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MACEDONIA - It's the name of the sovereign country to the north of Greece
Apr 2000
time: 07:29
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/...05,00030010.htm
quote:
Michael Jackson comes out against locking up music pirates
Agence France-Presse
Los Angeles, July 22
Pop superstar Michael Jackson on Monday hit out at a proposed US law that would make music piracy on the Internet punishable by a jail sentence.
The self-styled "King of Pop" feels that, while he would like to see the practice of stealing music off the Internet stamped out, the legislation against the downloading of copyrighted material was too harsh.
"I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans -- mostly teenagers -- in jail for downloading music," he said in a statement from his Neverland Ranch in the western state of California.
"It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies ... for solutions.
"This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music business," the "Gloved One" said.
Jackson's spokesman in Los Angeles said the 44-year-old singer felt that lawmakers are tackling the problem in the wrong way in the proposed law.
US lawmakers on July 16 introduced into the House of Representatives the Authors, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security law that makes illegal downloading of copyrighted materials a felony offence.
But while the illegal downloading of music does represent a major problem for the ailing industry, Jackson feels the solution proposed by the legislation is "absolutely inappropriate," Backerman said.
"He doesn't want to see jails piled up with teenagers. He is proposing a win-win situation for both the audience and the music fans," he said.
Jackson, who has seldom been out of the gossip pages this year amid a series of very public lawsuits against him, is himself a victim of the music industry's declining fortunes that it blames largely on musical piracy.
His superstar image has waned since his 1980s heyday, with sales of 2001's "Invincible," which reportedly cost $30 million to produce, pulled in only around $5 million worldwide.
The US music industry blames the easy and free availability of download-able music on the Internet for plunging record sales which have prompted industry bosses to urgently seek to crack down on piracy.
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Discuss.
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Q Cubed
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t3h y3ll0w p3ril
Apr 1999
time: 23:29
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quote:
The is much opportunity for the record companies and MP3/OGG. Most stuff you download is in the region of 96-128 kb/s, whereas cd quality is closer to 512 kb/s. Tracks offered at higher quality is always good, also possibility of videos etc. |
a) you can easily download higher quality mp3/ogg files, or rip them yourself.
b) after 128 kb/s, you reach a point of diminishing returns, where higher and higher bitrates return less and less quality that's discernable over both regular speakers and to the average individual.
c) along with the less discernable improvements in quality, there's the issue of storage. larger files take up roughly twice the space for much less than half the quality improvement. furthermore, larger files are killer to download on dialup.
conclusion: tracks offered at higher quality aren't necessarily all that good.
for mp3s, 128kb/s, 160kb/s, 192kb/s or good vbr is the way to go. anything higher and you won't really notice it, unless you have an exceptional ear or you have some exceptional sound card-speaker setup... the latter's more likely, and since if you have that situation you'd probably be well-off, you'd naturally be able to buy the cds instead of downloading specific tracks.
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22-07-2003 16:47
and that way they can increase sales.
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