chenlevy’s Journal

Netcast you love no more, from people you no longer trust.

17 May 2007, 18:12

Warning: This entry has nothing to do with music!

I listen to audio books. I listen to short stories in audio format. I listen to podcasts. I did listend to This Week In Tech (TWiT). I will listen to TWiT no more.

TWiT is a IT technology weekly podcast that tends to be light on content and heavy on cranky rants. I did found it mostly entertaining and some time informative, and Cory Doctorow was a guest panelist more then once, so they can't be all bad.

However, episode 97 was the last one I would listen to. On this one Leo Laporte gave a plug for audible.com.

I have no problem with Leo making a living, and I am happy he can find sponsors to support his netcast (Leo's term for podcast). I understand and tolerate the ads he inserts into the file.

I have, however a problem with the way Leo presented the promotion. He weave that into the podcast, as if it was his own recommendation, and only when it was all done he said, "hey, that was our ad".

So I went to the URL he gave, but on a hunch, before giving away my e-mail address, started poking around. It was not obvious but reading through the site, I have discovered to my shagrinn that audible.com is a DRM scheme.

Here what I told them:
Although I am an audience for audio books, and willing to pay for a quality product, I refuse to support any DRM encumbered product. It seems that you are aware that DRM is not desired by your customers, so you try to hide this fact, or at least not present it clearly. I have figured out that you require your customers to use DRM from the system requirements and by drilling down in your help system.

I will not give up my freedom and rights that easily. You will not have my business until you fix this issue, and abolish this anti consumer technology. Until that time your product is defective by design, and I will have no part in it.

I understand that there is stupidity and evil in the world. If there wasn't DRM would have never been conceived. However I have placed my trust with Leo. I know Leo know about DRM. After all he has spoke with Cory Doctorow. Leo said more then once that he think DRM is not smart, but when he suggested I will use the services of audible.com, he didn't say, "Oh, by the way, this is a DRM shop".

So the ad he sold was very effective, however, he spent all his woofie on it. So, for me the TWiT mantra for "Netcast you love from people you trust" is no longer true.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers,
-- Chen.

P.S.
I would have loved to say this directly to Leo instead of bloggin about it, but it seems that I need to jump through too many hoops just to be able to post it on TWiT, so I use this journal as my soap box.

Links:
Leo Laporte
Leo Laporte and the TWiTs

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Lable it, please!

10 Oct 2006, 13:42

I want to do something about DRM. As you should know DRM is the restriction technology the media industry trying to shove down our throat.*

I want to promote legislation that, as a consumer protection measure, will force the manufacturers to label products and services containing DRM restrictions.

I believe that if people will be aware of the DRM issue, they will simply reject it. After all no one have just woke up and told himself: Hey, I wish I would be able to do less with my media.

I am trying to go through the Israeli Consumer Protection Console. I hope they will think this thing worth while, and will be able to convince an M.P. to make a law out of it.

Wish me luck.

* * *

To make reading my rants worth while, I like to end it with a pointer to some free music, so without any sophisticated segue I will point you to Jill Sobule's web site.

Jill is nice enough to allow you to navigate her site even if you don't have flash installed. Moreover, she let everybody download few songs off her site, and about once a month she will rotate that free song selection, so you should come back to see what's new occasionally.

In the days I worked in Tel-Aviv, I was amusing myself walking on the sea side promenade, listening to Tel Aviv.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers,
Chen.
----
* I am trying to keep polite about it, when describing where this thing is shoved into.

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Do no evil

8 Oct 2006, 19:10

I have tough time clicking the "I like this" button when listening to a last.fm channel. This is not just that I need to hear a song two or more times to let it grow on me. In most cases I don't know if I want to like this music.

Let me explain: When I consume culture, I want it to be an uplifting experience. This is my opinion that a precondition for this is not to promote evil while doing it. Unfortunately it is all too easy to unwittingly be evil about music today.

On one hand, I respect the work done by the artist. I don't want to brake the law and make an illegal copy of a song. On the other hand I refuse to pay for music, if one cent of that will go to the RIAA or other organization, that uses it's power to promote legislation to retard the spread and use of culture, and use those laws to bully music lovers, that (barring those prohibition laws) are a peaceful, law obiding citizens.

I believe that Abraham Lincoln said it best:* "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes crimes out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
So, the only ethical thing I can do is to choose to like music that is not connected with the RIAA in any way shape or form, and since last.fm does not have an ethic rating system, I have to follow each catchy tune, and try to obtain it's origin.

