Land-o-Links

The last couple of days have been chock full of music related news. As I may have mentioned before, Slashdot is one of the main sources for "geek news", and it's pretty much required daily surfing for me. But enough background--on with the show!

First up, we have this poll in the Consumerist that ranked the RIAA as the worst company in America for 2007, defeating even Halliburton. The University of Wisconsin has decided to fight back, asking the RIAA to pay for wasting the school's time. If I had a nickel for everyone who has ever wasted my time... Alas, the poor RIAA can't seem to get a break! In this blog, "Recording Industry vs The People", they report that the RIAA has been ordered to turn over its attorneys' billing records in an effort to determine whether the fees are reasonable. I have no idea what the result of this will be, but exposing these guys to the blinding light of public scrutiny is surely going to be bad for them, and entertainment for one and all. But wait! There's more! Here is yet another case involving "a divorced mother of five, [who] was sued in 2005 after MediaSentry, the RIAA's investigative arm, found music in a shared folder under an IP that [the woman's] ISP said was assigned to her account at that time. [She] denied any knowledge of the alleged file-sharing, but the RIAA pressed ahead with the case."

So things may not be going the RIAA's way lately, but surely the music industry has some better news to report! Not so fast. Apparently, CD sales are in the shitter, down 20% in Q1 '07. (Here I have linked to the Slashdot article, as the WSJ link requires login.) But there is a silver lining here: "Diminishing CD sales means that you don't have to sell as many to get on the charts." SWEET! I'm rockin' the top 40 baby!

This is not music news, but it is the creepiest thing I have read in quite a while, about the FBI's misuse of US Patriot Act "national security letters". Oh well, I guess that link puts me on the permanent bad list. Might as well go surf politics at Daily Kos.

Lastly, I know I promised to announce our new BitWorks Music artist this week, but I'm still waiting for him to send me more info about himself. Come on dude, your fans await!