Back in March, we noted that Warner Music Group had a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20080328/012123680.shtml"hired Jim Griffin/a, a music industry guy who has been pushing the concept of a "blanket license" for file sharing. The idea would be to get various ISPs to simply add an additional fee to ieveryone's/i internet access, have that money go into a pool that the recording industry would be responsible for paying out -- and then let people have free reign for file sharing. This is a bad idea for a variety of reasons. It's basically a music tax -- allowing the record industry to be lazy. Someone else gets to go out and collect all this money and hand it over to the industry to distribute (or, actually, a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20060921/192446.shtml"not distribute/a). It effectively sets the business model of the recording industry in stone, and harms a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080605/1638421319.shtml"better/a, a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20080115/095022.shtml"more innovative/a business models by inserting the recording industry (and not the musicians) into a role where they don't belong. br /br / We hadn't heard much about this music tax lately, but apparently Griffin has been focused on getting universities to buy into the plan first. An anonymous reader passed on some details, saying that Columbia, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Washington, MIT, University of Colorado, University of Michigan, Cornell, Penn State, University of California at Berkeley and University of Virginia have expressed interest and talks are under way. A basic presentation that's being given to these universities is below (if you're reading via another site, click through to see it): center iframe src='http://docs.google.com/EmbedSlideshow?docid=dhpvc2mr_115m5prjqd5' frameborder='0' width='410' height='342'/iframe /center There's obviously something appealing about ending the lawsuits and letting people file share freely. But, it's quite problematic to add an effective "tax" when none is necessary. Plenty of other business models, such as those we've outlined here and elsewhere can suffice to fund the creation of music. On top of that, giving the proceeds of this tax to the very industry that has so badly mismanaged musicians for so many years is a travesty -- sort of like bailing out the failed auto industry or banking industry. The presentation says that a nonprofit has been set up to handle the money, claiming that it's "to be clear we intend to operate with good intentions and not profit as a motive," but given the way the industry has acted in the past, that's difficult to take at face value. Also, this isn't ireally/i a license. It's a "covenant not to sue" -- meaning that lawsuits could still result. br /br / Of course, while the introduction frames this as a "voluntary" blanket licensing program, the presentation also mentions that they'll need some way to get iall/i ISPs and universities to buy into the plan, or they'll have to work out a way to "avoid massive leakage." So, basically, it's not voluntary at all. It's either join, or get saddled with significant limitations. In other words: all ISPs and universities need to agree to pay a huge tax to the very industry that hasn't been able to adapt, and then trust them to distribute the funds fairly.br /br /a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081204/1534153023.shtml"Permalink/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081204/1534153023.shtml#comments"Comments/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20081204/1534153023op=sharethis"Email This Story/abr / br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=d81ee34f24d0a53108d19a307c89c7b5p=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=d81ee34f24d0a53108d19a307c89c7b5p=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=d81ee34f24d0a53108d19a307c89c7b5" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?a=av2Go"img src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?i=av2Go" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/475162398" height="1" width="1"/

psmallEgan Orion a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/"the Inquirer/a, Friday 5 December 2008. 11:10:00/small/ppi In Australia /i/ppAUSTRALIAN FIRM Kogan has announced the second cellphone to use Google's Android software, which will also be the first Android-based mobile to reach the shops Down Under. Dubbed 'Agora', the smartphone will be offered in two models without tether to a wireless provider contract..../pimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.theinquirer.net/c/554/f/7127/s/280ece3/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Second Google Android mobile tips uplink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/05/second-google-android-mobile" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Second Google Android mobile tips uplink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/05/second-google-android-mobile" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853614075/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/42003683/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853614075/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/42003683/a2.img" border="0"//a

h4Chance of success at French megaproject enhanced/h4 pBoffins at MIT say they have cracked some tricky problems in the design of power stations running on nuclear fusion, though they hasten to add that many more hurdles remain before fusion energy becomes a reality..../p

Need help

Cydia started crashing last night, give me error "force to remove".When i click the error my fon hang, after i reboot and on my fon cydia icon gone only show winterBoard and Installer icon.

Any 1 can help me can i reinstall cydia on my 2.0.1 3g iphone and do i need jailbreak again.

A European court has slapped down the UK for violating human rights with its fingerprint and DNA database, in that it a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7764069.stm" target="_new"retained the data on people not convicted of crimes/a. Until now, the UK police recorded fingerprints and DNA info on everyone iarrested/i, but two guys who weren't convicted felt that their info should be deleted from the database, and the court has now agreed. The UK's defense was that "this info is important in fighting crime." Of course, so would be forcing everyone to wear a GPS device and record everything they do on cameras only the police can watch -- but we don't allow that because it's a violation of privacy. Either way, the UK now needs to start destroying info in its database and purge its data on other people who weren't convicted.br /br /a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081204/1801463024.shtml"Permalink/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20081204/1801463024.shtml#comments"Comments/a | a href="http://techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20081204/1801463024op=sharethis"Email This Story/abr / br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=95f30a6a949f9e9676a154f82393576ep=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=95f30a6a949f9e9676a154f82393576ep=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=95f30a6a949f9e9676a154f82393576e" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?a=WUoHo"img src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~f/techdirt/feed?i=WUoHo" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.techdirt.com/~r/techdirt/feed/~4/475606580" height="1" width="1"/

Officials say a suicide car bomb attack that has killed six in north-western Pakistan may have been sectarian.

Harry Winston, one of Paris' most prestigious jewellery shops, is robbed of 80m euros ($102m) of valuables, police say.

It seems like a lot of people still have a bunch of old diskettes lying around collecting dust. Why not make them into a geeky holiday ornament for your tree? It's the perfect gift for your hacker friends.

