This Week: Now I’ve seen it all…

It isn’t often I’m surprised these days. But just occasionally, every now and then, it suddenly hits me.

This evening I was watching as I often do “This Week” hosted by Andrew Neil, ex-editor of the Sunday Times, with regular participants ex-MP Michael Portillo and current MP Diane Abbott. The guest I found most interesting was surprisingly Katie Melua, a singer whose CD I coincidentally bought recently without knowing anything more about her (I’d heard her played on one of the ad-free, talk free, Swiss radio stations, either Radio Swiss Jazz or Radio Swiss Pop and so bought the CD online there and then).

No, this isn’t some fan mail about some sexy, good looking young singer who’s on a roll, after all, This Week is a politics show – and a good one for the most part. Although of course, she is all of the above too.

What was particularly interesting was what Miss Melua had to say. She’s a very bright girl with some very good ideas. Well, she’s a Doctor’s daughter. She also happens to be Georgian, an immigrant of 15 years into the UK which she arrived in at the age of 8. Her English is now perfect, and she has just taken on British Citizenship, which she is clearly very proud of. Her praise of Britain was great to listen to. If only more Britons spoke like that about their country!

The discussion was on immigration, Britishness, and integration. Katie said there was not enough teaching of or resources for, the teaching of English to older and younger new immigrants but perhaps too much political correctness in England when she arrived compared to her home country Georgia – or even to her first British home in Northern Ireland during the troubles where she had to learn Irish dancing and how to play the tin whistle, a complete contrast to England where nothing specifically British or English was required of her; Diane Abbot said the British tend to be most British when they are showing everyone how little British they actually are; Michael Portillo said in the fifties Britons were last proud to be British, while Andrew Neil in turn egged them on, or over-egged things as the flow demanded.

Then it hit me: none of these commentators, talking about Britishness, were actually English! Well, not completely. Katie Melua is a first generation immigrant from Eastern Europe. Diane Abbott’s parents came from Jamaica. Michael Portillo is half Spanish. And Andrew Neil is a Scot!

Now I’ve seen it all. Britain clearly is a most cosmopolitan society. And do you know what? It’s a lot richer because of that. The discussion was interesting, well-argued, stimulating and well researched. People with real experiences and relevant ideas came together without any particular cross to bear or chip on their shoulders, and although the discussion was short, it was very satisfying to listen to.

Well done the “This Week” team. Now I really have seen it all…

The East-European Song Contest

Of course it’s a fix. We always knew that. Scandinavia votes for Scandinavia. Moldova votes for Romania, Romania votes for Moldova. And the Eastern Block? It’s almost a block vote… Maybe they should call it the East-European Song Contest next time.

The (currently named) Eurovision Song Contest has always plagued me. When I lived with my parents it was one of the most important programmes of the year for my mother to watch. I managed to escape it for a few years at University, but now it’s my girlfriend who can’t miss it. So I sit there, suffering. But like Terry Wogan, I don’t do it silently. I mean, there’s just so many opportunities to take the piss out of the contestants!

This year there were no Western European countries in the Top Ten, so apart from Germany, France and Britain turning up in the final next time automatically (because they basically fund the whole thing) all the other Western European countries will have to qualify in the semi-final. Which means they won’t get through because of the large number of Eastern European countries who block vote – or even have the government owned media invent the votes, they’re so “politically correct” – in an East-European autocratic kind of way.

So, it looks like Western Europe will be frozen out of the running for the foreseeable future. Until the organisers have had as much as they can take of non-Western hospitality and change the rules that is. And they do need changing.

It’s improved tremendously since the BBC’s Terry Wogan’s been the compere though. His wit and charm have enlivened many an otherwise tedious and boring evening, although he was a bit tame this year I thought. Probably been warned about what he said about other countries’ entries. He summed it up well this year though “It’s been a great evening – not musically – but it’s been a great spectacle…”

Isn’t it amazing how many people are willing to make a spectacle of themselves?

Shadows and Former Glories

I’ve just been sorting through some stuff I bought in the Christmas sales and promptly forgot all about. I stuffed the carrier bags into a corner and only just got curious as to what was inside them. It turns out the bags contained a pile of cheap DVDs and CDs. Who needs digital downloads when CDs are so cheap? I got most of them for a fiver, although the best one I’ve played so far cost £8.97 and it’s brilliant!

Do you remember the Shadows? They were a little before my time, so naturally when I was younger I totally ignored them. Now I’ve got a little more money to splash out (err, yes, I call spending £9 on a CD splashing out – but only because the total bill for all the rest came to about £100!) and so I bought the double CD “The Shadows – Life Story”.

