Spotted a review of the recent 31st March Peeping Tom gig in Texas including some mobile phone video.

The review indicates the band played General Patton's "Get Up Punk". On the last tour they were playing Lovage's "Anger Management". There are videos of that on YouTube if you look.

Have to say I'm pretty excited to hear some General Patton played live. Vaguely hoping for some new tracks too but I don't think that's going to happen.

A plot point in West Wing was "spoiled" for me was back in December 2005 while reading Scripting News.

At that time the show had just been cancelled and was winding up it's last season (7) in the US, while in Australia I believe they were showing Season 5.

Well on Saturday the "spoiled" episode was played and I was surprised as all heck. The memory of the Scripting News post flooded back not long after watching, but I'd completely forgotten it before hand.

It's a combination of the fact I was barely watching the show at the time and probably didn't link the name to the character and the fact it was well over a year ago when I read that item.

The thing is... if it had have been surrounded by "spoiler warnings", I'd have read it anyway because I was barely watching the show and didn't mind being spoilt. Further, the "spoiler warnings" would have stapled the fact in my head forever to be remembered.

Without the warnings I glanced at it and moved on, forgot the fact and enjoyed the season without foreknowledge spoiling the experience.

I'm rather surprised I remembered it at all even after the fact, especially the fact I remembered where I read it.

I think there is something in that for all of us...

It's surprisingly difficult to figure out which label an artist is attached to. Particularly because it can be different depending on which country you're talking about, and because often artists are independent or at least on a small label owned by one of the larger labels.

Going from memory and with a little research on Wikipedia, I've figured out that pretty much every track I've bought on iTunes is either independent or not EMI.

That is expected...

I switch on the news (Channel 10's pre-7am news) and the silly man said something like "EMI will sell their songs on Apple's iTunes without digital copy protection meaning tracks can be bought and burnt to CD and swapped online legally".

Here I was thinking it was just the mySpace generation that thought no digital rights management = free and legal to copy, but it seems that stupidity has spread to the media. Just like how you can go and kill someone because there isn't anything to stop you. Oh yeah, except the law.

Anyway, here's the new deal:

• EMI content only (about 20% of iTunes tracks)
• Starts in May
• It is worldwide
• Non-DRM tracks will be 256kbps (vs. DRM 128kbps)
• Non-DRM tracks will cost about 30% more ($1.29 in the US vs .99c)
• Yes, both DRM (cheaper and less quality) and more expensive but better quality and more interoperable non-DRM will be available, the user will have a choice between cheap and dirty and pricey and clean
• DRM removed from EMI videos without any price difference
• All EMI albums will be DRM free by default with no price difference
• Users will be able to upgrade their existing tracks (to better quality and to unlock them) by paying the difference
• Does not include the Beatles

EMI has been at the front of non-DRM sales lately, experimenting with selling their artists albums in MP3 format.

The extra quality appeals to me hugely as I've often called for Apple to sell lossless downloads. 256kbps isn't lossless but it's a huge step up and I'm willing to pay more for better quality.

The DRM on iTunes tracks has never been a problem for me but it will mean any tracks I buy will be easier to back up (no need to back up licenses too, just the track), easier to convert to WAV (via iTunes instead of via my soundcard) and easier to burn to CD outside of iTunes.

Others have noted that better quality means that it's easier to add watermarking to each file downloaded (meaning that if it turns up on P2P it can be traced to the buyer). I don't see a problem with that and I've always assumed iTunes tracks had watermarks anyway.

Apple press release | EMI press release | Slashdot | The Age | BoingBoing

List of artists signed to EMI [Wikipedia]