Roxio is now officially Napster

It can really get confusing after a while, can't it? Related and non-related companies buying-out other related and non-related companies seems to be the thing to do these days. Everything, everything is fuelled by corporate greed of course. I don't know who owns what anymore. Sony is very close to sucking up BMG (RCA) records now - frankly, I wish every major, global, record-company conglomerate would buy each other up, so that there would be only ONE massive, RIA/RIAA-based company. That would make it easier to 'attack'. (The RIAA is in deep s--- these days anyway). Does anyone out there buy 'Duracell' batteries? You know, the 'copper-top' ones? Who do you think owns the Duracell Battery company? I _believe_ it is "Purina". You know, the peoiple who make Pet Foods. (Purina Puppy Chow; Purina Monkey Chow, etc.) As of this writing though, I don't know who owns the Heinz Ketchup people Rumor has it that AfterDawn will soon be bought out by the McDonalds Restaurant Conglomerate. The new site will be re-christened, "McDawn", and you will be able to obtain your favourite mcsoftware from the mcdownload section. The HamBurger-ler himself will host the hands-on mcsoftware turorials. Petteri himself (whose name will change to "McPyyny") will stay on as CEO, and he will be giving out coupons for free cheeseburgers with each online purchase. With all of this Corporate Merging going on, it was inevitable that screwups were bound to occur. In a greedy, unprecedented move, Ahead Software (now known as Nero Software), bought itself out!!!!! Now no one over there in Germany knows who to lay off or who to keep, or what to sell, or what to do, or .....

Good I am a Napster To Go subscriber. Maybe I'll actually get some music I like such as the new Styx Cyclorama to Download to my Mp3 player without having to pay the $.99/Song on top of my monthly rate. Maybe They'll get these labels to allow the music for the honest Napster To Go subscribers. If Rhapsody allows Sytx Cyclorama to be able to Listen to than Napster should as well after all they are going after iTunes.

Too funny A_Klingon, but I think its called bureaucracy. Everyone wants to make a buck or be on top. And please let's not forget what the famous artist Andy Warhol said "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes." I'm bored with that line. I never use it anymore. My new line is, "In fifteen minutes everybody will be famous."

Well, I, for one, say it's a good thing that Roxio is now non compus mentis. That means no more buggy EZ software that never worked right! Ever! No more inability to display the color white! :) Huzzah! Hey, A_Klingon. It's been a while since I saw a post from you. :> Admittedly, I haven't checked here as much lately. Inferring you're the same one. ;)

Napster Easy CD Creator?

Am I the only one who thinks its just wrong, for Napster to have a stock ticker -- be 'legit' and all? Do they really think we're all that dumb? "Hey, all those kids will think of that fun they had, pirating music in the old days way back in '99... they'll buy anything we put 'Napster' on!! Brilliant!!"

I believe, eventually, everything will be owned by the <a href="http://www.necco.com">New England Confectionery Company</a>.

Pretty soon, there will be no more CD's or DVD's. All digital media will be printed on Necco wafers. Money will be replaced by Necco wafers with numbers written on then in chocolate.

Well that is part of the problem is the fact that CD's are almost by the way side. That is exactly what the RIAA doesn't like and blames it on Filesharing. Its time for a change and we need to band together to make this happen. Honestly you have to say to yourself would it be worth it to achieve say 1,000 hrs or more of video all on a palm suzed hard drive of some sort and over 400 GB's of Music on a player the size of the iPid mini? Could happen but the thing that keeps it from happening is the RIAA.

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Hey, A_Klingon. It's been a while since I saw a post from you ... inferring you're the same one.

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Yes, it's still me, dbminter. (Thanks for remembering.) I don't get on AfterDawn nearly as much as I should or used to, but I always check the News Updates whenever I can. I would hate to lose touch overall, but no, I haven't participated in the Forums (among the finest anywhere) in a long time. I just have too much else on the go right now. But AfterDawn always remains my #1 Bookmark.

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Money will be replaced by Necco wafers with numbers written on them in chocolate.

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I see a time when all commercial businesses will have a little hand-held fingerprint scanner (much like the ones you may have seen the Ferengi Quark use for business deals on 'Star Trek-Deep Space 9'. (No kidding! That's not such a far-fetched idea). You will place your fingers on the pad to confirm your identity and available bank balance instead of using, say, an Interact Bank debit swiper card. And never mind the Euro! (EuroDollars). We may all be using (again, just as in Star Trek), credits. That would allow automatic conversion between world currencies. No more Australian Dollars or British Pounds or ...... Everything would be priced in credits. On the entertainment technological front, we will continue to see both useful, and also rediculous advances. For example, do we really need or want genuine 1080i Hi-Definition Video to display movies on a battery-operated, portable, handheld mini dvd player with a faded, built-in 4.6 inch LCD screen? Very interesting times ahead!

Once again I agree with A_Klingon. Does anyone remember the TV (or as Brits call the tellie) show called "The Jetsons?" Although, it was an animation show for kids, you must admit it was ahead of its time. For example, I remember the mother, Judy, would talk to her mother what we now are now calling video phones. There are other shows I can think that give other examples as well. Ahhh technology is here, but the question is are we as consumers ready for it?

I think consumers are indeed ready, warne - it's just that the manufacturers keep dragging their feet. Every time a new (true) technological advance comes along, we as consumers have to sit out another frigging format war, which not only stifles genuine innovation, but slows everything down to a crawl. It's all about corporate greed of course. This time around the stinker is Blu-Ray versus HD-DVD. Earlier it was the +R versus -R recording formats; .mp3 vs .wwa; SACD versus DVD-Audio; and just about anything else you can think of (Years ago it was Betamax versus VHS). Businesses never seem to learn that there can be only one true winner if either is to succeed (except possibly in the case of -R versus +R disc formats). Thankfully - in that case - equipment manufactures now make their burners to accept either format. We got lucky that time. But I doubt you'll ever see a combo Blu-Ray/HD-DVD player because they are fundamentally different systems. One of these formats has got to GO before we can move on. Bla, bla, bla..... :-)

As far as CD sales go it is official that CD sales were up 2.4% there is a lot more to all this then meets the eye... Check out doom9.org for the official report. First off the RIAA/MPAA all of there sales have gone up and if you just take a look at the IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) 8 out of the top 12 movies on the US's all time 100 best profit list are from the file sharing era... A lot of you folks do not have there facts straight which is why the RIAA/MPAA is getting away with crying wolf and doctoring there books the numbers dont lie. Sales have consistantly risen even through all the P2P stuff if P2P is to blame for anything, I would blame it for inspiring consumers to buy more media. I just love the folks that listen to the news and listen to the crying then comment on it when the facts are in black and white to prove otherwise. Just make note of this for future reference the RIAA/MPAA has yet to have seen a slowdown in sales due to P2P the real truth is that there sales have increased and not only will there winning increase there CD/DVD sales but it will put them in the downloading bracket making 99cents a song on top of there superb CD/DVD sales... I'd like to give you the fairytale story that they are losing all this money but facts are facts! -infringer