Now these are some fightin' words...

Posted today on Reznor's web-site, www.nin.com, the alt-industrial rocker continues to rail against his former record company Universal Music.

Several years ago I persuaded my record company to let me begin posting my master recording files on nin.com, in order to see what kind of user-generated content would materialize from my music. I had no agenda… the main reason I did it was because I thought it was cool and something I would have liked to do if it was available to me. A lot of really fun stuff started to happen….communities developed, web sites were created, even traditional radio got in the game and began playing the fans' mixes. I felt the experiment, despite not having a specific purpose, was a success. So much so that we're now releasing a remix album that includes some of this fan-created material as well as the actual multitrack master files for every song from my latest record, Year Zero.


One piece was missing to me and that was an official nin.com presence for aggregating all of the fan-created remixes. Several intrepid fans had stepped up and done a great job providing a destination for people to post these, but I felt all along this was a function I should more directly support. So, upon release of this new remix album, our plan has been to launch an official site on nin.com that would provide a place for all fan remix material and other interactive fan experiences.

Or so I thought.

On Saturday morning I became aware of a legal hitch in our plans. My former record company and current owner of all these master files, Universal, is currently involved in a lawsuit with other media titans Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace). Universal is contending that these sites do not have what is referred to as "safe harbor" under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and therefore are in copyright violation because users have uploaded music and video content that is owned by Universal. Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for. Their premise is that if any fan decides to remix one of my masters with material Universal doesn't own - a "mash-up", a sample, whatever - and upload it to the site, there is no safe harbor under the DMCA (according to Universal) and they will be doing exactly what MySpace and YouTube are doing. This behavior may get hauled out in court and impact their lawsuit. Because of this they no longer will host our remix site, and are insisting that Nine Inch Nails host it. In exchange for this they will continue to let me upload my Universal masters and make them available to fans, BUT shift the liability of hosting them to me. Part of the arrangement is having user licenses that the fans sign (not unlike those on MySpace or You Tube) saying they will not use unauthorized materials. If they WERE to do such a thing, everybody sues everybody and the world abruptly ends.

While I am profoundly perturbed with this stance as content owners continue to stifle all innovation in the face of the digital revolution, it is consistent with what they have done in the past. So... we are challenged at the last second to find a way of bringing this idea to life without getting splashed by the urine as these media companies piss all over each other’s feet. We have a cool and innovative site ready to launch but we're currently scratching our heads as to how to proceed.
More to come….

By the way, the potential implications of a lawsuit like this one go well beyond creating hurdles for a Nine Inch Nails remix site. Here is an excerpt from technology site Ars Technica regarding a similar lawsuit Viacom has filed against YouTube:

The DMCA's Safe Harbor provisions aren't just important to video sharing sites; they're important to almost every sector of Internet-based business.
"Nearly every major Internet company depends on the very same legal foundation that YouTube is built on," said von Lohmann. "A legal defeat for YouTube could result in fundamental changes to its business, potentially even making it commercially impossible to embrace user-generated content without first 'clearing' every video. In other words, a decisive victory for Viacom could potentially turn the Internet into TV, a place where nothing gets on the air until a cadre of lawyers signs off," he said. "More importantly, a victory for Viacom could potentially have enormous implications for Yahoo, eBay, Amazon, MySpace, and many other Internet companies, because they all rely on the same DMCA Safe Harbors to protect many facets of their businesses, as well. The stakes are high all around."

Indeed.

What the critics are saying...

Ouch! Apparently, the Los Angeles Times was not impressed by CNN's handling of the Democratic debate in Las Vegas last Thursday. Despite record ratings for the political showdown, Times columnist Tim Rutten compared the event to the circus and host Wolf Blitzer to a carnival barker outside the tents of the bearded lady and the dog-faced boy. An excerpt...

"It all would be darkly comedic if CNN's descent into hyperbole and histrionics simply represented a miscalculation in reportorial style, but it signals something else -- the network's attempt to position itself ideologically, the way Fox and MSNBC already have done. In fact, we now have a situation in which the three all-news cable networks each have aligned themselves with a point on the political compass: Fox went first and consciously became the Republican network; MSNBC, which would have sold its soul to the devil for six ratings points, instead found a less-demanding buyer in the Democrats. Now, CNN has decided to reinvent itself as the independent, populist network cursing both sides of the conventional political aisle -- along with immigrants and free trade, of course."

