Shewbox.org

Winter is so 20th century.

This is just too sweet (link):

“The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists’ best interests,” said Nettwerk chief executive Terry McBride in a statement.

“Litigation is not ‘artist development’. Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love.”

. . .

Mudd said the RIAA has “misapplied” the law and that lawsuits should be a “shield, not a sword”.

From a new article in Wired Magazine:

After a few months of wait-and-see, Lego concluded that limiting creativity was contrary to its mission of encouraging exploration and ingenuity. Besides, the hackers were providing a valuable service. “We came to understand that this is a great way to make the product more exciting,” Nipper says. “It’s a totally different business paradigm – although they don’t get paid for it, they enhance the experience you can have with the basic Mindstorms set.” Rather than send out cease and desist letters, Lego decided to let the modders flourish; it even wrote a “right to hack” into the Mindstorms software license, giving hobbyists explicit permission to let their imaginations run wild.

Yeah, that’s right Sony/RIAA/MPAA/insert IP holder here: allowing more creativity and freedom with your products makes customers happy AND boosts business. Who woulda thunk it? Imagine if Sony had produced Mindstorms instead of Lego. It would be less popular, almost impossible to really tinker with, and if you did try to tinker with it, you’d be sued. If big media companies would take a hint from Lego, we might have some really exciting products and innovation out there. Just think of all the cool things that won’t be built if the big giants of media get their way with laws controlling not just how you watch their crap, but also what you can build to try to watch it. Too sad.

You know, its almost humorous (RIAA doesn’t want you recording digital radio):

But over the long term, the music industry says, Congress should find a way to regulate these new digital radio networks so labels can get paid when consumers keep copies of songs, as is the case with iTunes

“We’ve got to find a way to harmonize this so it’s rational,” said Mitch Bainwol, the RIAA’s chief executive officer. “There are going to be new technologies that are great for fans, and great for the entire music world, but they’re all operating on different platforms, and all operating on different rule sets.”

They really just don’t get it, do they? Suing your customers, breaking CDs, complete control over their content, and screwing your own artists just isn’t a good way to do business. How many times do we have to say it? We want to listen to music how we want, when we want, where we want. And we’re willing to pay for it too! We’re not thieves! We are honest people trying to find ways to listen to music the way we want to. And as more and more people and artists finally get fed up enough with their childish temper tantrums about piracy killing artists and the industry, maybe you and I will get better options to purchase music from companies that don’t act like 7 year old rich spoiled children who want something they can’t get.

Lawrence Lessig writes:

So while it is true that we have had both:

(a) common carrier like regulation applied to the Internet, and
(b) basically no effective regulation applied to the Internet

and it is true that we have had both:

(c) fast, fierce competition to provide Internet service and
(d) just about the worst broadband service of the developed world

it is not true that we had (c) when we had (b).

We had (c) when we had (a), and we have (d) now that we have (b).

Check out his entire entry on why regulation would help the U.S jump up in the rankings from the 15th place or so it is in world broadband rankings.