Social Networks Impacting Music Piracy

The music industry world over is going through a crisis of sorts. With the number of social networking sites on a constant rise, the Internet is having a huge impact on the way users consume music. As a result of increasing downloads, music piracy is heading towards an all-time high.

According to an online survey, more than 38 percent of social networkers have their favourite music embedded in their personal profiles. They often share these audio files with their friends, thus lowering the sale value of such songs.

About 53 percent people revealed that they surfed social networking sites usually to find music. Many of the survey's respondents also said that most of their music downloads were courtesy such networks. In fact, the most popular networks themselves claim that more than 75 percent of their users surf their site to download music.

The music industry, on the other hand, is finding it extremely difficult to cope up with this menace. Online piracy has always been a threat for them. And now, with the growing popularity of social networks, the problem seems to have escalated beyond control. However, experts insist that regulation has to come from social networking sites that actually hold the key to this issue of grave concern.

Music lovers will surely be disappointed if they have to get back to paying for their favourite downloads. Any policy in this regard will surely end up changing the face of social networking around the globe.

Social Networking now part of your Firefox Browser

Web browser Mozilla has grand plans to take social networking to newer heights. In fact, it is working towards stealing limelight away from online networking sites that are in the pipeline.

Mozilla will soon launch such a network within the framework of its Firefox Internet browser. To be known as The Coop, this network will allow users to subscribe to content from friends and vice versa. This kind of content can be taken from a user's other social profiles. In fact, users can also check the status of their friends on this list before going on to chat with them.

However, industry experts are not too happy with this development. The ability to view user status from within the browser reduces your need to actually visit a site, thus slowing down its pageview growth. And this decrease is predicted to impact advertising revenues of such websites. We just hope The Coop does not land popular networking sites in a soup!

Google loses Gmail to Germany

Google loses Gmail to Germany

Germany says NO to Gmail, if its Google that serves it!

A German court has banned Google from using the name Gmail for its mailing system when the search giant failed to argument his case in the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court.
Daniel Gieresch a young business man from Germany slammed Google with infringment charges upon using the name Gmail for thier maling service. The tryst and trial went on in the court fr three years until now that the verdict is out.

Having secured the name under his company way back in 2000 Daniel had the verditc favour him opposd to the search masters who entred the domain in 2004!

The judgement leaves a lot to be speculated and observed. Although google in a desperate attempt to secure its interest is chalenging Daniel to other courts the fact remains that Germany has been able to look beyond the brand and justify a common man’s interest.
Indeed much can be learnt !

Beckham for 'Posh' Honour

Former Posh Spice Victoria Beckham may soon be a whole lot posher. The one-time Spice Girl could become 'Lady Victoria', after it emerged this week that her husband David Beckham is being considered for a knighthood.

According to reports the soccer ace's name is among those currently being scrutinised by Whitehall for both Tony Blair's Resignation Honours list and the Queen's annual Birthday Honours.

It remains to be seen if David's name will make onto the final list, but his chances of adding to the OBE he was awarded in 2003 are said to be high, reflecting his work for charity and role in bringing the 2012 Olympics to London.

Whatever the final outcome, it was business as usual this week for Becks, who makes his England squad comeback tonight as he rejoins his team to play against Brazil. And cheering him on from the sidelines will be his loyal wife - who has halted filming of her LA reality show to support him.

American TV bosses wanted Victoria in the US this week for a fortnight's filming, but she has refused as it would have meant missing her husband's England return, as well as his final game for Real Madrid next week.

"She was in tears when she heard he'd been recalled to the England squad, as she knew that was his ultimate dream," says a source. "There's no way she'd have sacrificed being there to spur him on against Brazil… just to do a TV show - regardless of how much it would help her career in the US."

Lohan's in the news again!

After yet 'another mishap' in Lindsay Lohan's life, we get to hear that her private MySpace account, Blackberry and Gmail accounts were hacked and several of her private messages have been posted online. The unnamed hacker promises a full website with all the hacked photos, messages and emails in the next 3-4 days. What's online thus far are some of her "conversations" with Paris Hilton, "Shannaxoxo" (Shanna Moakler, Travis Barker's wife/ex-wife/whatever), Stavros (Stavros Niarchos, Paris Hilton's on/off boyfriend) and "Sam Young".

