I must request that no one calls my cell phone any more.

Hear me out folks! When certain people call my phone, this causes my phone to ring (I know, what a revelation), and since I have attached a ringtone to their number, that means that music plays to let me know who it is. Folks, every time you call me, did you know we’re holding a performance? It’s true! People jump up on tables and start dancing… spotlights suddenly appear as if from nowhere and shine down on the make-shift dance floor… it’s sort of like High School Musical, or, at least what I imagine High School Musical is like since I have never watched even a second of any of those movies, but you get the idea.

This is what the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) would have you believe.  According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ASCAP filed a brief (PDF link) against AT&T saying that even though consumers have paid a download royalty, the musicians are owed a second royalty for public performance when the phone ring in public places such as a restaurant.  They are going after AT&T because they make the phones be able to play the ringtones.

As the EFF points out, this is pretty much doomed to failure.  There is a specific section of the Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. 110(4)) that says performance without any fee or compensation is ok.

(4) performance of a nondramatic literary or musical work otherwise than in a transmission to the public, without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and without payment of any fee or other compensation for the performance to any of its performers, promoters, or organizers, if —

(A) there is no direct or indirect admission charge; or

(B) the proceeds, after deducting the reasonable costs of producing the performance, are used exclusively for educational, religious, or charitable purposes and not for private financial gain, except where the copyright owner has served notice of objection to the performance under the following conditions:

(i) the notice shall be in writing and signed by the copyright owner or such owner’s duly authorized agent; and

(ii) the notice shall be served on the person responsible for the performance at least seven days before the date of the performance, and shall state the reasons for the objection; and

(iii) the notice shall comply, in form, content, and manner of service, with requirements that the Register of Copyrights shall prescribe by regulation;

So, okay, the consumer is protected because they have legally purchased the ringtones, so ASCAP turns to AT&T  because they are selling the ringtones for a profit, so they are ‘charging an admission’ for the ringtone being played.  So basically they are going after the company that sells you the equipment to enjoy this loophole in the copyright law.  The problem with this portion is that it was ruled on years ago in the infamous Sony Betamax ruling that ruled that companies were not liable for how their technologies were used. If they were to be held responsible for those uses, they would have to ask media companies for permission before building new tech, and this would stifle creativity.

Now that it is clear that ASCAP has no legal leg to stand on… does the greed of the music industry know no bounds?  Is there any possible way that they won’t continue to try to bleed money out of the consumer?  If by some miracle they win this case, you know the royalty fee will be passed down to the consumer, so, yes, this does impact you.  Yet again it is just another example of how the music industry treats all of its customers as criminals from day one, and you basically owe them money for even thinking about music.

This story is a couple of days old now, and I actually was going to give it a pass, but as I continued to think about it, the angrier I got.  Just who does ASCAP think they are?  I know of a retailer friend of mine who got visited by ASCAP at least twice over his personal radio he kept behind his counter.  He played music for his own entertainment as he would sort freight, but ASCAP said he owed them a yearly licensing fee because he played the radio at a certain decibel level that qualified it as a public performance.  He offered to turn it down, but he was informed it was too late and he owed them the fees.  Last I heard he had never paid it and continued to refuse to pay them, but they kept trying to get him for it.

Decibel levels?  Really?  Well, here’s a money spinner idea for ASCAP!  Go park an agent outside any given high school when it lets out for the day, and ticket everyone with a car stereo system over a certain level because they are obviously doing a public performance!  Heck, from my days in high school they would have made a fortune!

The music industry continues to wonders why they continue to have such a lousy relationship with consumers.  Well, I’ve got a couple of ideas of how that might have happened, could it possibly be the fact you come after us for every conceivable cent?  Just a thought.

Hopefully this will get tossed quickly, but you never know.

Well, that was unexpected but welcome.

The other day I wrote an article about the Six Flags bankruptcy filing and thought that would just be the end of it.  Well, Six Flags reached out to me on Saturday evening and invited me to partake of a conference call on Monday afternoon with company CEO Mark Shapiro.  Who am I to say no?  First off I have to say it was one of the best conference calls I’ve ever been on because Mr. Shapiro attempted to keep the call moving and was far more blunt about the state of the company than I would have expected him to be.

