November 12, 2004
Dear Subscribers:
Here's our lineup for this second week of November:
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Family Tech: Net music's next step
To file-sharing kids, a CD that tells you to go ahead,
"rip, sample, mash, and store" these tunes to your heart's content, should
be no big deal. In fact, the new, "100% legal" Wired
CD, bundled into Wired magazine's November issue, is an anomaly. You can
copy, share, remix, build on, do anything noncommercial that you want with
the music on this CD of 16 songs, with the up-front permission of their creators
- e.g., David Byrne, Chuck D, Gilberto Gil, Matmos, Spoon, Beastie Boys.
"It's the boldest experiment yet in trying to catalyze
support for copyrights compatible with the digital reality of the 21st century,"
according to the San
Jose Mercury News - an experiment by and with the Creative Commons, a
nonprofit organization founded by Stanford Law Prof. and copyright innovator
Lawrence Lessig.
Lessig is a member of what has been dubbed as "the
Copy Left" (see "Bigger
picture on file-sharing"in this newsletter), but he's more of a copy centrist
in encouraging "a some-rights-reserved" approach, Wired explains, versus
the old analog-age standard of all rights reserved" that the recording industry
(and consequently the US Congress) are struggling to maintain.
Another wide gap in perceptions these days (after
the political one in America) is that between music fans and music companies.
To file-sharers and the Copy Left, it's a matter of principle: "At root,"
Wired says, "sharing and stealing music start from the same impulse: Cribbing
is creation. Building on what other musicians have done ["mashing" is grabbing
tracks from different songs and blending them, as done in the Grey Album (see
"24-hour file-sharing
protest")] - with or without their blessing or collaboration - is what
it takes to make new music, music that will delight and sustain people. That,
after all, is why it's called making music (playing music is something
else altogether). Elvis Presley, that pioneer of appropriation, put it best:
'Fair exchange bears no robbery, and the whole world will know that it's true.
If you wanna be hugged, well, you gotta hug me too.'" Of course, to the recording
industry and most musicians, it's a matter of principle too - getting paid.
Here's a discussion on this at NPR.
A question I have is, will the Wired CD be less attractive
to kids because it's legal? (See a teenager's comment in "Kids
like P2P risks" last January.) But that's kind of a superficial
question, the important one is whether enough musicians will buy into this
some-rights-reserved approach for it to take off and become the new norm.
The goal is the kind of freedom of experimentation that was available in the
analog age. It's a genuine concern.
Other hot P2P news
- Gone With the Wind gone. From the Aussie
affiliate of Project Gutenberg , that is - because
the US law firm representing author Margaret Mitchell's estate insisted
that the book be removed from the site. It's in the public domain in Australia,
but not in the States, the New
York Times reports. "The case is one more example of the Internet's
inherent lack of respect for national borders or, from another view, the
world's lack of reckoning for the international nature of the Internet,
and it is also an example of the already complicated range of copyright
laws."
- Another take on 'legal music.' Is file-sharing
online at no cost and without legal risk a pipe dream? Maybe not if you
add Internet radio to the equation, CNET
reports. It's like free, on-demand request radio for the Net - tech
that "broadcasts people's private playlists onto the Web. The output is
then pulled together into a searchable database that lets listeners find
the music they want, when they want it."
- File-sharing by phone. It's certainly not
going to stop at PCs, CNET
reports. Media companies are actually really interested in this phenom
represented by a just-released, still buggy tech called FoneShare - partly
because they can have a much greater degree of control over content on phones.
"Because their networks are private, wireless operators can easily identify
which files are being shared and even shut down handsets that are doing
a suspicious amount of file trading," CNET adds.
- Phones instead of iPods? That's what Vodafone
hopes. Its "first mobile video phones will support downloaded music and
TV trailer clips," ZDNET
UK reports. It will also support porn, of course - Vodafone told reporters
that the content to be made available "would be tailored to each country
depending on local sensibilities."
- 12-year-old file-sharer sued. His dad said
he's named in a lawsuit because his son, who he was not able to supervise
because he lived with his mother, "downloaded about 1,000 songs and opened
the door for others to copy them," the Miami
Herald reported. The suit was one of the more than 6,000 filed to date
by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).
- U2 delayed. The widespread appearance of
pirated versions of U2's new album on P2P networks has thrown its official
release date into question, Reuters
reports.
* * * *
Baby blogs: Comment from a blogger
Dad and anti-war blogger Martin Kelley also has a
baby page on his blog - about his son Theo. His baby blog was mentioned in
a Philadelphia Inquirer article I linked to in my
blog (see "Baby blogs" below), so I linked to it too as an example. Here's
his (excerpted) comment about my post:
"My baby site serves the same purpose as any other
parental blog: it keeps us in touch with our old high school college friends
who have scattered across the country and it gives our distant relatives a
chance to see Theo grow up. The comments to the site are always supportive
and always kind. Many of them are from other parents and we swap kid stories.
"The baby blog isn't the opening up of the psyche
- far from it! It's the chatter of parents telling stories at the playground
and it's the opening up a picture album at a family gathering. I suspect that
teen bloggers also just want to share their everyday stories. Blogs are even
easier than zines, the self-publishing medium of my teen years, and I think
this self-exploration and story telling is the heart of blogs all around."
