Amazon Unbox: It's called that, because it makes the computer box unyours

Amazon have recently taken a step towards making physical products obsolete with Unbox, which allows you to download movies to watch on your PC without having to buy a DVD and have their brain-detached delivery people hurl the packet over your garden fence to land on a concrete patio with no regard to what it will do to the contents, for example. That sounds like a good deal.

Until you read the terms you sign up to. Or read Cory Doctorow's take on them.

Back in the days when Britain was a naval power, men would sometimes find that somebody had dropped a shilling in their tankards. If they failed to notice, and the shilling found its way into their mouth, this was taken as being a binding contract with the state to join the navy. The Amazon Unbox contract isn't quite as fair as that, but it's heading in the same way.

music amazon unbox

Lohan: What is she, like 90?

Lindsay Lohan has trampled her way back to hospital, this time for a fractured wrist she "sustained in a fall". Falling over and bone snapping? What, has she abused her body so badly it's on fast-forward and she's turned into a nonagenarian? Is Herbie going to be refitted to deliver her meals on wheels?

music lindsay lohan

George, Michael, Elton and John all fine

Britain's two foremost 1980s celebrities with two first names have publicly ended their battle. Or at least Elton John thinks he's sorted things with George Michael. So, presumably, there's going to be no more claims that George is wasting his talent and so on from Elton. And George... well, he won't be saying anything much, we suppose.

music elton john george michael

Glitter kicked out of NFL

Considering his tendency to fiddle over pictures of naked children came to light back in 1999, it's perhaps a little surprising that the it's only this year that the NFL has advised American Football franchises to drop Rock N Roll Part 2 from the pregame ritual.

Yahoo Music is outraged - so outraged, it's actually printed an editorial, which they tend not to do very often:

Still, if the league ever wonders why some people think NFL stands for the "No Fun League," this is a good example. What Glitter did was reprehensible, no doubt about it. No one ever should think of inviting him to perform at a game, and it's probably best to stay away from that song when picking theme music for commercials.

But few fans know Glitter co-wrote and performed "Rock and Roll, Part II." Most don't even know that's the actual name. It isn't until you say the "Hey" song or sing, "Dah dah dah dah dah dah, HEY!" that the lightbulb goes on.

Now, they could have a point - to a certain extent, the question of if its okay to play Gary Glitter at a football game echoes the tiresome and empty debates over if its okay to like Eric Gill's fonts or whether buying a copy of Alice In Wonderland makes you the sort of person News of the World readers should be throwing rocks at.

But there is a key difference with Glitter - after his child porn conviction, he skipped the country without signing the child protection register, which technically makes him (in American terms) a fugitive from justice. Secondly, he's since been convicted of child molestation in Vietnam - and, it's pretty clear, he would have faced much more serious charges had he not bought off the witnesses and victims. And how did he manage to buy them off? In part, from the royalties he's been making on music being played halfway across the world.

The reason the NFL is right to discourage its teams from playing the works of Glitter is not because there's anything immoral in his music, or because playing it at the Mile High Stadium will make people go home and sleep with their nephews.

The reason is because nobody wants to be subsidising a paedophile's tours round the Far East.

It's surprising Yahoo thinks they should.

On the other hand, George Bush was happy to resurrect the theme for his re-election tour last time round, despite having it explained to him exactly what that meant.

music gary glitter nfl

Good DRM purchasing citizens also file-sharing pirates

Some not entirely surprising results from the latest piece of digital music research by Jupiter: people with iPods don't fill them up entirely from the iTunes Music Store:

The Jupiter Research report reveals that, on average, only 20 of the tracks on a iPod will be from the iTunes shop.

Far more important to iPod owners, said the study, was free music ripped from CDs someone already owned or acquired from file-sharing sites.

There's a question and a curiosity here. First: being told that only an average of 20 songs comes from the iTMS is a bit of a meaningless figure without being told how many other tracks, on average, will be on the iPod. (Later on, it's suggested that this would be 5% of the average music player load, or 400 tracks.) The other curisoity is the use of "free" music - if you rip your own cds and put them onto your music player, which is surely the most logical use for an iPod, it's not "free" music as you've already paid for the right to do that. I think its a fairly safe bet that someone who'd pay a hundred quid for a music player will be the sort of person who would have spent a few years buying an above-average number of CDs, isn't it?

The report warned against simple characterisations of the music-buying public that divide people into those that pay and those that pirate.