In short he spelled out for us that, yes, the company is $2.4 billion in debt, but the restructuring plan the company came up with was unanimously agreed to by all the parties involved such as the lenders, debt holders and so on.  The banks, which alone are owed $1 billion, have agreed to convert that to a $500 million line of equity until the company emerges from the Chapter 11 protection in exchange for a large portion of shares in the newly reorganized company.

About half way through the call I was lucky enough to get called upon to ask a question as I wanted some definite clarification on a point Mr. Shapiro had made.  Earlier in the call he had informed all the participants that all of the parks were profitable in 2008, but that makes you have to ask how exactly they got to this level of crushing debt.  He informed me that the majority of it started with the purchase of the brand by Premier Parks in 1998 and that they potentially over paid for the company. This was followed up by a period of rapid expansion where the company purchased more parks to be added to the Six Flags brand and it was simply too rapid.

The final straw was some pretty reckless spending on new attractions for the parks where Premier Parks would spend up to $50 million on a new coaster.  Mr. Shapiro said that under the current arrangement of the company they have a budget of $100 million to cover all of the parks and they simply can’t allow themselves to spend more than $7 to $10 million for a new attraction because all of the remaining parks must operate out of the left over budget for the year.  This has led to the thing you could tell bothered Mr. Shapiro the most, and that is the deferred maintenance of the parks.  He is breatly bothered by the fading paint in the parks, cracked sidewalks, leaking roofs and many more things.  That is one of the first things he wants to attend to with the $500 million that is coming from the banks.  This was something that just wasn’t possible under the debt load as the company was paing $200 million a year just in interest.

Overall it was a very informative call, and just from Mr. Shapiro’s enthusiasm for his brand you can tell he wants to make this company work again.  At this time there are no plans to close any parks, and all operations are going to continue as they would any other day with all of this going on out of sight of the guests.

All this being said, I still don’t really care for the parks, and have no plans to visit one ever again, but I can’t wish Mr. Shapiro anything but the best of luck as you can tell he cares deeply for this company.

It has been rumored for ages, but it has finally happened and Six Flags has filed for bankruptcy protection.

It has been 3 & 1/2 years since Daniel Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, became the majority owner of the 20 Six Flags theme parks in a bid to turn the company around to profitability. According to the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, DE, as of Dec. 31 the company had assets of $3 billion, but a debt load of $2.4 billion. The documents also revealed that the 48-year-old company has not had an annual profit since 1998, and has mounted loses of $558.8 million since Snyder won his three seats on the board.

In the past 12 months shares of the company have fallen 86 percent, but it is hoped that the Chapter 11 filing will allow the company to refinance $287.5 million in preferred stocks that mature in August along with $131 million in senior notes that come due next year. The company also stated that it hopes it will be able to cut its debt by $1.8 billion and eliminate $300 million in preferred stock obligations. According to a first-quarter financial statement, the company had $79.4 million in cash and $2.31 billion in long-term debt.

During the Chapter 11 reorganization all of the Six Flags properties will remain operational, and they are continuing development of Six Flags Dubailand in Dubai.

This has been one of the companies many financial experts expected to see go in to Chapter 11 before the end of this year.  Some of the others on the list of 15 companies that might not make it to 2010 included Blockbuster Video, Krispy Kreme, Sbarro, Rite Aid and several others.  I have actually been watching this list since it was published, and I’m not the least bit surprised Six Flags was the first that I know of to fall.  Over 10 years without posting a profit?  This economic climate was just the straw that broke the camel’s back, the company has been teetering on the edge for a while now, it was just a matter of time.

Honestly, I’ve only been to Six Flags St Louis once many, many years ago… that was enough.  Perhaps I had been ruined by being to Disneyland and Disney World, but even as a child I found the staff rude, inconsiderate, the park dirty and just a generally miserable experience.  I have never once felt an urge to go back, and I have honestly been surprised they’ve survived this long.  Now to learn the corporation has been doing nothing but building debt for 10 years, I’m not the least bit surprised.

Luxury and overpriced chains are having the most trouble, so don’t be surprised if we hear more and more stories like this in the coming days.

