Culture and Society

We’ve heard this before – the more often we hear it the better. William Fisher with a royalties plan for file sharing: The creator of a recording would register it with the U.S. Copyright Office and would receive, in return, a unique file name, which would be used to track …

Does this remind you of Alien? More than a thousand unsuspecting Internet users around the world have recently had their computers hijacked by hackers, who computer security experts say are using them for pornographic Web sites. The hijacked computers, which are chosen by the hackers apparently because they have high-speed …

Laptop jam in Manhattan – I have seen this sort of thing here in Cleveland – it’s the wildest: IN his native West Virginia, George Cicci arouses curiosity when he gets on stage at local open-mike events and turns out beats on his iBook laptop between sets of bluegrass guitarists …

Last week, the one-woman zeitgeist that is Oprah reran her Favorite Things for Spring episode, and along with a bunch of stupid girl stuff, she picked an iPod. At least she’s a little bit funkier than Martha. Has her magic wand contributed to Apple’s recent success and high visibility?

Lilliputians menace Gulliver: Small Internet radio stations, angered over what they say is the recording industry’s effort to wield royalty rates as a weapon to drive them out of business, say they are preparing to file an antitrust suit against the Recording Industry Association of America. The Las Vegas-based Webcaster …

Interesting bit of radio from NPR on EVERYONE’S FAVORITE SUBJECT: RIAA vs file sharers: LAURA SYDELL reporting: The Recording Industry of America, the industry’s trade group, announced it would go after individual file swappers on a Wednesday. On the following Monday, OptiSoft, maker of a file sharing software called Blubster, …

Now this is pretty cool, think I may break down and give it a go my own bad self: Cakewalk and Microsoft Windows XP have joined forces with some of the biggest bands on the Lollapalooza 2003 tour to give you the opportunity to show off your skills creating the …

Flying in the face of the DMCA and the copyright industry, little Studio 321 keeps putting out the goods: DVD software developer Studio 321 is preparing to launch six new applications, including an enhanced version of DVD copying software that is the subject of a US court case brought under …

The survey wars continue: this UK survey says people are using P2P for sampling purposes, actually INCREASING not replacing CD purchases: The survey’s findings oppose the music industry’s long-standing argument that internet downloading is responsible for a slump in CD sales, with album sales falling 5% in the last year. …

Web cartoon commentary on RIAA tactics, “Sue All the World“: Animation – good, singing – bad, humor level – adequate.