More about DIY: Old diskette ornaments [CraziestGadgets]

In the Maker Shed:


The Best of Instructables Volume I

a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/diy_old_diskette_ornament.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/diy_old_diskette_ornament.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" / Permalink/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/diy_old_diskette_ornament.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890#comments" /Comments/a | a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/crafts/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more articles in Crafts/a | a href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F12%2Fdiy_old_diskette_ornament.htmltitle=DIY%3A%20Old%20diskette%20ornamentsbodytext=%20It%20seems%20like%20a%20lot%20of%20people%20still%20have%20a%20bunch%20of%20old%20diskettes%20lying%20around%20collecting%20dust.%20Why%20not%20make%20them%20into%20a%20geeky%20holiday%20ornament%20for%20your%20tree%3F%20It%26apos%3Bs%20the%20perfect%20gift%20for%20your%20hacker%20friends.%20More...topic=tech_news" /Digg this!/a

Gordon Brown issued a stark warning to banks today, demanding that lenders must pass on yesterday's full 1 per cent interest rate cut to their customers.

Singer Boy George is found guilty of falsely imprisoning a male escort at his flat in east London.

h4The season's hottest handset could be yours/h4 pstrongCompetition/strong Samsung Omina? 'Orrible! Apple iPhone? I don't think so! No, Research in Motion's BlackBerry Storm is the touchscreen mobile to go for this season, says Vodafone, and it's putting its money where its mouth is to give three lucky emRegister Hardware/em readers one of the in-demand handsets..../p

Shahid Malik calls for a review of the contacts social services had with Shannon Matthews before she was kidnapped.

The investment fund, established by insurance entrepreneur Clive Cowdery, is expected to focus on acquiring insurance, life assurance and asset management groups

Arrives with PC version in January.img width='1' height='1' src='http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/352/f/4737/s/280e794/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=News: Mirror's Edge DLC adds Time Trial mapslink=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=325697" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=News: Mirror's Edge DLC adds Time Trial mapslink=http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=325697" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853613292/u/89/f/4737/c/352/s/42002324/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853613292/u/89/f/4737/c/352/s/42002324/a2.img" border="0"//a

Parents are being warned about fake imported Nintendo consoles which could be a fire hazard and pose a danger to children.

I was using my macbook in windows xp yesterday and suddenly i saw that the computer speed seems fall down then i restart the computer, choosing windows xp again. But it goes in to F8 Mode and i chose start normally, it appeared a blue flash which maybe said that my computer got a hardware problem and restart automaticallly. Then i start it up normally with MAC OS and it couldn't start up. After about five minutes it goes to a black screen which i never seen before with these :

disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
/etc/master.passwd: Input/output error
dis0s2: 0xe0030005 ( UNDEFINED).
-sh: /etc/profile: Input/output error
disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED).
-sh-2.05b#

I have been using this macbook for about slightly more than one year and it used to be very good.
Thank you for your helps.

File under no surprise there then: the latest IDC EMEA Server Tracker figures, factory revenue in the EMEA server market has shown the biggest quarterly decline since 2005, and Western...

div class="image"a href="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/big_show.php?/avaxhome/97/fe/0009fe97.jpeg" target="_blank"img src="http://pixhost.ws/avaxhome/97/fe/0009fe97_medium.jpeg" id="external_img_654999"//a/div br/ div class="center"b Andrei D. Polyanin, Valentin F. Zaitsev "Handbook of Exact Solutions for Ordinary Differential Equations, 2 Ed." /b br/ Chapman Hall/CRC | 2002-10-29 | ISBN: 1584882972 | 816 pages | PDF | 7,6 MB /div

Help!

I keep trying to erase and reformat my iPod, but every time I try I get the

"Disc Utility has lost its connection with the disc management tool. Please quite and try again" message.

Keep doing that, and again, displays the same message.

What do I need to do to get it working properly?

Thanks!

h4emGuitar Hero/em here we come.../h4 pLogitech has shat all over those plastic emGuitar Hero/em frets with the launch of a gaming axe that looks and handles like the real thing - because most of it actually is..../pa href="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/jump/reg.rss.4159/hardware;sz=468x60;ord=423456789?" target="_blank" img src="http://ad.uk.doubleclick.net/ad/reg.rss.4159/hardware;sz=468x60;ord=423456789?" width="468" height="60" border="0" alt=""/a

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that it is "well past time" for Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to leave office as evidenced by the nation's calamitous cholera epidemic and health care crisis.

I stumbled across this post in the Macbook forum, dug a little deeper, and found this:
On sale at bestbuy.com is the Incase Laptop Sleeve, which normally runs $49.99, for only $9.99 with free shipping!

Product Features

* Designed to fit MacBook Pro laptops with screens up to 15"
* Also compatible with PowerBook laptops up to 15" and iBook laptops up to 14"
* Soft neoprene material withstands wear and tear; plush fur lining
* Soft-lined pocket for AC adapter and cables
* Comfortable, ergonomic shoulder strap


Also available at the same price are the "Pretty In Pink" series. :o

This is an "online only" offer and seeing how the 13" sleeves sold out like hot cakes, I'd say this is a very limited time special. Enjoy! :D

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says it is "well past time" for Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe to leave office. The increased pressure comes as a "sham" government lets thousands of Zimbabweans die from a cholera epidemic.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=m0Zoo"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=m0Zoo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=ejMzO"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=ejMzO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=B3ilo"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=B3ilo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=3ksdo"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=3ksdo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=TEbrO"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=TEbrO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?a=I4BKO"img src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~f/CBSNewsMain?i=I4BKO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/CBSNewsMain/~4/475589033" height="1" width="1"/