Micro$oft wants to dismiss the states who don't want to accept settlement. Okay let's remember in the finding of facts they were guilty, and now they want to set the terms of their punishment? Arrogant? I think the best part is the following quote

The states' remedies include creating a version of the Windows operating system stripped of any middleware applications.

"This would destroy Windows desktop operating systems as a stable and consistent development platform," said Microsoft.

Obviously who ever wrote it either
A Had a great sense of humor
B Never actually used Windows (especially 98)
Stable and consistent, that's funny!

Ken Layne has a great post on Fox News website about the Music industry, I just wish I was as eloquent. Also this NY Times story on the subject.

There is an interesting thread over on Kottke site on blogging well worth the read. The interesting thing that got me thinking is Jason Beaumont says

webloggers casually bandying about the term "personal journalism"

I know I perhaps have even done so in my Bio page, perhaps personal broadcasting is a better term? (Thinking aloud)

The truth is, these web publishing tools like blogger, give us not just the opportunity to express, but more accurately broadcast to a world people our thoughts, dreams, rants, and stories. How your cat is acting strange, Ben Brown's hobbies to keep himself (and us) entertained, my obsession with reporting on a weird Congressman from Ohio, it's all here and more, perhaps it is uniting consciousness and the Gaia theories. I don't know, but it is powerful, a soapbox for all, and most of the time fun....

Stories like this do more than show that Clear Channel doesn't respect nor listen to it's listeners, it also serves to demostrate their lack of understanding of the power of technology. Fundamentally, the Internet and technology will (and perhaps already is) push(ing) radio into a smaller and smaller market, with Satellite radio services developing and increasing wireless internet, we will see people going to niche radios that are driven by individual tastes rather than corporate playlists. It's funny actually how these companies may be slitting their own throats and not even realize it.

As an example, a friend has added a mp3 playing stereo to his car, he bragged to me how it could hold 7 hours of music on one disk, that is generally longer than most people need for a roadtrip, but all he has to do is change discs every once in a while, that is not a whole lot of work. The music is his favorite, not Clear Channels market demographics.

Granted there is nothing to stop them from plugging into the niches, but honestly I don't think they are that smart. And unless they develop their employee voices, I don't think any efforts by these companies will not do them any good.

In the next few weeks and months the copywrite issue will get more media coverage. As an aspiring writer I can understand wanting to protect your material from others stealing it and claiming it as their own. It has gotten overboard, is there any good reason an item I copy write should be protected until 70 years after my death? Just not practical nor realistic in the internet age, I would think somewhere around 25 years before it goes to the public domain seems reasonable, but then again if I were someone it would mean I would lose about half my inventory (or more) and be forced to stop living off the dead and have to be a center for creative and interesting ideas again.
Open Law has a good write up of the case and briefs on it.

Wired has an article on why the BT patent case is BS. People have gone over board with patents and non-disclosure agreements, my boss mentioned to me the other day that when he goes out to Silicon Valley about half of the businesses have you sign a non-disclosure agreement as you sign in. Madness really, unless your working for the military on highly classified documents, there is no reason for it, in the long run your not protecting knowledge, but assuring ignorance. Bemer, the gentleman that actually invented hyperlinks, has a great quote in the story "Advanced technology only happens when people take a basic idea and add to it," Bemer said. "All this new patent stuff is crazy and counterproductive." I think he's deadon right, but not just about technology all human endeavors.

Remember the words of Issac Newton "If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants." I don't think the giants ever ask him to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

It must be my day to write about copyright, patent, and other IP issues. Dan Gillmore writes an interesting weblog and column for Mercury News out in Silicon Valley, today he takes on the issue of that the "entertainment industry continues to treat its customers like thieves, and the tactic of choice is to screw up the technology that give customers more choices". Someone smarter than me once said "never bet against your customer" and that is what this industry has been doing for years. It probably started earlier, but the case of CD's and pricing is a good example, consumers have been told for years the price would drop on CDs and it never has in fact today I have seen them running upwards of $20. Crazy since they are cheaper to produce than tapes, which are less expensive. You can tell me all about marketing costs, but let us be honest if your not between the ages of 9 and 24 you don't fit in 90% of the marketing plans (Boy Bands, Brittney, Flavor of the Month) and it is silly for us to pay marketing on products we don't buy. That honestly I think is why Napster took off, people rationalized, 'I have been screwed by the record labels for years and now it's there turn', alittle bitter but probably true. This naturally leads to that point, well what about the artists, their hard work should be paid, and I completely agree, we just need to find a good middle road. I love find out about local bands especially online listening to their music and then go and buy their album or pay to see their show. A great example of this is Carbon Leaf, they have gotten some airplay on DC 101 and I looked them up online and I have 5 songs of theirs in Winamp on my music rotation, they are going to be in Arlington soon and you know I'll be there to support them. If not for the 'net I probably would have thought when I heard about their show "yes that song is good, but I don't know anything else". Support live shows is one angle to finding the answer on this issue.

I don't have any other answers on the artists compensation, but let's start the conversation and see where it goes. Scary to think, but Courtney Love is actually one of the smartest people talking about this issue right now.

Let's find an answer people, to make the artists and the consumers happy, that's what matters.

Very cool to see people you worked with do well and become important and stuff. :-) Ralph was the Policy Director when I was interning for TD, I even worked on some projects for him. He has a good interview today at ZDNet on tech policy and the next year, check it out. (Even though he works for a different IT Trade Group) It's nice to see good people do well in life and get recognition.

There is an interesting write up on Blogger in the Guardian. Now that I have been using this system for a few months, I figure I can do a review of it. I do like the simple direct interface. I wish it worked on other browsers as effectively, it was a real pain trying to blog over the holidays at my folks house. (Mom has an Audrey and Dad has an old Mac w/Netscape, neither one looked right). Occasional Blogger flakes when I am trying to post a link, place bold, or italics. It posts them into the article, but not between the highlighted text. Not sure why it happens. Archives, well as you know blogger ate all my 2001 archives the other day and while I didn't have any Shakespear in there it did rather tick me off. Other than being wanting to able to have people add comments, I am pretty pleased with it. In the next few months I may migrate completely to hosted by bears.org like my static homepage (although this means finding another engine to power my blog) or start up my own domain and name outside of bears and blogger, but potentially keeping blogger as an engine for it. That way I can have an external host for my archives with little worry of future issues.