Check out the follow up post to this article where I got to speak to the CEO of Six Flags on a conference call.

Apparently no one at KFC, or even Oprah’s Harpo Productions, quite understands the power of Oprah.

If you were unaware, KFC has canceled the grilled chicken coupon promotion from earlier this week.  Apparently you can take the unused coupons into restaurants and be issued a new one for a later date that will also include a free drink, but you won’t be getting any free chicken for right now.  Demand has simply outstripped supply, and there is no way for the chain 

As I said in the second post on the the promotion, why this whole thing was done prior to Mother’s Day makes no sense.  It is one of the biggest days of the year for the chain, and to put extra strain on their supply chain at such a critical time of the year for them just made no sense.  And to top all of this off, there are rumors circulating that the franchise locations were not warned of the pending promotion, and they are also supposedly not being reimbursed for the redeemed coupons.

Say what?

While this has not been made 100% official, apparently the deal is that Oprah is paying the corporations costs for the promotion, but somewhere along the line the franchisees got left out of this whole process are expected to just give the food away with no repayment.  How can this even be feasible?  This would also explain why so many locations were not accepting the coupons.

How can two companies of this size and reach have gotten this whole thing so horribly wrong?  Was no one aware that Oprah’s legions of fans will do anything this woman says?  

“Go print a coupon.” 

-millions of women in unison- “Yes… we shall go print the coupon, my liege.”

How could they have not had any clue how successful this was going to be?  With a snap of her fingers Oprah can sell millions of copies of a book, then add her viewers telling non-viewers about the promotion, and… reciepe for a complete disaster if it isn’t planned out correctly.

As for KFC’s part in this mess, this isn’t the first they’ve run a promotion, did they do no advance planning?  Did they not think it might be a good idea to coordinate with their franchise locations?  Did they not think that perhaps they should launch it after Mother’s Day?  No, apparently they just totally did this thing by the seat of their pants and now they have egg all over their face.

For those of you who want to get the new coupons, make sure to visit a participating location (whichever ones those may be…) to get a rain check certificate.  You will then need to mail that, along with your original coupon, in to the stated address and you will then receive a new one back in the mail that will also include a free drink.  And, here’s a wacky idea, apparently the new coupons will have staggered redemption periods.  Genius, guys… really… genius.

To add to the fun, enjoy this really overly euthasastic message from the president of KFC.

It would seem Marvel Comics really doesn’t like you to talk about them… unless they tell you what to say.

The Inquisitr and Newsarama are both talking about Marvel Comics seeming hatred of the comic industry press and Twitter.  While using Twitter comments (also known as “Tweets”) in reporting is considered lazy by some, I don’t see it as any different than quoting something printed elsewhere such as in a magazine or newspaper.  I honestly think it is a littler stronger than that because you are 100% sure the person (or their paid representative in the case of some celebrities) actually said it.  However, some of the exectutives at Marvel are taking offense at their Tweets being reprinted elsewhere and are launching a war of words with bloggers, and even going so far as to suggest they are owed payment for their use.

Are they out of their freaking minds?

Oh wait, this is the comic book industry… they ARE out of their freaking minds.

From August 1986 to December 2001 I ran a comic book store.  During that time I worked for a comic book company on the side, consulted with companies, and even worked inside the comic book & toy press industries.  As much as I love comic books as an art medium, it was sort of like the old saying about loving sausage doesn’t mean you want to see how it is made.  I have only recently returned to reading comics, something I used to have a die hard passion for, because it took me over seven years to try to forget just how messed up of an industry it is.

I have still been involved with it slightly over the past few years, and I have grown amazed by seeing an average comic book rise in price to $2.99 a month, with others hitting the $3.99 and $4.99 mark; the days of the entry level pricing are gone.  I have also seen the number of venues where comics are sold dwindle to near non-existence, all but assuring that the industry is surviving only on those that have been it for years already, and no new blood is coming into it.

With all of this in mind, don’t you think they may want to have the word spread as far and wide as they can about what is going on in the business?  Don’t you think that they should welcome every mention of their names and brands in the hopes it might bring in more readers?

Apparently if your name is “Marvel”, you don’t.

