After today, just three more shows to go. All I keep thinking is that this just can’t be happening – that it isn’t right. “Left of the Dial” was on HBO2 last night, and I just couldn’t watch it.
This is kind of like when you’re a kid and your best friend’s dad gets a new job on the other side of the country (except in this case, you KNOW it’s a dumb move, and the new company is going to suck and go out of business), and your friend doesn’t want to go, and you don’t want him to go, but you’re powerless to do anything about it, and no matter how much you beg his dad or his mom or anybody else that you can think of, they just ignore you, ‘cuz you’re just a dumb inconsequential f*cking kid and nobody cares what you think. 😡 You say you’ll keep in touch and you’ll maybe visit once in a while, but it won’t ever be the same.
Of course, you eventually get over it, but it still sucks.
Arnold sucks
I got the documentary over the torrent early last month and found it fascinating. Overall, I have almost the opposite feeling, the closer the last show gets, the more I get drawn into it. I went through the same process with Unfiltered which unfortunately unfolded unceremoniously.
MS on DVD
It looks like all of the available MS shows (the 18 may 04 show, and 1 June 04 through the last show on the 16th – who’s choppin onions?) in MP3 will fit on two DVDs. If somebody has the earlier shows they should fit as well.
While packaging and selling the archived MS shows would probably be infringing copyright, given they are being distributed over the net for free, I would guess that just copying them is within fair use, as long as there is no profit. Any of you infamous ambulance chasing democratic trial lawyers out there have any thoughts?
Well, I’m no lawyer, but the shows are kept archived with the knowledge of Air America Radio. So, whether you store them on your computer hard drive, MP3 player, or on a DVD, I don’t think there would be any problem. Selling them would be another story, and who knows what will happen when AAR decides to make you pay for access to the archives (who’d even want to do that w/o Morning Sedition though) .
Although it’s a bit of a grey area, I would consider Morning Sedition to be a collective work (as opposed to a “work for hire” as defined under §201 of the US Copyright Act of 1976), and AAR would be entitled to reissue or revise the original collection, and presumably would be allowed to reuse the shows (or parts of them) in a later broadcast of the same series (say, a “best of”).
The original author (say, Jim Earl, Kent Jones, or Marc) retains ownership of the individual work, while the publisher of the collective maintains ownership of the work as a whole.
Of course, if they were forced to sign away the rights to anything they created for the show, then all bets are off, but I suspect that if AAR issued a box set, they’d have to pay to use the original material on it.
I tried asking this question under contact, but I kept getting an invalid input message. Don’t know what I was doing wrong, but I’ll put it out there. What if I ask any of you to make copies of your DVDs or CDs, etc., paid for the materials and time and/or made a donation to Marc and Jim’s new show, would that be kosher.
PJ, and the friend (my friend) always moves to CA.:cry:
I’m sure something could be worked out. Maybe we can get a “tape tree” (except I guess it would be a CD or DVD tree) going.
The shows I have add up to about 6.5 gigs.
I’d really like to be able to get all the shows, from April 1, 2004 on. Hopefully somebody will be able to come up with them.
From what I remember from what my attorney told me about software development, in order for a copyright to be considered valid, you have to defend it and take reasonable steps to protect it. Voluntarily putting something out on the net so that anyone can download it without restriction or even copyright notice (I didn’t see one on the AAP site) or in the mp3 files could arguably be seen as not defending it, certainly from the standpoint of fans putting together and exchanging copies. I suspect a “dvd tree” would probably pass muster.
Yeah, I really wouldn’t worry about it. If they ever put together a collection with some value-added stuff (pictures, outtakes, video maybe), I’ll buy it. Frankly, this bunch doesn’t strike me as being smart enough to put it together and package it. I mean, their idea of marketing swag is cafe press coffee mugs and thongs that anybody could put together.
Killing MS is just the latest in a long list of examples of the total lack of creativity and imagination present in AAR management.
I just shot an e-mail off to Sheldon Drobny at the address he posted on the Huffingtonpost blog:
Dear Mr. Drobny:
I would like to help support Air America, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to justify it, when we have an excellent NPR affiliate that actually airs speeches by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky and a top notch community radio station in WMPG, where I work as Jazz Director as well as host two bi-weekly shows. WMPG airs a wide variety of music form Hip Hop and Indy Rock to Icelandic Jazz and Cambodian Pop as well as Democracy Now, Free Speech Radio and Counterspin. We air two locally produced political programs, Sound Ecology and Big Talk that are well produced, and feature guests like Dennis Kucinich, Jello Biafra and Ralph Nader. Our station also hosted this year’s Homeless Marathon. Like AAR, we ask our listeners to support us. They always show their support by giving thousands more than our fund drive goals. That’s because, unlike AAR we respond to them.