"In other words, for the first time since the advent of television news as a major force in American life, the 2008 presidential campaign will be fought out with individual networks committed to particular political perspectives. Why does that matter? As far back as 2004, the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that "cable now trails only local TV news as a regular source for (presidential) campaign information. In several key demographic categories -- young people, college graduates and wealthy Americans -- cable is the leading source for election news." Thus, for key segments of the electorate -- groups rich in what the pollsters call "likely voters" -- the main source of political news is now a partisan, or at least, a politicized one."

Read the full article here.

Get Your Game On!

In case you missed it last Friday on CNN.com...
Here's the latest installment of "Get Your Game On!"

Kia Ora!

Jean and I are back from New Zealand... with the pictures to prove it.

Check out the Flickr album here!

Feeling the burn

Unbelievable.
The sheer magnitude of the fires that continue to rage across Southern California.


When I heard first a report on KCRW-FM of a fire that had broken out in Malibu Sunday morning, I had no idea that the situation would erupt into what's quickly becoming one of the worst fire disasters in California history. As my buddies and I headed out for a morning surf at El Porto, a surf break south of LAX, I began to realize the severity of the situation. The Malibu point, usually visible on a clear day from Porto, was hidden behind a wall of smoke.



But today, as I watch the nearly continuous coverage of the dozen or so fires that are burning between Santa Clarita to the north, down to San Diego -- I'm humbled by nature's fury.

CNN.com has a spectacular slide-show of photos, with many submitted by viewers who have been forced to seek higher ground as the flames continued their relentless approach.

Back from the dead... Captain America

Today, Marvel Comics revealed that this January, the Star-Spangled Avenger, Captain America will return to his post in his monthly comic book.

According to this article at IGN, Cap will be return in "Captain America #34," wearing the red, white, blue and black?

Alex Ross is providing the designs that will update the Captain's classic costume - which still includes his signature shield... but now adds a gun to his arsenal.

But, in a Universe where death is often a temporary condition, Captain America writer Ed Brubaker confirms that it won't be Steve Rogers under the mask.

Find out who will wear the mask -and wield the mighty shield this January.

Here's the classic -- in the mighty Marvel manner of the 1960's.

Pop Digital on CNN.com

Check out this week's Pop Digital on CNN.com
Featuring Slacker - a new portable Internet radio device.

News Judgement - or complete lack thereof

Oh, the dichotomy!

A snippet from this morning's CNN editorial conference call notes:

[discussion about Myanmar/Burma]
"we need to continue to do story to build outrage."

Meanwhile, in the Los Angeles bureau, CNN's cameras, live trucks, reporters and producers are camped out in front of the L.A. County Courthouse waiting for the details of a closed door hearing involving the one-and-only Britney Spears and her ongoing child custody issues. A private family matter made embarassingly public by the media. I did mention it was a closed-door hearing? Like vultures waiting for scraps.

Meanwhile, half a world away in Myanmar... wait - K-Fed's here? He's wearing an eye-patch??

If creationists read the newspaper, they'd be freaking out about this....

From the AP:
Austrian judge: Chimps aren't people

"He's now got a human name — Matthew Hiasl Pan — but he's having trouble getting his day in court."

Animal rights activists in Austria are campaigning to have Pan, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, legally declared a person.

The legal battle dates back to February, when the animal shelter where Pan and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years filed for bankruptcy.

From the article:

Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Pan, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But they argue only personhood will ensure he isn't sold to someone outside Austria, where he's protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

The animal rights group has been pressing to get Pan declared a "person" so a guardian can be appointed to look out for his interests.

Group president Martin Balluch accuses the judicial system of monkeying around. "It is astounding how all the courts try to evade the question of personhood of a chimp as much as they can," he said.

NINE INCH NAILS Frontman Says His Record Company Is Run By 'Thieves'

From the article:

"It's a very odd time to be a musician on a major label, because there's so much resentment towards the record industry that it's hard to position yourself in a place with the fans where you don't look like a greedy asshole. But at the same time, when our record came out I was disappointed at the number of people that actually bought it."

Unless you used to work in the music industry, or have a great understanding of new media, it's often hard to understand why there is so much backlash against major record labels.

Trent Reznor manages to explain the problem - both from the perspective of being an artist - as well as music fan.

read more | digg story

Google Lunar X PRIZE

The X PRIZE Foundation and Google Inc. today announced the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a robotic race to the Moon to win a remarkable $30 million prize purse. ..to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon.


