Views from the Ivory Tower - February 2008
On the RIAA and MacWorld
By Ted Bade
Let me begin this article by getting back on my soapbox
concerning the RIAA and their seemingly endless battle to destroy their own
business. Yes, once again, they have done something so stupid that if this
doesn’t convince you to permanently stop buying their CDs, nothing will.
Let me be blunt. They are working on a case that would make
it illegal for a person who purchases an audio CD to rip it into MP3 for their
own use…
Since the dawn of recorded music, the current popular method
of enjoying music was one step behind how consumers wanted to use them. So
people have been converting their music to the desired format. For personal
use, this has never been a problem. Why should it be? If you bought it, you
should be able to use it in any way you like. I agree, you cannot sell it or
give it to a friend, but you should be able to convert and use it. In the olde
days, we could make tapes, then CDs of our vinyl and today we make MP3s of our
CDs. But if the RIAA has their way, doing this with
a CD you purchased legally, will be against the law.
We know why they are doing this. As their business begins to
fall apart, they are making every move they can to eek out that last bit of
profit. Rather than embrace the digital age, these aging businessmen choose to
hide behind the coattails of technophobic legislators, poking their greedy
little hands out for whatever they can grab, caring little for who they hurt in
the process (and making sure little goes to the actual artist).
Think about it. The RIAA is finding ways to fine and sue the
very people who have provided them with all the money they have. How long will
it be before absolutely no one will purchase any product they make? With the
Internet, the members of the RIAA are no longer the only source of recorded
music available in the US. We have many choices of digital downloads in the US.
We can also buy CDs almost as easily from a non-US music company as we can from
a US one. Why purchase a CD of a UK group from the RIAA, when one can easily
buy it from some source in the UK, and get a CD formatted the way the artist
actually wanted to? For years the RIAA has dictated how a non-US group’s CD was
set up, which made “import CDs” sought after and so valuable. With the “import
CD” you got the music that the musician wanted to offer, not what the RIAA
dictated.
So what is happening is this, a man in Arizona is being sued
because there is music on his computer that he converted from the CD’s he owns.
Take a look at this article as
presented by the Washington Post.
Here is a quote from that article that I find most interesting:
“...the industry maintains that it is illegal for someone who has legally
purchased a CD to transfer that music into his computer.” Wow, this is scary. I
doubt that anyone reading this article has not done this. So we are all
criminals! Terrible, just terrible.
This article goes on to say: “The RIAA's legal crusade
against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to
a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only
"created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent
goods so as not to deal with the big record companies," Beckerman says.
"Every problem they're trying to solve is worse now than when they
started."
I couldn’t agree more. Don’t these business men read children
stories? I think they missed the one about, “Don’t bite the hand that feeds
you”! Be sure to read the entire article, it has a lot of good information.
Do you know what I am considering doing? Cataloging all my
RIAA CDs, and sending a certified letter to the RIAA business office and asking
for a refund for these CDs. Since they apparently want to dictate how I use
them, I no longer want them on my property. I also want to be refunded, in
today’s dollars, for every one of them! I would also send a copy of this letter
to every artist that has a CD is in my library. I want them to know that I will
no longer enjoy their music and to warn them that the RIAA will be probably
asking them to pay back their royalty fees for those CDs I am being refunded
on!
I am truly and fully sick of the RIAA and their tactics. I
have said this before and will continue to say, I will never again buy any CD
from any RIAA associated company. If I buy a CD it will be an import or from an
independent label. I truly hope that all of my readers will make this same
commitment. If you don’t, the next headline you hear will be something like:
“RIAA sues man in New Jersey for listening to a CD at 9AM
when they have labeled it specifically as a CD to be listened to at 5PM. ”
Please, don’t make this a reality. ☺
Security and the Mac - It appears all this talk about the Mac being more secure then Windows is
actually being listened to by important and large organizations. Apparently the
US Army is considering moving a lot of their sensitive stuff to Macs to take
advantage of this security.
In the mean time, those people with a vested interest in
viable environments for malicious software are working hard to come up with
ways to get a truly harmful piece of software easily on many Macs.
We heard of the release of a trojan for Mac OS X.
Apparently, if you choose to install a codec that was “necessary” to view a
special video file, the trojan would be installed. So far, this trojan
installer has only been found on certain pornographic sites.