It’s amazing just how many iconic tracks they laid down. Music I’ve heard so many times and not realised it was by the Shadows. Film theme music, incidental music, music for TV adverts, even stuff that must have been played on the Radio without me noticing. And now I’ve got the CD I just can’t believe how good it all is.

Tracks like Apache, Shindig, Wonderful Land, Albatross, Foot Tapper, and loads more – although the cover they did of Jean Michel Jarre was, shall we say – a little in need of improvement? Anyhow, I got 45 tracks for £9 which makes it 20p per track. And record companies won’t give up DRM in case they lose money? At these prices I’ll keep on buying stuff from them on CD permanently. Who wants pirate copies? Who needs the hassle?

Tony Blair’s Band is Back!

Tony Blair, current-but-not-for-long UK Prime Minister had a band at University called Ugly Rumours. Now Ugly Rumours has got into the UK Top 20 from download sales alone with an anti-Iraq war song. Based on the catchy tune last made famous by Frankie Goes to Hollywood (I’ve got it on vinyl still) the new track actually makes quite good listening, as well as representing a pop at the Prime Minister for taking us into a needless war.

The song is available in three different flavours from the Indiestore website for £1.50. All profits go to the “Stop the War” coalition. They also seem to be against a nuclear deterrent and have some CND links which I don’t agree with myself, I think the nuclear deterrent was what kept Europe safe from Russia for all those years. Having said that, I think buying a copy of the song itself sends a needed message to the PM that he really shouldn’t be so arrogant. He still hasn’t expressed regret or apologised for the false pretenses under which the war was launched.

My favourite version of the song is the Club version. Reminds me, I must get my old vinyl LPs out and play a few – they seem to be coming back into fashion again. Probably because they aren’t digital and can’t be so easily copied… why else would the music industry release them?

When it comes to Microsoft, is BBC news coverage biased?

First thing you have to understand is that most people believe the BBC to be the de rigeur news organisation in the world, compelled by its Charter to be unbiased politically, economically, and in fact in all areas.

But when it comes to Microsoft, the BBC does seem to have quite a few MS fanboys in its technical department. Not surprising when you read stuff like “Bumbling BBC gives away millions to Microsoft with exclusive 2 year viewer lock-in! ” which shows that someone in the BBC has crossed the line in being so wedded to their own idea of what is best they have now put themselves into the position of having to try and support their technical decision through manipulating the “bias balance” towards Microsoft. Go to any Mac forum with a UK flavour and you’ll soon see posts related to bias on behalf of the BBC in favour of Microsoft. Is it imaginary, or real?

For an example of the kind of thing I mean, look at these two reports of the recent San Diego court which has just fined Microsoft $1.5 Billion for infringing on patents for MP3 encoding and decoding technology.

The MacWorld website, not renowned for its music coverage, wrote the most informative piece, giving quite a lot of background detail and information on what happens next. The BBC website, however, really didn’t give much information out at all, with very little background and no mentions of what happens next, or why.

Considering how big an issue digital music is right now, any court case about the subject is surely a hot topic. You only have to look at the bloglists to see that it is indeed a Big Story right now – particularly the Digital Rights Management issues of restrictions against normal users.

One Blogger, Blue Magnolia, is so cross at the abuse of power the BBC is currently exhibiting they have set up an ePetition on the UK Government’s website asking for people to register their unhappiness with the way the BBC are doing things. You should drop by and sign it – it only takes a minute and will help rein in the mad Microsoft machine the BBC has become.

You should sign the petition even if you are not a Mac or Linux user, because it is the principle of BBC neutrality that is at stake here. Anyway, even Windows users are affected – if you are running Windows 95/98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000 on your computer your needs are being ignored too.

Now, maybe the BBC is being a good boy and following the government’s wishes – after all, Bill Gates did visit Tony Blair a few years ago just before a number of big decisions about which platform to use were up in the air, particularly the issue of whether Governments should use an Open Document Format or a proprietary one (it was around the time when the City of Munich announced it was moving away from Microsoft onto Linux to save money and prevent accusations of favouritism; they wanted a non-proprietary format for word processor files too).

Tony Blair is apparently a self-confessed non-expert when it comes to computers, so you can imagine him being easy to bamboozle in these matters, even if he did have some advisors around him. Since then, there have been many decisions in favour of Microsoft technologies when many of them are insecure, unreliable, or just so complex they are difficult to implement. (See Reforming the NHS and it’s National Insurance funding system for some associated information).

