Looks like my instrument is already patented…

United States Patent: 5,689,078

Music generating system and method utilizing control of music based upon displayed color

Abstract
An apparatus and method for generating music from color input data is disclosed. Color data extracted from a selected portion of a still or moving picture image displayed on a color graphical output means is converted by a central processing unit into a signal comprising musical information which is played by a sound output means. The images are retrieved from a storage device. The image portion converted into musical information corresponds to the location of a cursor displayed over the image. The central processing unit is programmed and controlled by a keyboard and mouse to move the cursor to varying positions on the displayed image and to generate different musical information depending on the color data at each position. The apparatus and method can also be used to transform audio input from a musical device and a MIDI interface into color data for display as an image on a color graphical output means.

EFF takes on the Music Industry

#nextScene

From the site:
For years, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been waging war against peer-to-peer file-sharing software and the technologists who create it. Now the RIAA has turned its crosshairs on you, threatening to sue you for sharing the music you love. But even shotgun-style lawsuits won’t solve the RIAA’s problem. As more and more Americans learn to love online music, the answer must lie in new business models that harness the power of P2P as a vehicle for paying artists. If artists get paid when we share files, then artists win, we win, and yes — even the RIAA wins.

How ridiculous can the Bush administration get?

U.S. May Expand Access To Endangered Species (washingtonpost.com)

From the article:
The Bush administration is proposing far-reaching changes to conservation policies that would allow hunters, circuses and the pet industry to kill, capture and import animals on the brink of extinction in other countries.

This would be funny if it wasn’t so utterly devastating..