"We're finally where we belong."

Via Wizbangcc

Wow, That's A Responsive Campaign!

Just Monday I noted that Congressman Don Manzullo's campaign site was lacking even basic elements such as his bio as well as quickly accessible links to items such as Manzullo's energy plan.

Well, by Tuesday morning both of those items had been corrected. Now that is a responsive campaign! I'm sorry I wasn't able to mention it right when I noticed it Tuesday AM but I had to get to my specialist.

Having links to web based (non-pdf or word doc) information about policy and issues right on the front page and throughout campaign sites is a must for any campaign in 2008, pdf's and doc files are not web or mobile friendly as you are not always somewhere you can download the files.

Congressman Manzullo also has a presence on Youtube, here.
DKK

AP Update -- Foolishly Destroying A Brand

And you thought their PR on this subject couldn’t get any worse. Must be nice to have an exemption from the same federal fair use statute every other content provider in America is governed by.

The AP’s disharmony with bloggers may have only just begun, as the alternative it’s now offering to being served with takedown notices involves paying an up-front sum for excerpting online articles — as few as five words…

The pricing scale for excerpting AP content begins at $12.50 for 5-25 words and goes as high as $100 for 251 words and up. Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions enjoy a discounted rate.

This scale is likely only a temporary solution, as it raises a truckload of questions. For instance: Suppose a news source holds a press conference, and makes a statement to several attendees including an AP correspondent. Does the citation of that quote count as an excerpt of an AP story? What if Reuters cited the same quote? Or worse, what if Reuters cited the quote differently, and a blogger noticed the difference and excerpted both for comparison? If the AP citation turned out to be in error, would the blogger still owe?

Bloggers like Ace are now summarizing and refusing to link to news they can't find elsewhere.
DKK
Hot Air -- AP wants $2.50 a word to excerpt its stories now!

Internet Radio Fight -- Manzullo Pushes Solution

The creator of the nation’s largest Internet radio station, Pandora, visited with Congressman Don Manzullo this week to thank him and discuss the next steps in the fight to save online music from its impending demise.

Tim Westergren, who launched the free Internet radio station in 2005 and now boasts more than 11 million listeners, came to Manzullo’s office earlier this week to discuss the importance of the Internet Radio Equality Act (HR 2060), which Manzullo and Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced last year. The bill, which maintains the strong bipartisan support of 149 cosponsors, would vacate a Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) decision last year to triple royalty rates Internet radio stations must pay and instead put the rates at parity with satellite and cable radio.

(...)

Representative Don Manzullo

I wrote about this here on my LifeTrek blog when the bill was first introduced.

DKK

Man Formerly Known As Prince -- Now Known As Jerk, If Known At All

Or, how to screw up your reputation and alienate the business center of the entertainment world -- the internet.

Here is the story. Prince has spent quite a bit of time and energy cleansing the internet of anything that included his music. You may remember he attempted to get a YouTube video removed because one of his songs was playing in the background when parents were filming their toddler.

Recently he had a concert and he performed a cover of Radiohead's "Creep". Someone took a cell phone video and put it on YouTube with the inevitable result of being removed for violating DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998).

Thing is, the Radiohead guys, who own the song don't think it should have been pulled -- after all they own it:

All videos of Prince's unique rendition of Radiohead's early hit were quickly taken down, leaving only a message that his label, NPG Records, had removed the clips, claiming a copyright violation. But the posted videos were shot by fans and, obviously, the song isn't Prince's.

In a recent interview, Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince's performance from a text message and thought it was "hilarious." Yorke laughed when his bandmate, guitarist Ed O'Brien, said the blocking had prevented him from seeing Prince's version of their song.

"Really? He's blocked it?" asked Yorke, who figured it was their song to block or not. "Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment."

Yorke added: "Well, tell him to unblock it. It's our ... song."

(...)

The dispute was an interesting twist in debates over digital ownership, held between two major acts with differing views on music and the Internet. Radiohead famously released their most recent album, "In Rainbows," as a digital download with optional pricing. They also have a channel on YouTube.

When Prince performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., on April 26, he prohibited the standard arrangement of allowing photographers to shoot near the stage during the first three songs of his set. Instead, he had a camera crew filming his performance.

(Associated Press)

Prince removed his official website from the internet last September and has been unrelenting about removing all images, video, or audio traces online. In the process he has turned many fans into former fans! Shunning the internet is a strange business model for the music industry -- maybe it is some strange version of the Cartman business model (Episode "Cartmanland" -- Cartman denied people access to an amusement park so he could ride the rides without a line and people lined up to get in!)

DKK

Comcast Down Two Nights -- All Night!

Wow, two nights with Comcast down. Last night it was not only the internet but the TV as well.

They had two trucks, a van, and a mobile lab/repair trailer with it's own generator and everything right down the road.

Last night they claimed it was scheduled maintenance, but as I asked them, "Since Comcast took over from Insight you have sent me 3 messages on the box about PPV WWE events, but you can't send me a message telling me you're going to shut me down all night?"

I know of no one who has been happy with Comcast since the transition earlier this year from Insight. Don't get me wrong, their customer service is friendly, but so far the internet is slow and unreliable.

Lets hope last nights maintenance takes care of that!

Update:
Wow, it looks like Comcast had their entire Email system hacked last night:
Blogosphere: Comcast Web Site, Email Hacked
Cable giant Comcast had its Web site and possibly some subscriber email accounts hacked early Thursday morning, according to numerous reports online.
DKK