The Copyright Royalty Board is proposing a large increase in the performance royalty rates for “non-interactive streaming services”. This means web radio, cable radio and satellite radio will pay more to SoundExchange in royalties. Presumably those royalties eventually dribble down to the artists getting “played”, but it’s never that simple. It’s a little complex and difficult to understand but let me see if I can describe what is in the offing.

From the CBC of course:
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2007/04/03/griffin-poetry-shortlist.html

Ok, I know this doesn’t have much to do with Librarian Activism, but isn’t poetry an “alternative” media at this point in time? Especially when it is really good poetry? I mean, if I have a choice between reading about Keith Richard’s snorting his dad’s ashes (hoax?) and a genuine amazing […]

I haven’t had a chance to read this, but here is Google’s explanation of the Katrina images from the Google blog:

About the New Orleans imagery in Google Maps and Earth
Monday, April 02, 2007 at 6:50:00 AM
Posted by John Hanke, Director, Google Maps/Local/Earth

This weekend, there has been a lot of discussion about our imagery of […]

Seems that Google has been engaging in some creative geography by replacing pictures of New Orleans post-Katrina with pre-hurricane images. It seems pretty obvious that this is just a tad unethical and maybe whitewashes the destruction just a little? I’m not too worried about a complete lack of information about what happened at that time, […]

I don’t know if it is because Digital Rights Management is just such a non-issue (really: what CAN’T be cracked?!) or if I’m just so behind the curve it passed me by, but this news release sure seems under reported right now. Of course, Apple has been calling for an end to music DRM for […]

There’s nothing fun about this week’s post but it’ll likely get your blood boiling. A recent MetaFilter post explained how Circuit City was losing too much money so their brilliant idea to improve the bottom line was to fire their top earning employees (3400 of them) and then offer to re-hire them at a […]

Some talented and tech savvy lawyers crafted a letter that led to theRecording Industry Association of America voluntarily withdrawing a malicious lawsuit .

Here’s a quote:

“Your client take the position that my middle-aged, conservative clients should speculate regarding the identity of persons your clients’ claim used their AOL account to download […]

An editorial in the Toronto Star today speaks to lifting secrecy from the medical realm. (To me) this is a call to arms … especially within a publicly funded health care system. (Duh).

Here are some of the highlights:

1. 23 000+ ppl per year die in Canadian hospitals due to adverse events […]

Pretty harsh review of Windows Vista’s faults, focusing on its emphasis on DRM over everything else including usability and user satisfaction.

(via Reddit)

- JH

It seems the BC Legislature library “is closing down indefinitely for a seismic upgrade, and there is widespread concern it won’t reopen,” according to the Victoria Times Colonist. The article explains that layoffs are expected but that jobs will be found for the folks who are in fact laid off — doesn’t sound like all […]