Made an offhand comment in a recent post regarding SNOCAP and caps lock branding. My question was: are they shouting or is it an acronym?

Failed to consider a third option, that is, the marketers at SNOCAP are insecure in their masculinity and they use caps lock to compensate. This is a strange conclusion. Yet consider something I saw while shopping recently:

“Yes, the correct spelling is GLOCK. GLOCK insists so. As they are men and wish to loudly announce themselves, this should always be respected.”

I’m not convinced that this logic applies to SNOCAP (or GLOCK). Regardless, it’s funny proof that brands and brand meaning are increasingly part of the public domain.

Overheard last Saturday night at the corner of 24th and South Van Ness:

Guy: “You know, your whole attitude is lame because it’s totally pro American empire and capitalistic.”

Girl: “What are you talking about? Who’s the one that turned her lights out tonight? You didn’t even care.”

Guy: “Oh, right, because turning off my lights for an hour is going to accomplish anything. You’re missing the point. It’s like Buy Nothing Day. Who cares if you buy nothing one day and go back to buying way too much stuff every other day. I mean, who cares if you turn your lights out for an hour?”

Girl (stubs out her cigarette): “Well, I care, I guess. Whatever… Do you want to get another round or should we go for a spin?”

Guy: “Yeah!”

Guy and Girl cross the street, jump into a new long bed pickup, and burn rubber through the intersection.

I don’t have an opinion man, I just write what I see. SFist has more on the aftermath of the SF lights out experience.

Bad news last week for SNOCAP. On the positive side, even a failed myspace initiative can register a lot of users. SNOCAP built a fair sized list - 80,000 bands and 175,000 consumers (unidentified overlap).

It sure would suck to be one of the folks that got cut. Sorry.

How will the market value SNOCAP’S remaining assets?

From Myspace’s perspective it’s also a significant loss. Key partner SNOCAP has lost credibility. Repositioning SNOCAP will require a major redesign. Replacing SNOCAP seems unlikely and probably not the best move. They’ve no doubt learned a lot from the SNOCAP crew and even more from user behavior. At what point will myspace decide that they don’t need SNOCAP?

[tags]SNOCAP, CAPS LOCK BRANDING, ACRONYM OR SHOUTING??[/tags]

Is this a political rant? I hope not. It caught my attention. I think it deserves a minute of yours.

Rick Weiss at WashingtonPost.com has written an interesting story about tiny flying surveillance robots, he calls them robobugs. I was caught by the way he handles the topic. In the face of glaring public privacy and civil liberties concerns, Weiss takes a gee whiz popular mechanics angle. The whole thing is a little disturbing.

Consider Weiss’ conclusion:

“Cellphone cameras are already everywhere. It’s not that much different.”

Right…

To be exact, those words aren’t Weiss’, rather his editor chose to use those words to neatly wrap up the story. The quote above is attributed to UC Berkeley roboticist Ronald Fearing. I doubt Fearing had any review over how this story would read.

From my perspective it reads very much like the editors of the Washington Post are making a clear assertion. It’s a political assertion. They’re not making an argument and they don’t appear remotely interested in the social implications of what they’re talking about. They do seem aware of the policy implications; this is happening in the context of the absurd wiretapping non-debate.

The Washington Post asserts that (a.) the public is ok with cellphone cameras; therefore (b.) the public will be ok with the American government using swarms of tiny flying cameras to spy on us.

Minnesota single mother Jammie Thomas is found liable for $220,000. That’s $9,250 each for 24 songs.

Interesting comments at Wired (via Coolfer).

RIAA fought to protect the interests of artists such as Janet Jackson, Richard Marx, Journey, No Doubt, and Green Day.

Unfortunately, the backlash from this public relations disaster will cost the artists much more than the guilty party. Sales will suffer in the wake of this latest major label fiasco, and ironically, it would very likely cost Green Day less if they were to pay the $9,250 per Green Day song found on Ms. Thomas’ computer.

If Green Day was to step up and pay the fine they’d be sending the right message to their fans. That would result in increased visibility and increased sales. More importantly, it’s something their fans would respect and appreciate. The message is that they’re aware of what their label and the RIAA are doing on their behalf.

The message isn’t that copyright infringement is ok. Copyright infringement does cause harm to artists.

The tactics of the RIAA are causing much greater harm to the artists and their hard won reputations.

Green Day should send a message that the current system isn’t working. The RIAA’s methods of dealing with copyright infringement through litigation have been a remarkable waste of resources and brand value. These cases are a failure for everyone involved.

Did you know there’s a movement to boycott artists associated with the RIAA?

Quote from Jimmy McDonough’s “Shakey”:

“The eighties found the country retreating into conservatism and gripped by economic woes. Musically, it was the decade of the mega-artist - Madonna, Prince, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen. Figures who, however you feel about them, seemed a little less real and a lot more media-savvy. The black hole of MTV sucked everything through its vortex, demolishing the few barriers that remained between rock and other forms of mass media and erasing whatever tiny regional identity it had left.”

Lately some media savvy artists and fans have been using good relationship building skills and pre-fab software to form new social networks. These social networks are helping to redefine the regional identity of northern California music. Bay area sites include:

Pacific Noise
Deli Magazine SF
The Bay Bridged
BAGel Radio
Cool Waves SF
Mesh Magazine SF

These sites distribute MP3’s and podcasts, they’re involved in the net radio movement, they promote shows and create original video content, they’ve accomplished a lot in a short period of time. Expect them to do a lot more.

I’m sure there are others who deserve recognition too. Let me know who they are.

Mesh Magazine SF reminds us not to buy music from record labels that persecute their fans via outrageous RIAA lawsuits.

“The companies that sued [Jammie] Thomas are Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc.”

More interesting information about the trial at Boycott-Riaa.com and PC World.

Boycotting the RIAA seems reasonable. It’s gonna be tough though, so prepare to sacrifice!

No more Celine Dion
no more Barry Manilow
no more Whitney Houston
no more Guns n’ Roses
no more Duran Duran
no more Alanis Morissette
no more Cher
no more Billy Idol
no more Kiss
no more Sheryl Crow
no more Billy Joel
no more Christina Aguilera
no more Kenny Chesney
no more Gloria Estefan
no more Slayer
no more Bruce Hornsby
no more Carly Simon
no more Wilson Phillips
no more Menudo
no more Backstreet Boys
no more Nick Lachey
no more Air Supply
no more Blondie
no more Crash Test Dummies
no more Neil Diamond
no more Lita Ford
no more Irish Tenors
no more R. Kelly
no more Brit… Brit… Brit…

Aww hell I just can’t do it.