TechRadar reports that changes are on the way at eBay.

eBay is to give 50 free listings a month to all users, from April, in a bid to tempt sellers back to the site.

A smart move, which might drag people back from Amazon Marketplace. Presumably, eBay will cover its loses by upping its commission rate?

The once-dominant auction site, which has seen its market share damaged by the Amazon Marketplace in recent years, will also charge lower commission on items sold by the site from July.

Blimey. It looks like eBay has finally gotten a clue and stopped being total idiots, having introduced lots of stupid ideas and fees that screwed over small sellers (i.e. individuals) in recent years.

Hurrah!

Wait, what’s that?

The California-based company will also encourage merchants to offer free shipping to customers by charging a higher commission to those who charge buyers to have their items delivered.

Oh.

The music industry continues to both live in cloud cuckoo land along with taking advantage of rights laws that still haven’t been updated to tackle digital. A Law.com article reports that 13 record companies suing LimeWire demanded $75 trillion in damages, citing that “Section 504(c)(1) of the Copyright Act provided for damages for each instance of infringement where two or more parties were liable”.

Luckily, in this case, the federal district court judge wasn’t having any of it. Kimba Wood called the damages request “absurd”, adding:

As defendants note, plaintiffs are suggesting an award that is ‘more money than the entire music recording industry has made since Edison’s invention of the phonograph in 1877.’

Bon Jovi, in an interview with the Sunday Times:

Steve Jobs is personally responsible for killing the music business.

He’s an angry rich rocker. Jobs, he says, has RUINED MUSIC FOR EVERYONE, the bastard.

Kids today have missed the whole experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album; and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it.

Yeah, you tell them, super-rich rock guy! After all, we all have wonderful memories of buying a shitty album based on the jacket, and that’s way better than being able to preview whatever you want, whenever you want, to make your purchasing decision based on the quality of the music. ONLY IDIOTS DO THAT KIND OF THING.

And, man, albums, eh? I’m really gutted that people will lose the ‘album’ experience, instead cherry picking the best songs. After all, this never used to happen at all (if you ignore, say, the entire singles market), and there’s no way whatsoever any band could ever persuade someone to buy an entire album these days (apart from by making every track worth buying, rather than shitting out an album with two decent tracks and eight lumps of turgid filler—BUT THAT WAY LIES MADNESS). And let’s also ignore the way in which Apple legitimised the download market, getting quite a few people to pay for downloads, rather than grabbing them from Limewire and Napster, because, as Bon Jovi says, JOBS HAS KILLED MUSIC. Never forget this as you go to iTunes, Amazon or 7digital to preview the tracks you’re interested in and then buy precisely what you want, with significantly more freedom than people had in previous decades. Just remember, as you click ‘buy’ on the one good track from Has Been Band’s new album (also grabbing a dozen tracks from a fantastic indie band you’d never have heard of without huge access to digital previews) that Steve Jobs has killed music for everyone.

Whether you’re religious or not, I hope you’ll join me in a silent prayer, to remember ‘music’ (which is now dead, apparently) and common sense (which followed it the second Bon Jovi opened his stupid rich rocker mouth).

The Guardian reports that “BBC activities generated £8.1bn in economic value last year on licence fee income of around £3.6bn,” according to Deloitte. Luckily, the Tories are there to continue kicking the BBC’s face off. After all, we can only have media companies employing lots of people and generating lots of money for the economy if they’re run by Rupert Murdoch or some other pal of senior politicians not publicly funded, because that’s not what Murdoch wants fair and open competition.

You know, I hate it when people don’t apologise when they say something stupid and insulting. NYDailyNews.com has a story about Burger King’s CEO, Bernando Hees, where he recalled his days working on an MBA in the UK:

The food is terrible and the women are not very attractive. Here in Chicago, the food is good and you are known for your good-looking women.

Unsurprisingly, the remark has pissed off a lot of people. Since Burger King’s food isn’t exactly of a high quality, Hees has been called a hypocrite; and he’s vexed women—Charli Fritzner, a women’s campaigns officer from the university where Hees studied, stated: “It doesn’t make Burger King an attractive employer for women.”

Inevitably and sadly, a half-hearted backtrack followed from a Burger King spokesperson:

Mr. Hees apologizes if his comment has offended anyone. It… was intended as a humorous anecdote to connect with his audience.

Two points there. First, being an arsehole isn’t excused if you’re making what you consider a humorous anecdote to connect with your audience, but it’s doubly stupid if you’re the CEO of a global fast-food chain. Secondly, the weaselly nature of the ‘apology’ is so greasy that it would be suitable for a politician. Don’t say you apologise if your comment has offended anyone—that’s a get-out. Apologise for any offence your comment caused. (There is a difference in the wording there, albeit a subtle one.) Better: just apologise succinctly: “I’m sorry. What I said was wrong”.