and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Get your music while its hot.

An agreement dated Nov. 19th, 2006 (pdf), and posted to web site of the Office of the United States Trade Representative summarizes the joint efforts of Russia and the USA to fight content piracy. AKA, it looks like the US may have finally got Russia to help shut down AllOfMP3.com.

This agreement sets the stage for further progress on IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] issues in Russia through the next phase of multilateral negotiations, during which the United States and other WTO members will examine Russia's IPR regime.

Meanwhile, AllOfMP3.com has released a press release (pdf) today:

Mediaservices today presented a legal position that outlined why it is likely that consumers in the U.S. are legally purchasing music from the site. (my emphasis)

Likely indeed. Get your music while its hot - as in stolen?

And that's not all, folks. Remember that silly bit about Microsoft paying a fee to Universal for each Zune sold?.. Now Universal is trying to argue it deserves a fee for each iPod sold as well. I yell conspiracy theory. Okay, maybe not.. Or maybe. It sound pretty fucking sketchy to me, that's for sure. Microsoft quickly develops a new portable media device well after the iPod's raging success... and then makes a deal with Universal. Certainly one could argue they had to, in order to get Universal music on their big time online music store, thereby ensuring a decent launch. Or you could argue MS+Universal have ganged up as common enemies against Apple.

And so it begins. Universal Music Group exec Doug Morris told the Reuters Media Summit that his company is interested in receiving a cut of the profits from each iPod sold.

"It would be a nice idea. We have a negotiation coming up not too far. I don't see why we wouldn't do that... but maybe not in the same way," Morris said. His "same way" comment is a reference to the Zune, which Universal already gets $1 from after signing a deal with Microsoft.

Universal believes that much of the music on portable players is illegal, and the company argues that it deserves a share of the profits from such devices in order to make up for the money lost in album sales.

Since when is random conjecture worthy of serious payment? This doesn't sound like normal business to me. If Apple gets suckered here, I think they're real wimps and feel weak in the marketplace. I don't think that will happen, however.