Misc

Slipping under the radar, in a 19-0 vote, Internet Censorship passes swimmingly.

No one is talking about this. Is it because no one knows, or because no one cares?

US Agencies and officials can file court orders for domain registrars to pull domains, and web hosts to shut down any websites that are considered to have pirate content. This isn't just going to affect US websites, this bill allows them to shut down any website anywhere in the world. As you can imagine, some other countries aren't quite OK with this.

My question is: Why are we?

This is literally only the beginning. Internet Censorship is now allowed, and don't think that it won't get worse before it gets better. Corporations such as Disney have backed this bill (no wonder it passed), and now can go after these pirate web sites.

I'm very interested to see reactions on this (because I've heard NOTHING from ANYONE yet), and I'm scared to see where this will go.

Once in a while, we here at the Daily Awesome have mentioned the RIAA or MPAA and their inability to find an appropriate party to point their fingers toward (because apparently they don't have mirrors). So we end up with grandma's sued for hundreds of thousands of dollars for downloading music... when they don't even own a computer.

How did we get to this point? Why is the music industry choking on its own bile as it desperately tries to climb up the greasy slide back toward the top?

I think the main reasons are a failure to adapt, greed, and believing that those at the top always know what's best... always thinking the top is infallible. Oh, and please don't forget the biggest reason: they put out shitty music.

Also, their business model is quite literally extortion. They force bands (at this point, I should really just call them entertainers) into these ridiculous contracts that rape them of their music and out of the mega money that comes from selling music. They also forced fans of a particular song or three to buy an entire shitty album just to own those few good songs.

It's also the bands' faults, though. I mean, as a band, you want to have your own CD, right? It's the dream! To have a CD with your band's name on it, to have a booklet with lyrics, liner notes, and thank yous.

I think we need to stop thinking of music in terms of albums. That's the first step. The entire market needs to shift. But that hurts the great money making. It's much easier to complain and whine that people downloading music are killing the industry when in truth, it's shitty business practices (and shitty music) that's killing the industry.

Maynard James Keenan of Tool has said that he's no longer thinking in terms of albums, but instead in terms of releasing a couple songs at a time. I think that he understands the current climate far better than most. Really, this is what all bands should adopt. If you write a few really good songs, release them and sell them yourself. Then, you won't have to worry about all the nonsense that comes with record companies.

Unfortunately, this model works best for bands who already have a lot of money, because... obviously, you wouldn't make nearly as much from selling those songs as you do entire CD's. Still, if you think about it, the bands aren't making their money from CD sales anyway. It's touring that makes them all the money. It's touring that really makes or breaks a band.

So until we're ready to let go of what a band is, or how music should be released, we're just going to have to sift through the shit.

I suppose... at least there's iTunes.

Sunday night, the broadcast of Tina Fey's Mark Twain Award ceremony was shown on PBS. At the end, Tina gave an acceptance speech which contained some things that PBS decided it didn't want to air.

It's really kind of silly. The article referenced makes it sound like PBS censored anti-Palin remarks, but really, I think they just didn't want words such as "Rape Kit" or "Lesbian" or a remark about evolution to be broadcast. I don't think it's because PBS supports Palin, but moreso because PBS wants to tread carefully on waters that are slightly choppy; they just want to take no position at all.

In any event, I think it's ridiculous. Like when George Carlin posthumasly received the Mark Twain Award and they played the "7 words you can't say on TV", but bleeped them out.

Silliness.

Not to make today Facebook Day or anything, but I just read another interesting article regarding Facebook's new email integration.

It looks like there are quite a few things to not like about Facebook's new email integration.

First of all, it's not email. It's an integration to email, but it is not email. Basically, if I sent you an email, it would start a conversation in your messages box with me. Then if I send you a second email with a different subject, it would still combine that with the already created conversation. Subjects become meaningless.

But that's not all. Worse is that Facebook doesn't care about your privacy (see my previous post). So go ahead, throw all your emails to your Facebook account and watch them gather and sell your information.

Facebook sucks.

I'm sure you're not surprised. I know I'm not. Facebook doesn't care about privacy. I know people who've been affected by Facebook's notorious updates that change all of the privacy settings in place. I'm one of them.

At this point, I figure that I've had the account for so long, I might as well keep it. I know better than to share truly private information. I refuse to play any (and I mean ANY) of the stupid games such as Steal-Your-Information-Ville (aka Farmville) or Mafia nonsense or whatever bullshit the kids these days are playing.

Still, the article's speculation on whether Zuckerman is misguided or is operating out of malice is interesting. Is it that he doesn't care, or that he cares and is invigorated by the power?

Honestly, it doesn't matter. Facebook, because of its popularity, seems to garner a certain amount of trust from its users. I remember recently the phone number sharing fiasco.

The only safety is to either not use it, or to be extremely judicious about what you share. However, the problem arises in other people.

Anyone can post an image of you pulling a huge bong load. Is it fair? No. Other people are in control of your privacy. It's unsettling, but it's the world we live in. Make good choices, be careful, and keep the bong and the camera in separate rooms.