As with every other Mac-related malicious piece of code so
far, the user has to give his or her permission to install the piece of
software that contains the trojan. Whether one visits these sites or not, any
intelligent user has to remember to not let software install itself unless you
know exactly where it comes from. No matter the reputation of a web site, I
would never allow a piece of code to be installed unless I knew exactly what it
was. I should also mention that, if QuickTime needs a codec that it doesn’t
have, it will open a web page on the Apple site that provides all the codecs
that Apple has tested to work with QuickTime. I personally wouldn’t install any
codec if it wasn’t available on this site.
I expect we will see more action in the future. Be safe,
know where the software you are agreeing to install comes from. If you don’t,
then don’t install it.
Along this line of thought, I recently saw a message while
running Safari that PubSub Agent wanted to access to keychain. Whoaa! I did
what any intelligent Mac user should do and denied the request. I then went out
and did a little research, and discovered it was a routine used by
Apple. Apple should have told me they were going to use this
routine, LOL! –
MacWorld Expo 08 - What would Apple be without exciting announcements, especially at the Expo?
This year’s expo was no different. We’ll take a brief look at some of the
things Apple released this year.
MacPro -
This wasn’t technically released at MacWorld, but the week before the Expo.
This new desktop Mac includes Intel’s latest four-core chip. The standard
edition includes two of these chips running at 2.8GHz. That’s eight cores,.
Wow! Apparently these new chips run faster then the previous versions, so
although there isn’t much of an increase in processor frequency, the computer
operates faster then the previous ones. Visit the Apple store for more information.
MacBook Air - As many people predicted, Apple release a small notebook computer they call
the MacBook Air. This new ultra thin portable is about as thick as a finger (about .76”). Yet
it includes a full sized backlit keyboard and a 13.3 inch screen. The computer
sports a 1.6 or 1.8 GHz core duo chip (the newer smaller sized one), is LED
backlit which uses a lot less power), external USB port, and even an iSight
camera! Wirelessly it includes both 802.11N and Bluetooth. The touch pad has a
number of “gestures”, that add a lot of functionality it. Apple expects about
five hours of operation on a fully charged battery. Of course, a computer this
thin doesn’t have room for an optical drive. Hmm you say, so what good is it?
I am not sure how popular a portable that cannot play DVDs,
or easily access CDs will be. Apple believes that people will make use of movie
rental/ purchases. We will have to see how the market likes that. I am sure few
people will buy a digital version if they already have a nice DVD collection.
For $99 you can buy a USB optical drive to use with the Air.
For installations you can use a feature called Remote Disc. This application
works on both Mac and PCs. Using the computer’s wireless connection to do the
installation. You put the DVD/CD in that drive and it wirelessly acts as the
drive for the Air.
Another really cool innovation is the option of a 64GByte
solid state drive! The computer comes standard with an 80 GByte Parallel ATA
drive. Also this machine is a very green product, arsenic and mercury free and
an all recyclable aluminum case.
While a portable this thin would be cool, I am a little put
off by the lack of an optical drive. But if the Remote Disc feature works well,
it might be a non-issue. Of course, to use this feature you will have to own a
computer with wireless built in. Apple is pricing the basic machine at $1799.
Movie Rentals - The iTunes Store will now offer rentals. The cost will be $4 for new releases
and $3 for older movies ($1 more for HD versions). Movies will come from many
studios including: Fox, WB, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Sony, along with
Touchstone, Miramax, MGM, New Line, and Lions Gate. It launched the day of the
Keynote. There should be over 1000 titles available for rental. Once you
download a movie you will have up to 30 days to watch it. Once you watch it you
will have 24 hours to finish it. (This is very similar to the method used with
Amazon/Tivo rentals).
Time Capsule - “A backup appliance”. Apple has released a wireless hard drive for use as a backup
device for Leopard’s Time Machine backup utility. Essentially, Time Capsule is a network drive that offers a connection to the Internet, to a wire-based
LAN and a wireless LAN.
In addition to its function as a backup drive, Time Capsule
is a full airport extreme base station. You can use it to share your broadband
internet connection. It also can connect a printer wirelessly to the network.
Even more interesting is the fact that you can use it with both non-Leopard
Macs and PCs. For these devices, it shows up as a wireless hard drive.