Parents, do you agree? Tell us your experiences with your teenagers' blogs - via feedback@netfamilynews.org.
* * * *
Web News Briefs
- Beware Bofra virus!
I've gotten a lot of emails trying to get my PC
infected with it - to no avail, I'm happy to report. They all purport
to be from PayPal, saying my account had successfully been credited for
$175, and I would soon be receiving the item I'd ordered. I have to admit
this concerned me a bit the first time I saw it, and I was tempted to
click on the link, but instead went to PayPal, logged on to my account,
and checked to see if there was any reference to $175 in it. There was
not. After I'd gotten several of these, I realized it was yet another
email hoax.
The key is not to click on the link provided.
That's what leads to PC infection, the
BBC reports, taking you to the Web site that turns your computer into
a zombie the operators can manipulate remotely. "Essentially, Bofra turns
infected machines into small web servers that happily dole out copies
of the virus." Besides PayPal, the virus email also poses as a porn provider,
saying its links are to a porn site, the BBC adds. This virus is tricky,
too, because it doesn't carry infected code with it and thus can get past
a lot of anti-virus software. Tell your kids: Don't click on any links
in emails unless you're absolutely sure they're from people you know;
if you're not sure, ask tech-savvy family members or friends!
- MSN's cool search tool
Microsoft's
sleek new search tool - meant to rival Google, as well as A9, Clusty,
the new Jeeves, and all the other next-generation ones (see "Speaking
of search engines," 10/22) - launched this week. "It shows all the
signs of becoming a very serious challenger," writes the Wall
Street Journal's Walt Mossberg. Like Google, it will soon include
the option to search your own PC (the whole thing's still in beta, so
not all on line as yet). There are a lot of things it does like Google
(tho' the former just upped the number of Web pages it crawls to a staggering
8 billion, compared to the 5+ billion MSN claims). Unique to MSN is real
answers (from Microsoft's Encarta) to fact-type questions, results "near
me" (like local restaurants), and a fascinating new tool called "search
builder" that I checked out. Search builder lets you search with in a
single Web site you put in the search box; find sites that *link* to a
site of your choice (bloggers will love this); search sites in a language
or based in a country or region you specify; adjust your search parameters
(say whether you want only very popular sites returned, or sites updated
recently, or if you want an exact match to your search query or only an
approximate one). As with Google, you can also search just news coverage
and images, but Mossberg says MSN's music search is better (maybe because
MSN has a music store?): "I typed in 'Rolling Stones' and was able to
click on, and hear, previews of several Stones songs right from the search
result. I was also able to go directly to a page in the MSN music store
where I could buy the songs."
Parents will also want to note that MSN search
can be filtered. Its default setting is " Moderate - Filter sexually explicit
images only," so if you want most sexually explicit text filtered too,
from the main page, click on "Settings" under the search box, then on
"Strick" under "SafeSerach." You'll need to click "Save" at the bottom
to save this setting for whenever MSN search is used on this computer
(it stays that way, even if the PC's turned off, till someone changes
the setting). Of course, this measure works best when accompanied with
a house rule about not changing search-engine and other parent-imposed
settings. Here are the New
York Times, the
BBC, and CNET
on this.
- Canada's anti-bullying week
Bullying stops in less than 10 seconds more than
half the time (57%), when peers intervene on behalf of the victim. That
statistic from a York University study may be why Canada's National Bullying
Awareness Week (11/15-21) this year focuses on "Rise Above the Rest -
Don't Be a Bystander." The awareness campaign, sponsored by Bullying.org
and the Family Channel, challenges kids to "Take the Pledge" against bullying.
Some 55,000 young Canadians took the pledge last year, the campaign's
first year. Information on all aspect of the program ("Canada's Caring
Kid" awards, guidelines on how kids can intervene without escalating the
incident, a workshop timetable, discussion topics, etc.) can be found
in the Bullying
Awareness Week Toolkit and at Bullying.org (under "What's New" in
the left-hand column). Help with online versions of bullying - on cell
phones and in instant-messaging, chat, and email - is at Cyberbullying.ca
(also by dad, educator, and creator of Bullying.org Bill Belsey) and,
more for parents and educators, at the US-based Cyberbully.org.
Our recent series on "The IM life of middle-schoolers" may also be useful;
it starts here.
- Halo 2: Redmond blockbuster?!
Halo 2 was huge news in the tech media this week,
and all the hype may add to kid pressure on parents to buy it. The $49.99
video game is the sequel to "the most successful title ever released for
Microsoft's Xbox," CNET
reports, and big kids around the country stayed up all night just
to wait in line for hours to buy this shooter game. Parents, note the
"M" rating. According to the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB.org),
games rated "M" for "Mature" "have content that may be suitable for persons
ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain mature sexual themes,
more intense violence and/or strong language." The game's release rivals
Hollywood's blockbuster movie releases. CNN
said Tuesday that Halo 2 could make $75 million in its first 24 hours
of availability in stores (1.5 million copies were pre-ordered) - compared
to "The Incredibles," which grossed $70.7 million its first weekend.