Unlike AAR, which canceled two programs that had dedicated audiences and a great potential for growth in spite of listener pleas, our Program Director reversed his decision to cancel Counterspin based on the volume of support the program received via phone calls and e-mails.
The Maine NPR network is also responsive to their listeners. They took off Saturday NPR Opera, and moved a nostalgia radio program from Friday afternoon to late Sunday night a few years ago. They too reversed those program changes based on listener input. That’s why they have a higher than average listener to member ratio for an NPR affiliate.
Unlike Maine Public Radio and WMPG, AAR seems to be taking a “shut up and eat your broccoli” approach to its listeners. You’ll never build an a dedicated audience, let alone an effective alternative media movement with an arrogant, top-down approach which demands people support a network with bad programming led by a unimaginative tinpot dictator of a CEO.
Methaz, I’ve recently read that KIA’s are listed only if they actually died in Iraq…but not if they died from their wounds on the way to triage in Germany, in German hospitals, or in US hospitals.
That would make the actual KIA count far higher, around 15,000. If this is true, and it were to be made public, it would certainly have an impact. Do you know more about this?
JP
Morning Philosopher Queens and Kings! I mean that literally. I’m in Japan for those of you who do not know. I really hope Maron gets a decent spot…..and a long enough show that will display his true talents! Golberg is making a HUGE mistake! 😡 I have to say thanks to morningseditionists for linking up my site The Era, you’re on mine as well! We should make this site the official new blog for Marc’s new show! 😮
You folks are great. I could not be getting through this on my own. I just left a message on the blog telling people that I haven’t enjoyed a performer the way I enjoy Marc since I was 14 –and that includes Elvis, Baryshnykov, Dr. Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy.
I love the idea of a CD/DVD tree, though I have no idea how that would work. You listen one day and send it to me, the next, then I send it off to someone else? I keep asking people how to keep the podcasts I download on my computer, but no one has here in techy town Rochester has given me an answer.
Great letter, Yaktreats. I am continually impressed by the quality of people who listen to Morning Sedition. Should someone ask Marc to announce the presence of this web site? I just decided to pursuse the “blog thing” when I heard about the ax being raised. I bet there are lots of non-blogging types, not techi types who are mourning in solitude. If Marc told his audience about the web site, who knows….?
Hi-
Well, the first thing you have to do is go to where the shows are archived at Air America Place: http://www.airamericaplace.com/archive.php (or, more specifically, the Morning Sedition Archives at http://www.airamericaplace.com/archive.php?mode=show&id=3.
Next to each show, you’ll see Complete episode: Download (19.3) (this is a link, and the part in parentheses is the file size – about 19 megabytes).
Right click on the download link, and a menu will pop up. Select “save target as” (if using IE, “save link as” if FireFox), and a dialog box will pop up, allowing you to browse to a location to save the file. Save it someplace where you’ll remember where it is. When it’s done, yo can listen to it. They are mp3 files, and should play in Windows Media Player or Real PLayer (I prefer Winamp, myself).
That should do it (and they are commercial-free). They are usually available by about 10:00 eastern time, though, well, only for three more shows, I guess.
It would be great if all the MS fans came here after the show was history and kept up with things. I just hate the thought of it all petering out and going away. It would mean Danny G won. At least Marc would have a way to reach a good number of fans with news about a new show, or appearances or to let us know how the cats are doing, and if Mishna tried to shoot him.
Thanks pj. Good night and good luck! I better go to bed if I am going to wake up on time.
I’ve posted a couple of scripts to automate downloading the MS archive. For linux users, this csh script will do the trick. Takes about 12 hours because I built in delays between downloads to avoid causing AAP problems.
For windows, it’s a bit harder. First, download the windows version of the script. Next, you will need to get and install the WGET utility.
On KIA’s and Iraq, it is my understanding that the additional losses in transit are fairly small – maybe a couple of hundred. Again, the quality of immediate medical care is really amazing (follow up is another matter, and is pathetic).