The NYTs has a series of articles on the “MGM vs. Grokster”:http://www.abanet.org/publiced/preview/briefs/march05.html#mgm peer-to-peer file-sharing case. Oral arguments will be heard tomorrow in the Supreme Court.

“A Supreme Court Showdown for File Sharing”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/technology/28grokster.html?8br
“File - Sharing Case Worries Indie Artists”:http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-File-Sharing-Artists.html
“When David Steals Goliath’s Music”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/opinion/28mon1.html

It’s interesting that some recording companies like V2 Records are taking advantage of peer-to-peer networks to promote their artists. With the decline of MTV (they basically don’t show videos anymore) and mainstream radio (they play the same 40 songs over and over) as promotional outlets, it is nearly impossible for independent labels to gain publicity. As Andy Gershon, president of V2 Records (home to artists such as the White Stripes and Moby), notes:

bq.. The cat is so far out of the bag and so far gone that it’s pointless to keep fighting it. I might as well make as many people fans of our music, whether they illegally download it or not.

p. Regarding peer-to-peer networks Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy adds :

bq.. “I look at it as a library. I look at it as our version of the radio,” Tweedy said. “It’s a place where basically we can encourage fans to be fans and not feel like they’re being exploited, which is basically what the whole industry is geared to do.”

Tweedy encourages fans to tape Wilco shows and has distributed tracks over the Internet for free months before releasing them on CDs.

He agrees artists should be compensated, but “you try to encourage people to feel more like a patron of the arts instead of a consumer.”

p. It will be very interesting to see how the Court will rule on this case.

Today’s NYTs “New Economy”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/28/technology/28newcon.html article, referenced a Goldman Sachs survey of corporate spending. The survey noted that:

bq.. Technology looks to be firmly in the cyclical category for now.

p. The gist of the Times story was that this was too narrow of a view of “technology” (i.e., _just_ corporate spending). The article sited technologies that might not be captured in the survey such as: “Medsphere”:http://www.medsphere.com/ (a start-up that hopes to bring open-source clinical systems to hospitals), “Epocrates”:http://www2.epocrates.com/products/ (a handheld-based drug, disease and diagnostics tool for doctors) and social software such as wikis and Flickr.

Information technology is clearly much more pervasive than a corporate-spending figure would suggest.

I follow Sony. What their new products look like, what their strategies are, etc. You have to if you’re into business and technology. They are too important of a brand not to (as is Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Google, etc.). However, I don’t like Sony. Did I mention that I don’t like Sony. In fact, I really, really go out of my way to _not_ ever purchase a Sony product. The reason? Standards.

Sony tries to _force_ standards on the market. Take “MemoryStick”:http://www.memorystick.com/en/, Sony’s flash memory product. I’ll never buy _any_ “product”:http://www.us.playstation.com/psp.aspx that uses it. I am friggin’ sick and tired of having to purchase first, Compact Flash, then SD and now with my Audiovox Smartphone, miniSD. Pretty soon it will be nanominihypersmallSD. Make it stop!

One way to make this stop is to never buy anything from Sony.

“Justice”:http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/16/business/16ebbers.html.

P.S. Part one “here.”:http://www.zoinger.com/archives/2005/03/04/09.34.13/

Give me a break. I’ve been reading a few pieces on the trial of Mr. Ebbers lately (I’d link to them, but they were in the WSJ which is pay to play). This is a guy who cut out free coffee and water to save $4 million, but yet knew ‘nothing’ of the huge account fraud. Whatever. If he doesn’t get set away for a long time, something is wrong with the system (well, obviously there is since folks like Ms. Former HP Boss can make over $45 while getting fired for running the company into the “ground”:http://www.zoinger.com/archives/2005/02/15/14.22.30/).