MARILYN MANSON :: This Is Halloween

The release of this CD is already tomorrow, but for you we present the music video today!

The Nightmare Before Christmas: in 3D

Sometimes I still surprise myself: maybe because while other people tend to get new information from TV and newspapers I don't watch TV and rarely read newspapers (specially on papers), but sometimes I assume that something new is commonly known when in fact it isn't. One of those things, as I found today, is that no one seems to know that a new version of The Nightmare Before Christmas is out there, TODAY.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop motion animated musical film about the inhabitants of Halloween Town who take over Christmas one year, directed by stop-motion animator Henry Selick. The film is loosely based on drawings and a poem by Tim Burton, and he served as co-producer. He did not direct the film as is sometimes believed, but he was heavily involved.

The film was released by Touchstone Pictures, a film studio owned by the Walt Disney Company, after the main Walt Disney Pictures division balked at some of the darker content.

The remastered 3-D version of the film was re-released by Walt Disney Pictures on October 20, 2006 (today). Note that it is 3-D via 3-D glasses and not CGI.

This new version also comes with a re-edition of the soundtrack... But with a big bonus! For something like £14,99 you can buy the 2-Discs edition of the OST, the first CD being the usual soundtrack, and the second with the songs covered by several bands:

1. This Is Halloween - Marilyn Manson
2. Sally's Song - Fiona Apple
3. What's This? - Fall Out Boy
4. Kidnap the Sandy Claws - She Wants Revenge
5. This Is Halloween - Panic! At the Disco
6. Making Christmas (Demo) - Danny Elfman
7. Oogie Boogie's Song (Demo) - Danny Elfman
8. This Is Halloween (Demo) - Danny Elfman
9. Kidnap the Sandy Claws (Demo) - Danny Elfman

This edition is going to be available starting at the 24th of October, but you can pre-order it now... What are you waiting for?

"Armageddon, Vol. 1" is out!

The dangers of DRM

See that picture there? At a first glance, it just seems that one DVD, like many others, but if you take a carefull look, you'll see there a yellow sticker telling:

WARNING DRM

Product restricts usage
invades privacy

As a matter of fact, I was the one who sticked it on, 'cause if I didn't the only way you'ld know that the DVD was defective by design would be if you read those tiny letters in it's behind, where they say something like being restricting the use of the disc that you want to own just because they don't know how to stop piracy.

Yes, DRM, something most people never heard about and probably don't want to, but that is invading their privacy and stopping their freedoms, while killing art. Image that you buy a CD but you can only hear it on the computer, and on the first computer you put it in. That's already happening now. So what's this DRM thingie?

Major entertainment companies are using "digital rights management," or DRM (aka content or copy protection), to lock up your digital media. These DRM technologies do nothing to stop copyright pirates, but instead end up interfering with fans' lawful use of music, movies, and other copyrighted works. DRM can prevent you from making back ups of your DVDs and music downloaded from online stores, recording your favorite TV programs, using the portable media player of your choice, remixing clips of movies into your own home movies, and much more.

To the extent DRM interferes with perfectly legal uses of digital media, it's plenty bad enough. But thanks to the lobbying of the major media companies, DRM is now backed up by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you circumvent DRM locks or create the tools to do so, even to enable noninfringing fair uses, you might be on the receiving end of a lawsuit. The DMCA has been a disaster for innovation, free speech, fair use, and competition.

And Congress is now considering new laws that go beyond the DMCA, mandating DRM in a wide array of digital media devices and personal computers, giving entertainment industry lawyers and federal bureaucrats veto power over new gadgets.

Hollywood and the music industry have always attacked new technologies that help you get more from your media—these industries brought lawsuits against the VCR, DAT recorder, the MP3 player, and the PVR. Today, these media giants want to use DRM to take away your legitimate fair use and home recording rights, hoping to sell those rights back to you later. Worse still, recent DRM has invaded users' privacy and created severe security vulnerabilities in computers.

Fans shouldn’t be treated like criminals, and neither should the innovators who build the gadgets on which they rely. EFF has fought against many DMCA suits, including defending the makers of DVD backup software, and sued Sony-BMG for their "rootkit" CD copy protection scheme. Learn more about our efforts through the links below, and consider donating to support efforts.

I'm trying to do something about it... What about you?