On Line Music & Copyright

If you are interested in issues regarding mp3's, being able to download music and copyright stuff, then this is the article for you. This is the most common sense and realistic appraisal of the whole situation I have read yet. On a wider note, this also parallels image usage, etc - which is where many of you guys come in, being professionals in the media/graphics industry. Apologies to the many others on this list who are not in Mac graphics industry, but still a very worthwhile read.

http://www.janisian.com/article-internet_debacle.html

and the follow up article can be found here :

http://www.janisian.com/article-fallout.html

And I agree with her whole heartedly. About time someone said what everyone else but the record companies were thinking.

You might not be aware, but the US movie and music industry are currently trying to force the computer industry to enact hardware and software changes to computers over the coming years that will very likely radically effect the way you can use media (songs, pictures and movies) in your very own computer. They are talking about digitally signing or watermarking almost everything. This may mean that older media that you made years ago may be unable to be played or viewed in newer computers in years to come because they are digitally unsigned and regarded as "pirate" or unauthorised copies. What fun.

This is a very big issue and going to get a lot bigger. Will sense prevail? Probably not in the short term as the vested interests of big money and politics will dig in and resist.
Some music CD's have been released by the music industry recently that effectively were unable to be played in your computer. In some Mac's, these were unable to be ejected and caused your computer to be unable to restarted rendering it completely unusable and required a dealer visit. Again, what fun ! Any wonder that people want to download mp3 songs from the Internet.

And dont let me get started on Microsofts Palladium ...
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020718.html
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20020711.html

These are things that do effect your use of your computer and as many of you are professionally employed in the graphics industry I suggest that you have a close read and think about these issues.