Why The View aren't in America

As some of our commenters were commenting at the time, the View had to pull their US tour at a moment's notice thanks to the evil drucks.

It's been confirmed that Kyle Falconer from the band was arrested last August allegedly in possession of cocaine; this arrest had to be declared on his visa application: hence, no SXSW for The View.

Don't worry; we're sure there's dozen of other bands who sound just like them to fill the gap.

What is a hot-spot not?

Not a good spot, if the RIAA gets its way.

The always amusing US record industry cartel has run into yet another problem with its ongoing series of lawsuits against the entire world: when it attempted to sue Debbie Foster for "stealing" music, it was unable to prove that she'd taken the music because of her wi-fi ste-up. Anyone could have swung by and used Foster's connection to offload mp3s. The RIAA has been ordered to pick up some of Foster's costs for defending the action.

Naturally, rather than accepting that it had screwed up again, the RIAA is looking to have the law changed again in its favour. (Through interpretation and new legislation, the RIAA is already playing downhill rather than on that mythical level playing field, and yet it still can't find the goal.) This time, they're seeking a motion of reconsideration of the judgement:

They want the judge to rule that the owner of an ISP account is responsible for all activity on that account, which could have a chilling effect on public wireless access and open hotspots. (The appeal also made the point that Foster should be held liable if she was aware of the infringement occuring via her account; in the case of someone with an open Wi-Fi network, that could constitute something as simple as experiencing traffic slowdowns.)

Wired's Listening Post blog points out that, not for the first time, the RIAA's attempts to extend the cloak of criminal activity could have a horrible effect on all Americans:

If the judge rules that we're each legally responsible for all of the traffic that comes through our ISP account, open, unprotected Wi-Fi hotspots would become a serious legal liability, the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people who depend on their neighbors for Wi-Fi will be out of luck, while altruistic (or ignorant) folks who leave their wireless networks open could find themselves embroiled in an RIAA lawsuits even if they've never shared a single song in their lives.

In short: if you don't know how to lock up your wireless connection, you could soon find yourself having to write enormous cheques to Sony-BMG because someone with a laptop happened to borrow your bandwidth to download a tune or two.

The analogy, of course, would be if your car was stolen for ram-raid on Currys, you'd have to pay for the stolen goods.

[Thanks to Michael Moran for the story link]

Swoosh stickers

This week, Nike won a legal injunction against Skins, who had had the temerity to use the Swooshstika in an playful way in its advertising.

Nike, of course, had moral weight on its side:

"[T]his is a clear case of copyright infringement and a misuse of our logo," said a spokesman for Nike.

"We will take whatever steps we need to when we believe other companies are infringing."

Pretty clear cut, huh?

Of course, this is the same Nike who pinched Minor Threat's artwork and seemed puzzled when the punks weren't delighted:

All of the Nike employees responsible for the creation of the tour flyer are fans of both Minor Threat and Dischord records and have nothing but respect for both.

Minor Threat's music and iconographic album cover have been an inspiration to countless skateboarders since the album came out in 1984. And for the members of the Nike Skateboarding staff, this is no different. Because of the album's strong imagery and because our East Coast tour ends in Washington DC, we felt that it was a perfect fit.

There is a well-established principle that if you don't protect your trademark, it can lapse into the public domain. Maybe there should also be a principle that if you, as a company, violate other people's copyrights, your own should lose legal protection? It might focus the minds a little more, don't you think?

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, knock down your hair: Tower comes to market

We're not entirely sure what the attraction of brand tied to high-street music sales - and brand complete with the stench of failure at that - would be to purchasers, but the people charged with flogging off the last of Tower's assets are pretty sure people will be bidding when they auction 'em off next month.

Amongst the attractions are the Tower.com website - we guess Virgin or HMV might be interested in whacking a forward onto that, and the Tower brand. The value of that might depend on how you feel about the last promo work done on it being by blokes wearing sandwich boards fighting through pre-Christmas crowds announcing the closing down sale, for all the world like the end of the Brand's world was nigh.

EMI still loves DRM

The one member of the RIAA to have been actively considering a way of dropping the need for DRM from its downloads, EMI, has abandoned negotiations and apparently abandoned the idea.

The sticking point? Record company greed, as ever:

EMI, the third-largest music company, demanded an upfront payment to compensate for its risk in releasing the music without software that prevents copying, the sources said. The retailers countered with a lower offer, which EMI rejected, and negotiations are now on hold, they said.

We're not quite sure why EMI even thought this one would fly - after all, if removing the DRM from the downloads meant that each song would be sold just once and then released for free into wild, that's even more of a risk for a download company than for the record company. EMI would still have other ways of making money from the music; if nobody needed Napster to get their downloads any more, Napster has no business. In effect, EMI is asking to be compensated for a risk from the companies actually taking the risk.

Free your cock, and your mind will follow

So, why did Kevin Barnes of Of Montreal take to the stage with his admittedly lovely knob on display?

To make us think, it seems:

"I always wanted to perform naked...it's kind of my concept, to bring world peace to the Earth if everyone had to stand naked in front of their peers once a month. I think it's good because it forces you to sort of come to terms with any sort of body issues that you might have and it sort of like cleanses your emotional palette.

"A lot of people get this anxiety that's like 'I was naked in front of an audience!' and stuff, but I think it's kind of cool for people to be able to face that without going to jail. That's the thing, too, I had to pick Vegas because that's the only 21+ venue we're playing on this whole tour, and I didn't want to become a sex offender, because that would be pretty dreadful."

A quick call to Buckingham Palace has confirmed this "hasn't affected his chances to being invited to a Royal Variety Performance in the slightest."

Arthur rolls out its last one

Arthur, the High Times which made sure its curtains were closed before bringing out its stash, has published its last edition. The magazine's blog is announcing its demise with a one-word post:

Dead

Bravery move

That's the way to do it: The Bravery have an album, probably due sometime round May, but rather than waiting for it to leak or seap, they're streaming the whole thing from their website. It's a primitive sort of streaming, but it works.

You'll have had your T

The remaining tranche of T in the Park tickets have been sold, and in less than three quarters of an hour. There were 40,000 passes left (roughly the same number had been sold at the end of last year's event); now there are none.

Still, there's always Ebay, where prices seem to be nudging over the £400 a pair mark.

Blunt weapon

To be honest, in the case of James Blunt versus the BA check-in staff, we're with the check-in staff.

Although the rules do allow instruments to be taken as hand baggage again, letting James Blunt into the cabin with his guitar is tantamount to letting a person on board with a dangerous weapon. Do BA know how many people have suffered at the hands of that guitar?