"How big is 'Halo 2'?" CNN asks. "When the clock
struck midnight, some 7,000 toy, video game and electronics stores around
the country opened their doors and welcomed thousands of eager players.
In New York's Times Square, the Toys R Us flagship store hosted a massive
launch party, complete with celebrity guests," while 1,500 customers wrapped
themselves around the block waiting for the store to open this Tuesday
morning. Microsoft's not resting on these laurels, though - there are
"only" 18 million of its Xbox consoles in US homes, compared to 75 million
Sony PlayStation 2s (and the mere 16 million GameCubes), USATODAY
reports.
So what's the draw? "Stunning, colorful, cinematic
visuals," "a story arc," "evocative, monk-like music," and "fast, violent
action," according to the Washington
Post, which tells of dads getting together with their consoles as
in the old poker days and playing Halo over cigars, peanuts, and beer,
with the Virginia Tech-North Carolina football game going in the background.
"The main character is Master Chief, clad in armor and a visored helmet,
a human super-soldier whose goal is to discover the secrets of Halo and
save it from the Covenant, the enemy aliens," the Post explains. Halo
2 brings the battle to Earth, where Master Chief is all that stands between
the aliens and mass destruction, the Post adds. Wow, isn't that what the
election was about? (Sorry, couldn't help myself.)
- Moms are gamers too! Online gaming is not
just child's play. Look at the success of Club
Pogo. Its card, board, puzzle, and word games "attracted an astonishing
500,000 subscribers" in its first year as a paid service ($4.99/month),
and 75% of its members are women whose average age is 35 (spending an average
of 50 hours a month playing games), eContent.com
reports. The article cites Pew Internet & American Life figures showing
that nearly half (48%) of all broadband Internet users play games online.
They're the new online porn, though a bit more respectable, eContent says,
explaining that "just as cable TV and satellite companies understood long
ago that soft-core porn is the content that brings many people into a distribution
network, ISPs like Comcast and RCN are already partnering with games providers
in order to add value and differentiation to their high-speed offerings."
- Missing school PCs?
Check eBay. That's what a teacher in Los Angeles
did - and that's where he found 10 Macintosh G5 computers (worth about
$5,000 each) that had gone missing from his digital animation classroom,
the Los
Angeles Times reports. They were being auctioned off at eBay by two
seniors (who were not in animation teacher Alan Evans's class) at the
Palos Verdes high school. Evans told the Times he checked eBay because
he didn't know of any way the computers could be unloaded quickly on the
street. "With a few keystrokes, a listing popped up for the 10 computers
at starting bids of $800 each and two addresses that investigators used"
to arrest the suspects, both 18. Police found the Macs in a storage facility.
None had been sold."
- Baby blogs...
...Are no longer the brainchildren of only tech-literate
parents. According to the Philadelphia
Inquirer, they're the new "mommy (and daddy) must-have," read not
just by doting grandparents, but also by complete strangers. Of course,
baby pix and milestones and parenting advice are still the mainstay of
baby blogs. "The sites, with names such a 'Daddyzine' and "Bloggingmommies'
"are this generation's baby books, although many bloggers also scrupulously
record every burp, giggle and bottle in book form as well - which makes
you wonder when they have time to actually care for the baby," the Inquirer
reports, citing one expert as saying the baby variety have taken off faster
than other types of blogs (maybe after political ones in the past six
months). What is clear is that, with the advent of blogs, or Web blogs,
teenagers aren't the only age group making their private lives public.
The $64,000 question(s) is: Is this a shift of thinking and behavior or,
basically, a mistake? Do people mean to make the intimate details of their
lives so public? Certainly, Anne
Lear does (the mom whose blog leads the Inquirer piece). On the other
hand, Martin Kelly, whose baby was threatened by someone who visited his
baby page, would lean toward the mistake side of the question.
Part 2 of that question is: If people generally
do want anyone to be able to access their psyches and lives, why? What
is causing this trend? Maybe we always wanted to be this public but were
only recently able to be because of the arrival of the Web and blogging
tools that make it a cinch to put up a Web site? Any ideas, readers? Email
me your thoughts. I'd especially like to hear from parents of teen
bloggers!
- 'Mobile [phone] clubbing'
Most surprising is that it's silent, but also
seemingly spontaneous and every bit as energetic as the dancing that occurs
in nightclubs. In this case (at London's Waterloo Station), 20 or 30 people
are dancing in a Conga line at 6:45 pm, all to the sound of their own
iPods. "Other commuter look on dumbfounded," The
Register reports. "It is unclear where the concept of Mobile Clubbing
originates but one thing is clear, that in the world of spontaneous mass
public gatherings, it has replaced Flash Mobbing." All kinds of people
participate, tipped off via chatrooms, phone texting, and sometimes on
the spot via their own eyes - whole families, youth, older people, all
colors, all just having fun. Sounds infectious. Will it cross The Pond
to the States? I'll let you know if I hear of anything, but do I sound
old if I say what an amazing age we live in?
* * * *
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That does it for this week. Have a great weekend!
Sincerely,
Anne Collier, Editor
Net Family News
