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If you’ve visited this site before, you’ll know I’m a big fan of free, open source software. Free software doesn’t just mean free of cost (like the “free beer” available when I go to visit my kids). It’s free. Use it, copy it and pass it around to your friends with few if any restrictions. And, you can do it legally.
Audacity is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds including MP3 files. Open source simply means that if you have computer programmaning skills, you can get the source code, study it and modify it to your liking. Audacity is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and GNU/Linux as well as other operating systems.
Just what can you do with Audacity?
Well you can record live audio from web casts and your favourite internet radio stations. If you can play it through your computer sound card, you can record it with audacity. Or, you can convert those old albums and tapes to MP3s (or OGG files). And once you’ve recorded the music, you can edit the sound to your liking. With a little bit of tinkering, I’ve even been able to re-channel my old mono albums to simulate stereo.
You can cut, copy, splice, and mix sounds together or change the speed or pitch of a recording. There’s an undo feature that allows you to undo any mistakes you might make. And go back an unlimited number of steps to make corrections.
The application interface is intuitive, and for the easy stuff, most people would be able to use it straight out of the box. If it came in a box. For some of the more advanced features there’s a slight learning curve, but there is excellent documentation available.
Audacity is being developed by a group of volunteers and distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
You can read all about the many features provided by the application and download a copy by simply clicking the link below.
Download Audacity
If you believe the latest results from the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), slightly fewer than 5 million people, representing 19% of the population aged 15 years and older, are smokers. There is no indication if those figures are based on the legal sale of tobacco products or if black market sales would raise those figures significantly. I suspet, however, that smokers buying on the black market have not been included.
The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care claims provincial tobacco taxes produced $1.452 billion in the 2004-2005 fiscal year. In the next fiscal year, 2005-2006, following yet another increase in sin taxes, provincial tax revenues dropped from $1.452 billion to $1.379 billion, a decline of 73 million dollars. Over the same period, combined federal and provincial tax revenue on tobacco dropped from $7.605 billion to $7.086, a drop of 517 million dollars.
However, says Dr. Atul Kapor, president of Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada, “There is a growing gap between the amount of cigarettes that Canadians say they are smoking and the tobacco tax revenues collected by federal and provincial governments.”
A report from Imperial Tobacco in October 2006 suggests that a quarter of the cigarettes consumed in Quebec and Ontario, are supplied by the black market. Reporters from the Toronto Star confirmed this estimate by using undercover shoppers to demonstrate just how easy it is to get cheap cigarettes in Toronto. Some sources suggest the sale of contraband cigarettes might be as high as 40%. Is anyone surprised?
The RCMP website says: “The sale of illegal tobacco products often benefits criminal organizations. The profits are used to: finance drug trafficking in Canada; purchase illegal weapons; and fund other illicit activities.
They also point out that, “These activities affect the safety and security of our communities and our children. Buying and selling illegal tobacco has other negative consequences for Canadian society, including, eroding respect for the law and federal and provincial governments losing millions in tax revenue.”
According to the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, "Taxation of tobacco is an effective policy for preventing and reducing cigarette consumption. However, the widespread availability of contraband cigarettes can undermine the effectiveness of this policy, negate the intended health benefits of tobacco taxation and reduce taxation revenues."
The simple truth is that confiscatory taxes and biased regulation do undermine public respect for the law.
Prohibition did not work in the States because a large segment of the population refused to accept the premise that “Big Brother” knew what was best for them. Prohibition, and the law of unintended consequences, contributed significantly to a surge in criminal activity, including smuggling and the illegal manufacture and distribution of alcohol. Those laws were repealed.
Taxation, as a tool for enforcing public policy, can have only a limited effect. There is a point where people will rebel and strike back. They will do so by ignoring attempts to control their behaviour through confiscatory taxes and draconian regulations on a product that is still perfectly legal.
A “smoke free Canada” is a pipe dream. Not everyone will simply quit smoking because of usurious levels of taxation. Many will simply turn to the underground economy with a shrug of the shoulders and a quiet: “Screw’em.” The danger is that this largely justified cheating may well spread to other areas of public morality.
Quote of the Day
Thank heaven, I have given up smoking . . . again! God! I feel fit. Homicidal, but fit. A different man. Irritable, moody, depressed, rude, nervy, perhaps; but the lungs are fine. ~A.P. Herbert
They claim it’s because they want to protect us, and those around us, from ourselves. Smoking kills, they tell us while they keep raking in the cash; billions of dollars a year in taxes. And, they continue to allow the harvesting of tobacco as well as the manufacture and distribution of tobacco products.
They’ve outlawed smoking in public places, restaurants, bars and private clubs of all manner and description. They’ve banned the advertising of tobacco products in newspapers, magazine and all forms of electronic media. But, they won’t outlaw smoking. They recognize the socio-economic impact of an outright ban. There’s too much money to be made; by growers, by the tobacco industry, by the government.
Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada point out that the big three manufacturers in Canada earn over a billion dollars a year. But the combined tobacco tax revenue for the federal and provincial governments exceeds 7 billion. It’s government which has the most to lose by an outright ban.
They won’t pick a fight with the farmers who earn their livelihood from growing the alleged killer weed. The consumer is an easier target. They’re afraid to do battle with the big corporations who manufacture, package and distribute the deadly toxins. The consumer is without the resources to fight back.
They can’t provide alternatives to the jobs that would be lost. And, they can’t replace the tax revenue generated by the growing, manufacture and sale of tobacco products, especially cigarettes. And, they won’t, ever, convince everyone to quit smoking.
So they take a little money from their sin taxes and hand it over to the anti-smoking lobby to make life miserable for smokers. They pass draconian laws to control when and where people can use what is still a perfectly legal product. They turn honest, hard-working men and women into social pariahs and criminals, just because they choose to smoke.
They proudly proclaim their commitment to the health and safety of the nation. And, all the while, they keep filling government coffers with billions of dollars in taxes.
The anti-smoking fanatics tell them, “The most effective tobacco reduction tool is decreasing the affordability of tobacco through tax policy.” And they, the government, listen; ignoring other available tools to reduce smoking.
Of the over 7 billion dollars collected in taxes on tobacco, governments spend roughly 90 million on other measures to control the addiction; less than 2% of revenue from taxation. Tax revenue, it appears, is their first priority.
I don’t pay their sin taxes. I get my cigarettes from sources currently outside the reach of the government. Yes, it’s illegal. And, no, I don’t feel one bit guilty.
Word of the day
Hypocrite (hyp·o·crite) Noun
a person who professes beliefs and opinions that he or she does not hold in order to conceal his or her real feelings or motives
DRM (Digital Rights Management) is the catch-all phrase for the encryption that restricts your right to play/use the music and movies which you fork out your hard earned dollars to buy.
It was the encryption tool the music industry claimed was needed to fight piracy. According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), CD sales have been plummeting. They blamed P2P networks and piracy for their problems. So they used DRM technology to circumvent the fair use provisions of copyright laws and tried to tell the consumer where and how they would be allowed to play their music.
The concept of fair use gives the consumer the right, among other things, to copy for personal use, musical works they buy. DRM interferes with those rights.
For example, music downloaded from I-tunes can only be played on an I-pod. RealAudio can be played only on MP3 players; you aren’t permitted to copy the songs to CD to use on your home or car stereo. Sony uses proprietary OpenMG DRM technology. Music downloaded from this store is only playable on computers running Windows and Sony hardware. Few of these technologies are interchangeable.
But consumers are fighting back, and the major record labels and the RIAA are beginning to see the folly of their ways. Amazon.com and the major record companies are now selling DRM free MP3’s online.
But, their insistence that piracy is the biggest contributing factor to declining CD sales shows they are not prepared to address the many real problems inherent in the product they sell. And, according to some reports the enemy is the record companies themselves, who have been slow in responding to changing consumer demand.
For example, I own several hundred LPs and cassette tapes. I can use my computer and a free software program like Audacity to record that music in MP3 format (or OGG, WMA, etc.). I can even digitally enhance my old mono records to simulate stereo. Why would I want to spend my entertainment dollars on high priced CDs, when I already have thousands of songs and musical selections in my record and tape collection?
I haven’t listened to a radio broadcast since the last big blackout in southern Ontario when I dug out an old crystal radio set to keep up with the news and listen to a few tunes. The reason is simple: I got tired of commercial radio with their limited play lists and constant repetition. And, with few exceptions, the music they play does not suit my musical tastes. Nor do I like the idea of radio stations or big record companies telling me what I should be listening to or buying. So, I listen to internet radio.
There are several sites on the web that allow new singers and songwriters to showcase their talent. I get to hear some great songs by some very talented musicians. I’d rather listen to a good song by an unknown artist than some of the garbage cluttering the air waves just because it was recorded by a “star”. And, because I’m not listening to the radio or CMT hype, I don’t buy the CDs.
Another reason for declining sales of CDs is that there is a limited number of entertainment dollars to be spent by the average consumer. For the price of two CDs a month, with the limited entertainment value they provide, I can pay for a broadband internet connection that provides a much bigger bang for my entertainment buck.
Also contributing to declining CD sales is the growth of “indie” labels that distribute their music over the internet, often for free. They’re not likely to get a lot of air play at any rate, because most radio stations cater to the big record companies and the big names they’re pushing. And, unless they’ve got a major hit, they’re not likely to make any money by signing with a major record label. It’s the record companies that rake in the profits from CD sales, not the artists. They make their money on the road.
The simple truth is that the big record labels have not adapted to the changing demands of the consumer. Maybe they should concentrate on providing a better quality product at a price the consumer is willing to pay, instead of whining and crying about piracy and suing everyone in sight.
The word "rights" in DRM is misleading. The proper term is “Digital Restrictions Management.” And, it’s one of the causes of declining music sales, not the solution.
