Luis over at BlogD has this story the other day. It seems that in a recent interview that Edgar Bronfman, head of the Warner Music Group admitted, while not admitting, that he felt his children had illegally downloaded music.
“I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music. Frankly, right is right and wrong is wrong, particularly when a parent is talking to a child. A bright line around moral responsibility is very important. I can assure you they no longer do that.â€
Great, but what did he do to them?
“I think I’ll keep that within the family.â€
Oh…well…I mean, as long as he had a talk with them, I am sure the RIAA, who famously go after people who have never even downloaded a song, will leave them alone. I mean, their dad TALKED with them.
I would love to go on about this, but I feel I would come dangerously close to plagiarizing what Luis said. So please, go read his thoughts on this and know that I agree with him 110% on this.
A while back I wrote an entry about Fun TV, and in there I mentioned a show called Flip This House. Well, I should have mentioned I like it MOST of the time…except for the Montelongo group from San Antonio.
Armando Montelongo is in business with his family in Montelongo House Buyers and, well, to be blunt, he’s an ass. I won’t deny the man is successful, there is no arguing that fact, but he’s gotten there in a sleazy way. It’s supposed to be a partnership with his brother, wife, and sister-in-law, instead it comes off as “Everything is about Armando, what you can do for Armando, and how you can do it without costing him a $.01″.
For instance, the episode where he told his sister-in-law to get them a website with professional photography built with a budget of $0. Yes, she got it done, but somehow I doubt she could have really pulled that off without A&E cameras being involved. How about the episode where he interviewed new employees, and to prove a point he won a $20 bet with a potential employee. Yeah…he took $20 from a job applicant, threw it in a desk drawer like it meant nothing to him, and told the applicant “no thanks”.
What prompted me to write anything tonight was the episode entitled “Roach House“. He bought a foreclosed house for $40,000, budgeted renovations at $15,000 and no matter how many problems popped up, he expected every one to just make them go away inside that budget. Where he burned me though was when things were crumbling all around everyone’s head he expected his brother David to just take over this project he had saddled the company with because it was time for HIS vacation. And while his brother was standing there saying “I’m not comfortable with this.” he couldn’t shut up about his plane taking off in 3 hours. He ended the conversation abruptly and left for his vacation leaving his brother with the problem HE had purchased.
So why does this bother me? I work in a family environment, and while it is stressful, there have been many times where I have sacrificed my plans because someone told me they couldn’t handle it, they didn’t feel comfortable or any other number of reasons. When you are in business with your family, your personal desires take a back seat to the good of those around you. And if it’s a project I brought in? You better believe my butt would have been there to the bitter end the way things were going.
Why should I even spend a whole entry bitching about this guy? Well, it’s my blog, and my right, and when I see someone being that big of an ass on so many fronts… it just irks me. I know I would never be buying a house through his company with his attitude.
I really need to stop getting “good ideas”. A friend was trying to publish a simple checklist of some YouTube videos online. Well, by the time I was done tweaking things, she had a multi-page website with graphics.
I really need to stop coming up with so many “good ideas”.
Luis over at BlogD had an entry today about the latest move by the RIAAto steal more money from people help the poor musicians who count on them for protection from those nasty, evil pirates! Well, according to this article, the RIAA is petitioning the courts to review the current royalty structures, not of the money that goes to the artists, but the amount of money that goes to the record companies.
*blink*
*blink blink*
As quoted by The Hollywood Reporter,”Mechanical royalties currently are out of whack with historical and international rates,” RIAA executive VP and General Counsel Steven Marks said. “We hope the judges will restore the proper balance by reducing the rate and moving to a more flexible percentage rate structure so that record companies can continue to create the sound recordings that drive revenues for music publishers.”
What this boils down to is MP3s and Ringtones were not under the old structure, so the record companies view this as their chance to redo the royalties. Here’s the kicker though, not redo to benefit the artists, but instead to lower the percentage paid to the artists and raise the percentage paid to the record companies.
This is my second article in less than a week about how greedy the music industry is, and it’s not the musicians! The “suits” are the ones getting greedier and greedier and making the industry as a whole look like a cesspool of greed. They sit and whine and whine about how CD sales are slumping, but yet you never see any real reports on the amount of digital download sales making up for that. It would seem to me to be a lot if they are so anxious to get the royalties re-written.
Instead we are told time and time again how piracy is hurting the musicians…perhaps it’s actually the fox guarding the hen house that’s hurting the musicians. I know…call me a radical if you must.
I was “tagged” by someone on my LJ to do this, so you all get to see it also.
