First run of the year — five miles in 43:20 listening to Steve Earle’s Washington Sqaure Serenade. Originally planned a four-mile jaunt, but pushed it.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
Quote of the day: On Giuliani
Today’s quotation — about presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani — comes courtesy of Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:
I will say this: I am heartened by the fact that Rudy’s campaign not only seems to be definitively swirling around the bowl but that he also seems committed to shuffling off this electoral coil with no dignity intact. I think we may be tumbling toward the aesthetic or comedic version of a parallax view in which the reality and parody versions of Rudy’s campaign are meeting their long-anticipated convergence.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
Runner’s diary, the year in review
Failed to post a diary on Monday, but I logged five miles on the treadmill in 43:15 in the final trek of the year (music: mix). The goal for the year was 800 miles — managed 806 after a slow start. I had managed just 317 miles by the end of June and did not get to 400 miles until the first week of August. But I picked things up in August as I get serious about training for the LBI run and managed 400 miles the rest of the way (which included a lighter December).
This year’s goals: 900 miles, a half marathon in the spring, at least four 5Ks (I did two this year) and — maybe — another go at the LBI run, this time without walking.
Happy New Year
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
Music: Another year in review
Tris McCall’s annual Pop Music Abstract is worth checking out, music fans. Find it here.
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
A clueless industry
The Recording Industry Association of America doesn’t seem to understand the ways in which technology is changing the ways in which music fans are listening to music. Not only is the industry targeting people who use file-sharing software to download music free of charge — not exactly smart, but certainly within their rights — the industry says that listeners cannot rip discs that they’ve bought legally for use on their computer or portable players. That means that nearly everyone is in violation of copyright.
Consider: You buy the latest disc by Mariah Carey. You take the disc and copy it onto your computer so that you can do the foloowing: playing it on your iPod; listen to your music while working; make a mix disc for the car or for a party. You have no intention of giving the files to anyone else. You’re making use solely for your own enjoyment.
The record industry, however, says you are breaking copyright law and should be fined.
It’s an absurd position, as Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA, points out in The Washington Post.
“The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation.”
The industry offers this logic (from the Post):
“If you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you’re stealing. You’re breaking the law and you could be held legally liable for thousands of dollars in damages.”
The record companies seem to be saying that I can listen to the disc copy of Lyle Lovett’s It’s Not Big, It’s Large on my disc players — whether in my office, my car, at home or wherever. But if I want to listen to some of the songs on my iPod or mix some of the songs in with songs from other discs I’ve purchased, I have to go out and buy the music again. That’s just ridiculous — and destined to further alienate an already alienated music-buying public. Why buy discs, after all, if you have to rebuy the music to make use of your iPod?
The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”
South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick
E-mail me by clicking here.
Hank Kalet 