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Sony BMG Music Entertainment is stepping up the rollout of what it calls content-enhanced and copy-protected CDs, according to company executives. It began with the Chieftains’ “Live From Dublin” album, released Feb. 22. Upcoming albums that will receive the treatment are from Kasabian (March 8 ) and Susie Suh (March 29).

Sony BMG expects that by year’s end a substantial number of its U.S. releases will employ either Sunncomm’s newly enhanced MediaMax or First4Internet’s XCP to address piracy concerns. No matter which technology a CD uses, it will include such extras as photo galleries, enhanced liner notes and links to other features.

“What matters the most to us is the consumer experience,” Sony BMG Sales Enterprise co-president Jordan Katz says. “Both technologies offer playability across all standard players, including CD players, boomboxes, DVD players, PCs, Macs, car stereos, video games and clock radios.”

Missing in this list: “iPod”. Parts of Sony apparently still got their head way up their ass. Oh, and check out this article on how they interpret studies about the acceptance of DRM by the public…

[Quote:]

The color photo was invented in 1903 by the Lumiere brothers, and the French army was the only one taking color photos during the course of the war

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The Italian mobile operator TIM, one of the largest mobile phone companies in Italy has issued a unique warning that the number of wiretaps has reached the limit. In a fax sent to all Italian public prosecutors they say that they have already over-stretched their capacity from 5.000 to 7.000 simultaneously intercepted mobile phones. New requests now have to be processed on a ‘first come first serve’ basis, they write.

Even more unique in the current secretive environment of law enforcement, the Italian Minister of Justice Roberto Castelli (right-wing Lega Nord) has provided the newspaper Repubblica with statistics about the number of wiretaps and costs. The number of wiretaps has doubled every two years, he said, from 32.000 intercepts in 2001, to 45.000 in 2002, to 77.000 in 2003. He estimates the number of wiretaps in 2004 to be 100.000, costing the Justice department aprox 300.00 million euro in cost reimbursements. In 2003 the department of Justice spent 225 million euro on the intercepts, in 2002 230 million and in 2001 165 million.

Castelli admitted the number of police intercepts in Italy was very high. Currently Italy has aprox 58 million inhabitants. With 100.000 intercepts in 2004, Italy orders 172 judicial intercepts per 100.000 inhabitants. There is no information about wiretaps ordered by secret services in any country.

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WKRP in Cincinnati was one of the most popular television shows of the late ’70s and early ’80s, but it is unlikely ever to be released on DVD because of high music-licensing costs.

The show, which centered on a fledging radio station with a nerdy news director and wild disc jockeys, had a lively soundtrack, playing tunes from rock ‘n’ rollers like Ted Nugent, Foreigner, Elton John and the Eagles.

For many TV shows, costs to license the original music for DVD are prohibitively high, so rights owners replace the music with cheaper tunes, much to the irritation of avid fans. And some shows, like WKRP, which is full of music, will probably never make it to DVD because of high licensing costs.

“The indication from the studios is that we may never see (WKRP in Cincinnati) because of all the music that would have to be licensed,” said David Lambert, news director of TVShowsOnDVD.com, a clearinghouse of information on TV shows released on DVD. “As the DJ spins the record as he’s talking to Loni Anderson, if there is music playing even for a couple of seconds, then the people producing the DVDs would have to license it.”

There are twice as many reporters covering the Jackson trial as there are stationed with US troops in Iraq. Is there a growing insurgency we don’t know about happening in Michael Jackson’s pants?

thank you, Daily Show

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Last week brought a warning to economic policymakers on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. A rumor that South Korea’s central bank had decided to shift its reserves away from dollars triggered a sharp fall in the greenback and a retreat on Wall Street. The fact that the South Koreans later denied this rumor is only half-comforting. Economic logic is pushing Asia’s central banks to quit propping up the dollar. If a hollow rumor can rattle the currency, what would a real policy change do?

[Quote:]

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush’s four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin’s crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. “Putin thought we’d fired Dan Rather,” says a senior Administration official. “It was like something out of 1984.”