Time Capsule will ship in February and will cost $300 for a
500GByte version and $500 for a 1TByte version. For more information visit
Apple’s Time Capsule related web site.
Apple TV - There are some nice additions to the Apple TV. First of all they reduced the
base price to $229. They also provided an option of a 160 GByte hard drive.
The big news is that they untethered it from the Mac. As
Steve said: “Now- no computer is required to use it”! This means that right
from your TV you can use the AppleTV remote to buy and rent movies and TV
shows, download YouTube videos, podcasts and more. It still has the connection
to your Mac so you can use it to listen to and watch content that is on your
Mac or PC. The great news is that all the new features are free to all previous
owners as a free download. For more information visit Apple's Apple TV section.
iPod Touch - Apple has released five new applications for the iPod Touch. The new
applications include a Mail program, a map program (using WiFi location feature
as in the iPhone), web clips, stocks, notes, and more. Previous owners will be
able to upgrade for $20.
I think that Apple is slowly moving the Touch toward being a
PDA. For some reason, Mr. Jobs is against making an Apple PDA, but I think the
market is drawing these devices in that direction. To get all the information,
visit Apple section on the Touc.
iPhone -
The day of the Keynote was the 200th day since the iPhone has shipped. In that
time, Apple has sold 4 million of them. It got over 19% of market share in
first quarter.
Apple added some new features to the iPhone. They enhanced
their Maps features. Including the ability to locate where you are. The Dropped
Pin feature lets you set a location to use later. For instance pin where your
car is parked, then take your phone with you. Later you can find your car and
use Maps to set up a trip to another location, from where your car is, not
where you are. Maps uses wireless networking to tell where you are. It is
probably not very useful outside of a major city, but pretty interesting
technology.
You can now customize the icons on your iPhone home screen,
and even have up to nine home screen pages. There are some other features as
well. If you would like to learn more about this new update visit Apple’s
section on the iPhone. There is a nice movie there that lets you see a demo of
these new features.
All in all, these are some interesting releases, but nothing
all that earth-shattering. The stock market reaction to this information wasn’t
very good. Apple’s stock fell over $11 by the end of the day of the Keynote. I
imagine they expected something really terrific. Too bad. However, since the
rest of the NASDAQ was falling at the same time, perhaps this was not related.
Apple Financial News - January 22nd was the official release of Apple’s First Quarter
financial results. The results were good, but dampened by the ongoing fall of
NASDAC values in general. As always, check out Apple’s financial press release
for exact details.
Apple posted a revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly
profit of $1.58 billion. Compare this to the year ago quarter of revenue of
$7.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $1 billion. A nice increase for Apple.
Non-US sales accounted for 45% of this profit.
Apple shipped over 2.3 million Macs, over 22 million iPods,
and over 2.3 million iPhones. Sales of Macs was up 44%, while iPods increased
only 5%. (Looks like the market is saturating! What do you mean you don’t own
six or more iPods???)
Think back to the last days of Mac OS 9; Apple was on the
brink of disaster, their OS was old and weary, and their Computers were tepid
at best. What a change a little infusion of charm (in the form of Steve Jobs)
makes!
But Apple needs something new and exciting as well as to
make a stunning change to Mac OS X. Sure Mac OS X is nice, but let’s face it,
computer users have been dealing with the same type of OS for decades. We are
still tied to a keyboard for input and the mouse for control. Most of all, when
things go wrong, the average user still gets confusing assistance at best.
While I don’t know what is really needed, I can see that a change is needed.
I recently added a new MacPro tower to my Mac collection,
replacing an older G5 PowerMac. The disappointing thing was that, after moving
my files over, there was little about working on this new machine that was new
and different. That might be a very good thing for the business environment,
but for the computer hobbyist, it is boring! Sure the thing is faster (I mean a lot faster), but where is
that new computer smell?
Apple also needs another really successful consumer
electronic “thingy”. The iPod is slowly saturating the market. I doubt it will
ever go away and will always be in demand, but now it is replacement sales
rather then new sales. The iPhone was a good try, but it wasn’t that different
from all those other phones. We will have to see if Mr. Jobs can put on his
thinking cap and come up with a really truly new exciting thing.
Now I must get back to playing with my new Macintosh. ☺
As always, keep on using your Mac...
