"Piracy sure beats manual labor" Can China's Piracy industry be stopped? Should it be stopped? Will
this be the fate of all copyrighted material? Lisa Movius offers few answers, but gives a pretty good overview of the situation.
posted by Bag Man
on Jul 8, 2002 -
12 comments
Anyone who ever spent any time on the Domain-Policy mailing list before NetSol shut it down without warning a year or more back (it was starting to look evidentiary, you see, and they didn't want to get sued...) will be familiar with much of what's in
this Salon piece about John "Gnu" Gilmore, CORE, ICANN('t), and the Great Domain Registration Fiasco.
posted by baylink
on Jul 3, 2002 -
7 comments
"Substantial Doubt" over Salon's Survival (NYT Reg. Req'd) And this from its auditors. Hey, these days, if even your auditors can't cover over your poor financial situation, you know you're screwed. Seriously, though, this and a number of other articles point to the end of the Web's erstwhile leading "independent" publication, still ticking but on the decline for the past year. It should be gone by summer's end, they say. Via
The Morning News.
posted by risenc
on Jun 28, 2002 -
14 comments
Give it away now. Salon article on cd-music seller
FightCloud.com, which gives CDs away "free" but is profitable. How? By charging a $4.95 "shipping fee". Nevertheless, because of the extremely low cost to produce CDs, an estimated $2.64 of that shipping fee is net profit, which is then split 50/50 with the artist. While FightCloud is a small independent company, is this model something that will eventually challenge the big labels to either change or be eclipsed?
posted by hincandenza
on May 23, 2002 -
10 comments
A fascinating Salon (Premium, alas)
article asks why we haven't heard more about the purported
Israeli art student spy ring. Depending on who you ask, there's either nothing *to* ask, or there's a cover-up of positively Oliver Stone-ian proportions underway. Riveting reading, whichever explanation you subscribe to.
posted by artifex
on May 8, 2002 -
20 comments
Robert Young Pelton, At first the media complains because they're not getting enough information, they're not being allowed to cover the war. Then when they get to know everything, after the 120-day window, nobody cares anymore. Because once they start spelling it out and saying, "Wait a second, these guys are all from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Why aren't we fighting a war in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and Egypt? Why are they our allies?" And then those are the tough questions that never really get asked, because the public doesn't really care at that point.
Is disbelieving major news organization reports a neccessity to get the
real stories?
posted by bittennails
on Apr 24, 2002 -
14 comments
Lucas: Powerful reteller of myth - or galactic gasbag? Salon has a scathing review of Lucas' claim that the basis of the Star Wars saga is in "man's oldest stories" and that he was guided by Joseph Campbell.
"With 'Star Wars' I consciously set about to re-create myths and the classic mythological motifs," Lucas says. "I wanted to use those motifs to deal with issues that exist today."
Hogwash, says author Steven Hart. Star Wars is based not on "The Odyssey" or the "Upanishads", but on Asimov, Heinlen, Herbert and other 20th century S.F.
posted by rshah21
on Apr 10, 2002 -
32 comments
Much Ado About Something. Fascinating Salon review of a new
documentary investigating whether Shakespeare was really just a front-man for Christopher Marlowe, the true author of all the Bard's work. At first it sounds like just so much literary conspiracy theory, except unlike most conspiracy theories this one seems to gain more credibility the further you delve into it. The film just wrapped up a two- week opening run in New York City, and should be arriving soon at theaters in your area.
posted by hincandenza
on Mar 2, 2002 -
45 comments
Children's lives insufficiently documented. Video-shunning parent ostracized, jailed. I agree with this parent. Constantly taping your child, it does sometimes feel as if you're sacrificing actually being in the moment to capturing the moment, and this during some of the best "moments" of your child's life. If my understanding of old age is correct, however, memories are all you have. So I'm trying to nail me some shit down, for rocking chair days.
posted by luser
on Feb 13, 2002 -
23 comments
Salon makes a go of premium service. 'When Salon announced almost a year ago that it would introduce fee-based content, web pundits dismissed it as a futile gesture that was bound to fail. It appears the critics were wrong' It is funny what passes as a success nowadays. Salon has closed off 30-35% of its content, including all news and political coverage, and even after these draconian measures only 0.8% of its readership have subscribed. In this fluffy bunny critique Salon’s marketing director Patrick Hurley explain how they achieve this extraordinary success. (more inside)
posted by RobertLoch
on Feb 3, 2002 -
18 comments
New gender-neutral bible planned... It seems there is a lot of
controversy surrounding the revised bible known as "Today's New International Version," or TNIV. The Council on Bibllical Manhood and Womanhood has released a
statement on what is wrong with a gender-neutral bible translation while admitting there are a few improvements regarding changing the word
men (which isn't specified by Greek text) to
all people, a faithful rendering of the Greek pronoun
pas
According to some, this is the work of the devil and
feminist groups
everywhere.
There have been outright denouncings of the gender-neutral bible by several Christian groups... but really, what do you think? Is it really the big deal people make it out to be? How can the church teach that man and mankind in the Bible refers to all of God's human creatures and yet, not support a genderless translation???
posted by gloege
on Jan 28, 2002 -
64 comments
I hate to post from Salon but this just torqued my ass! "The Vatican has come up with new guidelines for the Roman Catholic Church to handle pedophilia accusations against priests, ordering church officials worldwide to inform it swiftly of such cases and declaring them subject to secrecy..."
Since when does being a Catholic priest exempt you from the law?