Once tagged by this entry, the assignment’s to write a blog entry of some kind with six random facts about you. Then, pick six of your friends and tag them; no tag backs. This explanation should be included.
1. I have a love hate relationship with computers. I like what they can do for me, but most of the time they are a pain in the butt.
2. I have worn glasses/contacts since the 3rd grade. For some reason I have gone back to wearing my glasses more.
3. I currently have 21 Clone Trooper figures from Revenge of the Sith standing on the power strip above my desk. (15 different paint jobs, some came in packs with duplicates)
4. I go to sleep every night listening to classical music on my iPod.
5. I do my best thinking in the shower for some reason.
6. My desk is never clean it seems…even after I clean it.
What in the world is Elizabeth wearing? I know this film deals some with a Chinese pirate, played by Chow Yun Fat, but you have to admit, that outfit just looks a tad on the odd side.
Stupid snowstorm last week stopped my laptop from getting to me on Friday like it should have. It got here today…and yep, they wiped the hard drive. *sigh* So I have spent a fun filled evening reinstalling a bajillion programs. So much fun. And, just as I predicted, it was a faulty fan. The paperwork said they found another problem they fixed, but they didn’t say what it was exactly. Interesting though. Oh well…back to installing.
Over a year ago I wrote an entry about how the music companies felt they should get a share of all iPods sold. After that, things went pretty quiet there for awhile, that is until Microsoft released the Zune. It seems Universal Musiccame to an agreement with Microsoft to receive a fee from every Zune as part of an agreement for their music to be carried in the Zune Marketplace.
“It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don’t see why we wouldn’t do that… but maybe not in the same way,” he told the Reuters Media Summit, when asked if Universal would negotiate a royalty fee for the iPod that would be similar to Microsoft’s Zune.
So, because Microsoft needed the music companies behind their new project launch, they set a dangerous precedent. If Steve Jobs says no to the idea over at Apple, Universal, or any other music label for that matter, could pull their support of the iTunes store.
For the life of me I can not figure out how they feel they are entitled to one penny from the sales of Zunes or iPods. Let’s run this down:
- The music companies had nothing to do with research and development.
- They have nothing to do with production.
- They have nothing to do with marketing.
- They do receive royalties on the songs sold.
- There is every chance that the user may never load something from Universal on their player. So they should get money for something they have NOTHING to do with?
I can not see any reason why the music companies should even think they are entitled to one penny from the sale of the players, not a one! I don’t think there is any other larger example out there in this world of just pure, uncontrolled greed.
Remember the other day I wrote about how people were pissed at Amazon over the $100 Xbox 360′s? The original sale happened on Thanksgiving during the afternoon, this week they decided to move the actual sale to Sunday morning, more than likely not to conflict with people being at work.
You guessed it…people are whining.
“Boycott Amazon.com – Sale shouldn’t be held during Church hours on Sunday!!!!!”
“Sunday is the Lord’s Day”
Those are just a couple of titles, not to mention the messages in threads about how they picked an inconvenient time. Is it any wonder why I love being a retailer? There is NO pleasing some people. When should they have the sales? 2 AM? Or does that offend someone else’s sensibilities? I am all for church going, don’t get me wrong, but boycotting Amazon because they are putting a cheapy DVD player on sale while YOU are at church? Weirdness.
I tend to stay away from blogging about people like Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan because I prefer not to “feed the beast” as it were. But this one time…this one time it is so mind-numbingly stupid I had to comment.
Lindsay – who has been linked to several different famous men in recent months, including Paris Hilton’s ex Stavros Niarchos – told Elle magazine: “My mum is going to kill me for speaking about sleeping with people. But I don’t want to put myself in the position where I’m in a monogamous relationship right now. I’m not dating just one person. ‘Sex and the City’ changed everything for me because those girls would sleep with so many people.”
Wow…just…wow. So, you can blame TV shows for any bad behavior?!? SWEET!
“I’m sorry officer, I was driving fast because I just watched COPS and it looked like you guys enjoyed doing this!”
“Yes you fool, I pity you just as Mr. T pitied fools on The A-Team.”
“What do you mean there is no planet named Melmac?!? A.L.F. was from there!”
“What do I know about life? You take the good, you take the bad and there you have the facts of life…”
I could go on and on for hours, but let’s think about this for a minute. Lohan was approx 18 when Sex And The City ended it’s run. Meaning she was about…12?…when it started? It changed so much for her? What the hell was she was doing when she was 11?!? “Oh mom…I wish I could be sexually liberated and date and sleep with as many men as I want! If only there was a show that could change things for me!”
Make of it what you will, but don’t blame Homer Simpson if you have a doughnut addiction.
