E-Scribe News : a programmer’s blog

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PBX My name is Paul Bissex, and e-scribe.com is my consulting business. I build web applications using as much open source software as possible. From September to June I teach web design and other important non-photographic professional skills to photographers. In the '90s I wrote technology commentary and reviews for magazines, newspapers, and web publications, including Wired, Salon.com, FamilyPC, the late lamented Web Review, and the Chicago Tribune. Feel free to email me.

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I'm co-authoring a book, "Python Web Development with Django", with Jeff Forcier and Wesley Chun. It will be published by Prentice Hall in July 2008, but is available for pre-ordering on Amazon now.

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Copyright 2008
by Paul Bissex
and E-Scribe New Media

"Free" music from Universal

According to this article, Universal Music is planning to launch a site that will offer free downloads and generate revenue via advertising. It's called "Spiral Frog", which I think is a great name -- for a high-school kid's web design business. Oops, sorry, it's only the first paragraph and I'm already getting snarky. The placekeeper site they have up does have a nice clean faux-Web-2.0 look to it. Universal's own website is strangely silent on the subject, as of right now anyway. The site is slated to launch in December 2006.

Clearly they're going to be using some sort of DRM (though the article doesn't indicate whose):

Customers will be able to download an unlimited number of Universal songs

to their computer and one other device. They will not be able to transfer those songs onto a compact disc, and they must visit the site at least once a month to maintain access to their music.

I imagine the options for that "one other device" won't include the iPod.

I think this could be a good development in the end. It will offer a bit of competition for iTMS, but clearly will be more of a pain in the ass, which may get people thinking more clearly about just how much DRM they are willing to put up with.

Update: Some welcome perspective from Wired News.

Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
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Some related posts: Songbird almost-0.2 • Xiph, Ogg, FLAC, et al. • Songbird, open source competition for iTunes

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