While we’re talking about the great things that the US is capable of, how about Apple? They are a cool company in several ways. I remember when a county in Texas refused to give tax breaks to them because their employee medical programme was available to same sex and unmarried partners as well as spouses; Apple promptly said they would site their office building elsewhere. When the iTunes store was launched most people thought that it was a great example of how the record industry should have dealt with the ‘problem’ of peer-to-peer music file sharing. However, some people think that the whole record industry is corrupt and unfair to musicians and that the iTunes store just perpetuates that unfairness.
“Despite huge new efficiencies created by internet distribution –no CDs to make, no distributors to store and ship them, no CD stores to build and run– artists receive the same pathetic cut [that they have in the past].”
The Downhill Battle site is well designed and very interesting. I’d say it’s worth a bookmark.