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Behold.. AO #87 [Aeronautical Order, No. 87].It is the [FOIA] record the press never printed.
  [ "BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARIES OF THE ARMY AND THE AIR FORCE"]
  Of interest:item 6 , below.

FULL SOURCING, to track the document’s authenticity is given below the fold. Also, a few more of the records, with the same sourcing and tracking.

  These are available to see on a public access website of the Pentagon.
Now, if the hordes of reporters who scoured the CBS papers had once just published these, the media would have shed light on the discredited, planted documents.
Is the press sedated?

First things first.
  WHERE did the first document image shown here come from? Is it authentic ??

This one is authentic .(No CBS-type troubles here):

The Dept. of Defense itselfposted this document to its site [link provided below]. All the markings, redactions of identifying numbers, social sec #’s, even the circling and underlining are shown on the posted site document; the marks were not added later.

(I first heard about DoD making these records available at its website in late September of 2004; a national reporter let me know about it, Sept. 21.)
 The personnel records are formatted at that site in viewable “pdf” computer-file format for viewers that can read Adobe Acrobat files.The .pdf link is
www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/bush_records/personnel_pt8.pdf
  The record in its original-form posting by the Dept. of Defense can be directly viewed, at pg 42 of the published file at that link, above. This one, from page 42, is the 2nd page of a 2-page document dated Sep. 29, 1972.

The preceding (introductory) page of “AO 87″ (Aeronautical Order No. 87, Sep. 29, 1972) is shown at pg 41 of the .pdf file. You can also see pg 43 for the earlier written notification. These were the real documents that the CBS scandal turned attention away from.
Note the authorized content also matches quite closely that of the diversionary, planted CBS documents, including the date of the order in item #6 —Aug. 1, 1972.
FYI – The Main index to all of the 1968-74 records including “Part 8,” above, and Parts 1 through Part 9, is at:

 www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/bush_records/index.html
Access to the records comes from the US Dept of Defense general public-access website , www.defenselink.mil[home page] . The page views are freely available from that website, with no restrictions.

  “Period of report” : From 1 May 72 To 30 Apr 73
“Not Observed” is checked off [mid-page below] in every category, such as “Knowledge of Duties,” “Performance of Duties,” “Leadership,” and “Judgment.”

The .pdf link is www.defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/bush_records/personnel_pt2.pdf
The record in its original-form posting by the Dept. of Defense can be directly viewed (and not chopped off near the bottom as it appears here), at pg 43 of the published file at the link above.
The document is the first of the 2-page annual evaluation document. The second part of it — shown below — can be accessed at the same link, at the page that follows, pg 44.

–The question now is why did phony documents surface and get all the attention instead of the real ones, which disclosed most of the same information:

1. GW Bush was grounded ["suspended"] from flight status, and never again flew for the last 2 years of his commission.
2. His commanding officers could not evaluate him for a 12-month period because they believed he was performing equivalent duty in Alabama.

I go over some of this in my siteubthejudge.com.
Also, these documents were in the hands of a few investigators and journalists who made the FOIA request in 2000, in the month before the November election. Reporters in 2000 chose not to print them.
 The Guard records very nearly did see the light of day because an Iowa citizen, M. Heldt, posted the FOIA documents to his site in September 2000, and accessible from tompaine.com. The only difference between the set of docs Heldt listed in 2000 and the ones on the government site this year is found with the suspension order. In the 2000 release, the government saw no need to black out the name of the officer shown in item #7:an identical order suspending the flight status was directed to Maj. James R. Bath [a friend and ally to Bush's dad and to the younger George Bush] on 29 Sep. 1972, confirming earlier verbal orders.Why did the Bush administration decide to cover the name in its re-release of foia papers four years later?
The black-out spares a lot of embarassment. You see, Bath was a financial investor and intermediary between powerful, wealthy Saudi financiers [such as these two men, (1) Salem bin Laden, the half-brother of bin Laden and (2) a top banker in Saudi Arabia, Khalid bin Mahfouz] and the Texas oil community. Also, Bath was an early investor in GWBush’s first exploration venture, Arbusto Ltd.
A lot of the documents about Bath’s financial role in Texas oil and financial ventures were disclosed in the Dallas Morning News in 1993 following their use in a court case between Bath and his former business partner Charles “Bill” White. Also, White was interviewed for broadcast in October 2003 (transcript).
The embarrassingly close ties of Saudi Arabian interests in general and American financial and oil interests in the years before September 11 was a top reason that 28 pages were scrubbed from the Senate’s investigating committee report on the 9-11 catastrophe.
Which media outlets let this story blow by in late October and early November 2000. From personal communication, I can state that the Associated Press, Reuters, USA Today, MSNBC/NBC, and yes, CBS saw the service records and chose not to publish them.
Bush ran for election in 2000 with the phrase “I trust the people.”
 — Just not with the documents about his past.

