Media

Fear of a Black Planet

The article I was reading that prompted the latest slew of coffee-related posts was out-pointed by The Shifted One. In it, Frank Field says:

But, there's another feature of [Hilary Rosen's] position that screams for consideration - "it's unfair to expect record companies to cut costs." Really!?! Every other industry looks upon cost-cutting as the standard - a day to day practice. There are plenty of industries where cost saving - continuous improvement - is the centerpiece of operations.

Like, say, at RBOCs. Perhaps Ms. Rosen just doesn't want to give up her free coffee. However, one does wonder what motivates these people. Is it control?

As far as I can see, it comes down to a simple fact - the record companies are control freaks, pure and simple. Somehow, they have managed (along with the movie industry) to convince us that their monopoly control should be perfect, unassailable by advancing technology and guaranteed by the state.

For some reason, I am reminded of the story of Pinocchio, particularly the scene where the star performer is tossed in a cage.

Is it control? Or is it fear?

5:59:41 PM # Google It!
categories: Coffee, Media

Last night, ABC, a Disney company, aired "The War on Drugs, a War on Ourselves." It went over the same ground we've seen before: prohibition creates more harm than good, legalization would reduce economic incentives to commit crimes, and so forth. I don't expect we'll see decriminalization of narcotics any time soon — "You mean you support drug dealers? I can't vote for you."

4:55:34 PM #
categories: Media

At this rate, who'll be the Man of the Year?

So what movie is coming out from AOL Time Warner in December?

Robert K. Brown:   "EntertainNews Tonight.  It's worse than you think, Joe. There have been 30 issues of Time so far this year. At the end of April we get Yoda on the cover. End of May is Spider Man. End of June? Tom Cruise. The Boss at the end of the July just maintains the pattern..." [jenett.radio]

10:43:37 AM # Google It!
categories: Media

Ah, the Freedom of the Press

HP has threatened action under the DMCA for exposure of some problems with OSF/1 DEC UNIX Tru64 UNIX. Since the author of the c|net article is Declan McCullough, he's included numerous helpful signposts, including one to the source code in question.

Go, First Amendment, Go!

10:36:00 AM # Google It!
categories: Industry, Law, Media, Security, System Administration