Humac bruger Apple-reparationer til afpresning

Den korte version:
Jeg er efterhånden godt træt af betale Humac (der driver en række Apple-butikker i København) 1000kr i "hastegebyr" hver gang jeg har problemer med min computer. Hvis jeg ikke betaler, beholder de - helt unødvendigt - computeren i to uger ("det tager i snit 10 arbejdsdage" fik jeg i dag at vide). Det er simpelthen afpresning.

Den lange:
Forløbet er normalt: Du har et problem. Ringer til Apple. Får at vide de vil fikse det. F.eks. er min skærm på min Macbook Pro nu for tredje (!) gang i uorden indenfor garantitiden (den er 10mdr gammel - mere forneden). Apple godkender en reparation, giver dig et sagsnummer, og beder dig indlevere den hos Humac. Humacs værsted (der ikke er ejet af Apple) har intet reservedelslager (!) og bestiller derfor delen fra Apple i Holland - dette på trods af at langt de fleste reparationer foregår ved udskiftning af den defekte del (RAM, Harddisk, optisk drev osv). Det er ikke muligt at beholde computeren mens Humac venter på delen. Humac forklarer dette med at Apple ikke tillader dem at have delene liggende.

Men - trompeter og hurra! - Humac tilbyder dog en særlig hasteordning der sender dig forrest i køen - og sørger for at du kan beholde computeren indtil de har modtaget delen, og at de klarer reperationen med det samme. Det koster 1000 kroner. Det betalte jeg sidst skærmen blev udskiftet, og ganske rigtigt - Humac ringede da skærmen var ankommet, og igen dagen efter, da den var monteret.

Jeg har nu talt med tre medarbejdere hos Apple, inklusiv deres customer relations folk, som alle giver mig (uofficielt) ret i at Humac er langt ude - og afventer svar på om de kan gøre en undtagelse i mit tilfælde. Men det er egentlig princippet der generer mig. Der er MANGE problemer med f.eks. Macbooks, og det ser ud som om Humac har fundet en guldkalv at malke her.

UPDATE: Jeg har nu snakket med Apple og vil meget gerne høre fra andre som har haft lignende oplevelser. Drop en kommentar her :)

** Jeg tror skærmene går i stykker fordi min Macbook Pro har det med at reboote helt af sig selv, nede i min taske, og ligge og varme op med tændt skærm (den havner i et mærkeligt suspend mode). Det betyder at skærmen efter noget tid får mørke områder, sandsynligvis fra processornes varme. Jeg bruger altid et dertil indrettet Crumpler-måtte til at lægge mellem tastatur og skærm (det kan være et problem at tasterne efter noget tids brug afsætter linier på skærmen) men det hjælper ikke mod dette problem.
Efter at have set mørke pletter et stykke tid henvendte jeg mig til Apple, som sagde de ville udskifte skærmen. Det gjorde Humac, mod ovennævnte gebyr, men allerede 2 mdr efter begyndte den nye skærm at vise nye pletter. Sidste uge var jeg så i NYC og fik skærmen skiftet igen, hos flagskibsbutikken i Soho, på under 24 timer. Gratis. Desværre har skærmen allerede nu mærker - en uge senere.

Ny alliance kandidat vil "slippe musikken fri" - sådan da

”Musik skal være som vand. Det skal være noget, man kan få, når man vil have det – blot ved at trykke på en knap.”siger Morten Bay, folketingskandidat for Ny Alliance i København.

”Vi er nødt til at fremtidssikre kunstnernes indtægter. Folk piratkopierer i dag i stor stil, og det får kunstnerne kun økonomiske problemer ud af. Men hvis teleselskaberne er med på den, kan vi faktisk lade folk kopiere OG sikre kunstnere deres løn (..) Men ophavsretsloven skal moderniseres, før det kan lade sig gøre".

Især sidstnævnte kan jeg varmt tilslutte mig (sangen om kunstnere der bliver ruineret af fildeling er SO last century) - og forslaget i sig selv er jeg forsigtigt positiv overfor, hvis en flat-rate ordning understøttet af udbyderne er muligt uden al mulig fjollet DRM, hvis der kan blive enighed med andre rettighedsholdere osv osv. (og den bliver nok svær). Og hvad med udenlandske kunstnere? Jeg har aldrig brugt 75 kroner på at købe dansk musik pr. måned - men bruger til gengæld mere på live. Men, altså - tak ,Morten Bay - for at bringe emnet på banen. Download pressemeddelse

Endnu en "død" radiodokumentar vinder international pris

Mødte netop to af mine personlige helte på den unge dokumentarscene - Krister Moltzen og Rasmus Bjerre - med rødvin i hånden. Krister har sammen med Tim Hinman fra Ultralyd vundet Prix Europa Best European Radio Documentary of the Year 2007 for Kærlighedspolitiet, og dermed sikret endnu en meterhøj udmærkelse til dansk lydradio - en genre der blev fuldstændig udraderet i forbindelse med sparerunden på DR. Rasmus Bjerre, ligeledes fra Ultralyd, fik en tredjeplads for den underfundige historie om Jagten på den forsvunde hypnotisør.

