In light of Apple's new online music store ($0.99/song, AAC format with minimal DRM, better encoding than MP3, etc.) a new era has begun in digital music. Finally, there's an alternative to scrounging around on Kazaa or Gnutella for a song, downloading it at .4 k/sec, and having it be half-corrupt when it finally arrives. Apple's service is fast, full of variety, and is constantly being added to every day. And it's legal.
So my question(s) is(are):
Now that there's a relatively cheap, fast way of acquiring music, which do you see yourself using? Do you screw the $1 per song and go for the free, illegal, low-quality route, or do you use the possibly expensive, legal, high-quality route? I, for one would be downloading songs like mad from Apple if I had a credit card. I think that the artists who make great music deserve compensation for their works, and as a fellow artist, I understand the desire to support one's self through creation.
Do you think the artist should be compensated for their work?
What if they're dead?
What if you can't find what you're looking for on the store? Would you go get it on one of the file-sharing networks?
I'd like to see what you all think. Apple's service is only available to mac users, but within the first 18 hours online it sold over 275,000 songs, netting Apple, the labels, and the artists a profit of about $100,000. Granted, that was in the first few hours of the service, when most people were just giving it a try. The real test of whether this will work will be in the next few months, when the initial curiosity dies away. A Windows version is in the works, I believe. I know most of you use Windows/Linux... would you use the service once it's available for your platform?
Just interested in seeing what you think.
http://www.petitiononline.com/agcbyctt/petition.html What sits before you is a petittion, a petition to stop the censorship of the beloved Comic: Penny Arcade. Sign it if you love america, or even if you don't.
My uncle was talking today about a doctor he knew, who happened to be black, and was in Georgia for some reason. He was at a gas station or something like that and a kid in the store pointed at him and said "Look mommy a nigger!"
It astounds me to no end that places and people like this still exsist, I realize that the klan still exsists and that there are many a bigot in America, but kids that are so removed from the actual world was astounded to see a black person. It is just incredible that America still has its ancestory of bigotry prevelant in areas. Also Rachel Lavenda was talking to me awhile ago and said that an incrediblely christian family asked her where her horns and wings were, in a mockingly fashion. This bigotry is just incredible to me as well. It is mind blowing is mind blowing that there are bigots to this extent still roaming around.
Also if it sounded like I was saying bigotry was a rarity on this post, I wasn't, I realize that the KKK and other horrid groups of bigots still exsist and racism is still very prevalent, but nonetheless these example have impacted me because it shows how truly close racism is to me and where I live, and isn't in some far removed parsec of the universe.
I think that signifies this entire website and most of the idealogy expressed here . . . correctness sux. Conforming to any sort of pre set standard is never a good thing, rather analyzing and using your mind to determine what is good and what is bad is the only way to live life, and that is why the biggest motto on this site is something like "Don't wear pants." Everyone is wearing pants and it is our job to look at pants and see if there is an actual purpose to wearing them or if everyone in society wears them for the sake of conformity. In addition when the politicians get together for a "spontaneaus" singing of God Bless America . . . i am sure those are "spontaneaus." They are just using the song to make them seem more patriotic and trying to show that they actual give a shit about the nation. It makes me feel a lot less about those people, and makes me think they are playing the politician game for mere power and don't really care about this nation or anyone in it. God most politicians annoy me. Now that Jesse Ventura* . . .
Also PC is a horrid thing as well, you can't say most anything with out being accosted by PC nuts if they are any where around you . . . Calling a person with dark skin, black if fine as not all "black people" are or from Africa as the PC morons would like us to believe. And I don't know a single Indian who gives a shit about being called Indian and not "native American." Obviously we should be a little more conscience than we were in the past, but the complete opposite is not any good either.
*That was a joke, that is what everyone says who are to incompotent to pay attention to politics so they say they like Ventura because he spoke his mind, and they people never understand the things that Ventura supported or wanted to implement in this state.
