re: Don't Make Me Steal

On February 3rd 2011 about 20 people got together for a workshop at the Lift11 Conference. We all had one thing in common: love for movies. We noticed that we all struggle with the current content delivery landscape, find it difficult to legally obtain the movies you want to watch and think that it could all be much easier.

This is why we collaboratively came up with the Digital Media Delivery Manifesto that can be signed on this page.

Right after the workshop Jordi and Pierre launched this platform with the Manifesto we created together. People are now able to digitally sign the Manifesto using their Facebook or Twitter account.

And who knows, in the end, maybe content providers will understand our needs. And the fact that we are not their enemy. We are just huge fans of movies who would love to pay for their content. If only it weren't so damn difficult.

via dontmakemesteal.com

Hear here! They're there. But ... will the RIAA members listen and catch up?

Rock and Roll (1949-2011)

Bereft of budgets or motivated staffs, the rock music business has been hard-pressed to support the promotion and marketing efforts necessary to build acts and buzz. Without traditional record stores, there no longer are outlets in which to hype must-have recordings. In the past, record companies used to create personalities for artists, so when you bought albums, you felt a kinship to one or more of the artists. With the decline of newspaper, magazine and book reading by the youth culture, the personalities and philosophies of rock artists have become meaningless and moot.

via jazzwax.com

I used to say that I'd feel old the day I saw Sir Paul McCartney as the guest host on The Tonight Show; JazzWax may be a little tongue in cheek here riffing on the horse theme of 'Jazz is Dead' so often flogged when there's not much else to write about, but then again, the numbers don't lie, and all around it does very much seem quite plausible Rock's long since jumped the shark and the boomers may very well take their hype machine with them. The sad and tragic part, though, is Rock didn't take its own advice, to stay pretty by dying young.