For a long time, Ticketmaster had to defend itself against charges that it was a monopolist. After awhile, the uproar died down, but then the company turned around and embraced monopolistic practices by using politicians and the courts to go after the competition. The company claimed that it wanted to crack down on the concert ticket after-market in a bid to protect consumers from scalpers and fakes, but the company's only intention was to eliminate competitors and keep its margins high. The incident was a good demonstration of the fact that the truest monopolies are ones that are buttressed by the government. A similar story is now playing out in another aspect of the music business, as various state and local governments are stepping in to make life harder for sellers of used CDs. Under the new laws, used CD stores would have to take all kinds of security measures and apply for a special license, which would require them to post a $10,000 bond. In some places, stores would only be able to pay out store credit. Ostensibly, the new laws are all about protecting the public, with the idea that used CD stores shouldn't be accepting merchandise from thieves. But there's no doubt that these laws are essentially designed to protect sellers of new CDs and record labels, which have never liked the used CD business. While it may be true that the used CD business subtracts marginally from the market for new CDs, these issues distract from more important issues, as record labels and CD music retailers of all sorts have bigger fish to fry if they want to thrive in a changing industry.

Nokia surveys reveal habits of users around the world

Data on how people carry their mobile phones, gathered by Nokia over the last four years, is being presented at HCI International 2007 in Beijing. It reveals that women are missing more calls than men, and that belt-pouches are a sign of middle age.

Filed under: Cellphones, GPS, Transportation

Although Nissan's anti-drunk driving technology should keep the worst of the unaware from actually cruising down the freeway, certain distractions that we just wouldn't do without could indeed lead to a pedestrian-related crash. Thankfully for us, Nissan is on the lookout, as its Intelligent Transportation System is now getting an additional feature before it's even released. Aside from helping you avoid congestion and emit less fumes, the ITS will now be able to communicate with handsets via 3G networks and GPS in order to alert drivers of upcoming individuals. Of course, we have to assume that only humans within a reasonable line of danger will appear on screen, but Nissan claims that this technology will decrease the amount of car vs. pedestrian mishaps and "reduce road accidents particularly in a blind-spot situation." The automaker is currently collaborating with NTT DoCoMo and researching "what types of pedestrian data are most relevant to help prevent accidents," but unfortunately, the launch date for all of this in-car madness is still a good ways out.

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100-boat ice jam delays cull

Canada's annual seal hunt yesterday suffered an unscheduled delay as 100 small boats bearing hunters were trapped by thick ice off the northeast coast of Newfoundland, Reuters reports.

Intel says 'Parallel or perish'

So you thought Intel was a hardware company? In fact, it's also a major supplier of software – compilers and developer tools.