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 Glasses and Electric Tape: A Global Richard Patrick Conspiracy 01/10/02 | The Fun and Torture of Making a Website 1/30/02 | Rich's Wonderful Way With Words...Or Well, the Mystery of Some of Them. 3/3/02 | Proud of Being An Amalgamut...3/8/02 | Rich and His Immature Ideas....3/16/02 | Boy Bands and Their Mind Controlling Ways(ARewriteofaPreviousRambleThatIStupidlyDeleted..) 3/24/02 | Family Organizations Who Think Way Too Much of Themselves and Family and What I Think They Should Do | The History of the Rich Facts 4/10/02 | LazyChristianReviewersandTheirLackofComprehendableAnswerstoQuestionsAboutTheirSloppyReviews4/18/02 | The Rich Fact Webmistress and Her Clumsiness 4/20/02 | Are You Lucky Enough to Meet Filter? Here's Some Tips You Might Need. 4/26/02 | Frank's New Look and That Guy Wearing the "I Am Richard Patrick" Shirt. 5/1/02 | Happy Birthday Richie!!!! Gee, you're getting OLD! 5/10/02 | Copyright CDs and You. Oh and that Guy From Nine Inch Nails' Birthday. 5/17/02 | Record Labels and How They Function And Farewell to the X-Files 5/22/02 | Where the FUCK is the MP3?????!!!!??? 5/31/02 | The Fred Durst Controversy 6/5/02 | Thank You Richard 6/7/02 | As the Shit Hits the Fan, remember this. . .6/10/02 | Beavis and Butthead Watch Take A Picture 6/14/02 | Where Do We Go From Here??? Let Filter Take You There. 6/21/02 | Bananas and Tea!! Rich is NOT Demanding! As If! 6/28/02 | Because I'm bored and feel the need to write about it. 7/5/02 | So I Still Have Nothing To Talk About. Okay, I Do. 7/11/02 | Pre Concert Rambles and Funny Stories About KKCK's Crazy Suckiness 7/18/02 | The RFW Gets Lucky In Iowa. . .A RFW Concert Tale 7/26/02 | Extra, Extra READ All About IT!!! 8/2/02 | The Rockline Files 8/9/02 | The Lost Cs: Conan and Carson. . 8/17/02 | The RFW Goes to Get Her Learn On 8/24/02 | How YOU can help Filter to do their job BETTER 8/31/02 | Wanna know what would be cool??? No really! Wanna know?? 9/7/02 | Walkie Talkie Mayhem. . .9/15/02 | Stations, what other stations?? The RFW Rants About Radio Hell that is KKCK. 9/21/02 | Another Pre Filter Concert Ramble by the RFW 9/28/02 | It's Been One Of Those Weeks 10/5/02 | Get Well Richie!! 10/5/02 | Would you look at THAT! A New Consider This! 10/26/02 | The RFW Wants You!!!! 11/9/02
Copyright CDs and You. Oh and that Guy From Nine Inch Nails' Birthday. 5/17/02

Most of us have seen the debate of copyright CDs these days, but how does this affect you, the consumer? Do the copyright CDs benefit you or the big record labels? Is it in the best interest of the listening public to copy proof a CD so that consumers who do pay for their CDs can no longer back them up? Will the next movement in protecting the major labels be, as the fate of Internet radio has suffered, a possible stoppage to even home recording all together? Perhaps these are questions someone should ask, no matter how small their voice(ie: me).

The main problem is with the newest techonology(technology Filter may consider using on the Amalgamut and are using currently on the promotion copies of the new album.)is that it affects playback. This technology is called watermarking. "A technology to prevent consumers from backing up is watermarking, this means that the digital signal of audio will contain a signal that marks it as an copy."(CD Freaks) Essentially this means that if you copy a watermarked CD, the audio will have strange sounds and degraded audio. This means if you would like to make a back up CD for everyday use, it would be virtually impossible, let alone to upload the album.

I may agree to a point with Rich in his stance against MP3s, but I think that preventing all home recording is rediculous. "Millions of people around the country will be absolutely infuriated when they can no longer engage in the harmless practice of home recording," says Representative Rick Boucher (D-Virginia), who is considering introducing legislation to stop the technology"(Cohen). That's right, a representative in the House declares home recording "harmless". To think that simply making a copy off a CD that has been purchased to back it up as people have done since CDs dawned, and longer with tapes, home recording is nothing new and is 'harmless". The big stink, as always lately, is the Napster-like sytems."So if any of these copy protection schemes prevent that child from playing Charley Pride or anything else, the fault is not with the drive, the fault lies with overweening executives of the record companies, who naturally assume that everyone is a pirate and every CD sold is in danger of being ripped to a hard drive and distributed on the 'net"(Starrett).

Not only is there a problem with homerecording issues, the technology fails in players such as CD ROMS and CD players with the similar technology as CD ROMS. "Car stereos, for instance, usually contain CD-ROM drives, since they are less prone to skipping. The new CDs would not be playable on these systems.And even some normal CD drives are sure to be confused by the copy-protected disks: The world's 2.2 billion CD players boast a bewildering variety of technical specifications." Many people these days(not including me, I'm going to try for a tape player, old school as it is) do have CD players in their vehicles. With such technology in newer CDs this would make this common practice impossible."[Copy-protected discs] won't play on a computer, your car stereo , your DVD player or your Sony Discman," says Hefner. "They won't play in your high-end stereo, either, because it's based on the same technoloy that's in your computer. There are big problems here, and [the labels] aren't warning people"(Alternative Press 166 Dollars and Sense).

