Important Message

I received the email below a few days ago, and I think it is important to get it out to as many places as possible, so I am blogging about it. I saw the same letter on one of my favorite blogs, Boing Boing, this morning as well, so I know the word is getting out.

I subscribed to MP3 Tunes because there was a link to it on my Nokia N800 tablet when I bought it. I sign up for free stuff all the time, but this seems like a genuinely useful service, especially for folks like me with a big music collection and lots of interconnected devices. If you get a chance, check out their site, and maybe sign up for the service.

Dear MP3tunes Customer,

Let me start by saying that as the CEO of MP3tunes I appreciate your support over the last few years. Your suggestions and patience have helped us build the Locker system we have today. We just launched AutoSync that makes managing your music collection easier than ever.

As you may be aware, the major record label EMI has sued MP3tunes, claiming our service is illegal. You can read about the case here. Much is at stake -- if you don't have the right to store your own music online then you won't have the right to store ebooks, videos and other digital products as well. The notion of ownership in the 21st century will evaporate. The idea of ownership is important to me and I want to make sure I have that right and my kids do too.

I would like to ask for your assistance in our battle for personal music ownership. We need your help because we are a small, 15-person company battling an international giant. They would like to make us spend all of our money paying legal bills. Here's what you can do to help:

1) Please upgrade to a Premium account. This week MP3tunes is launching 3 service levels. I hope you will consider signing up for one of the paid levels. This will not only help us pay for the costs of our service (machines, storage and bandwidth) but a portion will go to cover our legal costs in our case with EMI.

2) If you have a chance to talk publicly about our cause on your blog, with friends, reporters or even EMI personnel please do so. MP3tunes is working hard to design a secure personal music service. We don't promote sharing of music in any manner. We want people to legally acquire their music. But once they do, we think it's important that you be able to use it how you want for your personal use. The AmazonMP3 store says: "You may copy, store, transfer and burn the Digital Content only for your personal, non-commercial, entertainment use." and this is what MP3tunes allows you to do.

You have my commitment that I'll continually battle for your right to store your music online and listen to it anywhere on any device. I hope you'll consider helping MP3tunes in our battle. Thanks.

-- Michael Robertson
CEO
MP3tunes.com

Double Bubble Birthday Trouble

Busy weekend!
My oldest and my youngest have birthdays one day apart, the 18Th and 19Th of April, so this time of year is pretty hectic around the old homestead. With parties and presents, fiends and relatives, and the normal spring cleanup that comes this time of year, our house is even more of a zoo that normal.

Jakob got rock band from my in-laws and us, so he and his friends were jamming away with guitar, drums and mike for a big chunk of the night. The whole rock band package is a neat idea and an interesting experiment in video gaming. The game is much harder than I expected, even on the easy setting, and it is going to take some time to get good at all the different instruments. So far Owen is on vocals, and Jakob really likes the guitar, so Ethan has been relegated to playing drums. When Jakob’s buddies were over, the three of them played through 4 or 5 songs and actually made a bit of progress in the game, which was cool.


Ethan had 5 friends over for his party, and that went fantastically. My wife, who is master of the party games, came up with a bunch of wizardly themed things for the kids to do. We had potion making 101, in which the kids mixed together vinegar and baking soda to create bubbling messes, a big star-shaped pinata, disappearing wizards, which involved a mummy-like toilet paper process, and a scavenger hunt, with picture clues provided by Owen the photographer. Attached below are some video clips and pictures from the festivities.

Sweet Juniper's insight

My wife pointed me to a great post on the blog of sweet juniper , a Detroiter with some excellent insights about the city and two of my favorite things, old buildings and books. His whole blog is a great read if you are interested.

The post is really interesting to me because it show so much about what has gone wrong in Detroit. the corruption, The destruction of beautiful buildings, and the boot on the back of the neck of the innocents kids who grow into poverty stricken adults in the city.

I have always lived in the suburbs around Detroit, and I don't like big cities at all, but it still makes me sad to see Detroit gone so far wrong.

Vacation, all I ever wanted... Vacation had to get away.

Wednesday and Thursday of last week, my wife and kids went with 2 other adults and 4 other kids to the Michigan state capitol, in the city of Lansing.

They had a lot of fun, visiting several museums, the capitol building, and doing quite a bit of swimming in the hotel pool. Here is a photo for all you wish you were there types!

Testing blogging from my phone

Hey all you loyal readers, first post in a long time. I am testing the ability to blog from my phone.
Here is a picture of my son's totally excellent bed head!