I’ve seen a book I wrote photocopied and on sale in a store in Hong Kong, and articles I wrote printed out and sold on Ebay. Some people have no shame, no concept of, or respect for, the work of others. Sadly, there’s very little that can be done aside from leading by example. If you like content, support the creator by paying fair price for it. If you find something that clearly rips off the creator, avoid it. Ripped off creators stop creating, and then you stop being able to enjoy their creations.

:: immonen illustrations inc :: » copyright theft, and how it hurts the ones you love

Yesterday, my pal Darren Di Lieto, from The Little Chimp Society website, emailed with some upsetting news. Turns out someone scraped the contents of his website and published it into a 350-page book being sold online for $100. You can read more on this post in Darren’s blog.

Thurrott is back to his unfortunate blog-baiting ways. (Which I guess work, right?). This, of course, in no way proves lock-in accusations about Apple. They’ve shown an eagerness to sell unlocked, DRM-free music. The recording industry, however, won’t allow it, preferring to give DRM-free music exclusively to iTunes’ competitors in an effort to offset Apple’s growing power base. Which is fine, and their right, and perhaps even a smart thing to do if you don’t care about your consumers (which, historically, they don’t).

So rather than play pundit and distort data, how about putting the lock-in accusations where they really belong, bokay Paul?

Amazon Gains Share of Shrinking Paid Music Market - SuperSite Blog

This proves the lock-in accusations about Apple are correct, of course, and that Apples strategy is both brilliant and effective. Were at the point where complaining because a song will only work on an iPod is just about as ludicrous as complaining that a software application is limited because it runs “only” on Windows as Apple promoters like David Pogue often do. The problem I have with iTunes content, however, has little to do with lock-in, though its a concern. Im more worried about quality most iTunes tracks are in a lowly 128 Kbps format. Compatibility/portability is secondary to that, and would be less of an issue if more music there was at least unprotected and could be transcoded to a better format with no loss in quality. Which is impossible with 128 Kbps tracks, period.

Serenity on BD would be shiny. Now please.

Blu-ray.com - Universal Releases Blu-ray Plans
Universal Studios Home Entertainment has released their plans for shifting their high definition focus from the defunct HD DVD format to Blu-ray. Beginning in July, Universal plans to release all new home video releases on Blu-ray day-and-date with their DVD releases.

NBC Wants Back on iPhone + More Money + Content Blocking

NBC is currently turning down $1.99 per 22-44 minutes of The Office or Battlestar Galactica. 2 bucks for content previously aired on FREE television, which can be easily, legally and much to their chagrin and previously failed efforts to block it taped or PVRd. Theyre turning down that EXTRA money because they want MORE of it, and they want iTunes to prevent you from, say, shifting that FREE content from your PVR or media center to your iPhone without paying MORE of that EXTRA money?

Dare I suggest the only reason the pirates exist is because of Big Medias greed and short sightedness. The minute they charge fair prices for fair use, given the low barrier of entry and elegance of use of iTunes interface, the piracy disappears for everyone but zealots. Never mind the marketing value of downloads alone — The Office being a prime example.

Looks interesting. Mammet is heavyweight, and he seems to have some actual MMA knowledge. Couture knows his stuff.

PS - Please don’t frak this up…

REDBELT || A SONY PICTURES CLASSICS RELEASE