This page contains all entries posted to Manufactured Environments in September 2004.

U.S. House moves to criminalize file swapping

A bill passed the House this week that would criminalize P2P file trading. People who share 1,000 songs online could face three years or more of prison. And people who share one unreleased album could face a similar penalty.

It’s obvious by now that the lawsuits the RIAA is launching against people who trade music are not working. Initially there was a drop in peer to peer users trading file, but the numbers have continued to increase this year again despite the threat of legislation. It’ll be interesting to see how this pans out but scary too if they start loading up the federal prisons with people who shared files online. Is that an appropriate punishment for the crime? What do you think?

Here’s a news blurb via Edupage, an electronic publication of Educause:

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bill aimed at helping the record and movie industries protect copyrighted works from being illegally traded online. Under the bill, those found to have shared more than 1,000 songs online or to have videotaped movies in theaters could face prison terms of as much as three years for a first offense. Record companies and movie studios have been pursuing prosecutions of alleged copyright violators, with the recording industry having brought more than 3,000 lawsuits against individuals accused of trading copyrighted songs. Under this law, the government would also bear responsibility for prosecuting copyright violators. A similar bill was previously passed by the Senate; differences between the two measures must be reconciled before it could be signed into law.
Reuters, 28 September 2004
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=6358345

Let’s hope this bill doesn’t make it because certainly that guy in the White House would sign it.

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Listening To

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Kerry Rocks

In case you’re needing a little help deciding who you’re voting for in November, let me just remind you that John Kerry rocks. If you want to see John doing a wicked rendition of the Stars & Stripes on electric guitar, check out Kerryrocks.net. And if you’re looking for a CD of John’s high school band The Electras, check out Kerryrocks.com (including a great photo of Kerry with John Lennon).

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A Night at the Hip-Hopera

If you’re a fan of mash-ups as they call them, then you’ll like this. It’s a 78 minute (fits on one CD) hip hop opera by the Kleptones. Pretty interesting and worth a bunch of listens. Check it out. The Kleptones homepage for the album is over here, but waxy.org is hosting a mirror of the downloads. Be sure to grab the full 109MB zip file and get the whole thing at once. Right over here.

I’m still enjoying the 2 Many DJs mixes I picked up in Los Angeles last year. Good stuff from England Belgium. As a personal aside, I tend to associate these mash-ups with techno culture since that’s where I really first heard them in the early 90s, but really the mash-up goes back much further. Basically since the arrival of tape recorders people have been doing this sort of thing. I remember a friend of mine in Minneapolis used to send me these sound collage tapes with bits of songs and spoken word and random stuff thrown together.

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Absentee Ballot

The other day the Democrats sent me a form in the mail with a mailing card addressed to the local county auditor and commissioner of elections Tom Slockett. The form was filled in with my address and name thereby making it nicely easy to request an absentee ballot.

I remember the first presidential election I could vote in—it was Clinton v. Bush in 1992. I was abroad at the time and requested an absentee ballot through the embassy as I recall.

The more I think about it, the more I think I’ll send the form in and get an absentee ballot. I don’t have any particular nostalgia about the methodology of voting. Hell, I’d vote online if we could. But an absentee ballot ensures that my vote will be counted (I don’t live in Florida, natch), and I don’t have to bother with what will undoubtedly be heavy traffic at my polling place. In some states you’re actually supposed to be out of town in order to use an absentee ballot, but that isn’t the case here. Thanks John Kerry and the Iowa Democrats for thinking of me and sending me a little love in the mail.

Speaking of love, Microsoft is sending me a package via DHL Express. I have no idea what it is, but they usually send me pretty interesting stuff—it’s probably some software. We’ll see; the DHL guy is supposed to show up before noon tomorrow. Something to ponder: why are delivery men always men? I’m not talking about piano movers here, I mean these guys who carry little 2 lb. envelopes for FedEx and UPS and the rest of them. What precludes women from these jobs?

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Light

With the start of the semester everything is crazy-busy here. There may be continued light posting for a bit until my schedule settles in a bit. It looks like I’ll be team-teaching a class at night, and I’m taking a night class in French. Though I must admit it’s movie week for me—tomorrow night we’re going to “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,” which is the Almodovar film from 1990 that is playing on campus. Then J. and I are doing what is a great documentary by all accounts (including a thumbs up from Ebert and Roeper) “Some Kind of Monster” and D. and I are doing “Vanity Fair.” More soon.

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Medúlla

After a blissful Labor Day weekend (photos to be posted soon), it’s back to work. Tonight in the background I’ve got Björk’s new album playing. It’s called Medúlla, and there aren’t any instruments formally. I say formally because gosh darn it Björk pulled out her sampler and some of the voices are, shall we say?, manipulated. But mostly what struck me on first listen is the spiritual tone of some of the songs. I think vocal music is naturally spiritual—think Gregorian Chants, folks. Anyway, this is an album that is too interesting to pass judgement on after only one little listen. But after one listen, I’ll say this, it’s one of the most interesting albums I’ve heard all year.

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He’s my nephew

Congratulations to Thomas and Tricia! This morning around 4am, Owen Thomas Stout was born. Can’t wait to come and visit and see the little guy—everyone says he’s cute baby. I’m an uncle for the first time—and my parents are now grandparents—and my grandparents are now great-grandparents. There’s someone new in the family. An exciting day for all involved.

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1001 Things to Hate About the Convention

Well, as you know, they’re arresting people by the hundreds thousands in NYC. The Republican National Convention is hopefully soon over. I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s speech last night. Towards the end he almost started sounding like a Democrat—talking about immigrants and oppression and human rights. I could see the confused looks on the delegates faces.

At any rate, here are 1001 things to hate about the convention. Enjoy!

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