Music in electronic markets: an empirical study

Music plays an important, and sometimes overlooked part in the transformation of communication and distribution channels. With a global market volume exceeding US$40 billion, music is not only one of the primary entertainment goods in its own right. Since music is easily personalized and transmitted, it also permeates many other services across cultural borders, anticipating social and economic trends. This article presents one of the first detailed empirical studies on the impact of internet technologies on a specific industry. Drawing on more than 100 interviews conducted between 1996 and 2000 with multinational and independent music companies in 10 markets, strategies of the major players, current business models, future scenarios and regulatory responses to the online distribution of music files are identified and evaluated. The data suggest that changes in the music industry will indeed be far-reaching, but disintermediation is not the likely outcome

Impact of podcasts in teachers education : from consumers to producers

Podcasts are being used in higher education, particularly in blended-learning or in distance learning. Studies in different universities have reported its use with different purposes. The research described in this paper reports to a study conducted in Portugal in three courses, one of a teaching program of Biology and the other two of Educational Master programs. The students (n= 82) liked the podcasts and showed to be receptive to have podcasts in other courses. The undergraduate students only listened to podcasts. The Master students created their own podcasts to get familiar with them and to understand how easy it is to create them. They mentioned that they realized the importance of its use in learning.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/CED/70751/200

Desktop Sharing Portal

Desktop sharing technologies have existed since the late 80s. It is often used in scenarios where collaborative computing is beneficial to participants in the shared environment by the control of the more knowledgeable party. But the steps required in establishing a session is often cumbersome to many. Selection of a sharing method, obtaining sharing target’s network address, sharing tool’s desired ports, and firewall issues are major hurdles for a typical non-IT user. In this project, I have constructed a web-portal that helps collaborators to easily locate each other and initialize sharing sessions. The portal that I developed enables collaborated sessions to start as easily as browsing to a URL of the sharing service provider, with no need to download or follow installation instructions on either party’s end. In addition, I have added video conferencing and audio streaming capability to bring better collaborative and multimedia experience

HEA/JISC Open Educational Resources case study: pedagogical development from OER practice: research ethics OER: can they be 'radically repurposed and remixed'?

This case study provides guidance on discovering, reusing and repurposing of Open Educational Resources (OER). It is presented within the context of research ethics OER for higher education learning and teaching and, together with the OER guidance, provides examples of OER found for this subject area

Dropping Slugs in the Celestial Jukebox: Congressional Enabling of Digital Music Piracy Short-Changes Copyright Holders

In response to the myriad new methods of copying that are emerging from the ongoing digital revolution, Congress has enacted several amendments to copyright law.\u27 These statutes have sought to protect copyright holders in the digital age without chilling the development of new technologies or interfering with consumer access to copyrighted works. Specifically, the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 ( AHRA ) recognized the tremendous potential for piracy created by consumer access to digital audio recording devices. The purpose of the AHRA is not only to prevent infringing acts, but also to compensate copyright holders for the inevitable instances of illicit musical copying which will result from the capability of these devices to make perfect copies from perfect copies of perfect copies

Hail to the thief: a tribute to Kazaa

THIS PAPER CONSIDERS THE ONGOING LITIGATION against the peer-to-peer network KaZaA. Record companies and Hollywood studios have faced jurisdictional and legal problems in suing this network for copyright infringement. As Wired Magazine observes: “The servers are in Denmark. The software is in Estonia. The domain is registered Down Under, the corporation on a tiny island in the South Pacific. The users—60 million of them—are everywhere around the world.” In frustration, copyright owners have launched copyright actions against intermediaries—like against Internet Service Providers such as Verizon. They have also embarked on filing suits against individual users of file-sharing programs. In addition, copyright owners have called for domestic- and international-law reform with respect to digital copyright. The Senate Committee on Government Affairs of the United States Congress has reviewed the controversial use of subpoenas in suits against users of file-sharing peer-to-peer networks. The United States has encouraged other countries to adopt provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 in bilateral and regional free-trade agreements

An XML-based Format for Advanced Music Fruition

(Abstract to follow

The mp3 trilogy: a critique of the recent us cases involving the digital distribution of music

The goal of copyright law has always been to balance society's interest in access to information against the right of the creators to profit from the fruits of their labour. However, every so often copyright law comes up against a new technology that threatens the ability of copyright holders to enforce their rights. Initially, these new technologies seem to be the death knell to copyright protection, but in nearly every case copyright law has adjusted to the new technology. In the process often creating a lucrative source of revenue for the copyright holders who had initially been so opposed to its introduction. The Internet is the most recent in a line of copyright-threatening technologies. In the context of digital music, the Internet has upset the balance between the consumer and the copyright holder in an unprecedented manner. From the US perspective this thesis examines some of the first high-profile cases involving the Internet and digital music distribution. Firstly, the thesis provides a background to music, technology, and copyright law. Secondly, it details and critically analyses the Diamond, MP3.com and Napster cases. Next, the thesis highlights some legal and technological solutions to the current problems. Ultimately the thesis concludes that the legal legacy left behind by these cases is unsatisfactory. Questions remain unanswered and it seems that a landmark ruling is necessary on the legal status of everyday practices such as 'space-shifting' and 'sampling'. Furthermore, this thesis calls for the recording industry to consider cheaper and more secure alternatives to the current methods of distribution. If other more suitable alternatives are implemented successfully and the above legal questions answered decisively then a working business model compatible with the online environment could pave the way for the future, not only in the context of music but for all types of digital content