Posts Tagged ‘Internet’

Every now and then something comes around that really makes you wonder and puts things in perspective. For example, we all know how quickly the Internet has become THE most important communication medium. But what does that really mean? Is it just a fad? Is it all going to be completely different in 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? These are questions that most of us wouldn’t even think to ask, and would rather just go with the flow.

Do yourself a favour and spend the next 10 minutes watching the video below. I say 10 minutes, because you will want to see it at least twice, just to make sure your eyes are not deceiving you (and secondly because the soundtrack is Fat Boy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now”)

Impressive, no? If you want even more, I have another one for you, this one came out just recently:

Here’s a paper I wrote for my IT Law course. Hopefully you find it useful. It deals with DRM and the impact it’s had on consumers and businesses in recent years, particularly the digital revolution.

Abstract:

Recent years have sparked worldwide debate on technologies making copyrighted material freely distributable between users of certain networks, and circumventing copyright protection technologies in almost all consumer devices and applications. The government has stepped in to attempt protecting the companies who own copyrighted material at the expense of innocent consumers, whose rights have become limited because of the new regulations proposed or passed by governments and businesses alike. One major technology backed by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is Digital Rights Management. This paper will present the ethical, moral, and financial issues that this technology has had on consumers and businesses alike.

Download PDF

Never out of surprises, Google has made a new announcement on Monday – it will block all music videos for the UK on its popular YouTube site.

The reason is that negotiations with it and the PRS for Music, a British entity that holds royalties for over 50,000 composers, have failed. 

Google claims that PRS asked for “many, many times” more money than a previous agreement and that ”The costs are simply prohibitive for us — under PRS’s proposed terms, we would lose significant amounts of money with every playback”

PRS has a different story to tell though, apperantly Google walked out in the middle of negotiations - ”We were shocked and disappointed to receive a call late this afternoon informing us of Google’s drastic action,” the PRS for Music CEO Steve Porter said. According to the company, Google wants to pay “significantly less than at present to the writers of the music on which their service relies, despite the massive increase in YouTube viewing.”

Who is right is not clear yet, but one thing is for sure – labels want another outlet for making profits after seeing CD sales have taken a plunge. Enough is never enough.

Source: Reuters

Being as cool as they are, it comes as no surprise that most Germans aged 19-29 would ditch their girlfriend or boyfriend, and even their car in a heartbeat if they had to choose between them or an Internet connection. Over 84% of the 1000 people surveyed shared that opinion. If that is not enough, 97% of them wouldn’t know how to live without a mobile phone too.