We have the technology; we've had it since 1969. Once the cold-war ended - and by extension, the Space Race - so too does it seem that real innovation in the area of space travel also slowed.

Yes, we have the ISS (International Space Station), but it's continued deterioration further underscores that NASA's mission has gone off-course and that the exploration of space greatly needs an infusion of new energy and new ideas.

The original Ansari X-Prize paved the way for the notion of "space tourism," by nurturing the concept of sub-orbital flight for the masses, which will hopefully be a reality within our lifetime. The Google Lunar X-Prize could do the same for civilian travel to the moon.


read more | digg story

Netizens offer new take on news

A leading research house compared the news coverage and popularity from three user-edited news sites including Digg to the the traditional news media and found the two mediums to be radically different. The traditional news media tend to focus on issues such as war, immigration, finance. Web news is more interested on console wars or what Paris or Britney is up to.

The original BBC.com article doesn't indicate that so called reader-aggregated news is replacing traditional journalism or for that matter, mainstream editorial decision making - but it does offer some interesting insight into the tastes and preferences of those who use the Internet as their main source of news.

read more | digg story

Album Artwork for iTunes

My geek-tendencies laid bare...

For some reason, music on my iPod just feels incomplete unless it's got artwork attached to it. Thanks to this web-site, now you can find FULL SIZE, hi-resolution artwork that you can attach to your songs in iTunes and in your iPod.

Check out this site: http://www.thejosher.net/iTunes

Sure, iTunes will sometimes do this for you automatically, but not necessarily at this resolution. Now, you can enjoy these images in all their 1425 x 1425 glory. It's not a complete library, mind you - you're subject to what Apple has on file.

It seems like no matter what the format, vinyl LP, CD or digital file - the artwork will always matter in music.

Meanwhile the guys that designed the GORGEOUS cover to "Axis: Bold as Love" are rolling over in their graves.

Cadbury Guerilla Marketing - Dairy Milk Gorilla Ad (VIDEO)

Cadbury has come up with a new gorilla marketing campaign. The 90 second Dairy Milk video doesn’t feature chocolate once, not verbally or visually, until the very last second. Instead, the video is focused on a gorilla playing the drums and rocking out to Phil Collins. (Quite possibly the best drum fill recorded in the 1980's)

Reportedly, it cost the UK-based chocolate maker 6.2 million pounds to produce.

The question I have is -- is it a man in a gorilla suit? Is it a puppet? Animatronic?

BMX Vert Finals @ X-Games XII

I managed to score VIP access to the X-Games in L.A. this weekend.

After taking in some Moto-X, I made my way to the giant vert ramp to catch the Finals in the BMX Vert Competition.

I was a witness to history at Simon Tabron from the UK pulled off the first-ever back-to-back 900's ever in competition. Despite this AMAZING feat, Tabron only placed SECOND the final.

You can only imagine what his fellow Brit Jamie Bestwick was doing on the ramp that allowed him to take home the Gold...

I took a bunch of photos with my cell phone. I'm an idiot for not thinking to bring something more substantial. You can check them out here.

Happy Birthday to ME!

What a weekend!
Good surf, good friends, good food and great times.

See some of the evidence here.

Best 14th birthday I ever had!

Much Ado About Nothing...

With news outlets and the paparazzi dutifully assembled outside of the L.A. County Correctional Facility in Lynwood, California, the unintentional queen of all media Paris Hilton made her grand exit in front of a live, international television audience early Tuesday morning.

If history so chooses to refer the socialite's exodus as a circus, then Hilton is the undisputed ringmaster -- leaving those of us in the media looking like clowns. Seriously.I'm pretty sure Hilton is the only inmate that has ever been released from prison with such a spectacle.

Sashaying down the walkway as if it were a red carpet, Hilton gave high-fives to the gathered crowd and ran into the arms of her mother, who gave her what would have been a heartwarming hug if she had bothered to actually get out of the SUV she was riding in.

No matter. The crowd ate it up. Photographers, both still and video, bum-rushed the vehicle to try and get a closer look. For our part, both CNN and CNN International broadcast the big moment live.

More than 5 hours later, I'm still wondering exactly "why?"

Behind the scenes, the levels of coordination and consternation leading up to Hilton's release were on par with some of the bigger news events I've covered.

