] Eisner fired a salvo two years back, when, during
] congressional testimony about Internet piracy, he singled
] out Apple's "Rip, Mix, Burn" ad campaign, infuriating
] Jobs. Eisner has since apologized, but Jobs now deals
] mostly with Disney's more easygoing studio chief, Richard
] W. Cook. Still, the studios continue to maneuver. To keep
] Lasseter onboard, Jobs extended his contract and gave him
] a $1.25 million bonus. Disney signed Shrek producer John
] H. Williams to make three computer-generated films.

Talk is abound about how Jobs has a conflict of interest because he is head of a media company and a computer company. His media company makes computer based movies. If there is a conflict of interests, its likely because either the media industry is broken or the computer industry is broken. They _should_ be able to work together considering most hollywood movies are nothing more then special effects bonazas. Being this is Disney and Eisner we are talking about, I think the media industry is likely the broken one. If you take into account Disney's drop in quality over the past several years, it nails down that argument for me. Disney has not made anything I've been interested in seeing for a long time now. Walt has rolled over in his grave at least 10 times now.. Or his head has turned around in the pool of liquid nitrogen.. Whatever..

BW Online | Is Steve Jobs About to Move His Cheese?

] Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) yesterday (Jan. 28)
] reintroduced his Competition in Radio and Concert
] Industries Act, which he says will help consumers, small
] and independent radio station owners, and indie concert
] promoters by prohibiting anti-competitive practices in
] the radio and concert industries, Billboard Bulletin
] reports.
]
] The bill's introduction comes as the Senate Commerce
] Committee prepares to hold a hearing tomorrow on the
] problems of radio consolidation. Insiders say committee
] chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is expected to sign
] on as a co-sponsor of the bill soon.

Billboard.com - Competition in Radio and Concert Industries Act Reintroduced to Congress

Never mind any "artists rights" noise you might hear - examine the hypothetical numbers he includes toward the end of the article and you'll see exactly why the music industry hates MP3s.

This is actually a very old article.. I remember reading this several years ago. The numbers are dead up accurate. The only thing the Internet has done to change the numbers here is that there will be a web design and hosting company getting several grand.

As I blog this, its 3am, so I'm going to play Big Black and tell the neighbors they can all get fucked.

The Problem With Music

A brief article about your friend, and mine, the DMCA, and how it's perhaps the most anti-consumer legislation in the modern era.

DMCA: Ma Bell Would Be Proud

] In one skit, former Administrative Executive Peggy
] Menchaca played the part of Kinder as he received a
] budget report from then-President Jeff Skilling, who
] played himself, and Financial Planning Executive Tod
] Lindholm.
]
] When the pretend Kinder expressed doubt that Skilling
] could pull off 600 percent revenue growth for the coming
] year, Skilling revealed how it could be done.
]
] "We're going to move from mark-to-market accounting to
] something I call HFV, or hypothetical future value
] accounting," Skilling joked as he read from a script. "If
] we do that, we can add a kazillion dollars to the bottom
] line."

The video even contains a skit with both George Bush v1 and v1.9a.

Feds Want To See Enron Videotape

] Research by George Zieman gives the true reason for
] falling CD sales: the major labels have slashed
] production by 25 per cent in the past two years, he
] argues.
]
] After keeping the figure rather quiet for two years, the
] Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) says the
] industry released around 27,000 titles in 2001, down from
] a peak of 38,900 in 1999. Since year-on-year unit sales
] have dropped a mere 10.3 per cent, it's clear that demand
] has held up extremely well: despite higher prices,
] consumers retain the CD buying habit.

The Register: Missing RIAA figures shoot down 'piracy' canard

] All the world's products in one place.

Watch out PriceWatch, here comes Google.

Froogle Google

] Fast-food giant McDonald's Corp. [MCD.N] said on Friday
] it would shutter about 175 restaurants -- its second
] major round of closings in two years -- and slash up to
] 600 worldwide corporate positions, as it struggles to
] turn around its U.S. performance and trim worldwide
] costs.
]
] The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company said the actions
] will reduce fourth-quarter earnings by $350 million to
] $425 million, forcing its to miss its 2002 earnings
] forecast. The shortfall stems from the combined effect of
] the cost of closing stores and losing their revenues, a
] spokeswoman said.

Could people finally be figuring out that McDonalds not only sucks, but is downright dangerous to your health?

I still like their fries. Everything else they have sucks. But those fries. They gotta have some kinda MSG like drug in them that we don't know about...

ABCNEWS.com : McDonald's to Close 175 Restaurants