Welcome to 'Transmitting to Earth'. I'm Charssun and I'll be your host. This blog and podcast is a byproduct of VoyagerRadio.com and is intended to provide the most timely information about this Internet radio station. It is also intended to be a fun and accessible electronic journal with commentary focusing on Internet radio, podcasting and webcasting issues and technologies, music, and some of my other interests. I also offer personal perspective about being an Internet radio broadcaster (and podcaster).
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The Napster of MoviesI feel like I've been living in a cave. How come I haven't heard of BitTorrent, the "Napster of movies", until now? It took a bathroom session with a copy of Wired for me to find out about this dangerously useful P2P app. Come to think of it, I probably have heard of BitTorrent--I just didn't care until now, not having a machine that could run the program. I've been stuck in Mac OS 9-land until recently--that's The Dark Ages, for those of you who don't know--and having been blessed with an upgrade to Panther (Mac OS X) and the fortune of having a friend donate a PC equipped with Windows XP to the cause, I now have a multitude of apps to play with. What's this? BitTorrent? Send it my way...MusicMatch and Napster? I'm on 'em...iTunes Music Store? Hello!
Of course, I don't think I'd actually use BitTorrent to share copyrighted files, but I sure wouldn't mind seeing how this puppy works! Perhaps a download of one of the two DVDs I already own, like Underworld's Everything Everything...oh, what a waste of time that would be! I should use my time more wisely--for example, by using the app to obtain a copy of a fantastically rare film, heretofore unreleased on DVD--where's the harm in that? I mean, the MPAA sure isn't doing much to appease us consumers; so far, they seem to be following in the footsteps of the RIAA, leaving fallow farmland where seeds of growth could be planted instead. We want our movies, and as Chris Anderson has so duly noted in his Memo to the New Head of the MPAA in the current issue of Wired (not available online at the time of this posting, but perhaps available by the time you read this), the MPAA is depriving us of our cultural history by keeping the film and television archives shut. Now I'm not about to begin hollerin' "Aye, mateys, let's pillage them shores!" but I am saying that the MPAA will be much better off learning from the mistakes of the RIAA by embracing digital distribution rather than trying to avoid it. Own it--make it yours, and the pirates will be vanquished. Sabby? (Well, not entirely vanquished, but who cares? Once you give us what we want, only the hopelessly bored will waste their time trying to illegally obtain an approximation of the same.) Okay, I'm bordering on plagiarism here--much of the point I'm making is a rephrasing of what Mr. Anderson has already pointed out in his article. Still, Mr. Anderson isn't the first to point out the MPAA's mistakes--others have been trying to dissuade the MPAA from following the same treacherous path as the RIAA for some time now. We're simply sharing this idea--distributing it, like the P2P programs under scrutiny--in order to save the MPAA, which most of us want to see survive. We love our movies and we want to continue enjoying them, but if you begin to make it too difficult for us to do so--by making sharing difficult and, in the process of encryption, making DVDs inaccessible--then we'll find another way to obtain our entertainment. Just remember, MPAA, all you have to do is follow what consumers are already doing and build upon that structure. Since folks have already decided they like to download stuff, make your movies easily available for download. Construct a digital store that is as intuitive as Apple's iTunes Music Store, but more reasonably priced. Take the advice from one of your own: if you build it, they will come. Besides this blog, a narrative blog called something that happened, and various other projects, I also moderate a discussion forum: Please consider subscribing to engage in a dialogue about all things having to do with Internet radio! |
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Artists! Want to be heard on this station? Email your MP3 audio, one file at a time, to our Program Director or mail your CD promo(s) to the following address:
Harold J. JohnsonVoyagerRadio
547 Gayley Avenue #1
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Download the Podcast
We are officially podcasters now that we have revitalized and reintroduced our downtempo show Tempo of the Down, this time around as a podcast. Now showcasing independent downtempo we've been granted permission to offer for download, Tempo of the Down is our entry into the future of Internet radio.
Head over to our new Podcast area to download the latest session!