Godt gået (nej, ikke DR). Som bekendt lukker Ultralyd ved årsskiftet. Det er dermed slut med et åbent miljø for eksperimenterende, legende lydradio, og et vigtigt vækstlag for historiefortællere i verdensklasse (hov, det ord ringer en klokke?!)

Jeg opdaterer med direkte links såsnart jeg finder dem

UPDATE: Berlingske "Kenneth Plummer er skideligeglad" - fed titel!

Finally a decent In Rainbows review. I have been thinking of writing my own for a while, but this kinda does the trick.

Freeloading Fritz

I spent the last week in NYC. Tuesday, Free Culture @ NYU, Digital Freedom and NYU ACM
hosted the first US screening of Good Copy Bad Copy. Thanks to Fred Benenson, BoingBoing and Gothamist, lots of people showed up. I was a bit nervous about this high noon set-up with Fritz Attaway, MPAA's Executive VP and Special Policy Advisor. It turned out a pleasant surprise as Fritz was obviously – and successfully – on a charm offensive.

For years, the major studios and music of repeating the same meme – that ”Piracy” (ie. normal cultural consumption in the digital age) equals ”stealing” – but surprisingly Fritz called students filesharing non-commercially ”freeloaders” rather than "thieves". This is interesting, and a much more powerful argument, if the MPAA and the Hollywood studios want to stay relevant to the the new generation of media users. Maybe a guide to ”ethical filesharing” or closer collaboration with the hacker community is up next (a nice change from lawsuits against college students).

Other than the screening I had the chance to go on an epic surf trip to New Jersey (!) and ride around the city on my new bike (which I hope to blog more about soon).

Thanks, Fred, for capturing the Kodak moment :)

Homebrew Rainbows
I know, all this Radiohead stuff is getting a bit much, but some of these "user generated" covers are VERY funny

hicksdesign, via ateaseweb

In Rainbows Remix - is this an official site?

While Radiohead have yet to reveal the copyright terms of their seventh and self-released "In Rainbows", and have not commented on fans remixing and sharing their music, this page could be an indication that something is about to happen:

My first thought when I saw the In Rainbows graphics was that they'd drawn inspiration from Eno and Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts project - an ambient classic re-released in a remastered edition and made available for remixing.

Now, I highly doubt that Radiohead's PR people would be so clumsy, but as soon as I came across this page, I checked the registration data of the two sites and there was no match. Maybe wishful thinking from my side. You decide.
It would be too cool if my my thoughts on the unreleased album about a year ago came true:

"For a while now I´ve been thinking: Why don't you take it further. Use your status, your faithful fanbase. Release it on your own label, XL Recordings, or some other progressive, indie label. As an album, or a series of singles. You get your 12", the works. But - simultaneously, release it online, under an open license that allows your fans to do with it what they normally do, without the bullshit. You can use the Creative Commons Non-commercial / Sharealike license, or something similar. Heck, while you´re at it, release the session files for the recordings. Go "open source". Or "free" as in "free speech", not "free beer" (see the Free Software Definition). This way new listeneres can fileshare, sample and remix non-commercially - what they´d normally do. Your "album" will become something else (what Eric Steuer calls The Infinite Album in Wired) and you'll have complete, creative freedom. Polar caps melting, anti-war, anti-corporatism - if you insist on feeding them [the big labels] your art for the sake of comfort, you´re part of it. Just a thought".

Also, check out this remix of "Videotape" (by Mojib) that surfaced *very* soon after the release. Great stuff.

UPDATE:
I just received this reply:

GO SLOWLY WIERD FISHES
VIDEOTAPE UP ON THE STAIRS
RECKON NEEDS BUTTER
CARDS STEP FRIENDLY

Hmmm. Fishy-fishy.

UPDATE 2:
This is turning into something that reminds me of insult swordfighting..

Henrik
"I AM ON TO YOU
WE THINK THE SAME THINGS
AT THE SAME TIME"

Hello:
"VAGUE IS GOOD"

Henrik:
"You are nothing but an auto-reply"

Hello:
"YOU ARE NOTHING

BUT A NON-BELIEVER"

Henrik:
"Seeing is believing"

Hello:
"SEEING IS BELIEVING

HEARING?"

