Tag: us

Piers Morgan talking sense on US gun control

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Damnit, he’s making sense… But where I have a big problem is when the unfortunately ambiguous wording of the 2nd Amendment is twisted to mean that anyone in America can have any firearm they want, however powerful, and in whatever quantity they want. This has led to the absurd scenario where I can’t legally buy six packets of Sudafed in an American supermarket, or a chocolate Kinder egg, or various French cheeses, because they are all deemed a health risk. Yet I can saunter into Walmart – America’s version of Tesco – and help myself to an armful of AR-15 assault

Can Spotify in the US convert enough users to subscribers?

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Remember when Spotify couldn’t get into the US market because the major labels in the US didn’t think they could convert enough of the free users to premium members? It’s crunch time, as the six month “unlimited streaming” period comes to an end and Spotify fans in the US will be asked for $5 a month. How many of the subscriber base will move to the “income” column… and will it be enough to cover the minimums that the major labels have likely asked for?

Spotify goes all stars and stripes as it attempts America

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Spotify hits the US. Over in Europe their route was "free" then "premium" which really meant pay for the version on your mobile. Over in the US it’s going to be different. $5 /month to get going or $10/month for the premium model (which has the smartphone capability) – plus some free accounts in the lucky dip of Web 2.0 services like Klout – mimicking the rush for invites and promoting Spotify online as people beg for invites. And of course Spotify has some entrenched opposition and the music labels in the US aren’t as friendly as they were in

Obvious flaws in the US "Six Strikes" copyright procedure

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Copyright holders will scan the ‘Net for infringement, grabbing suspect IP addresses from peer-to-peer file-sharing networks. If they see your IP address participating in a swarm for, say, Transformers, they will look up that IP address to see which ISP controls it, then fire off a message… ISPs have agreed to institute "mitigation measures" (or, as you and I know them, punishments) based on the collected say-so of copyright holders. Well I can spot two flaws so far, (1) The lack of a legal process or the involvement of the judiciary at the punishment stage and (2) letting the copyright