PennTags Feed for /tag/online

The Legislative History of Online Gambling: A Case Study of Poker on the Internet

This project looks at the legislative history surrounding gambling over the Internet. Although gambling has been a part of human culture throughout the ages, several countries have attempted either to regulate or prohibit this behavior. Traditionally gambling took place in brick-and-mortar establishments where local law had clear jurisdiction; however, since the advent of the Internet gambling has moved into the borderless territory of cyberspace. A majority of this project evaluates recent attempts within the United States to enact legislation surrounding online gambling. Namely I will outline how the government's first attempt, retroactively invoking the 1961 Wire Act, remained weak in its ability to prohibit online poker until the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) made the processing of payments for online gambling illegal. Currently there is legislation slated for September 2009 that would repeal the UIGEA and move to regulate and tax rather than prohibit online gambling.

On Behalf of Journalism: A Manifesto for Change

Overholser, Geneva. "On Behalf of Journalism: A Manifesto for Change." Philadelphia: The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. 2009.

Overholser's article follows a June 2005 gathering of journalists and scholars at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and many of her arguments stem from the discussions at that seminar. While maintaining a realistic and attainable vision of the future of journalism (and practical admission that "journalism as we know it is over"), Overholser argues that journalism is ideally a marshall of democracy and necessary to American freedom and must (and will) continue to exist, just in a new form. By discussing the responsibilities of journalists - as ethical, objective, professional, accountable sources - along with the responsibilities of the public and the government to support journalism in its ideal form, Overholser asserts that "what's needed is wide-open thinking about how consumers use information, and where they are getting it, and how old media companies can fulfill those needs while bringing the best of their traditions onto new platforms."

Overholser's article is comprehensive, realistic, and yet hopeful. Her refreshing outlook is that journalism has changed for good, but that that change is a welcome chance to re-evaluate, throw out the tired and unhealthy aspects of 'old world' media, and recommit to the "core values of the craft." She examines several options for the future of journalism – non-profit status, local ownership, media ownership rules, greater professionalization of 'citizen journalists' by means of agreed-upon standards – and all with the outlook that since the public will demand goof work, journalism will be here for the long haul. Overholser adeptly suggests that the problem with modern journalism isn't in the journalists, but in the public; and we must be encouraging better civics and news literacy education to help the public play their role better. It isn't journalism - the protector of democracy and leader in civic education - that is in danger of death, it is the media news conglomorates, and Overholser seems optimistic that their deaths may not injure democracy much.

Get the Tech Scuttlebutt! It Might Even Be True - NYTimes.com

Darling, Damon. "Get the Tech Scuttlebutt! It Might Even Be True - NYTimes.com" NYTimes.com. June 6, 2009.

This article from NYTimes.com discusses the issues of ethics in news/gossip websites that fail to verify their stories before publishing them. Darling uses the case when two online rumor/news sites, Gawker and TechCrunch, published false stories about Apple buying Twitter to discuss the larger issue of journalistic integrity on the internet.

Darling's article highlights an issue of great concern in journalism today: accountability. His article scathingly criticizes the authors of Gawker and TechCrunch's false rumor articles, but also admits that rumors play a vital role in news. Darling doesn't address the value of being the first source for a story, the value of a new story. Newspapers have always had to balance immediacy of reporting with accuracy of storytelling, just as rumor sites do today. But, as Darling admits, "credibility may be a less-important strategy for the blogs at this stage," and time will tell whether they turn towards more accountability in reporting or not.

Newspaper Revitalization Act | Senator Benjamin L. Cardin

Newspaper Revitalization Act 2009.<http://cardin.senate.gov/pdfs/newspaperbill.pdf> March 24, 2009.

If it pases, this proposed legislation by Senator Cardin will allow certain newspapers with 'educational' value to restructure as non-profits and benefit from tax-exemption under IRS code 501(a).

This proposal is one of many ideas that are currently on the table to 'rescue' the faltering newspaper industry. According to many sources, this legislation will not suffice to solve the problems of journalism (for a full critique see "Saving the News"), but it may provide a new avenue for some newspapers. Furthermore, the bill may suffice to protect enough investigative journalism to protect democracy, while other solutions turn to helping media turn a profit and meet the needs of the public.

Joel Kramer: Lessons I've learned after a year running MinnPost

Kramer, Joel. "Lessons I’ve learned after a year running MinnPost." Nieman Journalism Lab. March 19, 2009.

This anecdotal article by Joel Kramer provides insight into some of the challenges to professional online journalism. His brief and readable story of running the online news site, MinnStar, addresses issues such as user commentary, video integration, and start-up costs.

