www.simoncollier.ca

I sent this letter to info@cria.ca, help@puretracks.com, info@sonybmgmusic.ca, canada.webmaster@umusic.com, info@emimusic.ca and info@warnermusic.ca.

I like music a lot. I listen to it while I work in the office, while I write emails at home, while I drive, while I sit and read. It’s everywhere, and it’s a big part of my life.

I have been frustrated with the music industry since my early teens, though. It is releasing and overproducing variations of the same song time and time again, following a string of recipe hits, some more obvious than others (e.g. http://www.thewebshite.net/nickelback.htm).

Prices have been too high for a long time, especially for single tracks: around $10 in some cases, I might as well buy the album. Of course if I DO buy the album, a couple of tracks will be good while the remainder will be filler. (e.g. Eiffel 65, Chumbawamba.) In fact, I bought a string of poor albums that featured a couple of songs I liked, and several others I did not. I wasted a lot of money supporting someone else’s lifestyle or drug addiction, with very little in return.

Add to this that the blank CD’s and videos that I buy are subsidising an industry that has had it too easy, too long, and I become irate.

I was forced to live with the laziness of an industry with a product monopoly for years: we saw absolutely no real innovation since CD’s were invented, and even that “less expensive” technology saw no cost-savings for the consumer. For years I thought “wouldn’t it be great to walk into HMV, pick the songs I want, and have them copy them to a CD for me”. Despite the technology being readily available throughout the 90′s, that did not happen.

Then, a 15-year old kid with a PC and some spare time revolutionised the industry in a way never before known: he made it possible to share music across the internet, free of charge. It took a kid to come up with something that boardrooms full of overpaid graduates could not, something the industry appears to have resented since: Napster. Even when the popularity of this system was obvious, the technology was not embraced by the industry until the same kid recreated Napster in a “legal” form.

Feeling robbed, trapped and frustrated for years, the public voted with their feet and file-sharing became hugely popular incredibly fast. But more than that, it allowed people to experiment with artists they had previously not listened to (if you only have $20 to spend, you’ll stick with what you know: and that tends to be whatever the record industry pays radio stations to play).

Of course, then the industry acted like a spoiled child who had been bettered: it stomped it’s feet and cried.

Stomped it’s feet and shut down the teenager’s project, Napster.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/852283.stm

Cried that downloading is theft. (No, it’s not. http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/decisions/c12122003-b.pdf)
Cried that CD sales had plummeted (Pandering to box stores who only sell new releases will contribute to that, as will DVD sales rising and music-listening giving way to other activities like TV and gaming.)
Cried that less money was being made (again, pandering to box stores will contribute to that (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/6558540/thekillers?pageid=rs.Home&pageregion=single1&rnd=1097616001120&has-player=unknown), as will releasing few new releases when your revenue now relies on new releases more than ever (http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/article.asp?section_id=2&article_id=453).)
Cried that Canadian artists are suffering (No, they’re not.)

Still though, I felt bad, so I paid for my downloaded music, if only to make myself feel better. I visited Puretracks.com and bought a few albums. They downloaded, I listened to them, made a copy for my car, and was quite content.

I got an iPod for Christmas. I was very excited, I felt like a little kid. I immediately moved my MP3 collection to my iPod: or, I tried. Interestingly, the MP3′s I paid for would not play on the iPod because the license format is incompatible. I later learned that files downloaded from iTunes will not play on Windows Media Player. That was infuriating: I tried to do “the right thing”, and suffered for it.

Then I replaced my old PC and bought a shiny new Dell. I copied all of my files across and… Oh, new hardware, I had to ask Puretracks to reset my profile so I could re-download all of my own music. So I did, and I could listen again.

Sort of. I was reading in the front room and tried to play my legitimate, paid-for music collection on my Media Centre. Of course I can’t, because it doesn’t understand the license file.

And does this licensing stop me copying it and sharing it? No, I can simply burn it to CD, then copy it back to the computer and share it with whatever software I choose.

What has been accomplished by this licensing system? You have lost another very frustrated customer.

I will not live like this. I will not pay for a product if the “less ethical” alternative is easier to use. I will not be tied to my computer like this. Can you imagine buying a CD at HMV and being told that I can only play it on one CD player, and if I want to use another one I have to take it back to them first?

That’s insane. It’s prohibitive. It’s not worth the bother.

I will use a system that guarantees all tracks work on all of my systems. I will avoid file format and licensing format compatibility issues. I will download whatever I like, whether or not it’s released here.

I will move to file-sharing.

This is a well-written, thought-provoking and hilarious letter written by Crystal, published in the Fort Saskatchewan Record. It seems that it’s usually down to Crystal to “stir things up”, what will Fort Saskatchewan do now?

After living in Fort Saskatchewan for the better part of my life and, over the years, becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of services and amenities, the steady regression of the political climate, and, most infuriating, the widespread arrogance and ignorance of a good portion of the community, it was time to say goodbye.

I simply cannot believe in this time of mass information and public awareness, Fort Saskatchewan continues to be oblivious to the very obvious issues right in its own backyard. I am not sure whether to be saddened or enraged but what I am is incredulous.