In CNN's spartan Los Angeles bureau, our best-laid plans for wall-to-wall Hilton coverage were completely upended when a massive wildfire near Lake Tahoe forced us to move many of our resources to that area in order to report some actual news.

We've been reporting that Paris has been claiming that her experience in jail has changed her, that she wants to be a better person. Apparently, that doesn't include having the decency to just go away.

Meanwhile, Paris is enjoying a good night's sleep on some very high-thread count sheets. We're reporting that, too.

Fast feed nation

We not only live in a time where there is a ravenous appetite for media, with audiences salivating over the ever-increasing choices on a menu.

We're also living in a time when audiences want their media faster. In a morning panel on the final day of Digital Hollywood, the discussion turned towards the speed with which these seemingly endless options get to the audiences. Issues with broadband and high-speed Internet connectivity remain at the center of a lot of these discussions.

Having the option to order from the menus of 40 different restaurants is a great thing, but if you can't get that food delivered hot and fresh to your door, what's the point? (Yes, that's an an overly simplified argument, but the concept is the same.)

Consider this: Throughout the conference, I met with companies who were eager to show me demos of their product online. With the vast number of vendors on site, you can just imagine how much traffic there was on the hotel's wi-fi connection. Too many signals competing for access ... and suddenly nobody has access and your extremely cool demo has gone cold.

Everyone is trying to figure out where the next great Internet video or music story is going to come from, but how they're going to watch that show or download that song depends so heavily on how easily the audience connects to it.

All video, all the time, is a great thing for people to look forward to -- just as long as you can get access to the network to actually see it.

A better virtual mousetrap

During my first morning at the Digital Hollywood conference, I'm struck by how often the terms "social networking," "MySpace" and "YouTube" are slipped into the conversation. Even developers on the bleeding edge of technology are trying to figure out how to move beyond the shadow of these two "Web 2.0" giants.

There is no shortage of bright, enthusiastic software developers attending this conference who are trying to best these virtual beasts by building... well, a better beast. Or at least one a similar one. And therein lies one of the problems.

One of the reasons that sites such as MySpace and YouTube have become so successful lies simply in the fact that they were incredibly easy to use. Duplicating that kind of success much more complex. While everyone is scrambling to be the "next" MySpace or YouTube, there is a tendency to forget the idea that nobody is asking for the "next" version of either of these sites.

Now, if a developer were to create a product that vastly IMPROVED on that experience for users, they might have something.Instead, what you find is a lot of companies creating the tools for companies with web-sites who want to be like MySpace - who want to take advantage of the "community" aspects of social networking and put them to use as a means of promoting their own content. The problem is, if the content you are trying to create a community around isn't compelling, your social network will be anything but.

Social networking sites such as MySpace work because their users drive the conversation. Some would argue that site has suffered since News Corporation took over its operation and made that conversation more commercial. Still, at it's core - the user is the focus - and its the user's choice of content that makes the conversation interesting.

The key to the "next" MySpace is realizing that we don't need "another" MySpace. But we might be interested in something better.

How do you want your entertainment?

Lights. Camera. Confusion.

The weeklong Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica, Califonia, is an exploration of what could be next in terms of digital delivery of entertainment. Software and network developers have gathered together to display their wares in an attempt to offer solutions to the distribution questions nagging at the entertainment business. The industry wants to expand and improve the way it offers movies, music and shows to you, and these developers are trying to present ideas. But I say "could be next" because, while the developers are claiming to have the answer, nobody is really certain of what the question is.

While everyone -- both studios and software developers and sites -- agree on the importance of digital distribution, none of the players are really sure just how best to serve their consumers.

During a panel discussion focused on film and TV distribution, one of the key topics was user expectations. Panel members pointed to the success of Internet-driven businesses such as Netflix, which are able to offer nearly any film imaginable within 24 hours, versus some of the purely digital distributors such as CinemaNow, which have a much smaller inventory of titles.

And while these sites all have relationships with the various studios, that relationship is tentative at best -- and clearly favors the studio's desires, not necessarily the desires of the consumers.

Consumers want what they want. They don't really care about the software tools that help them get that movie or TV show. If users go to a site to find a particular title and can't find it, they will simply go and search for it elsewhere. If they find that particular title but it only works on their PCs but not on their iPods, again -- they'll inevitably find another way to get that content.

So what's the answer? It depends on what the question is ...