UPDATE 3:
This blog entry - written by a fan waiting for his activation code - describes someone receiving an email from W.A.S.T.E. (the Radiohead subsidiary handling the release) with the exact same wording: Vague is Good, when requesting further info about the time of release.

UPDATE 4:

So, maybe this was not official after all.. This just in:

THERE HAS BEEN AN ADDITION TO:

INRAINBOWSREMIX.COM/DOWNLOAD.HTML

knife
Having listened to the remix once on my laptop, halfway into an airplane I am a bit disappointed - it is very repetitive and anonymous, but it seems "knife" has more coming.

On the more positive side, here is an interesting "think piece" from The Nation in which the author tries to find out "What's Radiohead Worth?"

"Monica Hooks worked at Sony Music from 1994 to 2003 before judging the major label model "broken" and starting her own firm. She said fans should pay "whatever they have the ability to pay. If the music touches them, if it makes their lives better, then they'll contribute to Radiohead directly when they can. If it doesn't, they'll stop listening...it's almost irrelevant what they pay, since the songs are just a commercial for everything else the band does for money, like touring and licensing.""

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), led by Capitol, Radiohead's former label, recently won $220,000 in damages from a single mother caught sharing twenty-four songs by multi-platinum performers like Aerosmith, Linkin Park, and Green Day. I tried to talk with RIAA rep Liz Kennedy for this article, and about the ideas of fair pricing and payment in general. Once she heard my idea, she decided "to pass on this one."

I wrote back. "Just to clarify: the RIAA has no position regarding what constitutes a fair, responsible and respectful price for a record?" That was six days ago, and I haven't heard back."

UPDATE 5:
Mojib (who did the first - and great - In Rainbows remix) - emailed me yesterday to tell me:

"my website was shut down yesterday with no reason. After a long discussion, and some arguing, I found out that "a certain MP3 was causin problems".

Hmmm.

Harddisken og Radiohead

"In Rainbows" blev på mange måder født i København. Da Radiohead indledte deres seneste turné hvor de testede og øvede det nye hold sange, som blev udgivet i forgårs, skete det i KB Hallen i Valby d. 6 Maj 2006. 15 step, blandt andet, blev spillet for allerførste gang. Hvad de færreste nok tænkte over da der blev blændet op, og bandet trådte på scenen foran hardcore fans fra hele verden der ville være være der til turnéstart - var at introen til koncerten rent faktisk var P1s Harddisken udsat for Johnny Greenwoods live-sequencer - et trick han ofte bruger under koncerter: hurtigt isolerer han et radiosignal, looper, og bruger det som bund under musikken. Fuldstændig uafhængigt af hvad der bliver sagt og hvor de er. Det sjove er at han netop denne aften fandt Harddisken og en intetanende Michael Christophersen hvis ord "computer" og "Microsoft" man kan skimte konturerne af (signalet var fordelt så et ord blev loopet i den ene side af salen, et andet i den anden side - denne taper stod tilsyneladende ikke helt FOB, Front of the Soundboard). Lyt selv her (mp3)

Musikjournalist Ralf Christensen og undertegnede var forøvrigt i Harddisken denne uge og diskutere Radioheads distributionsstrategi - lyt med her (beklager, alt andet end windows-ejer, det eneste andet jeg kan anbefale er at downloade hele programmet som mp3 via dette direkte link)

Gode gamle Radiohead..

Jeg elsker de små "påskeæg" som Radiohead lægger ud til deres fans. Engang i mine crazy-fan år prøvede jeg at gætte html-endelser på deres hjemmeside (f.eks. for at finde "skjulte områder") og endte med at få beskeden "Perseverance works!" på en tom skærm - som jeg meget senere fandt ud af er en bygning i på Hackney Road i Østlondon, en dag jeg sad og gloede ud af vinduet i bussen ind til byen. En anden gang så jeg et symbol fra Pynchons Crying of Lot 49 på et toilet i Barcelona, med et lille Radiohead-citat under.

Nu har jeg lige opdaget 10 jpg's man passende kan downloade og bruge som albumart til "In Rainbows" -

her, her, her (gæt resten selv..)

UPDATE: så er covers (til vinylversionen) også tilgængelige. Via Green Plasti

Hakket iPhone i en uge

Min "anmeldelse" af en (hacket) Apple iPhone kommer i Harddisken på DR P1 torsdag mellem kl. 20.03 og 21.30. Du kan læse mit hurtigt nedkradsede radiomanus her, lytte her (via Harddiskens hjemmeside) eller her hvis du ikke er til DRs windows-only afspiller.

