As residents of the Gulf Coast were reminded last week, there’s no turning away nature. You can’t pass a law that snuffs a hurricane at the border. You can’t sue it. You’ve got to understand it, and make the right plans to deal with it. Technology generates its own form of nature, a set of conditions that enforce an artificial, yet equally unstoppable, reality. With the Internet, fast computers, cheap storage and high bandwidth, it’s now just a fact that digital files?be they documents, images or Hoobastank tunes?can be sped through the ether with ease, a phenomenon no easier to halt than a storm surge.
That’s why it’s so fascinating to watch the music industry’s efforts to claim some high ground in its fight against piracy. For the longest time, the labels viewed digital music as something that could hurt them with hurricane force but made no efforts to adjust to this new reality, let alone exploit it. Finally, they were persuaded to license their works to online music sellers. Apple’s iTunes Store, which sells songs for 99 cents a shot, became a template for a mini-industry that clearly represents the future of music. Microsoft opened its own long-awaited online outlet earlier this month. And just last week Yahoo dropped $160 million to buy Musicmatch and its store…
more: by steven levy http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6037780/site/newsweek/
A great article, I had to post some of it; but IS this really a good thing for ‘free music’
On first thought, you’d think … yes.
But is this simply not just another way of control?
