RIAA - on the wrong side of Copyright Law

Why are Audio CDs priced at an average of $1 a track? Is it because a buck is not a serious price to pay for the creative output of a musical genius? If that were the argument, I'd buy that. As you might be aware, that's not true. How much do the end artist make off each CD? Around 10 cents a track. What do you make of it? Let's take this example.

If 10,000 copies of an album are sold at $15 a piece, the artist gets $15000 and the recording label takes $135,000. Of course, the recording label has to pay for manufacturing the CDs, for marketing them and partially for losses on albums that don't sell as expected.

I hear ya... they need to pay lawyer fees to sue individuals for acting as pirates. Oh but hey, they squeeze a lot of money out of the accused (typically $750 per track shared - have you heard of Jammie Thomas?) and they end up making a fat profit out of it. We never know if court cases can be considered an expenditure or a new source of income, so let me not count that.

The copyright law upholds the property rights of an individual or company, and as such, is a basis for success in a capitalistic society. So, the society, as a rule, takes a tough stance against anyone breaking the copyright law. Well, as a person who appreciates capitalistic ideals, it does make sense to me. But a civilized society also provides rights to criminals (at least basic human rights). So, stripping a person of $750 for sharing a song is equivalent to the Arabian law of amputating a hand because the hand was instrumental in perpetrating a crime.

RIAA's tactics of intimidating file-sharers has been met with strong criticism. RIAA singles out individuals who could be caught easily, and make them pay for the mistake of a thousand others. So, how does that help in reducing piracy? Did that stop any Chinese or Canadian torrent site from sharing files? No it doesn't. They're just taking advantage of the law to make up for the "estimated" loss caused by piracy. But that's not law is meant for. A law is put in place to restrain future criminals. If a particular law fails to achieve this goal, the law should no longer be used.

RIAA has recently realized that there are more civilized ways of dealing with the crime. They're working with ISP's to identify and prevent file-sharing. They're now using technology to prevent crime and not to identify criminals and sentence them to death.

There are other ways too.

• Get into the digital music revolution. Save money by cutting down on CD manufacturing and distribute DRM-free music online. It would be of great help if you pay the artists for digital music sales.
  
• Make music cheaper to buy. If each track costs 20 cents to purchase (ensuring the actual artist still gets paid his 10 cents), This will not stop piracy totally, but more people will end up buying original music. They have done that in India and now many people buy original CDs. They haven't done that yet for DVDs, so the DVD piracy is still a major problem.
• Use technology to detect and identify individuals sharing copyright music in a big way. Send "cease and desist" notices to them. Then use the law to help the ISP withdraw broadband service to them, and ensure he doesn't get broadband access from any other ISP.
• Release music across the world at the same time, at an affordable price. Piracy of a particular album is at it's greatest in the first week the album hits the market. Many people Rwill not resort to piracy if the album is available in their store, and if they can afford it.

The Radiohead story stands as a testimonial to the bad practices of the recording industry. Radiohead offered their new album "In Rainbows" for free, and asked users to pay whatever they wanted to for their download. Why did the do that? Because they grew tired of the business model of the labels. Although there is no official report of how successful the new distribution was, the general agreement was that even though a third of the downloads were taken for free, Radiohead received on an average of £4 per download. That's more than what they'd eventually make if they had sold the rights of their album to a label. The album was eventually distributed in the traditional formats, and they have made more money out of it.

RIAA, thanks for waking up. Please stop intimidating people, and earn your reputation back with the musicians and customers. The musicians need your encouragement in releasing their music, and the customers need your help in getting the music they want at the right price. That's how you add value to the supply-chain. Make decent profit and enjoy our love.

Blackberry "Drizzle"

One of my friends was head-over-heals about the iPhone, but he just couldn't buy one because he is on Verizon, and is not interested in either breaking the contract with Verizon or in signing a new contract with AT&T.

Out comes the Blackberry Storm and this friend of mine is very excited. He said he finally can lay his hands on a new phone that can satisfy his iPhone cravings. Even though I didn't want to dash his excitement, I was rather sure RIM can't get anywhere near the kind of interface that Apple developed for the iPhone.

Now, we get to see video after video about Blackberry's slow-as-a-snail interface. The scrolling is painfully slow. Typing on that soft sure-type keyboard, or whatever they call it, is a pain. RIM recently sent an update to the phones which alleviated some of the problems, but it gets nowhere near the slickness of the iPhone's interface.