Tom Brevoort, Brian Michael Bendis and Joe Quesada, all employed by Marvel, and they decided to launch arguments with the comic press about their, publicly available mind you, Tweets being used as quotes in articles.  This has begun happening in the mainstream press on a regular basis, and even Ashton Kutcher said in the Oprah episode about Twitter that he likes the fact that he can diffuse some stories about himself in the press because he can refute them quickly on the site.  Here is someone who is virtually a household name, and he encourages people to use his Twitter stream as a source of information about him.

Not in the comic book industry though.  Oh no, we can’t have you using something they made public themselves without first asking their permission to do it.  Apparently they have missed the fact that you can lock a Twitter stream which means that no one is allowed to republish your Tweets.  No, they’ll just go on saying things that anyone can see and then get angry when people actually quote them on it.

In Lucas Siegel’s rebuttal piece to all this (Newsarama link above), he points out that due to the walled garden type situation in the comics industry, the comic book companies enjoy an unprecedented control over their industry press.  If you print something before THEY say you can, they can simply cut you off from any future information.  So, in general, the comics press does nothing that could potentially anger the comic book companies.  This has left them with a feeling of omnipotence that they can somehow control everything that happens, but they have forgotten that once something is on the Internet, you generally lost all control of it.  It takes on a life of its own, and the possibility of controlling the ways it is consumed are completely lost. As someone who has also worked inside the comic book press, I can tell you that Mr. Siegel is 100% accurate in his portrayal of how things work. No matter when or how you learn about an upcoming project, you could not run the news until the company said you could for fear of having all of your in roads to that company quickly severed.

I can almost understand their anger over the Tweets because they simply aren’t used to not having complete control over a press situation.  However, to suggest that they should get paid for their Tweets, let alone the asking for permission to reprint something that was made available to the public, is just disgusting at its core.  If you don’t want it done, don’t Tweet or lock the stream.  Two very easy solutions, but solutions they are choosing not to take.  It is far easier, it would seem, to whine and cry about it and make the press look the proverbial comic book bad guys, and the bad PR they garner over this be damned.

… have I mentioned how glad I am to be away from this industry?

Be sure to listen to this week’s Scattercast, which comes out tomorrow, where I will continue stories of my life in the comic industry, and how one big name creator once called and cursed me out for 90 minutes for daring to express my opinion about his work ethic on a CLOSED forum.

Muzak, the company that has punished elevator users for over 75 years with their hideous “music” renditions, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

According to Bloomberg.com, Muzak filed for bankruptcy this week with credit problems of $465.3 million, but listed assets of only $324.2 million.  The problem is that the company pushed a lot of their debt to mature in the early part of 2009 seeing as they were relying on a merger or sale of the company to help them control the debt.  Now that neither has happened, the company was left with only the option of filing for chapter 11 reorganization.

According to TheStreet.com, this is a list of how some of their debt breaks down.

• U.S. Bank NA – $371 million
• Universal Music Enterprises – $349,321
• EMI Capital Records – $320,323
• AT&T – $257,384
• Dish Network – $251,276
• The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers – $213,020
• Companies without amounts listed include Sony Music, BMG Film & Television Music, United Parcel Service and Virgin Records

How in the world do they owe U.S. Bank $371 million?  What were they taking out loans for that would amount to anything close to that?  The music companies aren’t surprising since they have to pay out royalties for all of the music they play, but in general this is a company that sends out music and nothing else.  I know in the old days they were sent out by tape, but I would imagine in this day and age they transmit their products by satellite to the elevators.  What is even more frightening is that their list of secured creditors has yet to be released, so this is possibly only the tip of the iceberg.

While there are so many saddening stories right now of companies cutting jobs or going out of business, this is one that just leaves my head spinning.  How could a company with such a simple concept be so badly mismanaged?  And how could a bank, one I happen to have accounts with, allow a company to have $371 million dollars in unsecured loans?  What was that money going to?

I feel sorry for the companies owed money… okay, not really, my feelings towards the music industry machine aren’t really a secret, but I do feel sorry for the artists.  Hopefully they will be able to get the debt problem settled, and get the money out to those they owe.  If not, think of how much more pleasant a ride in the elevator will be next time when there isn’t some overly jazzed up version of The Beatles “Hey Jude” playing in the background.

