Quartz City

JWZ nicely summarizes the maze of bureaucracy involved to webcast legally.

If you want to do something different than what I described above; for example, if you want to let users choose the songs to download, or you want to archive dj sets, or you want to allow the world at large to collaboratively dj by voting on what song to play next, or anything at all interactive that actually takes advantage of the power of the internet: well… you’re fucked. When you go into that world, you are out of the “compulsory license” territory, and must negotiate with all of the copyright holders individually, which is prohibitively complicated, since there are so many of them.

What’s going on here is that the music industry establishment are absolutely terrified of the internet, and are trying to prevent any kind of progress that might require them to evolve and change their business models to keep up with the times. They are pretty much trying to legislate the internet out of the way, and force things to continue to be done as if early-20th-century technology was still all we have to work with.

And after all is said and done, what happens to your fees? The media conglomerates take your money, keep most of it for themselves, and then divide the rest statistically based on the Billboard charts. That means that no matter what kind of obscure, underground music you played, 3/4ths of the extortion money you paid goes to whichever management company owns N’Sync; and the rest goes to Michael Jackson (since he owns The Beatles’ catalog.) All other artists (including the ones whose music you actually played) get nothing.

[via RRE]

Soviet pulp novels?

The daughter of a Volga fisherman becomes a sniper with a Red partisan detachment. She misses her 41st vicitim (a White officer), then winds up stranded with him on a desert island, where they fall in love. However, the White’s essentially selfish, bourgeois nature becomes apparent and she shoots him, fulfilling her mission and her class destiny. (Sorok-Pervii, 1924)

Rocket-airships, radio-controlled tanks, and Death Rays. Evil Americans try to destroy the socialist paradise of the future, but the Soviets counterattack and win. Remnant capitalists flee to an underground base near Antartica, planning to escape into outer space. Socialism on one planet! (Borba v Efire, 1928)

[via The Null Device]

So did they really *just* find these files now?

“Vatican documents have come to light showing that the wholesale massacre of the Knights Templar in the Middle Ages for alleged “heresy, idolatry and sexual perversion” - an episode still shrouded in mystery - took place even though the Pope had exonerated them in a secret trial.”

I guess I’m not the only one who notices just how, well, fascist-looking the new 37 cent stamp is? Between the stamp and the “Imperialness” of the World War II Memorial will the Praetorian Guard follow fnord. [via The Null Device]

And this one too

Kinda like this Exploding Dog cartoon…

Folks… Regular updates might be off for awhile because I just tracked down a copy of David Cavanagh’s book on Creation Records which is the funniest, unbelievable, amazing tell-all music industry book I’ve read in recent memory. 200 pages in and I’m only just getting to the first Jesus And Mary Chain album.

A step-by-step take apart of the Herbalife MLM scam that’s been flooding the nation’s streets with millions of “WORK FROM HOME - ASK ME HOW!” eyesores. [via bOing bOing]

Interesting essay on what would have happened had Germany won the First World War.

What would have happened had Germany won the war? For starters, the most philo-Semitic nation in Europe, Germany, would have remained so. Six million Jews would not have disappeared, as Hitler would have remained a failed artist and nothing more. The dynasties would have survived, which means there would have been no communism with its 20 to possibly 100 million victims. Hungary would not have been chopped up by Romania and Slovakia and Yugoslavia would not have become the unnatural federation it became. The Ottoman Empire would have lumbered along, Iraq would not have been created, nor would’ve Israel, Lebanon or Jordan. Russia would have joined the modern world - eventually. The world would have been led by England, Germany, France and the United States, and Africa would have never become the slaughterhouse it is today.

[via Robot Wisdom]

From the current Onion. Beautiful, genius, and so very very wrong…

Now, don’t get sore if you don’t land one of the lead roles. There’s work for everybody on this avant-garde production! Virginia’s a demon with a needle and thread; she’ll be just the gal to stitch together the blood-red cloth backdrop with the vagina-shaped opening through which the giant fetus enters in the first act. Jackie, the junkman’s son, is a born prop man - he could dig up enough rusted urinals and soiled dolls’ heads for a dozen plays! Sissy Chester can compose the dissonant, aleatoric score. And Spud never goes anywhere without his hammer and nails; he can build the stage and the sets, as well as the huge wooden letter M that drops to the floor and crushes the proletarian rioters at the end of Act II! The rest of you can sell tickets, paste playbills on the fence outside Schwoegler’s Field, or hitch Nanny Goat to her cart and haul a giant papier-mache phallus up and down Gurdeyville Town Square. Yep, we’re gonna need all the help we can get!