Suing the Internet

Jonathan Bowers, July 4th 2006, 10:07AM

Have a look at some of the big stories about the Internet so far this week. Here are a few headlines and links:

Rank outsider sues Google over zero score
Music industry to sue Yahoo China
UK lawsuit proceeds against Russian MP3 site
Image-based spam on the rise

Yesterday, I promoted the opportunity for people to tell ICANN, the Internet's 'ruling body' what they think ICANN should stand for and should be championing on behalf of the online world.

Probably one of the biggest issues is that of bringing into line with each nation an industry that connects us. Internet Law has to be one of the most difficult areas but most important to clarify.

As businesses, we know that loopholes in the law can often bring opportunities and increased wealth. The Internet seems full of loopholes that we are only just beginning to discover - or at least, official bodies are only just beginning to try and close.

Is there a way to create Internet Law and maintain it as a global community? Or are we going to see content restricted to specific geographical areas (as we already have in China).

When I bought a few cassettes from a Turkish market back in 1991, they were a fraction of the price they would be in the UK and yet there was no outcry or talk of the courts. The global reach of sites like allofmp3.com will be addressed in the British courts and beyond and then we will see the movie industry going through much of what the music industry has, unless Internet Laws are established and agreed upon.

But can you see this happening? And should the same competitive environment exist online that countries experience offline?

Tags: allofmp3.com, google, icann, internetlaw, music, spam, yahoo!
# Comment (2 comments)

Without a safety net

Chris Norton, June 9th 2006, 2:59PM

I recently moved home and found myself without a toaster, without an ironing board, without a bookcase and - most irritatingly of all - without a net connection. How on earth would I survive?

Reasonably easily, as it turned out. In fact for a while I got used to being netless, just like the protagonist of Sandi Thom's chart smash 'I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker', who wants to live in a time when 'the super info highway was still drifting out in space'. Admittedly I was still getting my fix of netiness at work, but this was tempered by the fact that I was, well, at work, and it seemed wise to get on with my job instead of spending all day emailing people - plus, holiday and financial planning went out of the window for a month. Having a good excuse to put these things off was quite relaxing.

But then friends started complaining that I wasn't around online anymore. My Flickr and 43things accounts were languishing. With my PC gathering dust, a backlog of songs I wanted to buy started amassing in my head. As frustration started to build, I finally got around to sorting out my connection. On the day it was switched back on, my router resolutely refused to work. By the time Daz managed to get me fully online-ified via some router-voodoo, I was starting to get desperate. Getting back into the web world felt like coming home.

Sandi Thom, don't get me wrong, I don't mind your song, (it's likeable and a little unusual, although hardly Imogen Heap) but you, and anyone else with this myopic, nostalgic view of 'simpler days', well you can all keep your rosy made-up version of the past. The net is amazing and the past is rubbish, we all know it - especially those of us who bring our songs about how great the 70s were to worldwide attention via the suspiciously modern medium of webcasts and huge PR budgets...

Tags: broadband, home, internet, music
# Comment (2 comments)

iTunes does me a favour

Chris Norton, May 11th 2006, 11:45AM

This morning I was sitting on the bus, listening to <nme mode>Wildhearts' frontman Ginger's confessional rock opus Valor Del Corazon</nme mode> (because nothing says 'commute' like a double album about your wife leaving you on account of your heroin habit), thinking about the differences between CDs and mp3s. And how heroin habits are a bit of a bad idea. And various other stupid things... but mainly about CDs and mp3s.

Last night iTunes suddenly decided to delete half my carefully downloaded album artwork. At first I was quite irate, because I'd spent ages finding it all so it would show up on my ipod. But after some thought, it started to feel like iTunes was trying to enlighten me. I still buy CDs, even though I just rip them straight onto iTunes and stack them up in the corner. It feels somehow more like I've got a handle on the music if I physically own it, and getting the artwork onto iTunes felt like a link to this physical medium.

Well shame on me for trying to cling to the old ways! Shame on bands like the Red Hot Chili Peppers for moaning about people downloading their music, instead of embracing the new ways! When we get fixated on album art, sleevenotes and so on we're just not getting it - CDs and record sleeves aren't music, music is music and it's something that only ever really exists in the air and in the mind. That's why the abstraction of going digital is so appropriate - it frees the music.

So maybe next time I get the urge to download more album art and lyrics for my collection, I'll just stop and listen to the music itself.

Tags: downloads, media, mp3, music
# Comment (0 comments)