prostoalex writes "The 99 cent downloads are stirring some discussion in the music community. Linkin Park, Radiohead, Madonna, Jewel and Green Day are protesting music stores' policy of single-song downloads and introduce some stipulations, requiring their work to be sold as albums. "The fear among artists is that the work of art they put together, the album, will become a thing of the past," says attorney Fred Goldring, whose firm represents Will Smith and Alanis Morissette."

the-dude-man writes "Securityfocus.com Reports that there may be a new nasty turn to the battle between the p2p networks and the RIAA/MPAA. recently, the RIAA has been trying to flood kazza with files that appear to be valid copyrighted material (movies,mp3s, ect) but are empty or, in one case, of Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, contain a voice file asking, "What the f*ck do you think you are doing?". The p2p networks are considering a possible move agianst the RIAA in response to this by using recently enacted anti-spam laws."

danamania writes "Apple's latest promotion is a gimmick with Madonna, Tony Hawk or Beck's signature, or a No Doubt logo, on an iPod. It seems Apple's really pushing the iPod as a too-cool fashion accessory as much as a too-cooler MP3 player... is Maddie's signature worth an extra USD49 over the standard iPod?" Instead of $50 for the engraved signature, you can spend $20 to print "Madonna's Signature" in beautiful Helvetica.

Peter Wayner writes: "If you're one of the last few who believe that the numbers on your portfolio statement are any more permanent than a spring day, a sun tan, or a wink in a bar, you may want to tune into John Motavalli's new book, Bamboozled At the Revolution: How Big Media Lost Billions in the Battle for the Internet. The book follows the stumbling attempt by the old school in the media to turn their so-called power into dominance over the new domain. Numbers fly back and forth. Executives fret over turf. Dreams of glory float skywards. Yet in the end, it's just as Ecclesiastes warned: 'All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.'" Read on below.

no_nicks_available writes "An article on The Register points to some of the highlights of Usenet history. " First mention of Microsoft, GNU, Madonna, the Compact Disc, and more. It's worth a look if only to read the first kibo post to alt.religion.kibology.

An open information society is inevitable. I was a little surprised last week to receive a forwarded e-mail from Junis, who lives in a small town 35 miles southwest of Kabul. This weekend, a movie theater and video store opened up again in Kabul (renting Independence Day), Afghan TV cranked up, and so did the Net. Americans understand all too well that our techno-driven culture produces wonders and dangers, but it's one of the most popular social and political forces in the world. Passion for pop culture relentlessly undermined repressive governments like Poland, East Germany and the former Soviet Union. The world, it turns out, really is porous now. Technology and information will squeeze through every closed nook and crevice. The Taliban never made a dent in the attachment this Afghan programmer and his friends had for it.

If a movie could have ADD, Snatch would be it. An eye popping, furiously-paced melange of graphics, jump cuts and freeze-frames, it's a black-humored (very black-humored) look at the underside of London, as experienced by an exotic band of thugs, promoters, thieves, gypies and hustlers. Warning: Plot is discussed but nothing is given away. Please add your own reviews, as usual.

A computer that Madonna might approve of, ubiquitous boxes delivering Internet acccess all over paradise (and why not everywhere?), and some more insight about Moore's Law and Intel's tiny new transistors, from the horse's mouth. Read more below, in this edition of Slashback.

Details of the Napster-Bertelsmann deal have been dribbling out all week, and they're interesting. Micro-payment subscription models are now the talk of drooling CEOs everywhere, many of whom think that Bertelsmann head Thomas Middlehoff has saved the idea of profitable intellectual property. Bertelsmann is clearly mulling the possibilities of open-media business models as well. Has Middlehoff found the perfect compromise, or has he jumped into the Big Muddy? (First in a series.)

This is not a diatribe about copyleft. It's an exploration of ways "music delivery" has changed over the last three decades, and why these changes have led to a commonly-held belief that music can be downloaded or exchanged without paying a dime to the artists who wrote and played the songs. (more below)

Here's another quick round of Napster updates! First off, LinuxParanoid wrote in to tell us about Napster reinstating a portion of the accounts removed by the Metallica-inspired crackdown. Grexnix shared at article at the Beeb about Madonna's record company threatening legal action against Napster because a single from her not-yet-released album was leaked onto the net. DanCentury wrote in to tell us about The Offspring selling Napster hats, shirts and stickers on their website. gmr2048 writes "For anyone who may have owned an old HP4020 or 6020 or a Phillips CDD2000 or CDD2600 check out this lawsuit settlement HP/Phillips was sued because of the lack of quality in these units. They have settled and you may be entitled to a repair/replacement or $200 (if you've disposed of your original burner)." Cool! Also, check out the Brunching Shuttlecocks' 'Napster of Puppets,' and 'Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Pirated Mp3s' at Modern Humorist.

In our third and final part of the 'Making Music with Linux' trilogy, we try to make sense of the alphabet soup of the Linux sound world by exploring OSS and ALSA, and we investigate musical notation systems and software available for Linux.

Thanks to a rather interesting string of e-mails (Thanks Evan!), today's feature writer is none other than David Brin. Brin's bio is after his piece, but suffice it to say he's one of the most interesting writers, IMHO, out there today. This piece, one of his essay's, deals with why George Marshall should be Man of the Century. (Another one of Brin's essays that many of you will remember is his work dealing with Star Wars, Episode One.)

jetpack writes "This isn't really news for nerds. In fact it's not even news (from 1996) However, since it is kinda related to some of the fun we've had with babblefish in the past, it seems kinda relevant. One of the documentation chix0rs here at work pointed this one out to me. Check out this interview with Madonna. " Ok, normally I wouldn't post something like this, but if you need a laugh, just read it. It's worth your time.

One of America's most enduring and self-deluded myths about itself is that it's a free, thus morally superior country. It's not, as last weeks' feature on Princeton Bioethicist Peter Singer made clear. This society is riddled with unapproachable taboos. But technology is changing that, making some of our self-inflated notions of ourselves actually come true.

Mr H writes "According to Time's Person of the Century Poll Linus Torvalds is #15 out of 100." When I looked, Linus -- at #15 -- was ranked right below Madonna (#14), and right above Pope Paul VI (#16). Yitzhak Rabin was #1, Elvis Presley was #2, and Adolph Hitler was #3. Bill Gates, FYI, was ranked #17, Billy Graham was #4, and Albert Einstein was #5.

Jon Katz, known to everyone here, has sent us a review of Tom Beaudoin's book Virtual Faith, a book that explores the issue of the Internet, the Web, and Faith. Interestings stuff for the philosphical amongst us.