While the RIAA continues its strategy of suing the very people it should be courting as customers, a recent study points out that so-called "social ripping" now makes up 37% of all music consumption. This is things like friends ripping CDs and sending the files to other friends, or sharing files through a USB drive. Unlike P2P file sharing, this type of file sharing is simply untraceable by the RIAA. Of course, it's not like this wasn't predicted when the RIAA went after Napster. Plenty of people pointed out that for every avenue the RIAA shut down, new ones would spring up -- and each new one would be further underground than the previous ones. Taking the internet out of the equation altogether certainly seems like one way to do exactly that. So, what's next? Will the RIAA start suing USB drive manufacturers for "inducing" infringement? At what point does the industry realize that there's a better way that doesn't involve suing the people who are most interested in your products?

Following Six Apart's deletion of 500 journals, users stage a blistering backlash and the company moves to make amends.

Scientists add to the growing literature leading to a more complete understanding of the physiological role of lactic acid production in muscle.

Also: Will the new online advertising models click? Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.

Blog: Updates address some critical vulnerabilities in the popular browser.

Just as many are starting to question Encyclopaedia Britannica's ability to survive in the Wikipedia world, it appears that the company has come up with a new business model: suing completely unrelated businesses for patent infringement. Apparently, the company is suing navigation device makers TomTom and Magellan for infringing on a bunch of patents having to do with a computerized map system. A quick stroll through the patent files shows a number of such patents, with this one being a recent one. If you're in the business of providing mapping and navigation systems, this seems like a fairly obvious progression of the art, rather than something that deserves patent protection -- but apparently the lawyers at Britannica don't agree. Yet another example of companies whose traditional lines of business are being challenged relying on patents not to further innovation, but to hold it back.

DivX 6.7 for Mac bundles new versions of the DivX Plaer, DivX Codec, DivX Converter, DivX Web Plaer and DivX Content Updater for Mac.

iTunes 7.2 imposes a new restriction on importing certain MP3 tracks to an iPod.

As was announced last month, Apple finally has started selling some EMI tunes through iTunes without DRM, but with an additional $0.30 in the price. Apparently there are some glitches, but perhaps that's not too surprising. A more interesting point, however, was submitted by John, who notes that while the DRM is gone, in its place is metadata about who bought the song. In other words, should you take a non-DRM'd file bought at iTunes and pass it on to someone else or put it on a file sharing network, it would be possible for someone to track you down (though, there would be no evidence that you purposely distributed the file). It's basically a poor-man's DRM, like watermarking technology, that is designed to scare you off from sharing the music. Not too surprising, really, but continues to show how the industry is confused about the promotional value of its own music.