Cole's Notes - The Sunday Journalist

Recently - (a couple of Days ago actually), I was in the local Starbucks and spotted the new live Studio Album " Stand Up " from the Dave Matthews Band . I bought the CD and took it home to listen to. I haven't bought a CD physically for the last couple of years, mainly buying online or burning my own mix CD's from my music collection. Well, my main CD player is a laptop PC and when I put the CD in - a EULA page popped up wanting me to install a bunch of RIAA spyware and DRM faldercarb on my machine (secure Windows Media files?) . I clicked NO to installing this crap - and the CD ejected itself. Unusual, I thought - so I moved to another machine and the same thing happened again. Maybe it's a glich in the CD - but I took a trip over to the Dave Matthews Band website - and low and behold - it's not a glich. The CD is "protected" with a really poor implementation of a DRM. I went over to the site and on the page for the studio album - I foun...

It's a bit of a long post today - as I've appended an editorial from the Financial Post by a lawyer on the recent file sharing decision of our Supreme court. I've been following the copyright issue in the US and here over sharing media files sampling and such - since being a Web Producer these affect the content of the web sites I work with an on. Music file reopens: An appeal court ruling has made individuals who engage in music file sharing a little less confident. They should be Julie Thorburn Financial Post Friday, June 10, 2005 When Federal Court judge Konrad von Finckenstein ruled, more than a year ago, against the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) in its attempt to force Internet service providers to reveal the identities of large-scale swappers of copyrighted music files, the judgment was described by one observer as a shot 'heard round the world.' While this may have been somewhat of an exaggeration, the story did receive significant attenti...

Internet2 By Alexander Russo - Slate Magazine Higher speed connections - more of the IP stuff coming down the line and getting faster and faster. Applications anyone?

A Cross post from the AVS Forum . I was just thinking along these lines the other day. I haven't been into a movie theatre in ages. The last movie I saw was "Ray" in the second run at the local art theatre. Now I don't have a home theatre per se - but I do have a Moto PVR and a large screen (27" TV) and my toys in the office are getting set up with a PVR software and a Haupagge TV tuner. Most of the stuff I like to watch is from the IFC and various other channels - very few from the main networks. And I've recently invested in a Portable Media Device Are Home Theaters Killing Off Movie Theaters? - AVS Forum : "With Popcorn, DVD's and TiVo, Moviegoers Are Staying Home By LAURA M. HOLSON The New York Times May 27, 2005 LOS ANGELES, May 26 - Matthew Khalil goes to the movies about once a month, down from five or six times just a few years ago. Mr. Khalil, a senior at the University of California, Los Angeles, prefers instead to watch old movies an...