For the left, the way of thought control is political correctness, for the right, it is patriotic correctness. This is a recent trend and it pisses the hell out of me. I am all for the singing of the star spangled banner and the pledge and all that, but when people refuse to stand, they are crucified! This is an unspoken way of stigmatizing debate and trying to control people's thoughts. Today, I went to a baseball game. At the beginning, was the national anthem, which was ok because the national anthem has been said at the beginning of baseball games for over 100 years. What bothered me was in the seventh inning stretch. The PA announcer asked everyone to STAND for a singing of "God Bless America." This is a song with no historical or traditional significance in it at all, it just says GOD blesses the country. I know that if someone didn't stand, they would be looked down upon by everyone else. Stop with this craziness! Stop with this chest pounding! This evangelical patriotism and patriotic correctness sucks!
I would comment my ass off but contra fuckers stole my ass!
Now I am probably going to sound like a babbling moron because I am very tired, but here is my entire position on all of this.
In order to maintain democracy all threats against democracy have to be eliminated. Democracy is a very hard balancing act that has NEVER proven successful because by definition democracy is weak. What is a threat to democracy you might ask, I say anything other then democracy, and this is where regime change comes in.
Call me what you want, but if not nipped in the butt these things tend to spread like wildfire. Look at how all of Eastern Europe and a good portion of Southern Asia went down like a cheep whore after WW2.
Part Two: The Death of America is Close at Hand
America is becoming too much of a consumerism based economy. We do not produce enough any more to pay our debts and we spend all our money on enjoyment. We import far too much. Rome fell due to three things, lead pipes, Christian rule, and importing more than exporting. We have two of the three problems. That is not to say I?m not for Bush, because I feel he is a great leader. He is just too much of an Evangelical Christian for my tastes. He relates everything he does to religion, which I do find to be a bit offensive because Religion should have nothing to do with how you run the county. I do not feel that that is what is best for America.
That has been my blurb. Comment your asses off
Gross, I agree completely that America absolutely must hold itself to a higher standard than the rest of the world. That is why the right to dissent in the United States is so important. The citizens of this country must be allowed to make sure the government is kept fair and moral, because we all know the government won't do it themselves. For the same reason the United States must hold itself to a high standard, it must not hold itself to a low standard when dealing with the rest of the world. I agree with Gross' premise, but I also believe that it is the duty of the United States to oppose evil and brutality if we are to truly hold ourselves to a high standard. I realize that we are not perfect in that respect, but we should be.
In your post you forgot to discuss the world economy, or aids victims, or jews be killed in WWII . . . oh wait your post had nothing to do with these topics. As my post had nothing to do with how Saddam treated his prisoners. And Ben truthfully do you think that the federal government has always protected freedom of speech and people still don't get black listed (maybe not as a significant extent as in the past) for doing things that are unpatriotic. My post was aimed at the fact that just because it happens in Iraq doesn't mean it is automatically a horrid thing or an incriminating thing against Iraq but rather some things that happen in other parts of the world happen in this nation as well, and as we criticize a nation a dictator, who should be criticized to say the least, we must shine that same light on our selves and not believe that we are a superiour nation than the rest of the world and that we have no wrongs in this nation.
First of all, I don't see how anyone can make an argument that what we are doing in Iraq is still bad after you've seen the pure and unrestrained joy that the Iraqis demonstrated after the highly symbolic toppling of the statue of Hussein. I think that that proves to all of you who thought Iraq loved Saddam were sorely mistaken. Nobody loves being oppressed, and the filter that Saddam had in place for foreign countries such as the US were complete lies. Now, in address to the restructuring of Iraq, I don't see where the UN should even be considered. They made it extremely obvious that they did not want any part of war, save a few countries. We took this task upon ourselves, we spent our soldier's lives, and to let a third party try and control what we sweat and bled for is incredibly illogical. We went in there with a purpose, otherwise we would not have went in in the first place. Now that we have done the dirty work, let us establish what we see as best fitting. Then Gross, if the UN sees our new regime in any way inadequate, then let them propose any new changes for Iraq. The bottom line is, the quicker we establish a new government, the less likely it is that a new facist party will seize power, and the vicious cycle repeats itself.
-Erik Greene
