Political assistants and hapless flunkies tend to get as much wheel greasing and
as many lobbyist gifts as their employers

make sure she rewinds the film…

Big brouhaha here in NZ. Understandably South Aucklanders were a bit pissed off with her insinuating that South Auckland is rife with criminals (or possibly insinuating that their criminals would be to stupid to work out how to use an off ramp).

She’s a joke, even John Key (the prime minister and leader of her party) said that her comments were stupid, and the above is just one example in her absolute debacle of a by election campaign. I am a kiwi Asian like her, and hate to think that this woman is representing us is parliament.

I think there’s a large group that simply does not realise that they are broadcasting to everyone on the net. They think they just broadcast for the people that give a shit what are they doing.

Most of our Firefighting stations have websites that list their activities, so when you saw a firetruck rushing by today you will be very likely able to find out what was going on the next day. It’s also a source for newspapers etc.
They also put there announcements of firedrills. Recently a local firestation spokesperson got really pissed because people read on the site that there’s going to be a drill – and in effect didnt care about the spectacle going on in front of their house.
This guy was not able to understand that if he puts his announcement in the public internet, people will read it. He actually thought that only firemen could read the firestations website…

Indeed, one *can* build an entire business model around, for example, continuous touring, and that may well be the future, it strikes me as a bit sad for future musicians as it’s a very hard and often lonely life.

or, more accurately, a few big producers have lost a couple percent on their most recent bonus.

Sorry to pick on you, but I have to say that I find this particular attitude (widely prevalent, sad to say) extremely corrosive. The concept that there are fat-cats everywhere that are rolling in money, is for the most part, a convenient fiction to justify any action we choose to take. No doubt there are a few fairly well-off producers (or musicians or whatever group we choose today), but these are vastly outnumbered by the large mass of people simply trying to make a middle or even lower class living in their occupation of choice.

I don’t really care if people download music or not; there are lots of circumstances that might justify it in my personal context (sharing a song or two with a friend, no money, etc.), but I have to say I find contemptible the attempt to justify it the action in moralistic terms because I’ve heard that somebody somewhere has too much money. *That* is moral cowardice.

It does point out that behind most politics is just plain ignorance and lack of understanding…

There. Fixed it for you.

I actually find myself liking Melissa Lee better than the rest of our NZ parliamentarians, because at least she’s open about her vast hypocrisy.

Though Lee apparently responded to the story, in Lee’s tweet there’s no mention of songs being copied. Calling hypocrites to the carpet for being hypocrites rarely adds up to anything. Hypocrisy is the fuel that feeds politicians

Here in the US, they just ‘hire’ college students to read things for them, and come up with a short version.

Look what’s illegal here is copying copyrighted information – it doesn’t matter if the media is the ‘net or a CD or the tool you use is a CD burner or bittorrent it’s not the tool or the media that’s illegal – it’s the act of copying and we already have laws against that

Still her compatriot, in the same party, who stood up in parliament blamed the whole internet for turning into SkyNet and trying to take over the world sounded loonier

Well there’s an election this year, time to turf them out

(shower, reading AND bed .. all in the same night, with an exclamation point! twitter really living up to its potential there. at least it ends with a bang.)

Most politicians have assistants to understand things for them

The Grateful Dead Business Model

Sample paragraph:

As Barnes and other scholars note, the musicians who constituted the Dead were anything but naive about their business. They incorporated early on, and established a board of directors (with a rotating CEO position) consisting of the band, road crew, and other members of the Dead organization. They founded a profitable merchandising division and, peace and love notwithstanding, did not hesitate to sue those who violated their copyrights. But they weren’t greedy, and they adapted well. They famously permitted fans to tape their shows, ceding a major revenue source in potential record sales. According to Barnes, the decision was not entirely selfless: it reflected a shrewd assessment that tape sharing would widen their audience, a ban would be unenforceable, and anyone inclined to tape a show would probably spend money elsewhere, such as on merchandise or tickets. The Dead became one of the most profitable bands of all time.