I really hope no one thought this was going to be Lindsay listing her favorite Bible stories or expounding on her views on foreign policy, because if you were expecting something other than Lindsay sounding like a dumb whore, sorry. She lives on semen and drama, so of course this is going to sound like junior high. Which reminds me, Tiffany said you were fat. Girl, I know! She's just jealous, and totally doesn't want u 2 make the squad.

Euthanasia

Chalpi is a 20-year-old with a deadly disease she caught, nobody knows how, a year ago. She's a daughter of our poor maid. When they went to a government hospital they were told that her illness is incurable and the girl would not survive for long. As if, the shock wasn't enough, the doctor further said that her life could be prolonged for a certain weeks if she's on a life support system.
The only obstacle is they can't afford Rs 12 lakh needed for her treatment. Should my poor maid see each day passing helplessly, while her daughter is suffering so much physical and mental torture? The girl keeps asking for death - probably she's asking for relief from the excruciating pain.
Well, what about mercy killing? Is that an option? But how can a parent even think of killing his/her own child? But does that mean they can see her suffering each moment?
To think of it, many disturbing questions keep haunting me. Why something like euthanasia is not legalised sin our democracy? What made it a law in countries like Netherlands and Belgium? Why can't a terminally ill new-born baby be given euthanasia? Is a patient's relief from suffering more important or the filial love and stupid archaic laws?
A classic case in this light is of K Venkatesh. The 25-year-old so badly wanted to donate his organs before dying but the law was a barrier. Wasn't that enough that he was undergoing a tormenting life for many years?
But what about the belief that you make bad causes by killing someone? My point is, the prayer of the mankind (the patients' relatives, may be) must be, should be so strong that the sufferer comes back to being hale and hearty - be it any disease. Or, or, or, even if he has to die, at least he should be able to get rid of his bad karma, because of which he's so much in agony, in this lifetime.
At the same time we can't ignore the mal-practices of some of the so-called doctors. And we certainly can't ignore the way judiciary works in our country. So I suggests if at all the law has to be made in favour of mercy killing, then it must be a very strict one with no loose ends.
I ask you, what do you think, should be done? Should Chalpi be given a simple injection to set her free or be left to live in pain? After all, financial burden in her case, may force the entire family on the brink of death…
Another recent case (which was shown on some news channels as well) of poor parents asking for death of their 10-year-old son, is from a Jharkhand village. Manoj mental disease is declared incurable by the village doctor and his parents can't arrange two-sqaure meal a day. Due to extreme poverty they can't bring their son to a city hospital either. So they are forced to ask for mercy killing.
Now what do you think of the law of euthanasia in our country, given the fact that 1 billion people in our country earn less then Rs 40 per day?

World Cup (Let the game begin)

The classic white-mans game' is about to be challenged by 16 nations from across the globe at the West Indies to prove their mastery in accordance to the strokes, throws n techniques of the game over one another very soon. The stage all-set, teams all there, the opening ceremony is scheduled for the 11th of the March- two days from which, will witness the first match of the ICC World Cup between the host team West Indies and Pakistan!
With contenders like Australia, England, India, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies, Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the league amongst others; the spunk and spoof of the matches, friction of the crowds and the frenzy of the world media- Its all going to be worth a long-long wait!
The glorious win of England against the world champion Kangaroos and New Zealanders have had them riding a high wave of aplomb and grit . Shortly from when the 15 member team to the Caribbean was declared – the Captain Micheal Vaughan led faction promised to bring back the ICC World Cup 2007 trophy to -'the home of cricket' England.
Convinced with their old-fashioned style and strategy of playing one- day cricket
England have already signaled that Ed Joyce and captain Michael Vaughan will open the innings while Ian Bell provides further solidity at number three.

Raising eyebrows England is keeping faith with the tactics which helped them take over the Commonwealth Bank series and thats despite the belief that the small grounds at Caribbean are designed to aid attacking stroke players resulting in most sides packing off big hitters at the top order to keep up the power plays!

Reacting to which off spinning all rounder Jamie Dalrymple exclaimed "You can't get away from doing good basics. The basics are crucial and you build everything else on top of strong basics,"
Here is only hoping that the back-to-basics trip of the acclaimed off spinner does not cost us a World Cup which is ready to be hunted down by the skilled sports men none less than- be tagged 'best in the business'