
The Men Who Stole the World - ph0rque
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0,29239,2032304_2032746_2032903,00.html
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anigbrowl
_See pictures of the movies' most evil computer villans._

I remember when I used to think time was a serious news magazine. And when the
sub-editors could spell correctly.

however, credit is due for the mention of Justin (gnutella) Franklin's current
project, cockos reaper. It's music production software and they seem to push
out maintenance releases every week, if not more often. Over the last few
years I've watched it grow from a 'proof of concept' alpha to a sophisticated
and versatile suite, while remaining very fast, well-documented, and
extensible. It's also shareware, but without being crippled, just a polite
reminder on load. I don't use it for audio production, but I keep an eye on
the project and am impressed by the continual release pattern instead of the
sprint/collapse model.

Take a look at their release notes, and the dates thereon (page is text):
<http://www.cockos.com/reaper/download-old.php>

~~~
BRadmin
* Frankel, not Franklin - <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Frankel>

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anigbrowl
D'oh! Sorry Mr Frankel. This would have to happen when I'm griping about
spelling in the same post, too.

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te_chris
It's just nice to see the "mainstream" media recognising that, unlike what the
RIAA is saying, the sky didn't fall in as a result of the internet. As a
musician myself I wholeheartedly embrace the new distribution methods because
they are better for the consumer. The biggest challenge for me is defining
what my product is (generally not an easily copied mp3 download) and then
making this super effective and properly targeted. This is a good thing,
however, as now that the IFPI and the RIAA have been all but taken out of the
equation, the freedom we have to make innovative packages is pretty damn
awesome.

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eru
Yes. When I was in New York one day, I happened to attend a meeting by some
socialist musicians about how the internet has changed their livelihoods. The
theorists and old guys talked about how we need state support and forming a
union.

The younger pragmatists where content with giving away their mp3s and selling
T-shirts.

~~~
te_chris
That's interesting, however the position of the older guys is quite
understandable in some ways. The entertainment industry over in the 'States is
pretty unionised in the professional part of it, so I guess those guys were
just advocating what they know.

Obviously this young musician is a pragmatist, though.

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barmstrong
My favorite quote:

 _It turns out that there is something that can compete with free: easy._

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nitrogen
All the RIAA would've had to do to come out champions rather than villains in
the digital world was listen to a broadcast of NPR's Science Friday in 1993,
in which Internet users expressed their hopes and dreams for the Net. One of
the requests was a way to listen to and buy music online.

The segment was rebroadcast last Friday:
<http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/201011263>

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fendrak
This stands as an important lesson: no matter how loudly anyone screams that
the sky is falling, things rarely turn out as anyone expected. Who would have
thought that iTunes would come along? Certainly not the RIAA...

~~~
usaar333
No, the sky is still falling for the music industry:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_in_the_music_industry>

"Total revenues for CDs, vinyl, cassettes and digital downloads in the U.S.
dropped from a high of $14.6 billion in 1999 to $9 billion in 2008."

I imagine iTunes barely converted anyone who used napster, limewire, etc. back
in the day. And now with streaming services like Grooveshark that are far
easier than iTunes, the industry has another worry..

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daten
My money says it's not from piracy but from falling quality of music sold by
the major record labels.

I spend more money on music purchased online now than I ever did on CDs but
it's going to independent and foreign artists who produce a much better
product.

~~~
usaar333
The numbers should be including all sales.

For everyone of you, there's multiple people who haven't bought recorded music
since 2000.

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SkyMarshal
Good to see the mainstream finally getting it. A few choice quotes:

 _"What's striking about the pirate kings is that they've been much less
successful in the straight world than they were as pirates. An anarchic
worldview coupled with brilliant code doesn't travel as well as you'd think in
the bean-counting world of legitimate commerce. Good code empowers users by
giving them choices and options, but empowered users aren't necessarily good
for business. What you need to hit it really big in legitimate commerce is an
authoritarian sensibility that limits users to doing what you want them to."_

...

 _"Johansen rejects any attempt to associate him with piracy. "As far as I'm
concerned, it has nothing to do with me," he says. "I support fair use, which
means that when you actually legally acquire content, you should have the
right to use that content on any of your devices, using any application." For
Johansen as for all of the pirate kings, it was always about writing good
code, and what good code does is give power to the people who use it. That's
the real reason the pirate apocalypse never happened. The pirates never wanted
music and movies and all the rest of it to be free — at least, not in the
financial sense. They wanted it to be free as in freedom."_

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zaphar
Quite a well balanced article I thought. More so than I've come to expect from
mainstream media.

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klochner
we need a new word for _mainstream media_ , it's been appropriated by the
mainstream media.

~~~
Benjo
I think "popular media" or "general interest news" work in this context.

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b_emery
'Corporate media' perhaps?

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Benjo
I think their corporate nature is incidental. Wired is a corporate media.
Perez Hilton is not. This has more to do with getting technical details
correct then being a corporation. So maybe "non-technical media" is the term
we want?

~~~
eru
Popular media, in analogy to popular science, is a pretty good term.

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amadiver

      consumers were high on the rush of swapping music hard drive to hard drive for nothing.

Oof.

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dnsworks
Only in te music industry could somebody do enough coke to simultaneously
attempt to sue your company out of existence while investing $100m into it. If
there's one thing I agree with PG on it's don't do a music start-up.