As usual, I’ve digressed slightly – but only because the spider’s web of intrigue crosses into many areas, background information comes from many places, and the motivation for some actions may at first appear unrelated, but are frequently causal.

I’m going to post more examples of BBC bias here, and please add any you find yourself in the comments below too. Together, we the people have a voice that cannot forever be ignored.

Isn’t blogging great?

Examples

1. One example is this story on the BBC website “News that Microsoft has been fined for violating MP3 patents belonging to Alcatel-Lucent could have widespread fallout for the industry.”

The story is a follow-up about a subject that primarily affects Microsoft and its customers, Dell and Gateway Computer, due to the patent infringements inherent in the Windows Operating System. Yet the principal photograph used to illustrate the story shows only Apple equipment, none of which has been affected by the Court case yet.

The BBC story does say that others might be affected by the ruling, but surely other users of the Microsoft Windows OS and music players that primarily play MP3 tracks would be first in line? You can see a list of those companies licenced to do so – the list of MP3 licencees.

Lower down in the story, there is a photo of some Creative MP3 players, but it’s buried. Nowhere is there a photo showing the Microsoft logo, or that of any other manufacturer. Without a picture of a wide range of products from different manufacturers it is a clear bias against Apple.

Warner tries to nip EMI’s stand against DRM in the bud

Edgar Bronfman, the CEO of music giant Warner, is completely in love with Digital Rights Management. Perhaps it’s the only strategy he knows. Well, not quite – the other one being if someone else does something better than you, buy them out so you still look good through the absence of any competitor, such as EMI, highlighting a different strategy that actually works for shareholders better than your own. So Warner are threatening to take over EMI again.

Under pressure from falling sales and seemingly cursed with an inability to understand the opportunities the new digital age offers, Bronfman is sticking to DRM more and more tightly, despite the majority of music industry executives from the majors saying DRM is bad and actually prevents sales.

Bronfman’s view is that DRM prevents copying, but that either shows a total lack of understanding of digital music, or a total lack of understanding of his own company! First of all, even the newest and tightest DRM systems only just released, BluRay and HD-DVD have already been hacked. Secondly, 90% of music sold today is sold via CD. But CD’s have no copy protection in place, they have absolutely no DRM at all – and that includes Warner’s own CDs! Anyone wishing to avoid DRM just copies the CD onto their computer and onto their iPod where it plays quite happily without any DRM in place at all.

Now, not everything that Bronfman says is quite so naive, misguided, or unsupported by the facts. But he’s an adept at taking things out of context in the hope that he won’t be noticed. Of course, the regular media just take a quote at face value, they don’t analyse it, query it, or even think about it most of the time. They just report it, often without querying the answers they get. That’s where blogs come in – we can spend a little more time pulling the relevant information together, and put some thought into tearing poor arguments apart.

So, what is it that Bronfman said that I do agree with? In a widely reported speech at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona Bronfman said:

“I don’t agree that intellectual property should have no protection. We should all agree that intellectual property deserves some measure of protection“

I’m talking of the second sentence here: creators of intellectualy property should have some protection – just not digital. They have the full protection of Copyright Law, after all. Most people respect that. And most people object to being treated as a criminal just because some overpaid executive short on ideas feels like it.

OK, I know he has a responsibility to his shareholders to enhance the share price, so you could argue he has to act like he does; but is his strategy paying out less than alternatives? On the evidence so far, if you said he doesn’t know what he is talking about I’d believe you. Still, maybe it isn’t him who has the problem, maybe it’s the people he picked to run Warner’s marketing department?

At his last employer Vivendi (which he left with a sour taste) there were questions about his salary, and guess who he picked as his Executive Vice President of Digital Strategy and Business Development? None other than his brother-in-law, Alex Zubillaga who in the mid-’90s built a cable company called Netono in Venezuela, but came with no music industry experience.

Ironically, it was Bronfman who encouraged the other big labels to work with the iTunes music store, and he brought a focus on digital to Warner, rationalising its operations and coordinating what had become a haphazard business. He brought all the heads of department Warner had into one place on the same floor of Warner’s Manhattan office block. Perhaps with the rush to get them all talking, moving Warner’s publishing arm from California, the centre of the digital revolution, was a bridge too far? New York isn’t renowned for it’s developments in computing or digital media, from what I’ve read.

As Bronfman is clearly an intelligent man, how come he refuses to admit the genie is out of the bottle? DRM is a blind alley, as the future will show. From Cryptoblog:

As Levitt and Dubner put it in their Freakonomics the question is not why people cheat, a more appropriate question is why people do not.

And that’s what many in the music industry seem to be forgetting: most people are actually fundamentally honest.