PG-13 films have lots of “happy violence,” say UCLA researchers. Borrowing from the late communications theorist George Gerbner, happy violence is that which is “cool, swift, and painless.” PG-13 films don’t consider the consequences of violent acts, such as injury, death, and the shattered lives of the people involved.

Any why this matters, says Theresa Webb, a researcher in the department of epidemiology and the Southern California Injury Prevention Research Center at UCLA's School of Public Health, is simple: youth violence is a commonplace occurrence in American society. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds overall. And media depictions of violence help teach such acts to children, leading to three effects—increased aggression, fear for their own safety, and a desensitization toward the pain and suffering of others.

As even digital music revenue growth falters because of rampant file-sharing by consumers, the major record labels are moving closer to releasing music on the Internet with no copying restrictions — a step they once vowed never to take...>>>

YouTube, a popular video sharing website, inadvertently helped to identify a traffic violator after a video of reckless driving, entitled "Driving in Norway" was posted on the Internet by the man himself. The video recorded the car's speedometer showing 150 miles per hour on a highway somewhere near Oslo. Spectators could also hear a voice saying, "We're touching 240..We know it will do it. This is a little nice."

Police traced the whereabouts of the driver, a young Norwegian man, and charged him with the fine of $1,300. Local police expressed their concern in this statement, "It is disturbing that young people test high speeds on highways like that, and then, on top of it, use the Net to boast about the misdeed afterward."

Shares of EMI went up 10 per cent today after the London music group announced that they received a preliminary takeover proposal. EMI's executive chairman, Eric Nicoli, and private equity bidders Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs, among others, have been discussing a possible bid worth of 2.5 billion pounds...>>>

Use of any software has certain reasonable restrictions, but suppose you bought a copy of Vista for $200 or Vista Ultimate for $400 for your PC before you have realized your computer needs an upgrade; you have already installed and activated the software on your not so new machine, and only then you read in your Manual, "The first user of the software mayreassign the license to another device one time.'

A very disappointing discovery! Nowadays many Microsoft users upgrade their computers constantly. If Microsoft restricts Vista to a maximum of one time, reassign means that they want you to buy this OS every time you upgrade...>>>

People love music. In the modern world all kinds of music have been purchased through Internet stores like iTunes and such. It became so easy that even young children have access to the Internet music stores. Apparently the new generation prefers digital download to the actual trip to the local mall. Now it seems easier than to buy gum in the deli around the corner. And it should stay that way because the simplicity is what makes the whole idea of digital downloads so attractive.

Microsoft company decided to make some "improvements" and introduced a new scheme at "Zune Marketplace" which starts just like  most web stores: you create a free Zune account and register your credit card. But then they make you buy "points"! For 400 points you will pay $5, for 1200 $15, etc. Consequently, 1 point = 1.25 cents...>>>

On Monday the California Supreme Court ruled that forum administrators, bloggers and members of Internet bulletin board groups cannot be held responsible for posting libel statements made by other individuals.

This decision is "a victory for Internet free speech advocates, who warned that a contrary outcome could have affected users of newsgroups, blogs, listservs, and bulletin boards who enter those forums to discuss the views of others. A loss could even have jeopardized websites run by students to evaluate their professors, said the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in friend of court briefs," reports MS NBC...>>>

Vivendi Universal has been suing "vast virtual warehouse" MySpace.com for copyright piracy.

The suit also states the News Corporation, which "comes as the recording industry contends with how to exploit its copyrighted material online. The issue has taken on more importance as services built around user-generated content become popular and generate advertising revenue," says The New York Times.

Two other similar cases were filed against Grouper owned by Sony and independent video website Bolt.com...>>>

Music company EMI has discovered accounting fraud at its Brazilian recorded music division where profit and sales figures were overstated, says BBC News
A statement from EMI says, "EMI Group announced that it has identified, through its internal controls, a one-off accounting fraud affecting the reporting of results at EMI's recorded music business in Brazil." EMI is conducting a full and thorough investigation. First results uncovered that revenues were overstated by $22.6m and profits by $17m. Scandal around Brazilian fraud brought EMI shares 12p lower to 268.75p. However, the fact that EMI itself unearthed the fraud may help to mend the damage. EMI hopes to fix this situation in the second half of the year on sales of CD's by big names like The Beatles, Norah Jones, Joss Stone and Robbie Williams.

People traveling with their laptops are taking risks visiting the USA or just passing through it.


According to Tim Kane, a lawyer from Washington researching this matter, under the new federal law officials do not need any probable cause to confiscate your computer for an uncertain period of time.
If you travel internationally with your portable laptop audio workstation you’d better send to yourself your music files (i.e., your sound card drivers, audio applications you work with, and sound files) just in case, if upon entering the USA, your laptop is scrutinized by Customs Inspectors. For smaller files, you can use temporary storage like megaupload.com. For large files, you might want to consider using rapidshare.com or mediamax.com.