Started reading todays Apple
announcement on my cool state-of-the-art MacBook Pro and finished
reading it on my stupid obsolete MacBook Pro
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
I Dream of Wires 5: Richard Devine - The Analog Voodoo Effect
Richard Devine is an Atlanta-based electronic musician and sound
designer. He is recognized for producing a layered and heavily processed
sound, combining influences from hip-hop, to old and modern electronic
music. Richard Devine has released records through such esteemed labels
as Schematic and Warp Records, and is the creative force behind his own
sound design company, Devine Sound. Though he has contributed sound
design to a number of hardware and software manufacturers, he recently
released his first official sample library through Sony Creative
Software. Devine has also scored commercials for the likes of Nike and
Touchstone Pictures.
The Sweet Taste Of Defeat
British glam-rock band The Sweet (best known for songs like Block Buster! and The Ballroom Blitz)
seemed pretty damn bitter five years ago when guitarist Andy Scott sued
an Austrian man, Dietmar Huber, for selling a single used CD on eBay at
a price of one euro. At first, he claimed it was a pirated copy and
asked for a €2000 fee, but Huber refused, insisting it was a legally
purchased disc that he had every right to sell. Amazingly, Scott kept
pushing, and went to court asking for €36,000. When Huber proved in
court that it was his CD, Scott still didn't give up! He changed his claim to say he owned a copyright on the name, and all used sales had to be authorized by him.
Huber, as the victim of an utterly ridiculous string of legal attacks, continued to fight back, and now Austria's highest court has confirmed that he did nothing wrong and the band must pay his legal fees to the tune of £50,000.
This isn't really surprising—most jurisdictions recognize that it's always okay to re-sell something you legally purchased. Of course, we do see some companies pushing back against this, most notoriously video game developers. But even they'd (probably) be smarter than to engage in such a Quixotic legal quest. And that's the surprising part here: that the guitarist kicked off this circus and forced it to keep escalating. Used records have been a much-loved part of the music world for decades—did he think he was going to change all that? More importantly, does he think this is going to help him sell more albums? In reality, I'd guess people are going to be a lot more reluctant to buy a Sweet CD in the future, since they know they might get sued if they want to re-sell it later (because, given his dogged pursuit of this dead-end lawsuit, I am not optimistic that Scott has learned his lesson).
Leigh Beadon @'techdirt'
Huber, as the victim of an utterly ridiculous string of legal attacks, continued to fight back, and now Austria's highest court has confirmed that he did nothing wrong and the band must pay his legal fees to the tune of £50,000.
This isn't really surprising—most jurisdictions recognize that it's always okay to re-sell something you legally purchased. Of course, we do see some companies pushing back against this, most notoriously video game developers. But even they'd (probably) be smarter than to engage in such a Quixotic legal quest. And that's the surprising part here: that the guitarist kicked off this circus and forced it to keep escalating. Used records have been a much-loved part of the music world for decades—did he think he was going to change all that? More importantly, does he think this is going to help him sell more albums? In reality, I'd guess people are going to be a lot more reluctant to buy a Sweet CD in the future, since they know they might get sued if they want to re-sell it later (because, given his dogged pursuit of this dead-end lawsuit, I am not optimistic that Scott has learned his lesson).
Leigh Beadon @'techdirt'
Electrical Banana
So wrote Aldous Huxley just before an afternoon mescaline trip, his first, in 1954. The psychedelic sixties would take Huxley’s message to heart, opening new doors of perception while under the influence. But for graphic designer Heinz Edelmann, Huxley’s journalistic exploration was mescaline enough. After reading the British novelist’s account, Edelmann thought, “Well, I don’t need mescaline. I can do that stone cold sober.” If you don’t know who Edelmann is, have a look at Yellow Submarine: he created the look of the film and designed all the characters...I have always been a poor visualizer. Words, even the pregnant words of poets, do not evoke pictures in my mind. No hypnagogic visions greet me on the verge of sleep. When I recall something, the memory does not present itself to me as a vividly seen event or object. By an effort of the will, I can evoke a not very vivid image of what happened yesterday afternoon, of how the Lungarno used to look before the bridges were destroyed, of the Bayswater Road when the only buses were green and tiny and drawn by aged horses at three and a half miles an hour. But such images have little substance and absolutely no autonomous life of their own. They stand to real, perceived objects in the same relation as Homer’s ghosts stood to the men of flesh and blood, who came to visit them in the shades … This was the world—a poor thing but my own—which I expected to see transformed into something completely unlike itself.
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And Here Is My Good Big Centipede
An Unpublished Excerpt from an Interview with William S. BurroughsSunn O))) stage set up
Sunn O)))'s stage set-up for their All Tomorrow's Parties gig tomorrow night. KOKO London shall tremble...
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