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TOP STORIES FOR MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2005 Colleges Continue to Offer Legal Music Services Warner Music Group Creates E-Label Sun Pushes Open Source Digital Rights Management Vendors Support Community Wireless Projects Educational Software Market for Home PCs Plummets COLLEGES CONTINUE TO OFFER LEGAL MUSIC SERVICES Despite mixed or negative ratings from students, universities offering legal music and movie download services plan to continue doing so for two reasons: students have come to expect it, and legal file swapping remains part of higher education's plan to reduce Internet piracy. Colleges signing up for the services for the first time point to the same reasons. The arrangements are also a visible response to lawsuits filed by the Recording Industry Association of America against students swapping files on campus and the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision holding network administrators liable for individual acts of piracy if they "induced" the infractions. Offering the legal download services provides evidence of a good-faith effort to reduce illegal downloading activity on campus. Chronicle of Higher Education, 22 August 2005 http://chronicle.com/free/2005/08/2005082201t.htm WARNER MUSIC GROUP CREATES E-LABEL Warner Music Group plans to launch an online business model called an e-label that will use digital downloads rather than compact discs to distribute music. Artists will release music in groups of three songs every few months rather than a CD every few years. Artists who sign with the e-label will also retain copyright and ownership of their master recordings. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, about 180 million songs were sold online in the first half of 2005 compared to 57 million in the first half of 2004. In addition, Apple Computer's iTunes service recently exceeded 500 million downloads. ZDNet, 22 August 2005 http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-5841355.html SUN PUSHES OPEN SOURCE DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT Sun Microsystems announced the Open Media Commons initiative in an effort to rally support behind an open source standard for digital rights management (DRM). The company is releasing code from the Project DReaM (DRM/everywhere available) program under the open source Community Development and Distribution License. The initiative involves developing a device-independent DRM standard called DRM Opera and user-based (versus device-based) licensing. The Register, 22 August 2005 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/22/sun_open_source_drm/ VENDORS SUPPORT COMMUNITY WIRELESS PROJECTS High-tech companies led by Intel joined in an international effort to support wireless technology and applications for governments and communities. The Digital Communities initiative supports 13 communities that are desiging, developing, and deploying Wi-Fi, mesh, or other wireless networks and applications. In the United States, Portland, Oregon; Corpus Christi, Texas; Philadelphia, and Cleveland are participants. Applications include support for municipal inspections and repair, law enforcement, and emergency response. Taipei, Taiwan, and Jerusalem, Israel, will also test Wi-Max. Federal Computer Week, 22 August 2005 http://www.fcw.com/article90237-08-22-05-Web EDUCATIONAL SOFTWARE MARKET FOR HOME PCS PLUMMETS >From 2000 to 2004, sales of educational software dropped from $498 million to $152 million, according to the NPD Group, a market research firm. Competing technologies are often free on the Web, and children are using portable gadgets rather than home PCs for games and learning. Moreover, computers are available in most schools. In response, companies are creating programs that connect to the Internet and measure children's academic progress. Overall spending on teaching tools and toys has increased, according to education software industry analyst Kirsten Edwards of research firm ThinkEQuity Partners, with spending on tutors rising to $4 billion is 2004 from $3.4 billion in 2003, but much educational software is now offered online, and it remains among the lowest priced of any software category. New York Times, 22 August 2005 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/22/technology/22soft.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your settings, or access the Edupage archive, visit http://www.educause.edu/Edupage/639 Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE RESOURCES The EDUCAUSE Resource Center is a repository for information concerning use and management of IT in higher education. 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