In Rainbows ..

I am listening to In Rainbows. I like it. The way f.ex. "Nude" turned out in the end is a pleasant surprise. Today I had a confirmed interview with band spokesperson (at least according to the Beeb) Murray Chalmers about the release. Mr. Chalmers changed his mind with no further explanation when I send him a few q´s mentioning licensing, filesharing and possible remixing of the album. Thanks, Murray!

From Pitchfork:

"In related Radiohead revelations, Billboard.com is reporting that the quintet has entered a unique licensing deal for the edition of In Rainbows released today, in which all rights belong to the band for this downloadable version of the LP. "[Radiohead], in cooperation with us, have created their own model of direct licensing for online," a spokesperson for UK collection association MCPS-PRS Alliance told Billboard.com.

Rights and royalty arrangements for the physical version of the album have not yet come to light, although Radiohead's publisher Warner/Chappell has stated that "all necessary licenses will be in place to allow proper payment of publishing royalties on both physical and digital sales of In Rainbows." All righty then."

Also, Chris Anderson who is working on a new book called "Free" (as in free beer), has this post on "radiohead economy".

Downloading "In Rainbows"

Screening of Good Copy Bad Copy with Co-Director + MPAA Q&A Session

October 8, 2007 by Fred

Good Copy Bad Copy, 2007

In cooperation with Digital Freedom, NYU ACM, Free Culture @ NYU will be hosting the first American screening of the 2007 film Good Copy Bad Copy. The documentary highlights the current state of copyright and culture, and features prominent copyright players such as Girl Talk, Lawrence Lessig, Renaldo Lemos, and Dan Glickman.

We’re especially excited to announce that immediately following the screening, we’ll be hosting a question and answer session with the film’s award-winning Danish co-director, Henrik Moltke and Fritz Attaway, the MPAA’s Executive VP and Special Policy Advisor. If you’re at all interested in these issues, or want to meet a director working in free culture, or even just want to meet someone from the MPAA, you should absolutely come! The film is a wonderful introduction to the topics that Free Culture @ NYU deals in and this screening will be a fantastic opportunity to learn more about what we’re working towards.

Good Copy Bad Copy Screening
Followed by Q&A with Co-Director Henrik Moltke and Fritz Attaway, MPAA
Tuesday, October 16th 2007
9:15pm - 11:15pm
NYU’s Courant Institute
251 Mercer Street b/w Bleecker and W. 4th
Room #109
Free and Open to the Public (bring ID if non-NYU)

iPhone / edge netværk test

sidder og tester iPhones nethastighed via Edge - har lånt et Telia simkort og surfer løs. Resultatet er overraskende godt - hastighederne svinger omkring 450 kbps her i DR-byen (som ikke er voldsomt godt dækket rent mobilmæssigt). Hvis det virkelig er standarden (og det tyder blandt andet denne blogpost på), ja så vil jeg overveje alligevel at beholde min iPhone når jeg er færdig med at teste den. Mine indtryk efter en uge med (en hacket) iPhone kommer i Harddisken på P1 denne uge - jeg linker når indslaget er klar. Og hvis Telia opper deres Edge netværk når iPhone lanceres i DK - ja så ligner det en vinder!

Lessig TV-interview on "corruption"

Larry Lessig was on Deadline, DR2, last night, a taped interview from his visit to the Danish Social Forum last weekend (see this post). Lessig explains his new focus on "corruption" and the "economy of influence" - and how his work on copyright isues has influenced his decision to devote the next 10 years to a new cause.

I mean "corruption" in the sense that the system is so queered by the influence of money that it can't even get an issue as simple and clear as term extension right. Politicians are starved for the resources concentrated interests can provide. In the US, listening to money is the only way to secure reelection. And so an economy of influence bends public policy away from sense, always to dollars. More at Lessigs Blog


The interview is well worth watching - you can either follow this link and watch via DRs DRM´ed Windows-only web player (for a limited period only) and scroll forward if it doesn't start at the right point - or watch it on Youtube (thanks, anonymous friend!).

Lessig, Fleischer mashed up

This is a remix from a great post on Rasmus Fleischers blog, Copyriot, and from my script from a panel debate entitled ”Intellectual Property is the Oil of the 21st Century” at Danmarks Sociale Forum. The swedish quotes from Copyriot are translated into english using Systran. Fotos by Mark Knudsen / Monsun - thanks!

