In 2005 I bought a Prius. Its been a tremendous car. Fuel efficient, quiet, inexpensive to run. In fact it was so good I decided that when it hit 100,000 k’s instead of trading it I would keep driving it. At 140,000 k’s I thought I would find out how much it would be worth [...]
I have been involved in a few start up companies and I have helped quite a few others to get their businesses cranked up, funded, and operational. I have also advised many more that their ideas, their companies – were not ready for prime time. Regardless of whether the ideas are fully formed one thing [...]
In the last week a major report has been released in the UK on the state of IP and economic growth. This is really quite significant because what it serves to do is to look at the issues of copyright and patenting not from the subjective point of view of corporations in the content industry, [...]
Last night I went to a belated Thanksgiving dinner at some friends, one of whom is American. One of the guests was a journalist who I haven't seen for at least 15 years – Bruce Elder. (Bruce is one of the most knowledgeable music journalists I have ever met and was incidentally a big supporter [...]
I wrote a week ago about buying Belgian chocolate, and talking to the chocolatier and finding out about what goes into the average chocolate bar. We all know about the Chinese milk scandals involving replacing milk solids with melamine. If you go to your local supermarket and buy garlic, you will probably find that it [...]
A couple of years ago I spent a lot of time reading and blogging about the global economy. There were lots of signals that things were looking bad, and finally the proverbial hit the fan. But in actual fact, it really wasn't that bad. As we, in Australia, can attest to. So pretty soon the [...]
Systems evolve over time. Look at the eco-system that drives most of the western world. It has been around for a relatively short time in historical terms. It is a sub-set of capitalism that may now be showing signs of weakness as a continuing driver for wealth creation. I’m talking about consumerism. Consumerism is assumed [...]
OR <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /> Why the Music Industry is Losing Money….. Whilst researching statistics for an article I am doing, I came across a little historical gem. The first CD ever issued back in 1982 was “<?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />52nd Street” by Billy [...]
(Our previous article was the first upset.) This time, Canadians have made the top ten list of countries that are “out to get” the content industries. They share this dubious honour with the following countries. Priority Watch List (Links retrieve country specific pdf reports.) Argentina Canada Chile Costa Rica [...]
Dug out from the archives of the New York Times….. June 13, 1897 NYTimes American Publishers say they are Suffering by Copyright Violations There-Steps Taken for Redress. “Canadian pirates” is what the music dealers call publishing houses across the line who are flooding this country, they say, with spurious editions of the latest [...]