What triggered this post is RIM's claim that their "Storm" is Verizon's best-selling device. It truly is - because people hoped for an iPhone on the Verizon network, and grabbed anything that looked like it. And what did they do after they stormed Verizon stores and bought these babies? They returned back to the store, wished the salesman in there in a polite way and returned the phone. So, are the returns counted in these "sales"?

Come on Blackberry, HTC, Samsung et al. The iPhone's user-interface is backed by at least 4 years of research. You can't just grab the idea, grind it in your favourite blender and come up with a new UI in a year. Don't try to imitate Apple - concentrate on your own selling points. Offer Stereo bluetooth, offer MMS, offer video-recording, offer VOIP, offer high-speed tethering. Flaunt the stuff that iPhone doesn't have. Do whatever, just don't imitate the iPhone and make an ass of yourself.

By far, the iPhone has the best UI on any mobile device. Other than cut-and-paste, which just complicates the UI and a slight lag here and there, I found zero problems with the UI.

So, what other platform offers a good promise with the UI? Probably Android. It's currently being developed furiously and it's open source. But Google should come out of the clutches of the carriers and offer these phones unlocked. Only then will they be able to eat into the iPhone's market-share.

Coming to market-share, there's a report that says RIM has sold 6.9 million smart-phones in Q4 so far. That's almost as many iPhone 3Gs that Apple has sold in the same period. So, if Apple can beat RIM's 10 models with just one model, who's making more money here?

Yes - Over 60 and still rocking!

Close your eyes. Imagine a major rock performance. Guitars, drums, mikes, monitors, amplifiers, speakers, gear than can cost millions of dollars, sub-woofer units that can register a 4 on the Richter scale, wild spectators, bright and colorful spot-lights that could trigger a bout of epilepsy on the most stable and sensible brains... i can go on and on. Everybody's attention is on the lead guitarist, who is looking skywards, his torso arched backwards, knees bent forwards, and making his electric guitar squeal for its dear life! Now, guess the age of the guitarist.

I'm sure you're way off. His age is 61. He is Steve Howe, lead guitarist in the legendary Yes Band. And even at that age, he makes love to his guitar on stage without a hint of hesitation.

London based Yes band rocked the Community Arts Center yesterday, and I was right there in the first row. I was pretty certain these guys were great instrumentalists, and their vocals featured harmonies. What surprised me was the psychedelic edge to their music. Their music reminded me of "Dark Side of the Moon". Even though they sounded similar to Pink Floyd, I find it hard to compare these two bands. I guess I like Pink Floyd better, but these guys were very good in their own right.

Chris Square's bass sounded very different and packs a punch. Most of the psychedelic touches of this band come from Oliver Wakerman on the keyboard. Alan White's drums sounded good, but didn't really seem to shine in today's performance. His drums sometimes reminded me of Led Zeppelin.

There are two aspects that don't seem to go well with the current line-up of the band. The vocalist, Benoît David, who replaced Jon Anderson doesn't seem to fit well. There's no denying that Benoît David has a great voice. But somehow, his voice doesn't seem to fit to the sound of the band. Jon Anderson, as seen on Youtube videos, is way better. The second problem is that the harmonies of Steve Howe and Chris Square don't seem to match the brightness of Benoît David's voice.

There was an opening act by a band whose name I am unable to recollect. They did a good job too. But the members of Yes made us wait for about 20 minutes after the opening act and that felt uncomfortable. Of course, I had my iPhone, so I used the time to research on the history of this band. This was the first band that made us wait and I am not happy about it.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable performance. Live rock performances generally take their toll on the performer's body and I am surprised at how this band can sustain the high levels of energy at their age. Hope they continue rocking for a long time to come.

The cherryholmes

I've got introduced to bluegrass by Ken Shafranko, my client at work, and a dobro player in the Stained Grass Window band.

So, what's bluegrass music? Here's the answer if you haven't read the excellent Wikipedia article. It's a genre of music based on blazing fast foot-tapping acoustic music that has its traditions in old Scottish and Irish music. The lyrics resemble country music and are based on simple, yet sometimes profound, aspects of life like love, the country-side, death etc and also cross over into gospel. They seldom talk about "rock" stuff like sex, drugs yada yada. The members have the band should have mastered their instrument, and should contribute to vocal harmonies. If you appreciate instrumental music, you're sure to appreciate this genre.

