Posts by Finn Higgins

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  • Hard News: Another nail in the coffin of…,

    Robbery, sometimes I do have to question your ability to read what people have written on this subject over and over again.

    There is no superior DRM design, because the idea of DRM is a specification for a problem that cannot be solved without completely re-engineering the modern PC. It cannot be done, because PCs are not designed to keep secrets from their owners. A PC that did keep secrets from its owner could probably be designed, but it would cost more to buy and be worth less to consumers.

    Again, it's trying to compete with something that people actually like by putting "worse and more expensive" on the table as an alternative. Markets don't work like that.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Another nail in the coffin of…,

    Robbery, you keep asserting that everybody just wants to steal - but one of the examples I gave above (AllOfMP3) actually involved people putting their hands in their pockets and paying up. They aren't an acceptable solution because they pocket the artist's share due to some dubious Russian legal grey areas, but they were actually offering a service that the major labels have never bothered to develop: A volume-based DRM-free download service, coupled with an iTunes-like massive catalogue.

    Want it cheap? Buy it in a heavily compressed lossy format. Want it in top-notch quality? Pony up and pay for the extra download. And people went there and paid money, in quite some numbers. All that revenue was lost because the industry left competing on quality to services that ripped off the artists, while they instead tried to compete with regulation and software that took control of computers away from their owners.

    There's all kinds of pricing and delivery models for music that have never been tried for legal services. File sharing? Nope. Quality-based pricing? Nope. DRM-free music? Just being tried, ten years after everybody got used to getting it free on Napster.

    You most definitely can compete with free, but you can't compete with free and better. It's a bit rich to complain that none of the majors have found a successful digital business model in the 10 years since Napster when you can't point to a single service that actually competed with the illegal digital alternatives on quality of service delivered, or with CDs on price in a way that realistically reflected the differential in distribution costs. It's a bit like trying to sell three-week old rotten vegetables in a fancy package and then complaining that all your customers have buggered off to the market down the road. It doesn't mean that selling packaged vegetables isn't a viable business model - it just means that you're crap at it.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Another nail in the coffin of…,

    its been a few years now, napster was 1998 wasn't it? that's ten years and no realistic solid model. (isn't the messiah due to return too sometime?)

    That's because every time somebody's offered what customers actually want (Napster, Kazaa, AllOfMP3 etc) it's been deemed a threat by the industry and sued to hell and back, and the artists have never made a dime off it. The absence of equally good competing services has been something of an obvious omission from the attempts at building a working digital business model, no?

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • 08 Internet NZ: Where now?,

    Rage Against The Machine are not awesome

    No, I disagree. Rage Against The Machine should inspire awe in all, even if it's just awe at how long grown men can project such an amazingly sustained blast of adolescent political angst. Plus they've got groove.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Monster Weekend,

    I think they probably did, as the two bands were originally scheduled at different times, until Tom Morello wanted more time between his acoustic set and the main Rage Against The Machine act. Or so I heard.

    They should have just cancelled him. Hell, why did they even book him? That was awful, quite literally the worst thing I've ever seen at a gig I've paid more than $5 for. We were taking refuge from the heat and Grinspoon up at Billy Bragg and caught the start of his set. I'd figured out in advance that Tom Morello with an acoustic guitar would probably not be a good thing, but I didn't realise it would be quite that awful.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Notes for a Big Day Out,

    Apart from the young whippersnapper on the Stuff blog going on about Kool Keith "Whoever he is..."

    The Herald went one better, with their award to some guy called "DJ Octagon" praising his fake beard.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Monster Weekend,

    The problem with Dizzee Rascal was that there was a long stretch with no international acts in the stadium. So a large part of the crowd was on the upper level of the site, and they all decided at once that they'd go and see Dizzee. It's unfortunate, but stuff happens sometimes.

    I think my issue with the whole thing was the way that the BDO schedules virtually anything that doesn't have guitars in the boiler room. It's hard not to see that as second-class-citizen treatment, considering what a horrid venue that tent is even when it's not a scorching sunny day. I mean, the green/essential stage wasn't far away and they were just leaving that to shite like the Nightwatchmen. That was just awful, and wasted a perfectly good outdoor slot that could have been given to somebody with actual fans.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Monster Weekend,

    This was my first trip back to the BDO since 1997, and I can't say I'm expecting I'll go back again after Friday. Bjork and RATM's performances were amazing, but basically the rest of the day was ruined by the venue, scheduling, logistical arrangements and audience. I would have paid my entry cost four or five times over to see some of those acts (Dizzee Rascal and Bjork, particularly) given a venue and/or audience that wasn't just plain hideous. I'd rather see the BDO vanish, to be honest. It brings huge numbers of great bands out here and totally wastes them by making the environment so unpleasant that it's near-impossible to enjoy what's good about most of them.

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Another nail in the coffin of…,

    Just for another earplug recommendation, these are worth getting:

    Doc's ProPlugs

    Cheaper than the molded things, better than those horrible plastic spiky things or the lumps of foam that make you feel you just got off an international flight from Atlantis...

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Summer of Shadbolt,

    What kind of self-respecting web geek has a MySpace page these days? I thought it was all bands, women of dubious virtue and people wanting to get it on with one or the other...

    Geeks are all about building open social networks with microformats these days, surely?

    Wellington • Since Apr 2007 • 209 posts Report Reply

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