It’s true folks, Hollywood is in deep crisis… of morals that is.

Hollywood had a record year in 2008 financially, but attendance dropped off.  Well, according to Nikki Finke’s Deadline Hollywood, the American movie industry had their best January ever to kick off 2009… stupid pirates killing off all of their business!

Hollywood has been cutting jobs in this down economy, and they also have been dragging their feet on a new contract with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) due to money concerns, and they have been saying that they need more money, with even rumors of a government bailout may be needed.  Yet, here we are looking at the January numbers show that they grossed $1.028 billion at the box office compared to $867.2 million last January for an increase of 18.57%.  Now, before you say this is caused by increased ticket prices, you should know that attendance was up 16.78% over the same time period last year.

True, we are only one month into 2009, but this certainly bodes well for the movie industry, and while it is highly unlikely we will see another break out, $500 million plus, grosser like The Dark Knight this year, this bodes very well for the year.  Considering the total gross for 2008 was $9.76 billion, it certainly looks like they are tracking to beat last year already.

Poor Hollywood… you know pirates are hurting their bottom lines… they keep telling us so by annoying advertisements.  Well, if history teaches us anything, it is that during tougher economic times, people tend to go to the movies more for escapism, and this lead to huge attendance numbers during the Great Depression.  Certainly this is not another depression, but you have to figure that contributes to the situation.

I have to admit I am a bit befuddled by this since Netflix reported their earnings jumped 45% in the fourth quarter of 2008, so expected box office takes to be down.  Shows what I know!

The movie industry had a record year for revenue in 2008, but actual attendance was down.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hollywood’s revenue was up 2% for the year to a record $9.76 billion. This tally was generated on 1.36 billion tickets sold across the USA and Canada compared to the 1.40 billion tickets sold the previous year.  The average price of a ticket hit $7.20, or 4.7% higher than the previous year.

Okay, enough of the boring stats, where am I going with this?  Well, Hollywood have you believe that a reduction in movie attendance is down due to online piracy.  They run ads on television in theaters telling you how piracy is hurting the industry, and those dirty, dirty pirates will cause people in the industry to lose their jobs, and then where will you be without new movies to go see?

Well, I would like to put forth that Hollywood needs to be looking a bit more internally as to why attendance is down.  I know, I’m talking crazy talk at this point, but hear me out on this.  The average ticket price is now $7.20, so lets say a family of 4 wants to go see the latest animated movie and you are going to see it during the evening so you are paying full price.  The two adults will be paying $7.20 each, so there is $14.40, the children will be $5.75 each (using my local theater as a gauge) meaning an additional $11.50, so tickets alone have now cost you $25.90.  Want snacks?  That’s another $10 minimum, and I’m being generous there, so now you’re at $35.90.

Now, what about the costs in time?

• Loading up the family in the car
• Finding a parking space
• Watching 19 minutes of ads and trailers
• Getting out of the theater
• Getting unloaded at home

I always tack on a 1/2 hour before and after a movie of time I figure I’m going to lose doing other things I need to do.  While this doesn’t cost you actual money, it is a factor in ancillary costs to your movie going experience.

This is where I finally go, “Forget it, I’ll just buy it on DVD when it comes out.”

You could buy a basic copy of Wall-E for $14.99, or you could even splurge for the deluxe edition that has 2 extra discs of content, an added short and a digital copy for $23.99, and you still come out ahead.  Heck, splurge for $24.99 and you get it on Blu-ray high def, and you are still winning.  You get to watch the movie when you want, how you want, and you have a physical copy that you can watch multiple times, or even sell it off somehow and reduce your cost even more.  There was a time where you could say, “Well, there is nothing that beats seeing a film on the big screen”, but as technology has improved, and people have bought bigger and bigger televisions, added surround sound and so on, yes, it can beat seeing it on “the big screen”.

Should we even begin to factor in the ease of renting from places such as Netflix, and how that reduces your costs to an insanely low level compared to a theater?

