14 August 2002

Blame the Economy, Not the Pirates LATIMES -- A Forrester Research report released Tuesday says that the true threat to record labels' profits is the sagging economy, and that downloadable music could actually prove to be the industry's salvation rather than its scourge. According to the report's findings, people who download music from the Internet more than nine times a month -- a relatively small percentage of the overall market -- say they'll decrease their album purchases by 2%. At the same time, 39% of downloading enthusiasts said they bought more CDs, because they found new music that they wanted to purchase through their file-swapping activities. Meanwhile, it turns out that consumers who rarely or never download music account for more than two-thirds of CD sales in the U.S. With music sales slumping nearly 10% this year so far, report author Josh Bernoff says the true culprits are limited radio playlists, high-priced CDs and a general economic recession. The Forrester report suggests that record labels should offer more flexible pricing and online access to their entire music back-catalogues in order to make online music-buying more consumer-friendly. The predicted payoff (which some view as excessively optimistic) could amount to a boost of $937 million in album downloads, $805 million in singles downloads and $313 million in subscription fees by 2007.

Thin Business Ethics WASHINGTON POST -- The Washington Post looks at the 15th anniversary of Business Ethics, one of the world's thinnest magazines.

New Fees Shut Down College Webcasts CHRONICLE of Higher Ed -- New fees force college radio to shut webcasts.

Media Titans Still Don't Get It SALON -- Scott Rosenberg explains why the media titan just don't get it. According to "Bamboozled at the Revolution," a new book chronicling "how big media lost billions in the battle for the Internet," it is. After 300 grueling pages recording stunningly stupid corporate boardroom struggles, author John Motavalli concludes that "Web content is dead," "digital dreams have been deferred for 'broadband,'" and "AOL Time Warner will dominate."

WiFi Driving Home Networking 80211 PLANET -- The latest report out of In-Stat/MDR (entitled "Chips Ahoy: Home Networking Chipsets Set Sail for a Prosperous Future") says that home networks are on the upswing after years of equipment and chip vendors pushing for their adoption by consumers. WLAN popularity is cited as one of the factors, as vendors continue to make the market more competitive as they design products to win over consumers. Overall worldwide home networks numbered 10.5 million at the end of 2001, and are expected to be at 16.6 million by the end of this year.

Happy Birthday, e-mail! Email turns twenty today!. Twenty years ago today, the IETF approved RFC 822, standardizing ARPANet email. This standard specifies a syntax for text messages that are sent among computer users, within the framework of "electronic mail". The standard supersedes the one specified in ARPANET Request for Comments #733, "Standard for the Format of ARPA Net- work Text Messages". In this context, messages are viewed as having an envelope and contents. The envelope contains whatever information is needed to accomplish transmission and delivery. The contents compose the object to be delivered to the recipient. This stan- dard applies only to the format and some of the semantics of mes- sage contents. It contains no specification of the information in the envelope. Link Discuss (Thanks, Richard!) [Boing Boing Blog]

Join the Ellen Feiss Fan Club WIRED -- There is the Ellen Feiss fan site and the Ellen Fan Club: beep beep beep, which has set up a Cafépress Web store to sell T- shirts, coffee mugs and flying discs adorned with her image. Even if you don't Switch, you have to check out Feiss. "...and it was like, beep beep beep beep beep beep beep..." - Ellen Feiss, Student

Undervaluing IT SLASHDOT.org -- Is today's IT an undervalued asset?. Slashdot readers discuss the possibility of the IT profession diminishing in importance over the next several years.

Serious Flaw in Internet Explorer REUTERS -- "Serious flaw" found in Internet Explorer. The Internet Explorer (IE) problem has been around for at least five years and could allow an attacker to intercept personal data when a user is making a purchase or providing information for e-commerce purposes. This severe vulnerability destroys the whole purpose of SSL certificates.