A reminder of why copyright maximalism and absolute derivative works rights aren't great drivers of creativity.

Ari

Just a quick note to say that both Apple's FairPlay and Microsoft's Windows Media DRM were broken in the last week. Should really start a betting pool for BluRay and HD-DVD...one month or two?
Ari

M-Dollar: Fans can prove that they know more than the coach in MSN's "Fan Club: Reality Baseball"

The final decisions will be determined through a fan voting process. For instance, if Flyers' pitcher Dave Dobosz receives the most votes for being the team's go-to guy on the hill, then Dobosz it is.

Can Top 40 hit compilations save the music business? By Jody Rosen

Things hit a new low a few weeks back, when the nation's No. 1 album, Johnny Cash's American V: A Hundred Highways, recorded the lowest single-week sales (just 88,000 copies).
Less than brilliant analysis in the rest of the article (I don't know that listening to Now 22 makes your taste in music "eclectic"), but this jumped out at me--the number one album is by someone dead.  Says a lot about the state of the music world.

How the Times makes local papers dumber. By Jack Shafer

A brief note about my provocative headline: George and Waldfogel never describe local newspaper adaptation as "dumbing-down." That's my personal interpretation of what it means to become more local while targeting a less-educated audience, and I'm sticking to it. George and Waldfogel put it more gingerly: "The defection of Times-consumers from local dailies, however, induces changes in local newspaper coverage that may benefit some consumers while harming others." Sort of like the arrival of Wal-Mart!

From Confrontation to Experimentation: The Music Industry Is Playing a New Tune - Knowledge@Wharton

EMI Music backs a label that turns the traditional economics of the recording industry on its head. Vivendi's Universal Music Group creates multiple pricing schemes for CDs. Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Yahoo decide to sell a single without digital rights restrictions.

--Ari