to Promote Unity? REALLY?
(Thu 12/27/2007 08:13am)
You have got to be freaking kidding me.

"UN joins forces with Marvel Comics
By Deborah Brewster in New York
Published: December 26 2007 22:42 | Last updated: December 26 2007 22:42
He has fought against foes ranging from the Green Goblin to Doctor Octopus, but Spider-Man now faces an even more formidable challenge: improving the battered image of the United Nations.
In a move reminiscent of storylines developed during the second world war, the UN is joining forces with Marvel Comics, creators of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, to create a comic book showing the international body working with superheroes to solve bloody conflicts and rid the world of disease. "

So, the guys who brought us Civil War, that wonderful showing of promoting privacy issues, civil rights, peace, diplomacy, international community (thinking Atlantis here), minority rights, different groups working together and a whole slew of other positive values -
is going to be the one promoting the United Nations.

Spider-Man, the outlaw who has nearly killed recently and thought that laws are worth following anymore, is going to be a fictional ambassador for the U.N. (no, I don't think in character, but the author of this short article obviously did zero research on exactly who Spider-Man is contemporarily outside the movies.)

Apparently the UN image consultants don't know what SHIELD is like in Marvel comics these days.

Can you think of dumber idea than this?

Marvel?  NOW?   REALLY?

What the Hell?
(Mon 12/10/2007 10:00pm)
http://www.mania.com/56872.html#comment_86917

I'm dead serious.  Mania paid for this?