Science and Technology

Professor Barnhardt’s Journal poll’s several writers for best songs of the last 25 years, in response to VH1’s take on the same. Here are the top 5 of each listed – see the site for each writer’s top 20 and the VH1 100: VH1 1. Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” …

Amazon.com senior vice president Diego Piacentini said: The online retailer said it sees future opportunities in digital music download offerings, similar to Apple Computer Inc’s AAPL.O online music service, iTunes, which lets users download some songs from major record labels for less than $1. “You should definitely expect Amazon to …

I have said all along that online music sales has to be a low-price, high-volume operation in order to cut into free P2P, which clearly has disadvantages of spyware, ads, unreliable files and labeling, and less than 100% good karma. I think the price range for unrestricted MP3s should be …

Properly, trust is a two-way street – this isn’t that: Your next personal computer may well come with its own digital chaperon. ….Silicon Valley – led by Microsoft and Intel – calls the concept “trusted computing.” The companies, joined by I.B.M., Hewlett-Packard, Advanced Micro Devices and others, argue that the …

I find this hilarious, combining about five different stereotypes – I love the image of hordes of Japanese girls snapping away on “backwards” magazines, sending the pics out to their digital buddies. And as always, the assumption by content owners is that information shared is a sale lost. It’s a …

An appeals court says you are not libel for information you republish on the Internet: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last Tuesday that Web loggers, website operators and e-mail list editors can’t be held responsible for libel for information they republish, extending crucial First Amendment protections to do-it-yourself …

Encouraged by the Grokster ruling, spurred by a new assault on sharers threatened by the RIAA, file sharing companies are banding together to lobby the U.S., Europe, and you mama: Internet file-sharing firms are forming a lobbying group in Europe to defend their business interests against media companies trying to …

Frank Rich finds that the American public’s attention span, sense of quality and critical independence are longer and stronger than the entertainment industry gives it credit for: Here’s what’s wrong with kids in the digital age. They live in front of their TV and PC screens. They steal music online. …

Hey, that’s pretty funny. The real problem, though, is that none of them are ignorant, they’re really smart people in fact, who seem to think the consuming public owes them something. This new campaign to scare the public “straight” regarding file sharing could in fact alienate such a large percentage …

I understand the seriousness of this for the satellite and cable companies, and the for-profit element removes most of my sympathy, but, um… A man who schemed to steal satellite television signals now has something much bigger than a cable bill to pay — a whopping $180 million restitution order …