by gtdonovan on January 31, 2011 at 12:01 pm · Filed under cybercity, Gore, imagineering, industrialism, informationalism, infrastructure, quotes, superhighway
From Vice President Al Gore’s remarks to The Superhighway Summit at UCLA on January 11, 1994:
The pressure of competition on the information superhighway will be great — and it will drive continuing advancements in technology, quality and cost. Incidentally, when I first coined the phrase “information superhighway” 15 years ago, I was not prepared for some of the unusual images it would ultimately bring into our language. For example, one businessman made this point I’m making here about competition and the pressure of competition when he told me last week that his company was accelerating its investment in new technology to avoid ending up as “road kill on the information superhighway.” And just this week I received a letter from a group of companies wanting to be allowed to compete, who complained that they were scared of being “parked at the curb” on the information superhighway. (emphasis added)
by gtdonovan on January 3, 2011 at 2:37 pm · Filed under commodification, copyright, education, GEMA, Germany, informationalism, music, play, property, RIAA, youth
GEMA (Germany’s version of the RIAA) is now demanding that preschools pay corporate giants for the right to sing along. They’re not just talking about sharing music files anymore, now they’re policing preschools for making copies of sheet music for sing-along time.
According to Deutsche Welle:
A tightening of copyright rules means kindergartens now have to pay fees to Germany’s music licensing agency, GEMA, to use songs that they reproduce and perform. The organization has begun notifying creches and other daycare facilities that if they reproduce music to be sung or performed, they must pay for a license.
“If a preschool wants to make its own copy of certain music – if the words of a song or the musical score is copied – then they need to buy a license,” GEMA spokesperson Peter Hempel told Deutsche Welle . . .
. . . Fees start at 56 euros ($74) for 500 copies of a song, a rate charged annually, not per child.
If you think this sort of extreme copyright enforcement is unique to Germany, think again. The same sort of thing is happening in the US, in France, and elsewhere.