The Cherryholmes are a family band. The father, mother and three of their kids are the members of the band. They go around the country, and sometimes overseas to perform, and have a tight performance schedule, sometimes clocking 300 days a year. In their spare time, apart from doing stuff like giving their dogs a tummy rub, they record albums. Their albums have been nominated to the grammies, and it's "wierd" (the way Jere, the father of the band puts it), why they haven't won one.

They were here in Williamsport last Saturday, playing at the Community Arts Center, which, according to me, is a jewel of this town. I don't have a list of tracks they performed, but all I can say, is that right from the first song, they were fast, furious and freaking awesome!

Playing fast is probably in the very roots of bluegrass music. But you can't really impress someone with your fast music, unless your notes are crisp, and doesn't sound like a series of random sounds. The members of this band are serious masters of their instrument. Their speed, accuracy, timing and co-ordination seem to be at their best in their instrumental tracks. That doesn't mean they can't do the slow stuff. Their ballads pack such emotion that I could hear sobs in the silent theatre when the band was singing "This is my son" from their latest album.

The upright bass, the banjo, the guitar and the violin. Each instrument has its own place, and the sound of each instrument strikes a sweet chord in your heart. The vocals are buttery smooth and melodious. I was greatly impressed by Molly Kate's fiddlling, and her sweet voice (I wanted to hear more of her), and BJ's fireworks with his violin.

What's really surprising is how a family could develop such a cohesive force in a band, get the members pick up instruments to fill a place in the band, and hold on to the team work in spite of the long hours driving around the country. I also wonder how the young members of the team could stick together with the family band through their difficult teenage years, when each individual goes through tumulutous times growing up and understanding themeselves. There would surely have been moments when the young children wanted to get away from all of this strenuous and unforgiving schedule, and i am eager to understand how they managed to stick together to come up with such stellar performance.

And I almost forgot to mention that this is probably the only bluegrass band that features a tap dance. They spontaneously came forward in the middle of a song and cheerfully danced, maintaining the rhythm of the song, and went back in time to continue the song. It's not just here, each move of the band is choreographed well. When the members of the band converge near a mike, you're not just enthralled at their smooth harmonies, you're entertained by constant movement on the stage, like a well choreographed dance.

To sum it all up, this is the best bluegrass concert I have been to, and ranks among the all-time best concerts I have ever been to (I still can't dislodge the Shakti concert from the top). The performance lasted for two hours, but I was transformed into a new world where time was not a dimension to worry about. I sat there staring at the members of the band while they unleashed torrent after torrent of the most melodious notes. They were stellar.

I've just grabbed an opportunity to be at a concert of the Del McCoury Band at State College, PA. I just have to wait till tomorrow to figure out what this band has in store for me. I am expecting another scintillating performance, and I am eager to be there.

The week that rocked

This weekend was one of the best I've had for a long time.

Apple replaced my damaged iPhone (It had a cracked glass). I had to shell out money to get this done, but the process was fast and efficient. Now I have a new iPhone.

I've got a new Nikon D90 body, Nikon 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 AF-S VR Zoom Nikkor lens, Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF prime and many accessories. I've had a blast taking photos with my new camera. Head on to my Picasa Web album for more.

My boss complimented me on the work I had done on a module. The business expected the process of getting this implemented to be a grueling long drawn pain, but I finished it in two weeks. Another happy moment.

My friend visited me from Baltimore. It had been a long time since I had seen him, and it was nice to spend some time with him.

We went to the PA Grand Canyon (Leonard Harrison state park & Colton Point state park) to look at the fall colors and take some pictures. We trekked through trails which run amid thick forests. When the sun shines bright, the leaves take the color of red-hot coals, and it's spectacular. Here's the photo album taken with my new camera.

We also went to the Cherryholmes concert held at the Williamsport Community Arts Center. Cherryholmes is a family bluegrass band. They are excellent instrumentalists, and great entertainers. They're probably the only bluegrass band that feature a tap-dance. This is one concert I will remember for a long long time. I plan to write more about this shortly.

What more could possibly happen in a single week?

Am I a PC or a Mac?

Companies compete not just in their product offerings; they also compete well in their advertisements. I still remember the Pepsi-Coke commercials that rocked India during the cricket season.