Vatican II was supposed to bring Catholicism to the people and that included allowing man's laws to permeate the pontifical sphere that has protected so many priests for centuries. We expect holiness from these men, allowing for human failing and error; however, no one should be above the law!
posted by gloege
on Jan 10, 2002 -
26 comments
"The Web, left to its own devices, would be the exact opposite of that: It's like a giant city with no neighborhoods; it needs these kind of
meta-filters, these second-level kind of things, whether it is Yahoo or Google or Slashdot, to rein in that chaos and turn it to something more organized." From the
second page of
an interview with the author of
Emergence, Steven Johnson (also co-founder of
Feed).
posted by adrianhon
on Nov 28, 2001 -
10 comments
The Taliban has declared the Internet un-Islamic, but elsewhere in the Muslim world, going online is one way to avoid the censors.
posted by KimmishKim
on Oct 16, 2001 -
8 comments
So tragically wrong... Proof that the FBI didn't have a clue. From a year ago: "Even the American cells of violent Middle East political movements as Hamas and Hezbollah, [then FBI Director Louis] Freeh declared, are devoted exclusively to "fundraising and low-level intelligence gathering." Salon writer Bruce Shapiro even goes so far as to call the National Commission on Terrorism's finding that "The threat from terrorists is so high, the potential for massive casualties is so real, that an independent panel is pushing the government to take immediate, drastic action" as a con job.
posted by theNonsuch
on Sep 15, 2001 -
18 comments
Ask the Imam. Now that Mr. Blue has left Salon, send your questions to an authentic Islamic Mufti. He will analyze your problem in relation to Sharia and issue the appropriate fatwah or legal opinion. I've been stuck on this site for hours...check out the question at http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=2476
Comments on your favorite fatwah, anybody?
posted by username
on Sep 14, 2001 -
12 comments
PETA vs. Britney Boy, it's hard to pick a side to root for in this fight. The paragraph that caught my attention, though, was this:
the spotted cats are supposedly going to be prowling the [MTV's Video Music Awards] stage around the scantily-clad popster (and self-proclaimed virgin) as she wails her new hip-hop-flavored tune, "I'm A Slave 4 U," while simulating an orgasm on stage a la Madonna. Yeah, except that Madonna was at least consistent in her portrayal of sexuality as healthy and fun. A self-proclaimed virgin faking orgasms on nationwide TV, on the other hand, sounds like a heapin' helping of bizarro
mixed messages.
posted by Shadowkeeper
on Sep 5, 2001 -
30 comments
Garrison Keillor is leaving Salon.com. I've become an avid read of Mr. Blue's column over the past couple of months and it's a shame to see him leave. This post doubles a bit as a question as Mr. Blue's departure leaves a gaping hole in my 'advice column' bookmark folder. Anyone have any favorite online advice columns to recommend?
posted by jedrek
on Sep 4, 2001 -
23 comments
from "Ray Bradbury is on fire!" in today's Salon: "Kerosene-spraying firemen aside, a closer look at the 1953 novel [Fahrenheit 451] shows Bradbury nailed the new millennium perfectly. There's interactive television, stereo earphones (which reportedly inspired a Sony engineer to invent the Walkman), immersive wall-size TVs, earpiece communicators, rampant political correctness, omnipresent advertising and a violent youth culture ignored by self-absorbed, prescription-dependent parents."
posted by moth
on Aug 29, 2001 -
21 comments
The Salon Death March continues. I personally thought the nadir was the cover story last week featuring a photographer reminiscing about
almost nailing Marylin (not work-safe), but no...now Salon has dared to crawl into the underbelly of this country and expose the horror of...
hippie parents. Good to see the most high-profile online magazine tackling these hard-hitting issues. How's that stock price doing again?
posted by solistrato
on Aug 22, 2001 -
65 comments
Slumping Sales. The RIAA appears to be losing money so far this year because people aren't buying as many cd's and aren't going to as many concerts. It's hard to tell if there's some correlation between the demise of napster and the falling sales or if the numbers are down because the new album's coming out aren't really that good. Personally, I'd say a little bit of both. I haven't purchased many cd's this year, although there are one or two that I plan to pick up in the coming months (only because I've already downloaded the songs and know that it's worth the money).
posted by dave
on Jul 20, 2001 -
37 comments
Latest David Horowitz trolling op-ed piece, this time on gays in the military. With his usual obliviousness to irony, he presumes in this piece that anyone who disagrees with him must be the knee-jerk PC police. Question: does posting a link to a troll constitute trolling in and of itself? Discuss.
posted by hincandenza
on Jun 25, 2001 -
31 comments
Critics call Abercrombie & Fitch catalog soft porn. I can't comment on the catalog itself, since I haven't seen it; I just had to laugh out loud though when I read this sentence: "Boycott organizers contend the company... is wooing younger customers and using sex to popularize its image." Oh, the horror! Also striking was A&F's spin on it, calling it " the Norman Rockwell of 2001." Clearly, a divide in perceptions.
Can anyone who has seen the offensive/inoffensive material in question explain why it is/isn't any different from the marketing practices of, oh, say,
everyone else?
posted by topolino
on Jun 22, 2001 -
23 comments
The Morality Police. "Our hysterical attempts to shield kids from images of sex and violence are stunting young lives -- and trapping us all in a Big Lie." A well-argued piece, more of an op-ed than a straight-up book review. As a scientist I only quibble with the author's musing that "if there really were a cause-and-effect link between real violence and media violence, then it would have been proven by now."
posted by topolino
on Jun 11, 2001 -
13 comments
USA's new popular export: Their ignorance. A comedian who specializes in political and cultural satire, Mercer's most popular schtick is "Talking to Americans" -- a "Candid Camera"-esque routine in which he travels the United States asking people ridiculous questions to exploit their ignorance about their northern neighbor.
posted by adnan
on May 28, 2001 -
57 comments