As the economy worsens, people are going to start to look at this math harder and realize that seeing a film in the theater just costs too much, and attendance will continue to dwindle.  I’m honestly amazed it was only off by 2% in 2008, I had estimated it was going to be much higher than that due to all of the factors I have mentioned here, and it actually deserves to be higher.  The thing is, though, Hollywood is still making an insane amount of money as that $9.76 billion was just ticket sales, and doesn’t factor in DVD/Blu-ray sales.  I can almost guarantee you the lost revenue from those missing 2% were made up in home video sales.

Hollywood needs to be looking at their own greed for their supposed problems.  The continuing rise of ticket prices is forcing people out of the theaters, not piracy.  Well, perhaps it is a form of piracy, it’s just one being perpetrated by the movie studios themselves.  I am certainly not advocating movie piracy, the hundreds of DVDs I own certainly attest to me doing my part to support the movie industry, it is quite the contrary to be sure. I love movies as an art form, and I want people to see films, but Hollywood has to realize this constant fight to increase ticket prices is making that harder.

I know there is zero chance of this happening, but I think they should actually lower their ticket prices some, and the increase in the number of people going would not only make up the revenue difference, but they would see attendance go back up also, if not exceed what it had been. There was a reason the movie industry flourished during the Depression in that people wanted to escape from reality, so they flocked to the theaters. I am not saying we are in a Depression, but I am saying that people want to escape again, and a little bit of give by the movie industry would go a long way to getting people back into the theaters.

It also wouldn’t hurt for them to stop whining about the evils of piracy. Yes, it’s wrong, and yes, it is illegal, and no, I don’t do it, but each time I see one of those ads, it just makes me annoyed with them that much more. Stop treating us all like criminals, and we might like you more.

Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Robert Nardelli of Chrysler all deserve to be strung up by their toes.

I am sure by now you have heard that these three CEO’s went to Capital Hill to beg for the bailout money for their car companies on Wednesday.  The “delicious” irony is that these three gentleman arrived in Washington D.C. on private jets instead of flying commercial.  To add even more insult to injury, Mr. Mulally of Ford took one of the eight private jets owned by the company according to the Washington Monthly.

According to Money Central, it is estimated that each roundtrip on the GM plane for Mr. Wagoner costs the company $20,000.  As Mr. Wagoner lives in Seattle, WA, GM ferries him back home every weekend from Detroit on the private plane, meaning they are dumping an estimated $20K a week in to letting him go home.  Lets say that he takes 52 trips a year on the private plane, it is costing the company $1,040,000 a year to move him around the country.  First class averages out to about $1,600 between any two destinations domestically, so even if they flew him first class every where, you are looking at a cost of $83,200 a year, a savings of $956,800.  How about coach?  Approximately $30,000 a year, a savings of over $1 million a year.  (I personally find first class for domestic flights for anyone to be excessive and ridiculous)

This is only a very small slice of the problem with these companies, but if this is any indication of the mismanagement of funds at these companies, then I almost wish they would fail.  Mind you, I have no desire to see factory workers lose their jobs, but this climate of CEOs being treated like messiahs who walk on water has to end.  No CEO is worth a $28 million dollar pay package.  Golden parachute clauses, insane perks, excessive pay packages, no CEO is worth the amounts of money these men receive.

I do have to applaud the Representatives who called them out on this debacle.  From Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), as quoted by the Washington Post:

“I’m going to ask the three executives here to raise their hand if they flew here commercial,” he said. All still at the witness table. “Second,” he continued, “I’m going ask you to raise your hand if you’re planning to sell your jet . . . and fly back commercial.” More stillness. “Let the record show no hands went up,” Sherman grandstanded.

I think “grandstanded” was unnecessary in the article, and I am sure it was a bit of a play, but it was a question that did need to be asked of these men.  The commentary was continued by Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.):

“I’m not an opponent of private flights by any means, but the fact that you flew in on your own private jet at tens of thousands itself dollars of cost just for you to make your way to Washington is a bit arrogant before you ask the taxpayers for money.”

I have mixed feelings about the bailout, and I almost always come back to, “Would the government help my family out if our business was in a similar situation to these companies?”, and the simple answer is ‘no’. I understand the theory that these companies are too big to allow them to fail, with tentacles reaching in to too many other industries, but I have to wonder why my tax dollars have to be involved in cleaning up the poor management of companies.