Digressing for a second, I also would like to mention how top CEOs down-play their competitor products, at least to add some punch to their otherwise mundane presentations. Larry Ellison is famous for trashing Bill Gates. Steve Jobs is generally more subtle in his attacks against Microsoft, except for the occasion where he accused Microsoft of lacking “taste”. He generally lets his executives do the Microsoft trashing most of the time. Microsoft generally ignores such banter.

What can I draw from this? Smaller companies vying for a pie out of the larger company’s market-share typically attack larger companies. And if the larger company is unfazed of this competition, they ignore these attacks. But things change when the smaller company pulls of a successful product that forces the larger company to sit up and notice.

One clear example of this is the Microsoft-Apple battle. Microsoft never took Apple’s acusations seriously, until recently. You must have watched uber-exuberant Steve Ballmer make fun of the Macbook Air and the iPhone. Even after factoring Ballmer’s hyper-activity, the bottom-line is that Microsoft took notice. They began to realize that Apple is steadily increasing its market-share, and that Apple’s products can no longer be ignored.

I believe that as Apple continues to innovate in their iPods and iPhones offering superior user experiences, new form factors and drive sales with aggressive price-points, their computer market share will continue to grow. If a user is very satisfied with his iPhone, he would want to buy a Mac (I did the same, and there are several reports all over the internet that the majority of iPhone users want their next machine to be a Mac). Moreover, Microsoft’s Vista debacle also helped boost Apple sales.

Microsoft did take notice, and they understand that Apple’s products are a threat to their business. How do they counter it? Through their Ad campaign that counters Apple’s famous Get a Mac commercials. Microsoft has released their own set of ads titled “I’m a PC” where they feature Bill Gates, and initially the famous comedian Sienfield. They counter Apple’s ads by trying to make a point that PC users are not really nerds at the office desk, as portrayed by Apple, but are people who are successful at work, and definitely have a life worth talking about.

I believe Microsoft’s commercials attacking Apple do not have substance. By alluding to Apple’s ads, they’re publicizing Apple’s products using their own money. The target audience view these ads as attempts by Microsoft to counter Apple’s recent fame, and thus PC users who have never taken Macs seriously until today will start researching on Macs and what they offer. Every viewer watching one ad from Microsoft will continue exploring and watch ALL the ads of Apple. I feel this ad campaign would be equivalent of an own goal in soccer.

I’m both a Mac and a PC. I use a Macbook Air and run Windows XP on it using VMWare Fusion because I need it for work. When I am not working, I generally use OS X for its excellent multimedia capabilities. At home in India, I have a lovely PC. I will use whatever hardware / software that works for me. If the Government of Zimbabwe (I just wanted to know if they had a website) designs a product that will make a difference to my life, I’ll buy it.

Assorted Best photographs in one place

There was a time when I took photo-sharing accounts at flickr and webshots. But I have not been maintaining them regularly. I now decided to showcase my best photographs at one place, and I have decided to put it in Google's Picasaweb.

Only the first five photos here have been taken using my old Minolta Dynax 5 Film SLR, developed, printed and scanned in the studio. All the other photos are from my newer Panasonic Lumix FZ15.

Please take a look at those photographs and send me your comments.

Here's the direct link to my Assorted Best album at Picasaweb. Hope you like the photos.

Photography while traveling - A conflict

I had been to Munnar recently on a short family vacation. Since it had been a long time since I had been on a true vacation with my parents (the previous one was to the beach resort in Vizag), I wanted to go all out and have fun. Now, here’s the situation.


I can’t go beyond say 10 kilometers from my home without lugging along my camera. And when I have a camera with me, it’s hard to stop thinking about it. Instead of looking around to just stand and stare, my mind runs at a hectic pace looking for opportunities to compose a good photograph. My objective of getting to Munnar is to leave all worries behind and give my mind the much needed chance of relaxation. But my mind refuses to rest when a camera is around. So, my challenge is to balance these two conflicting objectives, by letting my mind wander till it settles down. Let me explain this in greater detail.



In my previous expeditions into nature, I used to pre-occupy myself with photography. But this time, I tried to restrain myself from picking the camera up too much. When I see something that sends my brain into a frenzy of photography, I just let it run and just refuse to pick up the camera. Once my mind realizes that it’s whim is not going to be granted, it settles down to calmer pursuits. I then enjoy the place to my heart’s content. When it’s time to leave the place, I then pick up the camera, and go snapping. Since I did not allow my mind its freedom the first time around, this time my mind doesn’t get totally involved into the pursuit of photography. I just flip the camera to auto-mode, point and shoot.