 His crew went to great lengths to divert the public’s attention from his past.
———
AND a timid, compliant press never felt the need to let the electorate know that a potential leader who would send men and women to war (and extend their tours of duty) cut short his own obligations to country.
P.S.The press had no trouble, however, re-printing a new disclosure a few days before the 2000 presidential election [--Remember this? :]
That particular record about a driving incident was splashed all over the front pages of many national and local papers.

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The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the Constitution forbids the execution of killers who were under 18 when they committed their crimes, ending a practice used in Virginia and 18 other states.

The 5-4 decision throws out the death sentences of about 70 juvenile murderers and bars states from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

The executions, the court said, were unconstitutionally cruel.

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A think tank which raised money by targeting elderly Americans with Social Security scare letters paid for more than $130,000 in travel expenses for the House Republican leader, his wife and his staff, RAW STORY has learned.

The National Center for Public Policy Research, a highly controversial and little-known conservative think tank which has been sending Social Security “fright mail” for years, paid for two posh trips for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) in 1996 and 2000, each at the cost of at least $64,000.

NCPPR also gave $1,000 to DeLay’s legal defense fund in 2004.

While another conservative group stole the limelight for an ad linking the AARP to gay marriage, NCPPR has operated below the radar on controversial issues since its founding in the early 1980s.

The group’s letters target seniors of both parties, aiming to convince them their Social Security benefits are in jeopardy and thereby induce them to donate money. The mailings also encourage seniors to keep the mailing secret from others, perhaps even from family members.

[..]

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay enjoyed the generosity of the group at least twice. The group paid for a $64,064 trip for himself and his staff to Moscow and St. Petersburg when he was Majority Whip in the summer of 1997.

NCPPR also picked up a hefty $70,000 tab for trip for DeLay and his aides made in mid-2000 to Europe. DeLay and his staff took a junket where he met with former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and took a round of golf with conservative leaders in Scotland.
The ten-day ‘educational’ trip was no small affair – NCPPR paid $28,106 for DeLay and his wife alone, splurging on transportation ($20,266.00), cushy lodging ($3,840.00) and meals ($4,000.00).

DeLay’s office did not return RAW STORY calls seeking comment today.

On Saturday, the National Journal reported that DeLay may have violated House ethics rules when a top lobbyist shelled out an additional $13,000 for DeLay’s stay at the London Four Seasons hotel during that same trip. House rules stipulate that members or members’ employees cannot accept payment from a registered lobbyist to cover travel costs.

The lobbyist in question? Jack Abramoff, an NCPPR director. Abramoff was also on the board of USA Next – a pro-privatization Social Security group that formed as an offshoot of the Swift Boat Vets and recently ran an ad claiming AARP supported gay marriage.

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Hoera! Eindelijk begrijpelijk nieuws! Lees elke dag deze site, en je kunt overal over meepraten. En nog snappen wat je nou eigenlijk zegt ook.

Althans, zo zegt de site het zelf. Kennelijk is er behoefte aan een nieuws site voor Jip en Janneke.

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The growing surge in international VoIP calls has caused the state-owned telecommunications monopoly in Costa Rica to propose legislation that could criminalize the use of Internet telephone calls.

