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In May, Mr. Bragg removed his songs from the MySpace.com Web site, complaining that the terms and conditions that MySpace set forth gave the social networking site far too much control over music that people uploaded to it. In media interviews and on his MySpace blog, he said that the MySpace terms of service made it seem as though any content posted on the site, including music, automatically became the site’s property.

[Snip ...]

About a month later, without referencing Mr. Bragg’s concerns, MySpace.com clarified its terms of service, which now explain who retains what rights. A sample line: “The license you grant to MySpace.com is nonexclusive (meaning you are free to license your content to anyone else in addition to MySpace.com).”

Jenny Toomey, executive director of the Future of Music Coalition, an advocacy group for musicians that focuses on intellectual property rights, said the Internet could help musicians warn one another about potential contractual problems. “Information is now shared in a different way,” she said, “and artists who are getting a bad deal can connect with each other.”

Mr. Bragg, who said he never had any direct communication with executives from MySpace, has put some of his music back on the site. And he offered some praise for the site’s effectiveness in spreading his message. “That’s the amazing thing about MySpace,” he said. “If you say something, word gets out.”

Tags: MySpace, Billy Bragg, intellectual property, online music sharing

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IMO the Israelis and the USA are just salivating, waiting for the slightest reaction from Syria or Iran to open the path for declaring WW III.

At least 37 children were killed !

I just got this statement from Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb on net neutrality:

The internet represents democracy in action and must be protected. More than perhaps any other medium, the internet provides an open and free marketplace of ideas and speech, as our founding fathers intended in the first amendment to our Constitution. The internet has been open and free since its inception, and it should remain open and free moving forward.

 Just as importantly, the blogosphere provides strong checks and balances on the corporate media and on governmental power. This is particularly crucial at at time of serious overreach by the executive branch, as we now are experiencing.

 Finally, there is a fundamental fairness issue at stake here. Given that the internet is increasingly indispensible to educational and career advancement in today’s economy, it is essential that we keep it accessible and affordable to all Americans - not just to the wealthiest corporations and citizens.

Allowing big telecom companies to provide preferential service to large content providers over the “little guy” is both wrong and undemocratic. For all these reasons, I strongly support net neutrality.

Webb is facing George Allen, the Senator on the Commerce Committee who obeyed his telecom lobbyist pals and voted against net neutrality.

I’d vote for this guy if he were in my voting district … period.  Would you ?

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At least his colleagues are beginning to realize and openly state what an arsehole he is.

Don’t let the Cabinet door hit you in the arse, etc. etc, … Tony

Via the Observer

Cabinet in open revolt over Blair’s Israel policy

Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion last night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned that Israel’s actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon.

Jack Straw, now Leader of the Commons, said in a statement released after meeting Muslim residents of his Blackburn constituency that while he grieved for the innocent Israelis killed, he also mourned the ‘10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by Israeli fire’.

He said he agreed with the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells that it was ‘very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel’, adding: ‘These are not surgical strikes but have instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.’ Straw said he was worried that ‘a continuation of such tactics by Israel could destabilise the already fragile Lebanese nation’.

The Observer can also reveal that at a cabinet meeting before Blair left for last Friday’s Washington summit with President George Bush, minister after minister pressed him to break with the Americans and publicly criticise Israel over the scale of death and destruction.

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Hizbullah started it (supposed political party, according to Bush), these people don’t want freedom and democracy, it scares them, etc.

No mention of many years of Israel terrorizing the Palestinians .. they’re ALWAYS just defending themselves (aggressively, if need be)

Syria and Iran supplying Hizbullah, Hamas, terrorists with arms, etc.

No mention of the long-established and huge supply of bombs, rockets, tanks, figether planes to israel by the USA.

Repeated ad nauseum .. freedom and democracy, freedom and democracy, those "ideologues" must be defeated, and we will not waver.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that the Bush administration continues to be remarkably successful at rewriting history.

For example, Mr. Bush has repeatedly suggested that the United States had to invade Iraq because Saddam wouldn’t let U.N. inspectors in. His most recent statement to that effect was only a few weeks ago. And he gets away with it. If there have been reports by major news organizations pointing out that that’s not at all what happened, I’ve missed them.

It’s all very Orwellian, of course. But when Orwell wrote of “a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past,” he was thinking of totalitarian states.

Who would have imagined that history would prove so easy to rewrite in a democratic nation with a free press?

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