CRTC? What's That?

Yet another reason why the CBC needs to be reinvigorated and asked to produce more Canadian content. The CRTC doesn't regulate the internet, and as other's have found before the CRTC can't effectively regulate the internet. The internet has no borders. Unless Canada is going to go the way of China and put parental controls on what is and isn't available online, broadcasters who use the internet for distribution will be able to effecively ignore anything the CRTC says. CTV has figured this out, but it appears that those who control the pursestrings for the CBC are a little behind the curve.

If you're going to die, get the money up front

According to the CBC, a CRIA report indicates that people who download music, also tend to buy more music. While this has generated some talk on the blogs. It is really no suprise to anyone, except perhaps that the same thing found to be true elsewhere is true in Canada as well. Alot of studies have shown the same thing.

So does the recording industry just not get it? Are they stupid? Absolutely not. You don't get that rich and keep the money that long by being dumb. They are just greedy. They know that all of their law suits and lobbying is alienating their customers, but it doesn't matter. They need the money now because, I believe, the recording industry gets what most of the broadcast industry does not. The days of the middle man are nearly over. In 10-15 years (or less) people will only distribute what they create. There will be no need for syndication, or affiliates to rebroadcast because with EOD (Everything on Demand) there will be no need. Why sell to a distributor who will then sell it to customers when you can charge less, make more and distribute (everything from books to music to episodic 'television' to feature films) directly to your customers - anywhere in the world? That's why the recording industry needs it's money now and that's why the CBC must soon produce most, if not all, of it's own programming if it hopes to survive.

Fixed Now?

Apologies to those of you who've been visiting pbca recently. The feed aggregator wasn't feeling well and things weren't loading as they should. All should be right now though. Please let me know if it's not.

Major League Baseball vs. Free Speech

I've always loved baseball, perhaps it's because I played it so much as a child, or because it's arrival coincides with the beginning of spring. In any case it's one of the few sports I can really get into, and after this years spending spree by the Blue Jays, I was really looking forward to the start of the season on April 4.

However, a dark cloud has arisen. In a move that would make even the recording industry blush, MLB has filed suit claiming that the names and statistics of it's players are intellectual property and cannot be used without their permission and without paying fees to MLB.

Now, in this particular case, the argument is over fantasy baseball. There are people out there making money off of running fantasy baseball leagues and MLB wants a cut of the pie. Regardless of the merits of that particular argument. A win in this case by MLB would set a dangerous precedent. Claiming that the names and numbers associated with any company are intellectual property could irrevocably harm a free press.

Imagine if newspapers had to pay royalties to Major League Baseball, or the NHL to publish statistics. Now imagine if the names and numbers associated with Wal-Mart Inc., or Toronto Hydro, or Alliance Atlantis fell under the same protection. Imagine if you couldn't write a movie review or report on business matters without having to obtain the permission of, and pay royalties to the companies involved. Any private company, their officers, employees or products would be essentially off limits to the media - except by permission, and you can be sure that that permission would be withheld if there was a risk of anything negative, or unflattering coming forward.

This may seem a bit of a stretch, but the current MLB suit is the first step down a slippery slope. Intellectual property certainly needs no more protection or revenue streams than it already has.

Everyone's An Editor: The New Feed

Find something exciting? Good Article? Good band? Video? Podcast? Blog? Event? Resaurant? Product? Whatever... as long as it's on the web, it will work. Simply use del.icio.us to tag it 'for: pbca' and it will show up in the feed for everyone to see.

The basic idea is that if you find something interesting but don't have time to post about it, don't have much to say about it that it doesn't say for itself, or if you just want to give something a little extra promotion you can simply tag it and everyone who subscribes to the community feed, or looks at it on publicbroadcasting.ca will see your item.