Then there is the question of what happens when the technology fails or does not work. "If I bought a CD, took it home and it didn't play on my CD player, I'd be pissed. That alone seems to be reason enough not to have copyright protection." The fact that the CDs do not play in regular CD players is a main concern. "It will involve two electronic watermarks, which will be embedded in a song or piece of music. One watermark will be indestructible, and will identify the song. The other will be fragile: if the song is compressed (which it has to be in order to be sent), it will disappear. If the song has only the robust watermark, it will not play on devices sold by any of the big consumer-electronics companies, because the device will assume that it has been compressed"(Siren Songs). Bascially this means that if you happen to damage one or the other watermark or both, your CD will no longer function. Now that means since you couldn't back up the disc, it would no longer play and therefore, your only option would be to buy. Seems unfair if you ask me. Not only may this hurt the consumers who wish to enjoy the music they buy any way they please, but this will ultimately hurt the musicians. How? Well, if people are discouraged from purchasing CDs since this techonology makes them more difficult to listen, they will lose money. The big label? For all their whining about decline in sales, they probably won't feel the hit nearly as hard if at all.

"Perhaps the industry should be directing some of that energy toward creating products that would appeal to digitally-savvy consumers: less-expensive albums that could be created on the fly with professionally produced album notes, lyrics and packaging, for example"(Newman). Not only should they do this, but they should consider the price gouging they have already in place. All of us have wanted a CD and gone to buy it, and have found the price incredibly high. I'm not sure paying $16-30 is worth the trouble. If they're concerned about piracy, perhaps lowering the price would solve most of their problems. My last CD that I recently purchased (Nine Inch Nails Still) was only $13. Cheap for a NIN album, but the live portion of that release cost me $17. Rediculous. I'm not sure what The Amalgamut will be priced at, but it will be a bit high, especially since Reprise is a large label, not to mention what retailers put on to the cost. Of course, if I was stupid to buy the new album at the big music store in my town here(yes, we have one store with access to music other than Spears) I'd end up paying triple what I would at Walmart. It's another problem to consider in this whole debate of piracy and CD sales. Lower the price and they will come.

Frankly, if they fix this problem, I believe they won't need to worry about copy-proofing CDs. Why? Because if the price is lower, they won't need it. Sure, there will ALWAYS be piracy, but let's face it: piracy has been going on long before the Internet. People aren't patient, nor do they take the hard way when the easy route is right in front of them. It's human nature. Either you make people more inclinded to copy by making it harder to do so, or you make the problem less of one by making it obsolete to copy. Why copy when CDs are affordable. Most fans wish their artist to make money so they can continue, since that is true, rather than copy-proof, lower the price. It's only common sense.

CD Freaks <http://www.cdfreaks.com/document.php3?Doc=48&Page=3>

Cohen, Warren. "The Day the (Pirated) Music Died."

"Dollars and Sense: Who Feels the Effects of Copy-Protected CDs?" Alternative Press.

Newman, Heather. <http://www.freep.com/money/tech/newman5_20020305.htm>.

Starrett, Bob. "Are Copyprotected CDs Universally Playable?(Industry Trend or Event)." EMagazine. June

insanity.jpg

"Oh GOD, I AM getting old!!"

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Now, after all of that serious stuff, let's have some fun!! Bet some of ya know it's that Nine Inch Nails guy's birthday. Yep! It's Trent's BIG DAY. And man, if we thought Rich was getting old, Trent is almost ancient! He'll be up there with Mick Jagger before we know it. Okay, okay, so that's an exaggeration. He's turning 37 this year. Lucky guy! Or, well, he was lucky until now!

Here's a few facts about Trent's birthday that you didn't know about. And guys, some of them are embarrassing!(Not only for him but for all of us.)

1. Bob Saget, that guy from Full House(where the damn Olson Twins came from) shares Trent's big day. Okay, so what if he had it first. I'm sure Trent's thrilled. I can see him now, putting in his fave Full House, because he likes Jesse so much. I betcha didn't know he's a closet Full House fan.

2. 1990 Falcon Crest ends On this day, the last episode of prime-time soap opera Falcon Crest airs. The show, which revolved around the doings at a California winery, ran for nearly nine years. (History Channel.com) Oh boy, I bet Trent cried over this one! I can see him watching soaps all the time. Oh the drama!

3. First he shares big things with Sharon Tate by moving into her house, now he shares his day with the SLA massacre! 1974 LAPD raid leaves six SLA members dead. What a lucky guy!

4. 1991 World Wide Web released on CERN machines. Oh boy! Mister MAC boy probably is happy about sharing a NET first!

5. 1973 Televised Watergate hearings opened, headed by North Carolina senator. Bet he was excited!! So boring. . .

6.1975 Mick Jagger punches a restaurant window, gets 20 stitches Lucky Trent, he shares his day with a silly move by Mick. Isn't he proud?

There ya have it. Trent's birthday in a nut shell. Be sure to pick on him for that Full House bit and if you would like to see another tribute to that guy from Nine Inch Nails, click the link:

http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/birthday02.html