"It is not instructive to think of portable media player owners, nor iPod owners specifically, as homogenous groups," warned the report.

No, really? It'll be reports suggesting cooker owners don't all eat the same sorts of food next.

It said: "Digital music buyers do not necessarily stop file-sharing upon buying legally."

This is slightly confused wording - because it implies that file-sharing is always illegal, which, of course, it isn't - but it's an important fact the RIAA sometimes overlooks. Just because a person buys a DRM copy of Justin Timberlake's new song doesn't mean they won't take a shady copy of an old Britney Spears one if they come across it. The RIAA tends to see the purchasing of any DRMed track as being some sort of eucharist, with the purchaser pledging themselves to follow the path of righteousness forever more; this simply isn't the case. It's handy to have that confirmed.

Of course, what really is lacking here is the question of why - what motivates consumers to behave in this way - and, more interesting to the music industry, what would make them stop.

music apple itunes ipod mp3

The Casbah forever

The people who run the Cavern bristle a fair bit when people suggest it's not the "real" Beatles Cavern, on the grounds that they feel its near enough to count. They'll be fuming tonight as their great rival, The Casbah in West Derby, has been given listed building status. On account of being the real thing, and also being where the band played their first gig, back in 1959.

English Heritage's Bob Hawkins has twisted the knife, stressing the Cavern's faux-ness by implication:

"The basement rooms are historically significant because they represent tangible evidence of The Beatles' formation, their growth in popularity and their enduring cultural influence.

"The club survives in a remarkably well-preserved condition since its closure in 1962, with wall and ceiling paintings of spiders, dragons, rainbows and stars by original band members along with 1960s musical equipment, amplifiers and original chairs.

"We know of no other survival like it in Liverpool or indeed anywhere else."

Of course, listed status will help prevent Liverpool City Council putting a Debenhams or something on it.

music the beatles

Everett upsets Radio 2 again

One of the examples the BBC uses when training its staff in where to draw the line in terms of taste and decency is a clip from Rupert Everett introducing Robbie Williams, with a handfull of innuendo and a bucket of shipmate's swearage.

Everett doesn't appear on the TV or radio very often, but when he does, he leaves his mark. Today, for example: he swore so much, they can't put Jonathan Ross' Radio 2 show onto Listen Again.

That's a fuck of a lot of swearing.

They'll have a special editorial course for him alone at this rate.

music radio jonathan ross rupert everett

Nought on returns? Not on, retorts Norton

It's not often you see Graham Norton getting vexed, but Bono's tax arrangements really do hack him off:

"People like Bono really annoy me. He goes to hell and back to avoid paying tax. He has a special accountant. He works out Irish tax loopholes. And then he's asking me to buy a well for an African village.

"Tarmac the road outside your house, you tight-wad! Or pay for a school in Ireland.

"I've never met Bono and now I probably never will. But if I do meet him I'll ask him because I think it's a hard thing to justify."

To be fair to Bono, he doesn't actually go to Hell to avoid paying tax, as the higher rate there might be lower but the capital gains arrangements would leave him out of pocket, so he goes to Holland and back instead.

The nice thing about Graham Norton saying this is that Norton is able to do it from the perspective of someone with a bit of cash, and so his objection can't be slapped away as being the ranting of the jealous poor.

music graham norton u2 bono

Rod wants to go like Nicholas Van Whatisface

Rod Stewart doesn't want to be buried in some hole in the ground, thrown in like you might put a box of stolen cash awaiting Knuckles McGee's release from Wandsworth. That's not unusual, of course, as he's still alive. But he doesn't want to be buried when he's dead, either:

"Actually I don’t like the idea of being buried underground. I want to be above ground like Elvis at his house.

"I’d like a nice little mausoleum here in the garden. I’ll have to write to my MP about that."

Elvis has been buried above ground; it's also what Nicholas Van Hoogstraten sort-of wants, although his mausoleum is actually in the basement of his house. We don't know if that would count as underground for Rod's purposes.

music rod stewart

Robbie Williams is not acting on legal advice

Naturally, Robbie Williams' decision to sing his anti-Nigel Martin Smith song during his Milton Keynes Bowl dates isn't adding to any libel action, but, with 65,000 witnesses, could leave him open to that rare beast, a slander action that could stand up.

Williams introduced his song like this:

“Did you see a story in The Sun today about me?

“My former manager’s got a p