From Wired: “We’d Like to Thank Our PC”

Being an indie rocker today means more than pressing your own 7-inch. Boston-based Freezepop not only recorded a demo but also animated a digital video, designed logo gear, and booked an international solo tour. For their effort, the computer-pop artists got the kind of exposure that usually requires a cigar-chomping manager and a record label’s budget: The band opened for the Sneaker Pimps and got songs on PS2 games, including the hit Karaoke Revolution. And Freezepop’s new album, Fancy Ultra*Fresh, was sold on iTunes and Napster even before the CD was picked up for distribution in brick-and-mortar stores. Goes to show, a big break can be more than luck - it can be engineered.

How to Be a Rock Star: Freezepop’s DIY Guide [...]

Cory Doctorow points to the Slashdot story on the latest rev of SnapStream’s latest - a wholly software PVR: Latest SnapStream PVR App Reviewed

Something that he seems to do for a living at the BBC. This one is particularly notable for putting him squarely in (if not beyond!) the Richard Stallman camp: From code war to Cold War

Things are getting serious over in the US, where two mighty forces are fighting for a position of control over the daily lives of millions of people.

[...] It is the conflict between two different ideologies of software development.

[...] This implies that we will need to argue separately for the freedom to reuse, as people like Richard Stallman have done for decades, because it does not automatically make sense to the market.

In the next five or 10 years, disclosing source code and offering permissive licenses for reuse will be seen as making the best economic sense.

So now would be a good time to start thinking about how we persuade governments that market in software may eventually need to be regulated, just as the market in electricity, water and food is, and that that regulation may well include a statutory duty to disclose source code and allow it to be used elsewhere.

Slashdot discussion: Linux & Microsoft as a Cold War?