RIAA, the Cause of Digital piracy?

Ricardo Trejo Aug 12, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Music

If you dare go to the comments section of this Gizmodo post, be prepared for a ton of angry music fans, both pro and anti-piracy. Greg Kot is rock critic for the Chicago Tribune, and he's been there for quite some time; 19 years to be exact. What's gotten this guy so much press in the past day? His belief that the music industry was what caused the piracy boom in the 2000's.

Kot wrote a book not but 3 months ago that chronicles what the music industry, and bands, have done to combat the changes in digital progression, tech, and piracy. With lots of steam coming in, he did an interview with The Sound of Young America podcast Monday and gave his own retelling of how he feels what got us to where we are right now in music.

"I think the music industry for a long feels like now, 'man, if only we could go back to the middle ages. It was so much easier back then. We could rip off these artists anytime we want."

"The issue of being able to control your intellectual property in an age when basically that intellectual property can be digitized and copied and instantly sent out all over the world the instant you let go of it is ridiculous. You're not going to be able to control it. The technology is always going to stay a step or two ahead of your ability to corral, to control it, and determine who gets to access it. So, let's just put that aside. Once artists get passed the issue of, 'hey I can't control it anymore. It's going to get out there, but I still want to be compensated.' That's, I think the key issue: How do we compensate artists once they lose control over the work, because they're going to lose control over the work.

I can't say I'm happy about it. I write books, I have intellectual property out there as well, that's getting copied, being ripped off, if you will, everyday on the internet. How am I going to be compensated for 5 or 10 years? But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Like I said, we're going to need to rebuild the system from the ground up. And right we have too many entrenched people who are saying, 'no, no, no! We want it to be like the 20th century again.' Well, it's not... That's to me the way the record industry is. Hey, I'm sorry, it's not 1997 anymore. We have to deal with this new reality and figure how we're going to make this work. And so far I don't see enough brain power being invested in creating new systems that deal with this new reality, because the new reality is here and it's just going to be more profound in another 5 years." 

I don't think he's off at all on this topic, he speaks a lot of truth. Sure, pirates created this new system, and they got into it because it was there and it was free, but without them music itself would not be where it is today. Music has never been as popular as it is right now ever in history, to paraphrase Kot. 

[Via Gizmodo]

What do you know? Young people Love to pirate!

Ricardo Trejo Aug 11, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Music

Photo by carolyn.will

Or so UK Music says. Who's UK Music? They watch out for the interests of all involved in the music business. So it's no surprise that they want to get to the bottom of who exactly isn't paying up for the music they provide. A recent online survey by the University Of Hertfordshire, for UK Music, was held in spring of this year, and more than 1,800 young people throughout the UK participated. What did the results show

*Music remains the most valued form of entertainment

*Young people have an inherent sense of what copyright is, but choose to ignore it – the vast majority of respondents knew that sharing copyrighted content is not legal, yet continue to do so

*87% said that copying between devices is important to them

*86% of respondents have copied a CD for a friend; 75% have sent music by email, Bluetooth, Skype or MSN; 57% have copied a friend's entire music collection; 39% have downloaded music from an online storage site; and 38% have ripped a TV, radio or internet stream.

*The computer is the main entertainment hub – 68% of respondents use it every day to listen to music

*Ownership of music is hugely important – both online and offline

*Popularity of P2P remains unchanged since 2008 – 61% said they download music using P2P networks or torrent trackers. Of this group, 83% are doing so on a weekly or daily basis

*There is real interest for new licensed services. 85% of P2P downloaders said they would be interested in paying for an unlimited all-you-can-eat MP3 download service

So what does this all mean? It means that young adults are complicated when it comes to music. I know that I, myself, would love to have a service where I could have unlimited downloads for a small fee. And maybe such place exists now, but I haven't become aware of it. Spotify is a great step forward, but its one downside is the fact that you're still streaming music. If it can be added to your portable device then that's what we're talking about. But of course that would mean owning it, and that would mean paying for it. It's a big mess, but the music industry has to decide what its course of action is going to be, and soon. Everyday that passes millions of pirates around the world are downloading music for free. It's time for a change. A welcomed change with that input of the users themselves.

[Via UK Music]

Exercise hurts more Than helps when trying To lose weight?

Ricardo Trejo Aug 10, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us

Who would've known? Who could've even guessed? I just read a very, very, very (enough very's?) interesting and thought provoking article about the effects of exercise in our modern age. To sum it up: exercise, the way we do it now, with gyms and such, is a futile activity. You heard it right. The piece lists many sources; doctors and researchers with fancy titles, which incline me to believe them, or so they want me to; and they detail how our sedentary lifestyles of the 21st century have taken away our hard working roots - the kind of hard work our ancestors used to do. And that's the exact reason why I thought I'd share this finding. 

