Even though it is a license-free codec, Ogg Vorbis yet to see adoption in portable digital music players. The reason is because Ogg Vorbis requires a floating-point processor to function, something missing in today's MP3 players. Yesterday, Ogg's creator Xiph has answered this issue with the release of their new fixed-point Vorbis decoder named "Tremor."
The web site of the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) was hit for a third time by hackers who once again rewrote the content on the music lobby's site plus uploaded 20 Linkin Park tunes to the RIAA's server for the benefit of fans. This time their attacks were carried out over the holiday weekend insuring that the hack will last a little longer until someone in the organization cuts short their vacation to correct it.
Check it out at http://www.riaa.org while it lasts :) The server is getting mad requests after the news broke on http://www.fark.com. I've mirrored the front page on my homepage at http://www.madirish.net. Enjoy :D.
Note that HITB broke this story even before Wired
HMV, the British record retailer, reached a deal with digital music service On Demand Distribution (OD2) to sell digital tracks over the Net. With over 100,000 tunes to be made available the deal marks the largest release to date of label sanctioned digital tracks in the UK. Looking at a September launch, the service makes a major record retailer a lead player in the sale of online music, an area that has faired poorly against Napster clones that are not only free, but offer a greater variety of music.
SoulSeek is a file-sharing network that's managed to generate a large following while staying beneath the P2P community's radar. Since AudioGalaxy's demise, many have migrated to various communities. Some have found refuge on WinMX or Blubster, while others have found SoulSeek to be an excellent alternative. Although there are numerous flaws with this up-and-coming network, it seems the right ingredients are in place to make this a successful P2P community.
Winamp finally released the final build of the most popular music player on the net. The build is 488 and can be downloaded from HERE.
Source: OS Opinion
There is actually a bill in Congress, introduced by a California Democrat, that would permit recording companies and other copyright holders to hack into networks and people's computers. Once in, corporate hackers would destroy MP3 files and damage systems to thwart users seeking to download free music. This bill, if passed into law, would also protect companies that hack in this manner from lawsuits, provided they limit their damage to somewhere around US$200,000.
The record industry's peer-to-peer networks have hardly been the most popular offerings. How can they be? Not only do they charge egregious prices to download tracks you can pick up free from the Napster clones, but they have been highly restrictive in terms of the music that is available and what you can do with it once you spent your cash. The market is forcing this to change.
Source: Az Central
reaper: "A spokesman says at least the attack gave the hackers a temporary distraction from illegally downloading music."
Whoever made this statement is uninformed.
NEW YORK - Hackers have attacked a group that's been leading the charge against online music-swapping.
The Web site for the Recording Industry Association of America was effectively shut down over the weekend after it was bombarded by hits in an apparently deliberate and coordinated assault.
