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The RIAA Is a Big Loser

MP3Newswire is running a story about the “2002 MP3 Losers” and “2002 MP3 Winners.” That the RIAA was considered the biggest loser should come as no surprise (and gets a big thumbs-up from me). However, it confounds me that the music industry just refuses to accept the new paradigms that technology and the Internet have created. Cary Sherman, president of the RIAA, is quoted by the BBC as saying “that music [will] always be available for free somewhere on the net despite costly court battles to shut down illegal music sites…It has got to be accepted that file sharing will always be there just as shoplifting is accepted as wastage in the retail sector.” This is the reality of the music industry these days, yet the RIAA chooses to combat this at every turn in a vain attempt to turn a profit at all costs rather than embrace it and nurture the technology. I think the most short-sighted thing of all is that if the music industry did it right, they could reap huge profits while winning over consumers in the process and guaranteeing themselves a role in the future of the industry. Why they don’t get this I just don’t know…

The rest of the lists are worth reading as well, although by my rant you’d think there wasn’t anything else there. 😉

Follow-up: Janis Ian (best known for her 1975 hit “At Seventeen”) has written an article entitled The Internet Debacle – An Alternative View (and an even better follow-up) with refeshing viewpoints on technology and the music industry from an artist’s perspective. It apparently generated a surprising amount of responses, including one from Hilary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA. Many insightful points and propositions are made in the articles, but most if not all are constantly being disputed and nitpicked by the “Internet-challenged” RIAA. What a waste…

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Coffee Drinks for Politicos

Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe, a shop in the trendy Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, is serving a new coffee drink, the Trent Lotte. It reportedly consists of separate but equal parts coffee and steamed milk. It comes in two different cups and the customers may integrate them as they see fit. As heard on NPR’s “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” quiz show.

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Morons Of The Day

CNN reports:

A Maine couple’s attempt to make a political statement by rigging up a fake bomb in their checked luggage led to their arrest, officials said Thursday…Screeners also found a note that read, ‘To the uniformed puppet opening this bag – congratulations. You’ve just brought this once free nation one step closer to becoming a fascist police state,’ according to Transportation Security Administration spokesman Robert Johnson. The note was scribbled on one side of the cardboard torn from a box of Cracklin’ Oat Bran.

I think the Cracklin’ Oat Bran was just the touch of class needed to add some much-needed levity to the situation…

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The Surreal Life

Because we haven’t had enough reality TV, here’s another crappy show. The Surreal Life is a new show on the WB that stars Corey Feldman, MC Hammer (now a preacher?), Emmanuel Lewis, Brande Roderick (from Baywatch Hawaii, apparently), Gabrielle Carteris, Vince Neil, and Jerri Manthey (Survivor II) as housemates. Hell, I guess it can’t be any worse than the Anna Nicole Smith Show, but that really isn’t saying a whole lot. The only thing going for this show that I can see is “the train-wreck appeal of ‘E! True Hollywood Story,’” as the article points out.

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Beer Guts Are Genetic?

I’m not fat, I’m just Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme-enhanced! Italian researchers have found that beer guts are genetic, or at least people with a particular variant of a gene are twice as likely to develop a beer gut. Of course, this discovery does nothing to alleviate the Spare Tire problem in those affected, only highlighting the futility of fighting one’s genetic disposition. It’s enough to drive someone to drink… 😉