"The program blade had to be understood to its formulation signalled colourful public party for cheerful smile activists, in accordance with väletablerad World social Forum-estetik and the traditional slogan “another world is possible. The party atmosphere has seldom felt more absent than among these (certainly colourful) tents, uppsmällda between gråmulen sky and grådaskig asphalt. Around them concerned itself, that autumn leaf stem vinden, scattered visitors representing different fractions within the Danish vänstern.

Today’s first speaker is one of my personal heroes. I first met Larry three years ago, when I did an interview with him for Danish Radio. I had read his book ”FREE CULTURE” which deeply inspired me – so much that after the interview, I decided to become an activist and join the movement which continues to fascinate me, not least by its growth and inventiveness. This movement is more than just Creative Commons. It is a vision of a society that becomes richer, the more information and culture is shared – not by putting up fences and walls. Thanks for coming all the way here to speak! Please welcome professor Lessig.

"The seminar, that was amused a swine cold tent, the overall fifties audiences. Lawrence Lessig drove as common one well inarbetad audiovisuell presentation about how the copyright's expanded in addition to your original aim and today hampers samtidskommentarer in the form of remixkultur. Divides each identical with earlier presentations. Other was new, as a fast dekonstruktion of what concept “copy” mean in digital contexts - something I actually alone had intended take up with almost entirely identical examples!"

The second speaker is Rasmus Fleischer. Rasmus is sometimes dubbed the pirate philosopher. He is a key player in the powerful swedish pro-piracy movement. If you imagine a computer game like World of Warcraft - and Hollywood, in this game, as a huge, fire-breathing dragon – then Rasmus’ friends from the filesharing site The Pirate Bay would be up front beating away with their two-handed swords – while Rasmus would be the wizard casting spells from the distance. Rasmus, through his acticles and his blog, copyriot.se, is the brain in the swedish pro-piracy movement.

"Must say that Lawrence Lessigs arguments become increasingly well thought-out. Creative Commons is presented no longer as an universal solution on the copyright's crisis. The the argumentation's only proper problem is enough that it stands with both the feet in a very specific American legal tradition. After his forty minutes, the microphone went to me, as twenty devoted minutes to that - quite improvized and almost huttrande of chill - to try to go furthermore and to deepen some of his arguments. Little straggling, not special polemiskt, but quite konstruktivt."
"One trotskist (?) took to orda and declared that the solution on upphovsrättsproblemet was that “nationalisera the cultural industry and let the State to pay all artists”. Chatter about förstockad sights on culture that a homogeneous production of things. Believes it became quite clear that it there this light radical yngling that, about someone, represented upphovsrättsdogmatismens culture sights in the premise. Little kul. Late left we fast Denmark's social forums, this stem frozen Babylon, and drug to Malmö".

On the panel was also Johan Söderberg, whose approach can be summed up like this: "I clear rights for commercial productions, and don't care about rights for the rest"). OK then.
Lessig was visibly pleased to finally meet Söderberg, whose Bush/Blair love duet is one of Lessigs favorite examples of remix culture. And while Söderberg was very difficult to get moving on the panel (or maybe it was just me as a moderator), he completely made me forget all about it with a GREAT VJ set at night. A strange day with the danish left. A shame, really that only about 60 people made it inside the freezing tent.

iPhone hackers, unite!

Apple står overfor en gigantisk PR-nedtur hvis firmaet ikke åbner op for iPhone (og en række andre produkter - der begynder at tegne sig et mønster!). Apples trusler mod foretagsomme kunder, der gerne vil bruge iPhone uden tvangsabonnementer, og en nylig "update" der låser og gør modificerede iPhones ubrugelige, er meget i modsætning til firmaets oprindelige image og slogan: Think Different.

Her ses Jobs, Wozniak og co med et piratflag anno 1983, kort ført lanceringen af den første mac. Det er længe siden. Nogle frusterede iPhone hackere har lavet denne video



Måske kan nogen huske originalen :





Update: Nu blander Nokia sig også, med denne kampagne:

iPhone på danske plader

Takket være min ven og apple-hacker David og Rikke, der var så sød at tage den med hjem - har jeg fået en iPhone, der indtil videre fungerer på danske plader (altså på Telmore).
Mere senere når jeg har testet mere grundigt. Undskyld, Steve, men det var bare for fristende ..

Radiohead har gjort det igen...

"Hello everyone.
Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;
We've called it In Rainbows.
Love from us all.

Jonny"

Boxsettet - bestående af en 12" LP og en enhanced cd koster 80 pund (!).
Men - prøv at gå ind og køb downloadudgaven. Pris?

Hvad for noget?
Se også mine hastigt nedkradsede tanker om udgivelsen for et år siden, her