As the US Congress struggles to find a reasonable way to update copyright law for the digital age, an alarming possibility has emerged. A draft bill known as the Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act is designed to allow companies which collect and disseminate data (online search engines like Google, say) to protect their product from being copied. “But critics say the bill would give the companies ownership of facts – stock quotes, historical health data, sports scores and voter lists. [If that’s true, t]he bill would restrict the kinds of free exchange and shared resources that are essential to an informed citizenry.”
Blog
Christ’s Passion Tops Hobbit Love
“Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ has broken the US five-day box office record held by The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Gibson’s controversial religious movie made $125.2m in its first five days, updated figures have confirmed. That pushed it past the Oscar-winning Rings film’s earlier record of $124.1m.”
The Wrong Way To Go About Teaching Music
Is the way we teach kids music in America wrong? Libby Larsen thinks so. It’s a system that hasn’t evolved much since colonial times. “We have a musical education system that was developed out of a displaced European sensibility that was brilliant, but we have a culture now in which the music is ever so much more complicated and diverse in the world. The music education system has a crisis in relevancy.”
You Remember (Well, You Could If You Practiced)
“The three-day international event pits mnemonic experts from around the globe in competitions that include memorizing a previously unpublished and non-rhyming lengthy poem in 15 minutes, and writing it down complete with proper spelling and punctuation; memorizing a list of 400 random words and reciting them back in order; and the dreaded “binary competition,” in which competitors have a half hour to memorize a random string of thousands of 1s and 0s.”
CBC For Sale?
Is the Canadian government thinking about selling off the CBC to the private sector? “It’s a billion dollars we have put towards CBC television and we witness direct competition between a public broadcaster and the private sector.”
Suing The Fake Movie Critic
“A California appeals court has ruled a proposed class action filed by filmgoers against Sony Pictures Entertainment can go to trial over the studio’s admission it had created a fake critic to plug its movies. A dissenting Justice Reuben Ortega called the lawsuit “a farce” and “the most frivolous case with which I have ever had to deal.”
Norman Mailer At 81 – Deaf But Not Blind
Norman Mailer is 81 now. He walks with canes. And last week, he “complained lightheartedly to the kids around him that listening to the world through a hearing aid is somewhat surreal. He apologized in advance if his answers didn’t jibe with their questions. ‘I’m deaf,’ he said pleasantly. ‘I’m damn deaf’.”
Philadelphia Orchestra Cuts Costs, Boosts President’s Pay
The Philadelphia Orchestra recently cut its music director’s salary, asked soloists to reduce their fees, asked employees to take a week’s unpaid vacation, and fired seven employees in a cost-cutting move. All this while approving a $10,000-per-year raise for its president.
More Radio Stations Vow No Obscenity
More radio stations draft “zero tolerance” policies regarding “obscenity” on the air. “Emmis doubtless thinks this is a good idea. But that’s not why the company is making the declaration. Emmis is doing it because, like Infinity, Clear Channel and others, it has no choice. It’s the ID you have to flash at the door today if you don’t want potential problems with security.”
Nagano Takes Montreal
It’s official. The Montreal Symphony announces that Kent Nagano will be its new music director. “It is an extraordinary catch for both the MSO’s musicians and the city. Nagano has been touted as a potential successor to Daniel Barenboim at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and even Lorin Maazel at the New York Philharmonic.”