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) said that it views VoIP as a value-added telecom service and, as such, it should be regulated. At its most Draconian, the proposal would make Internet telephoning a crime.

[..]

The ICE proposal was first reported in “La Nacion,” the country’s national newspaper, which noted that some 20 percent of the country’s international calls are made using VoIP technology.

They should also make it a crime to talk to people without using a phone at all. After all you’re just bypassing the phone companies systems by doing so which clearly should be a crime.

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In a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, a federal judge ruled the case of “dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla is a matter for law enforcement – not the military – and ordered the government to charge him or let him go.

Padilla’s more than 2 1/2 years in custody, most of it spent in a Navy brig, don’t seem closer to an end, however, because Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki said the government will appeal the ruling.

U.S. District Judge Henry Floyd in Spartanburg, S.C., ruled Monday that the government can not hold Padilla indefinitely as an “enemy combatant,” a designation President Bush gave him in 2002. The government views Padilla as a militant who planned attacks on the United States, including with a “dirty bomb” radiological device.

Floyd wrote in his 23-page opinion that to rule in favor of the government “would not only offend the rule of law and violate this country’s constitutional tradition,” it would be a “betrayal of this nation’s commitment to the separation of powers that safeguards our democratic values and individual liberties.”

Floyd, appointed by Bush in 2003, gave the administration 45 days to take action.

A Russian man dives into a hole in a frozen pond at a park in Moscow February 20, 2005. REUTERS/Viktor Korotayev

[Quote:]

The European Commission has reportedly declined the European Parliament’s request for a restart of the legislative process on the controversial software patent directive. The EP had taken a three-tiered decision to ask the Commission to begin the process from scratch: On 2 February, the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) of the European Parliament near-unanimously decided to make this request. On 17 February, the EP’s Conference of Presidents (i.e., the group chairs) unanimously backed that decision. A week later, on 24 February, the plenary of the EP reinforced this by unanimously “inviting” the Commission to review its proposal for a software patent directive although there was no more formal requirement for the plenary to vote on this subject.

NoSoftwarePatents.com received an indication on Friday from the office of a vice president of the Commission and has now heard that the Commission today informed several journalists of its decision.

Florian Mueller, the manager of the pan-European NoSoftwarePatents.com campaign, condemned the Commission’s decision in the strongest terms: “A wannabe Napoleon who heads the Commission and a Microsoft puppet that runs the DG (directorate general) in charge have decided to negate democracy. Now we call on the EU Council to demonstrate a more democratic attitude and to reopen negotiations of its Common Position at the forthcoming meeting of the Competitiveness Council on Monday (7 March).”

The best thing the European people can do is vote NO on the new constitution as long as the Commission is not elected democratically, and as long they’re not fully accountable.

Meanwhile, one of the Directive’s key supporters, the German Federal Ministry of Justice, has reportedly received approximately 500 bananas, shipped in more than 150 parcels, from constituents appalled by what they consider “banana republic style” disrespect for the national and European parliaments.

[Quote...]

CONSUMER electronics companies say they do not want to be over charged for the latest wave of anti-piracy technology.

The price for anti-piracy technology, proposed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), has been set at a dollar a unit. However, several producers have told Reuters that this is far too high.

One mobile phone maker said that the price is unreasonable and not in proportion to the economic value.

It’s all in the numbers: last year more than 684 million mobile phones were sold. If handset makers had put anti-piracy protection software in those phones, the $684 million in royalties would have exceeded total digital music sales on the Web.

That’s 684,000,000

WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: I don’t really understand. How is it the new [Social Security] plan is going to fix that problem?

BUSH: Because the — all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There’s a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those — changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be — or closer delivered to what has been promised. Does that make any sense to you? It’s kind of muddled. Look, there’s a series of things that cause the — like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate — the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those — if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

– President G. W. Bush, Tampa, Florida, Feb. 4, 2005

I hope that makes it clear for everybody. Now, I’d like to talk about our policy in Iraq….