The Internet The New Frontier

Many people describe the Internet as the new frontier because of the lack of laws that govern it and the fact that no one owns the internet. Many countries also have varying laws so someone doing something illegal in Canada or the U.S. can't be prosecuted if it isn't illegal in the country the person resides. One issue with the Internet is copyright laws. Copyright laws have recently been affecting YouTube a lot lately. TV networks often take down videos from TV shows and music labels take down videos that people have made that have copyrighted music in them. There is also lots of issues with music sharing and if it's illegal. The arguments that music sharers have is that it's not illegal to lend someone a CD so why is it illegal to get music off programs like limewire. When people share music though they aren't just renting and if you are sharing music it is likely that more than one person is downloading it. Many people are also watching and downloading pirated movies which the film industry is trying to deter by having warning messages on DVDs. The music and film industry is pressuring governments to have stricter laws and prohibit music and video sharing. France has in the past year have made more laws so ISPs can view what their customers are doing so they can detect when someone is downloading illegal content so they can be prosecuted. Many other governments are not doing this because it is not a high priority. After all the music and film industry aren't suffering. For governments to be more concerned the music and film industry will have to be in financial trouble. For as much music sharing there is ITunes is still having millions of music and video downloads every day.

ITunes 10 and Ping

Apple has released has released ITunes 10 and with it Ping. Ping is a music based social network Ping resembles twitter in a way because you can follow artists and see their recent updates and also slightly resembles facebook in its layout. You can also follow not just celebrities but other users like you. You can also choose to have people not follow you and there are other privacy options like this. You can access Ping with the new iPod touch 4.1 firmware upgrade by enabling Ping on ITunes 10 and then syncing your iPod. You can add your favorite music and it will be displayed on your profile and music you recently bought will also be displayed on your profile. I don't believe though that it will display music that you just added to your library that hasn't been bought from ITunes. It is surprising how many musicians are already part of Ping and post regularly. It is beneficial for musicians to be part of this new music based social network so they can get their name out there and have their voice heard. The benefit of Ping is probably why so many musicians are already part of this recently released social network. Ping is fairly easy to sign up for if you already have an apple account it just takes about thirty seconds since a lot of information is already filled out. The only things you really have to do are choose the music you want to display on your profile (if any) and your privacy settings. When you add people as friends you can see the music they have bought and what music they like just like they can see the music you like and the music you bought. It will be interesting if and how much this social network increases music sales on ITunes and if new artists are discovered by using Ping.