I didn’t expect to get great pictures because I didn’t “work hard” at it. But I am pleasantly surprised with the results.


At least some of the photographs have come out decent, at least to my standard.


So, I prioritized enjoying the place over photography and yet, the results were not that bad. So, I can still enjoy the scenery and take decent photographs. I've decided I need to practice this restraint philosophy more thoroughly until no active monitoring is needed, and this attitude becomes second-nature. But for that, I need more vacations. How convenient!

Switch to a Mac

This was something I was planning to do for a long time, ever since I saw the first mac (or rather the second in an absolute sense) at my friend's place. He had a beautiful while Macbook, and I wanted one right then. The first one was an older iMac that I saw when I was a kid. The graphics on that system were way better than the PC-XT and PC-AT systems I used to play with, but I was still a kid and any kind of Macs were just beyond me at that time.

I have been following the Mac community ever since, and even though I initially thought they were a set of snobs who want to be in a clique, proud of the money they spend on gadgets, interacting with them changed my opinion on them. I realized they were a set of people who have taken a brave step forward exploring other operating systems, and actually found one that was better than the other one, and stuck to it. They don't stop there, but are eager to let their friends see the benefits of using one of those, and give a whole-hearted suggestion to pick one up when they can. I promised to that friend of mine that my next laptop is going to be a Mac, but I never thought that it would happen so fast.

I got hooked to the iPhone when it came in. iPhone was so revolutionary at that time that I didn't hesitate much to empty my wallet to get one. And I never had to look back. The iPhone has its quirks, but it's just a gift from tomorrow that you happened to see today. Using the phone and interacting with it helped me improve my understanding towards how Macs are designed, and why their hardware and software is a serious contender to the more ubiquitous PCs.

Then Apple released the Macbook Air. I wasn't sure if this ultra-light notebook was the thing for me. But after a few days of deep thought, I decided I will go for it. I got one after a lot of fist-fighting, and after paying quite a premium, and there's no looking back.

I'm in love for the second time.

Negative publicity from non-users

I have been following the technology sector, and especially the gadget sector pretty intently for the past few months. The recent past has seen more than the usual number of technological breakthroughs, not just in terms of coming up with new gagets, but with the way these new gadgets have raised the bar on how these devices interact with humans.

The iPhone, for example, did really re-invent the phone. It doesn't mean that they have found a way to place a call to a person who doesn't own a phone, but that the phone is no longer just a pure old phone to their owners. These new generation of phones can do a lot more than making calls. 

The GPS market has been buzzing with newer inventions. GPS devices coming into phones, GPS devices playing music, GPS devices calling out street names etc.

Along with every blessing, there comes a bane. And the bane of the recent up-trend of technology is the number of people forwarding negative publicity. People begin rating products just looking at it on a website, just reading the technical-specifications. I've read a report saying that more than 90% of the people commenting and rating a product do not actually own it.

It's good if they give an honest rating. But most of the people who aren't in a position to buy one, invent these depressing ways of finding reasons not to like the product. They actually like it, and want to buy it, but they just can't, because they probably have something similar that works, or because just cannot afford one. They do not stop there and go on with their life. They instead start defaming the product saying it doesn't have this, it doesn't do that, so I hate it. And I do not want you to get it either. The people who actually own it write good and honest reviews about it, or just stay out of the whole mess.

So, a novice comes in looking for a product, runs into a good product, reads the negative publicity and stays away from it, and picks another product not meant for him. His decision was based on the views of the majority, who never owned the product he's interested in.

So, to you all readers out there. Do not rely on reviews too much. Do not base your decisions on someone else's opinion unless you personally know him or you're sure he owns a product, and is trying to warn you against committing the same mistake.

And to all those who post reviews on a product. If you do not own a product, ask questions about it in forums. If you own a product, post an honest review about it, if you please. And answer questions in the forum if that's your kind of thing. Do not go around badmouthing products you do not own. Keep your gadget world clean, and encourage good products with good reviews. Because the more you encourage a product, the better it gets.

Go ahead, explore the gadget world, and have fun. Lots of fun.