Of particular interest to me was the fairly recent fuss over affordable housing in the community. I mean, it wasn’t even a true affordable housing initiative that was being proposed, you know the type, or perhaps, most of you don’t. True to form affordable housing is for the working poor and yes, they do live in your community. It is housing for those who often cannot afford basics let alone the money to provide a down payment on a house. It’s pro-rated and income based. Yes, that’s right, it’s rental property.

The last idea proposed by a builder in Fort Saskatchewan to build “affordable” housing was simply smaller lots and attached row housing. Instead of the average $200, 000 a person could get a home for closer to $150 000. Are you serious???!!!! This is your idea of providing safe, affordable housing to lower income families?

But wait, I forgot, Fort Saskatchewan does not have these kinds of “problems.” It does not have working poor families who could utilize such a program. The children of these families do not attend school with your children, play on sports teams with them. The food bank does not help feed these families. The breakfast programs in the schools do not help them learn. The reduced rate social clubs and sports programs do not fund them. No, your community does not have this problem. I have never, in my life, seen this magnitude of ignorance in action. It’s absolutely terrifying to watch. Ignoring an issue does not make it disappear, although, that seems to be the motto of City Council.

Could I have done more? Yes. One can always do more. Am I perfect? Not even close, but I am aware. Fort Saskatchewan has some very amazing members of their community. It has lovely parks and green spaces, it has plenty of great things going for it. What it doesn’t have, is a governing council that cares one iota about the growing number of a lower socio-economic class of individuals and families that, if given the right tools, could become an integral and positive part of the community. If they existed that is.

Crystal Kean
Edmonton AB

As of December this year, large stores will be required to provide better labelling for food they produce. I’m really happy about this because lately I’ve been trying to eat more healthy foods, but it’s tough to know what foods are better when they don’t need to list half of their ingredients.

I want to know ALL of the colours and preservatives “included” with my purchase. I want to know what percentage of the meat is fat. I want to know whether I’m eating cow bum or cow bum-hole. This information will help me decide whether or not to buy a product. I’ll pay more if I know I’m getting the healthier food.

I don’t see why this should be a problem for stores anyway. So the cheaper foods (presumably) will have more arseholes and elbows from force-fed cattle in it than the expensive “happy cow-bum” alternatives, but they will still be cheaper. And if people stop buying the cheaper products? Then those companies will change their recipe, use better ingredients, and charge more. At the end of the day, the customer chooses what they want, it’s not like companies can’t adapt.

Dissapointingly, it doesn’t sound like stores will need to list which body parts are used (for example, in sausages), but a fat percentage and vitamins listing is a good start. At least I’ll know how much fat is in my cheap pig lips.

The new labelling laws will coming into effect this December for large stores, and next December for smaller stores. Here’s a link to some pretty Government posters: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/label-etiquet/nutrition/education/cons-res/index_e.html

I did a little bit of research online today and I found out some interesting facts (or, interesting to me anyway):

The descriptions on the minced beef labels DO mean something. By Canadian law:

“Extra-lean” ground beef means no more than 10 percent fat content based on weight.

“Lean” ground beef means no more than 17 percent fat content based on weight.

“Medium” ground beef means no more than 23 percent fat content based on weight.

“Regular” ground beef means no more than 30 percent fat content based on weight.

(Reference: http://www.womenshealthmatters.ca/centres/cardio/living/nutrition.html)

Superstore was fined last year for lying about the fat content in their meat. They were sued on 7 counts following a random inspection of several stores across the country, fined $10,000 per count.

Ah, yes, the evil corporations. Even the sheep nostrils are lied about.

What kind of incompetent, insincere, uncaring bastard would allow the devestation in New Orleans to get this bad?

I know natural disasters are inevitable, I know that “shit happens” and people are killed en masse and it’s terrible but unavoidable. But this is different.

Those that were killed during the storm, it’s a very sad situation and I know it must be devastating for the families and friends of those victims. But somehow you can rationalise it. It’s nature. Nature can be powerful and dangerous.

But everything that has happened after the fact, that is the fault of someone. It’s easy to blame Bush, because he’s the leader of the country and Commander-in-Chief. It’s easy to blame him because he got his country into a war that has required hundreds of thousands of soldiers to be out of the country, with helicopters and food rations and bridging equipment and boats that would have been very useful in New Orleans. It’s easy to blame Bush because the storm was predictable: while the effects were not expected to be so extreme, some man-power could have been sent in advance of the storm. It’s easy to blame Bush because he did not ask neighbouring countries for help quickly, likely because of his own arrogance because I see no reason to assume he had it “under control”. It’s easy to want to blame him because he didn’t cut his holiday short to deal with this mess.

Actually, they are all excellent reasons to blame Bush. I think I will.

I look after computers for a living. In the big scheme of things, not world-altering, but I do my thing and I get paid for it. However, I know that if I was on holiday and the servers went down, or all the data was lost, even though lives would not be threatened nor homes ruined, I would still suspend my vacation and deal with it. Why? It’s my job.

For someone to “lead” a country but not recognise a catastrophe like this as being just cause for an early end to a holiday, it suggests they should probably not be in a position to affect too many lives.

For the good of the world, I hope he is not re-elected again.

To see some of the devastation, install Google Earth and look at New Orleans. Follow this link for snapshots: http://earth.google.com/katrina.html

Ooh, and I’m not the only one to think this. Yay.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4211320.stm