I have no such ethical questions about Ethic. Their creative commons licenced music can be found here. I have first heard their track Purple as the theme music for the podcast novel 7th sun by J.C. Hutchins. Admitidly, I like the guitar solos better then the vocals, but that being an ethical music, I have no problem letting it grow on me.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers,
Chen.

---
* Shamelessly Lifted from a post by hackstraw in a recent slashdot discussion.

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Just say no

7 Oct 2006, 06:42

Most people don't know about it, even when they run against it. When it happens people might think that they can't do something with their media because the technology is too complicated, and they simply haven't been able to figure it out.

It called Digital-Right-Management or DRM in short. This technology which you are paying for, is designed to limit what you can do with your media.

The most informed and entertaining way to learn more about DRM is to listen to Cory Doctorow's podcast story part 1, 2, 3, 4.

The people who promote this technology claim that they do it to protect their copyright. Infact there isn't and there can't be a connection between copyright law and DRM. The things that determin if the use of a media legal or illegal, have to do with the situation and intent. No amount of technology can make an infomed decision about it. The real reason DRM is out there, is to protect a way of distributing media. A way that became obsolete in the Internet age.

Furthermore if you are getting a DRM'd music, you put it in harm's way. It can stop working at a drop of a hat, for a plethora of reasons. So if you love your music, just say no to DRM.

Have said that, I will put here a recommendation to the most technologically limitted music I like, while keeping the science-fiction theme of this post.

Daikaiju allow their music to be used in the creative commons licenced podcast Escape Pod. If you like short science fiction stories, this is the way to go. You can listen to Daikaiju's music streaming via their site, but only if you have flash installed. I can live with this kind of restriction, because this is the way Daikaiju chose to give their music for free, and if you will pay $12 for the album Daikaiju, you will get a standard non DRM'd music CD. But be careful, while the technology is harmless, the music may blow you away and into a thousand tiny pieces.

Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Chen.

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The creative commons

6 Oct 2006, 07:04

The premise is simple. Copyright is good, but more copyright isn't better. In it's inception copyright was suppose to promote more culture. But then big business and big money came into the picture, hijacked the concept, and turn it into a over baring legal monstrosity.

Copyright is no longer only the domain of publishers, it concerns all of us, and it kills new culture and prevent the nurture of the public domain and prevent the archival and preservation of most old culture.

However creative people tends to want to do good. And to help them do that the Creative Commons people suggested that instead of the standard all-rights-reserved (c) of copyright, one can choose the some-rights-reserved (cc) approach that let the audience enjoy and preserve and optionally build upon it.

I have already recommended Steadman in a previous post. Another band that adopted a creative commoons license is what about joshua. You can get their music from Archive.org.

I have some more freely downloadable recommendations in the pipeline, so stay tuned.

Thanks for reading,
Cheers,
Chen.

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Giving something back...

5 Oct 2006, 17:05

Music is not the only thing you can get for free. In fact the precursor for this brave new world is free software. And I am proud to be a member of the free software community, and to be able to give something back.

The truth is that almost all of us can do something to make the world a recher more free place. All you need to give back, is to want to give back.

It's not a new thing for me. I am one of the Hebrew translators for (among other things) the Amarok audio player (See the Amarok users group here on last.fm for more information). Translation is one of the simpler way to make software better. If you know English and another language, you can translate an application with the help of a simple GUI application.

As I said this is not a big deal. I just wanted to note the today I have updated the Hebrew interface of one of the best audio player out there, that incidentally can and do function as a last.fm front end. I did it for free, just because I got the software for free, and for the warm feeling of giving back.

Thanks for reading
Cheers,
Chen.

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Some of the best things in life...

4 Oct 2006, 19:47

One of the grate changes of humanity may be upon us. The very premises of human economy is shifting beneath our feet. When you are taking a loath of bread from me, I have one less loath of bread. But when you take a copy of an MP3 I own, there is one MORE MP3 file in the world. A new economy. The age of plenty.

There are places on the net where we all can exercise this new world. There are artists who get it.

John Butler Trio release their excellent live concert on rchive.org. Personally I like the one from 2003-08-16.

Steadman give all there music for free under a Createive Commons licence on their site.

Mieka Pauley give away some of her music from her web site. Due to her amazing voice a live show just with a gittar is a delight, and you get a good recording of her 2005-06-23 gig off archive.org.

I have some more of these, but this will do for now. I will like to know what other good free music is out there.

Thanks for reading.
Cheers,
Chen.

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Journal

Netcast you love no more, from people you no longer trust.

Lable it, please!

Do no evil

Just say no

The creative commons

Giving something back...

Some of the best things in life...