mp3
An MP3 is just like a CD — until you try to sell it
Jesse Brown weighs in on a recent ruling on digital music and copyright law
How Steve Jobs rescued old media
Music was free online, until Jobs showed that people still wanted to pay
Symphony orchestras go DIY
Without major label contracts, classical groups have to record themselves
A sweeter sound
How good can laptops and MP3s get? Digital music gets a rethink.
It’s a tax when they say it’s a tax
As a follow-up to our previous discussion on the important, or merely semantic, difference between taxes and user fees (see here and here), we compare and contrast the following.
The fine art of paramilitary euphemism
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is to be applauded for a marginal victory in the seemingly endless fight against homegrown Winter Olympics totalitarianism. But make no mistake: it is a very marginal win, at best. The Vancouver police purchased the American Technology Corp.’s LRAD-500X acoustic beam generator, supposedly for use as a loudhailer at public gatherings and protests. Both the police and American Technology object to media references to the device as a “sound gun”, a “sonic cannon”, or a non-lethal weapon. But it has been used that way in the field, and the VPD has effectively conceded the point by agreeing, under BCCLA pressure, to disable a device setting that allows the LRAD to generate “powerful deterrent tones… to influence behaviour.”