goblin cartoons

Utterly despicable.

New federal legislation says universities must agree to provide not just deterrents but also “alternatives” to peer-to-peer piracy, such as paying monthly subscription fees to the music industry for their students, on penalty of losing all financial aid for their students…

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) applauded the proposal, which is embedded in a 747-page spending and financial aid bill. “We very much support the language in the bill, which requires universities to provide evidence that they have a plan for implementing a technology to address illegal file sharing,” said Angela Martinez, a spokeswoman for the MPAA.

According to the bill, if universities did not agree to test “technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity,” all of their students–even ones who don’t own a computer–would lose federal financial aid.

Because nothing, not even the education of the next generations, is as important as the entertainment industry’s profits.

If you live in the districts of Rep. George Miller (D) of California or Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D) of Texas, please call and remind them it is not the responsibility of schools to protect the entertainment industry’s interests and denying a college education to lower-income students to make the entertainment industry happy is reprehensible.

I popped over to my local Borders this afternoon to burn a couple of coupons and was surprised to find they had done some redecorating, including a new multimedia center where you can burn music tracks to your own CD or download them directly to your MP3 player. I had a few questions, so I tracked a clerk down and politely interrogated her.

Me: Can you download tracks to any MP3 player?

Clerk: We’re not compatible with iPods or Zunes, but any other MP3 player should work. If you bring your MP3 player in, we can hook it up to our computer and check its compatibility.

Me: Once I’ve downloaded tracks to my MP3 player, is there a limit to how many times I can copy the tracks to other computers or MP3 players.

Clerk: No, there’s no limit.

Me: So, no DRM?

Clerk: No.

I didn’t check to see if there’s a “user agreement” to downloading music that violates fair use as Amazon’s DRM-free MP3 store apparently does, and it’s not good that you can’t download music to iPods or Zunes (although considering those are Apple and Microsoft products, I’m betting that’s the decision of Apple and Microsoft, not Borders, because of the lack of DRM), but so far, Border’s music download system looks promising.

Am I the only biblioblogger who isn’t drooling over the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone? Sure, it looks pretty. But with any new gadget coming out, I have two questions that help determine whether or not I’m going to want it:

1. Will the gadget be affordable to someone with a public librarian’s salary?

2. Will the gadget be easy to hack, free to modify, free of murky encumbrances?

A gadget doesn’t need to fit both for me to want it (and eventually buy it), but in the iPhone’s case, it fits neither. A 4GB iPhone will cost $500, which is well out of my affordability range. As for it being free to modify and free of encumbrances…that’s a big NO.

Back in the mid-1990s, I shunned Windows PCs and was loyal to Apple. Apple was the alternative, the anti-big soulless corporate machine. At least, that’s how Apple portrayed itself, and I believed it. Not anymore. If Microsoft is McDonald’s, Apple is Burger King. It’s just as corporate, just as soulless, and just as enamored of locking its products up in pointless DRM. Sure, Apple likes to portray itself in commercials as “hip” and “young” and “cool,” but that’s in commercials on primetime network television, which means Apple is really anything but “hip” and “young” and “cool.”

Ever since Steve Jobs announced the coming of the iPhone, I’ve been wary. After reading Cory Doctorow’s post on Boing Boing this morning, I’m thinking I was right to be wary. Maybe some folks are greeting the news of the iPhone with salivating, and that’s fine for them. Me? I’m giving the iPhone a big ol’ yawn.