KODA og CC = sød musik for progressive kunstnere / netlabels mm.

KODAs forsøgsordning der tilbyder medlemmer at kunne bruge CC-licenser på den "ikke-kommercielle" distribution af deres musik er endelig på plads. Det betyder blandt andet at man som KODA-medlem gennem CC-licenserne kan tillade folk at fildele ens musik. De betyder også at der endelig er et seriøst alternativ for branchen ud af den halvskizofrene situation, den idag står i - man vil gerne have del i den (nødvendige) omtale, mp3-blogs og fildeling giver, men omvendt ikke give slip på rettigheder eller potentielle indtægter. Et aldeles realistisk scenarie er at markedsføringsfolk i den ene afdeling lækker musikken, mens kollegerne i en anden afdeling sagsøger fildelere, lidt sat på spidsen. 

Kanariefuglen i kulminen - Tone - synes at være kommet godt fra start med Small Arm of Sea. Til lanceringen fortalte Sune fra Urlyd fortalte at deres servere "lå ned" efter at nyheden om lanceringen var nået ud til en række større amerikanske blogs og at 3500 havde downloadet første dag. Såsnart Urlyd kan give mig lidt tal vil jeg forsøge at skrive en post om det her. Interesserede kan læse mere hos KODA og Creative Commons Danmark (opdateres).

Tone: Please copy my CD (You won' t get in trouble, promise!)

UPDATE: THE ALBUM IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD HERE - ENJOY!

UDDATE 2: PICS FROM THE LAUNCH

This is big. On january 21st, the extremely charming Aalborg-based indietronica artist Tone (Sofie Nielsen) releases her new album, “Small Arm of Sea”, under a Creative Commons license.

Her label, Urlyd, says Copy our records for your friends, please! and the danish collecting society KODA backs the release, making sure commercial uses are covered by the usual compensation scheme. This is historic, and I am extremely pleased to see this happen for the first time in Denmark.

Oh, and did I mention - Tone's music is GREAT. I had the pleasure of listening to it last summer, live, on a lawn in copenhagen - and the bits I´ve heard from this release are very very promising. You can count on me at the Copenhagen launch at Gefährlich, Fælledvej 7, 2200 København N, KBH jan 22nd 2008, at 21:00h (map)

Tone website and Myspace

Also, check out this news piece from Tv2 News (in danish)

Sikkerhedsguru Bruce Schneier argumenterer for åbne netværk

For noget tid siden modtog samtlige medarbejdere i den DR-afdeling, jeg på det tidspunkt henslængte min tid i, en mail fra den IT-ansvarlige, om det magtpåliggende i at bruge kryptering på det trådløse netværk hjemme. Udover det sædvanlige skræmmecenarie med børneporno og anden kriminalitet - understregede han også vigtigheden af at politiet får lettere ved at efterforske sager. Jeg har i lange perioder, ladet mit netværk stå åbent så andre der tilfældigvis kom forbi, kunne låne lidt af min så rigelige båndbredde. Og som jeg skrev til den IT-ansvarlige, så er det vigtigere for mig at andre kan tænke "fedt, tusind tak" og bruge mit netværk - ligesom jeg har gjort det hundreder af gange før på rejser og herhjemme - end en eller anden hypotetisk fare. Jeg kunne simpelthen ikke være mere enig med Schneier i denne Wired-artikel:

To me, it's basic politeness. Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea. But to some observers, it's both wrong and dangerous.

Læs resten af artiklen her

Diskwarrior cleans up after Time Machine / Leopard

Today I spent most of three hours solving an issue with my primary Final Cut Pro video drive (quite a scare, as it holds ALL the footage for my current project), a brand new Lacie Quadra 500gb which suddenly decided to fail on me. I strongly suspect that Time Machine, the new backup / recovery software bundled with Mac Os X 10.5 ("Leopard") is to blame, as I decided to turn it on yesterday, and a similar error occurred a few weeks ago after using Time Machine. I contacted Lacie support, which equals an online formula where you have no chance of knowing when they will actually get back to you (disappointing, Lacie!).

I have an Apple Care Protection plan, which I strongly recommend - they're cheaper in the US and completely transferrable - so I called Apple customer support in the UK which is better than the third party company working for Apple out of Stockholm. After explaining the issue, I was put through to a higher level technical representative ("the über apple geek"). He had heard of similar issues, but was not sure this happens due to Leopard / Time Machine. Like several online fora suggested, he told me to get DiskWarrior which, once downloaded, immediately fixed the drive (unlike disk utility).

He also made sure to leave his email address in order to check back whether I found a solution, in return for which I submitted the Diskwarrior logfile for him to follow up.

I have been complaining a lot about the lack of pro support at Humac in Denmark (they absolutely suck, to put it bluntly) but must say I am once again impressed by Apple support. If you know what you want and how to get through to the right people at Apple, they are very, very good.

My friend and co-director Andreas, recently lost a full external drive due to an error at Humac and they have yet to NOT make an error in a transaction with me (also, they have been copying applications and disk images off my hard drive - thanks for respecting my privacy!). I recommend anyone who use their mac for serious stuff to go somewhere else. And get an Apple Care Protection plan. If you run into a problem like this, take it easy, spend 10 minutes googling, and then call Apple. If they ask you to hand in your unit to Humac, my advice is to insist on getting it done elsewhere.