As I said, this is just one small slice of the problem with the American car industry, but it is an insulting situation to say the least.  If anything good comes out of this whole thing, I hope that every one takes a look at every last one of these CEOs with their horrendous paychecks and perks.  And, as a side note, if you know of one good reason why these men and women are paid these insane amounts of money, please explain it to me.  I have never gotten it, and I’m not sure I ever will.

I think it’s time for a small change in how blogs give credit to one another for where stories come from.

Back in May 2007, I wrote an article about “The most insane trackback ever?“, and how a picture of some storage under stairs had made it’s way from blog to blog without any acknowledgement given to the original site that had posted it.  Here we are a year and a half later, and I have found another situation that seems to follow in the same… vein.  (you’ll get the joke in a moment)

The victim this time is a antique vampire hunter’s kit that sold recently at an auction for $14,850.  I first read the story at The Inquisitr yesterday, it got my interest, and I decided to go to the source they listed to read more about it.  SlipperyBrick was next, and they didn’t have much more info, so I decided to go to their source in hopes of more information.  PopTherapy was next and… yeah, still had to go to their source for more info.  Neatorama failed me also.  FINALLY!  Antiques and the Arts Online seems to be the source!  Not only are the source, but they ran the story five days before The Inquisitr.

So, it took four jumps for me to get back to the source of the image and the story, and that is where I don’t think this is fair.  Now, mind you, I am not specifically saying the four sites involved are bad sites, or that they have done something wrong; this is a common practice on the Web, and that is what I am speaking to.  While I feel credit should be given to the site that brought the story to your attention, I feel it is only right you should also try to give credit to the original also.  So to give credit, you would do something like:

[via SlipperyBrick and Antiques and the Arts Online]

Why is this important?  Well, I think credit should be given to those who deserve it, and I also think that it is only fair from a search engine optimization standpoint.  By giving credit only to someone that is three steps removed, you are giving them the search engine credit, but none to the people who did the real work.

Again, I am not slamming the blogs involved in this bread crumb trail, this happens all over the web, and it has become what we tolerate in this business, but I think it’s time for this to end, and credit should be given properly.  Do I think people will change their policies?  Doubtful, but I think it is worth at least some thought, especially on a niche story like this.    Considering some of the complaints I’ve seen over linking policies, it surprises me that no one else has brught this up yet.

Who’s with me?  Just do a couple clicks on stories like this, find the original source, give them credit when and where possible.

Deutsche Post has announced they will cease domestic shipping inside of the USA.

Good riddance.

Before I go any further, let me state that I am very sorry for the 9500 people losing their jobs.  That is never a good thing, and I hope they can find new work.  As for the company itself, I have never thrilled to their shipping, and I dreaded every time I learned a package was coming to me via their service.

They came to the USA in 2003 and began operations by buying Airborne Express, another service I never liked.  DHL tried to woo me away from UPS a few times, but I just didn’t like their set up, and my experiences with their deliveries didn’t make me want to run to having my customers having to deal with them.

Competition is always good for business, but DHL never was a big enough threat to UPS and Fed Ex to really matter.  They will continue to do international shipping, but they are closing everything down domestically in the USA and I for one couldn’t be happier about it.

Good luck to all those people who will be out looking for work, and I do truly mean that.

You know, it fascinates me how airlines and companies like UPS were so quick to adapt to the higher fuel prices this summer, but where are the cut backs now that fuel prices are dropping?

Over the past few months I received numerous updates from UPS for my shipping software of new fuel surcharges.  We were getting one or two of these weeks, tacking on more expenses to our shipping costs, raising them to unheard of levels.

In a more common every day effect on people, airlines have been doing the same.  Fuel surcharges have been added to tickets, not to mention that some airlines are now charging you for checked luggage, which was also supposedly due to the rising cost of gas.

So, prices have plummeted, oil futures are even lower… where are the cut backs?  All of these companies were extremely quick to raise their prices, but I sure don’t see them doing the reverse.  With the economy dropping, don’t you think you might want to encourage people to travel more and do more online shopping?  Or, could it possibly be that these companies used this as an excuse to raise prices and it had no real connection to what was going on with gas?

Nah, it could NEVER be that… could it?