By working out 30 mins to an 1hr a day we stress out our muscles, which are in reality meant to be used far more frequently than those short spurts of energy we call exercise. To benefit the most we need physical activity to encompass our entire life. That means parking further away from the store so we can walk more, or maybe taking the stairs rather than the escalator or elevator. In the studies done the research showed that kids who played catch frequently were just as fit or as active at those who played a rigorous sport. 

The reason why we need a life altering method to exercise is because those who do work out for 30 mins or so give themselves some lenience when eating fatty foods. It's only natural to think that once you've done your workout you have the right to eat a slice of pizza. I mean, what would the result have been if you didn't do anything at all and ate that same pizza? Well, that's the problem. If we want to lose weight than that mentality has to go. Exercise makes you even hungrier than if you hadn't if you were to just take a lazy day, so to combat that hunger its best to eat  salad or maybe an apple after your workout to bring back the balance in hunger. But even that isn't enough.

Exercise is healthy for many reasons, not just for losing weight. Like for keeping your lungs, heart, blood, and your brain working right, exercise is a perfect routine, but if you want it to help you get buff or shed pounds then the one big step you're going to have to take is throwing out fast food and other fat filled goodies. In another study done in that article a group of women were divided in half and half were given regular exercise routines, and the other half were told to do nothing to change their daily schedules. What was the result? About the same actually: Some women gained weight in both categories regardless of exercise, and others from both sides lost weight, and just about the same amount too.

I'll let the article speak for itself, but I thought I'd share some of this info to the technophiles out there. Sitting at a computer is fine and all, but get out and make use of your body, regularly.

Read the whole article - Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin

ny times Discovers the word Fail - Hilarity & science Ensues

Ricardo Trejo Aug 10, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Internet

What do you get when you mix up popular internet phrases and The New York Times? You get this. The New York Times, whom I don't read much from, not because I disagree with them or anything, but mostly because CNN and USA today cover the big headlines just fine for me. Although, I do love their homepage's layout - looks just like a newspaper, remember those? But back on topic; so why would I turn to the New York Times for anything, if I don't pay attention to it most of the time? For laughs and science, that's why.

Enter Ben Zimmer, a man who is a master of all things language. If there's ever anything you need to know about linguistics, he's your guy. He writes for the New York Times occasionally and his most recent foreray into language brought his research to internet meme's, most importantly here, the word "fail" and its meaning and use in popular internet culture.

"Popular usage will, of course, be the ultimate arbiter of the durability of fail. One sign of fail’s staying power is that it has already made the move from noun to adjective in some circles. Karl Hagen, who teaches test-preparation classes for Elite Educational Institute in Los Angeles, recently overheard a student who had done poorly on a quiz say to his friends, “I’m so fail.” As an interjection, noun or adjective, fail is proving to be an epic unfail."

      -Benjamin Zimmer

It's an interesting read, and he makes me think: if internet memes begin showing up in places that can be accessed offline, like a twitter for example (I know you need an internet connection for twitter, but you can access tweets from app's and phones without necessarily going into a browser online), then does that mean that memes become mainstream once they cross that boundary?

[Via NY Times]

microsoft store Logo confirmed, and first MS store out In the wild

Ricardo Trejo Aug 10, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Microsoft

We got our first glimpse at the logo that would represent these new Microsoft store the other day, as well as a guided tour of what we might expect to see inside. Today we see our first store out in the wild, but I thought they were looking to be neighbors to the Apple Store for some direct competition?

I don't go to the mall much, but this might give me reason to; seeing all the types of people walking in the MS store compared to those going into the Apple store.

[Photo via Engadget]

iron Man 2 - comic Con Leaked video

Ricardo Trejo Aug 9, 2009 Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Me Follow Us Movies

Iron Man 2 leaked comic con footage. People have been dying to see it, and somehow someone managed to get it out there. Don't know why they waited this long though. Well, regardless it's up... at least for as long as Paramount doesn't know about it - which won't be long.

Things to note: Nick Fury, Mickey Rourke, Cheadle as Rhodes, and War Machine... *Geekasm*

Update on Aug 9, 2009 by Ricardo Trejo

Wouldn't you know it? Video's already taken down. Gizmodo obviously knew this was going to happen and uploaded their own copy of it on their site. Go here to watch it now.

Iron Man 2 Footage and Teaser Trailer - Comic Con

social Networking - Not just for Kids anymore

I've been following a few articles in the past few weeks on TechCrunch and CrunchGear about the recent decline of younger users on Facebook and Twitter.