Fairly Symmetrical

As you can no doubt see, randomtree.org is back online following the move. The new apartment is working out quite well, though there's still a lot of work to be done. Sigh. More later… I want to exercise this nice connection a bit. ;)

Also via Instapundit, his TechCentralStation column on the Digital Rights Management bill:

For years now, I've been saying that the record industry's long-term legislative strategy had less to do with preventing copying than with sewing up the market to ensure that Big Entertainment companies won't have to worry about competition from independent artists. It looks like I've just been proven right.

The record companies are showing a definite trend here. If you look at this bill, and the way they handled royalties for Internet radio stations, it's increasingly obvious that copy protection etc isn't about protecting artists' incomes, or their intellectual property, or about the artists at all. It's about protecting the incumbent record companies from competition, about enforcing the status quo whatever the cost to the rest of us.

Via Instapundit:

Charles Dodgson writes about "plastic puppet" musical artists:

The nightmare scenario for this sort of music marketing is that what is actually turning people off isn't the dressing du jour on the industry's plastic puppets, but just that they are in fact plastic puppets, poured into a commercial mold formed entirely by record executives who are completely out of touch with their audience.