Tuesday in Seattle

Wrote to Rapidshare (again) for hosting illegal “Winter Rose” files. I really think that these companies should have to be liable for hosting copyrighted material and am well aware that Congress decided they don’t have to be. Well, it’s not the first or the last time Congress made a dumb decision. A bartender is responsible for how drunk a customer gets and can get fined large sums of money if he pours a drink for someone who is quite intoxicated… and yet internet companies can sell or host stolen goods without any responsibility whatsoever? In fact in many cases, if a copyright owner wants to protest, they have to write a letter and fax or mail it. That means while the thief can open a free account in under 10 minutes, the protest by a copyright owner can take weeks to get a response.
I know the argument is that they are just building the road and are not responsible for what people do on that road, but that’s just a cheap geek-excuse (geexcuse?). A road is never harmless. With a new road up the mountain China invaded Tibet. Without that road they would have never been able to move enough people and machinery to Tibet…
Why don’t we call it a fully automatic weapon instead of a road. Doesn’t sound so harmless anymore, does it? Ah, we are in the Wild West phase of the internet… comes with the territory.

Speaking of becoming rich… 280 million USD – quite the windfall for Last.FM. Using creative content that musicians provided, of course. Did we get a thank you or some money? Of course not. Unless I can hear some good arguments for keeping my music on Last.FM now that it is owned by CBS, I will delete the SSRI account. Speaking of hip small companies that were bought by large corporations, Momus has a rant about Flickr today.

Coffee at Café Ladro – photo by Stevo. Their latte is excellent and like an italian cappuccino, the cappuccino is a Starbucks monstrosity with dry foam heaped on top.
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It was nice to return to the Triple Door, venue for my first solo concert in April of last year. Nice evening.

Monday in Seattle

We arrived in the morning and the hotel wasn’t ready. I decided to stay on the bus and change strings on the 2002 DeVoe Negra, which had been in use since before rehearsals in Santa Fe at the beginning of June. To my dismay I discovered a 4 inch crack in the back. Shining a strong flashlight on the crack from the outside and staring at the crack from the soundhole revealed that it was indeed a very small crack in the rosewood and not just a crack in the finish. I emailed my man Keith and set up a time to drop the guitar off after the tour. Battle scars. Could be due to handling-error or could be due to humidity change. Maybe I should not keep the guitar on stage after soundcheck. I do that so the guitar can get used to the temperature and humidity on stage, which is often quite different from the conditions in the dressing room, but somebody could easily bump against the guitar while it is up there. Maybe Keith can tell from the crack whether it was humidiy induced or blunt-force trauma… In any case I am not going to worry much about it. The crack is very fine and the guitar’s sound has not changed.
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In the afternoon I walked about 3 miles to a store to buy a book about Dali which Lawrence Russel had recommended. I found Jackson Street Books to be a great little bookstore, a real bookstore with books spilling out of the shelves and onto the floor because there isnt enough space for them all… Couldn’t find the Dali book, but bought a nice hardcover of Benvenuto Cellini’s autobiography, considered to be the first autobiography. Cellini was a contemporary of Michelangelo and quite the rascal.

Fripp’s take on Last.FM

Robert Fripp’s Diary

DGM recently took action to have KC/RF tracks removed from Last FM. Their business model did not include us in their advertising revenue, nor in profits from the high-yield sale of a company predicated on the work of others. Last FM were not able to persuade me, in extensive correspondence, that equitable payment of music-generators was a priority in the company’s raison d’etre, nor that it was in our interest to allow them to continue using it. Music is free & for the people! It is also virtually free for some business-persons.