Kramer's most important point for my thesis is his process of screening user commentary with volunteer moderators. As he puts it, "We took plenty of heat from web-savvy readers for this decision. But as readers have watched the quality of comment on respected sites that don’t require real names, many are now grateful for our approach. Recently we published our 7,000th comment. Some sites with looser standards appear to be reconsidering their no-holds-barred policies." This MinnStar policy may or may not be forward thinking, but it is an example of one version of user interaction with news sites. MinnStar doesn't use citizen journalism the way, say, TalkingPointsMemo, does, but according to Kramer, they are exploring possibilities. This demonstrates the lack of an industry standard for harnessing citizen journalists, but emphasizes the growing awareness for policies and methods for intertwining professional quality journalism and usergenerated content.

The State of the News Media 2009 | Online Media

Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism. "The State of the News Media: an annual report on american journalism."

This annual report from the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism reports on the state of online jornalism. With substantial charts and research, the overview is an accurate discussion of both where many news organizations stand currently and where they may be (and some are) heading in the furture. The report's thorough treatment of both online content and economic viability address both the demands of the public and the needs of news reporting organizations.

The report provides valuable support for my thesis with its statistic and solid reporting. One particularly valuable section is the survey on "Top Issues in Online Media vs. Media Over All." The chart demonstrates that though the top three news story subjects (election, U.S. economy, Iraq War) are mirrored between online and all media, beyond that the statistics vary. Online, users have more say regarding which issues are covered, it is easy to track exactly which stories are most read, most shared, most commented on; in a print newspaper, information is much more general. This chart exposes how media overall may not be addressing the issues that are actually of most interest to their constituents. And, of interest to my thesis, it supports the idea that as more media incorporates methods for users to share and comment and contribute to media stories, the gap between stories that interest users and ones that do not interest them will widen as sites like Digg bring user approved content back to the top over and over, while stories of no interest to readers die after one day (or hour) on the front page.

Not Dead Yet: The newspaper in the days of digital anarchy | Bill Keller's Hugo Young Lecture

Keller, Bill. “Not Dead Yet: The newspaper in the days of digital anarchy.” Lecture delivered at The Guardian in honor of Hugo Young. November, 29 2007. guardian.co.uk

In addition to providing an intellectual analysis of the future of journalism, Bill Keller’s address (appropriately for his audience) begins sentimentally, with anecdotes about Hugh Young, The New York Times, The Guardian and journalism as a profession. But halfway through the address Keller provides the meat of his discussion, which is his educated opinion about the future of newspapers and journalism.

Keller's main argument emphasizes that the differences between the investigative reporting of The New York Times or The Guardian and GoogleNews or Wikipedia's "legions of bloggers." "What is absent from the vast array of new media outlets is," Keller argues, "the great engine of newsgathering – the people who witness events, ferret out information, supply context and explanation." Though Keller rightly points out that opinion and journalism are different, he falsely accuses all internet commentors and 'citizen journalists' of being holed up behind computer screens rather than being active human participants in the world. Certainly there are differences between bloggers and journalists, but what Keller seems to mistake is that journalists must be associated with The Times or The Guardian or The Boston Globe in order to be investigative journalists, or even to "witness events," "ferret out information" or "supply context and explanation."

European Publishers Council: Hamburg Declaration Regarding Intellectual Property Rights

European Publishers Council. "Hamburg Declaration Regarding Intellectual Property Rights." Berlin: European Publishers Council. June 25, 2009.

This brief statement from the European Publishers Council (EPC) argues for "urgent improvements in the protection of intellectual property on the Internet." Without providing an answer to the problem or even asserting a path toward improvement of the situation, the statement simply places the onus of blame on sites that index their content. Meanwhile, the statement applauds national and internation governments for their efforts to protect international property.

Practically speaking, this statement is fairly ineffectual. Google's response has been essentially, "Go ahead and stop us from indexing your content" – a response that clearly demonstrates how vital news aggregation is to online media. Without offering a solution that will help users find content online while also crediting the correct sources, the EPC doesn't have much weight to throw around. This statement, instead, serves as a thermometer of the rising tension between investigative journalists and news aggregation websites.

The News Business: Out of Print: The death and life of the American newspaper.

Alterman, Eric. "The News Business: Out of Print: The death and life of the American newspaper." The New Yorker. March 31, 2008.

In this article, Alterman discusses the advantages, disadvantages, history, debates, and differing opinions concerning the migration of journalism from print to the internet. He begins by laying the scene, briefly calling on the history of print journalism while discussing current trends and the current bleak state of affairs for print media. The bulk of the article outlines the differences – good and bad – between internet blogging and news aggregation sites and traditional newsroom journalism. Alterman’s main argument centers around the Huffington Post, a political news and gossip website, as an example of the future of journalism. Central to Alterman’s discussion is the role of the reader/consumer of news. Using the contrast between Walter Lippmann and John Dewey's differing ideas of idylic political journalism, Alterman argues that the Internet is the swing from Lippmannesque (boys club, top down media) to Deweyish (public opinion driven, community contribution media) philosophies of journalism. Alterman’s prognosis is gloomy, particularly since he dwells on the fact that many online news sites prefer to aggregate news from print media, heresay and user commentary rather than funding their own investigative journalism.

Alterman’s argument addresses the central theme of my thesis: the difference between traditional journalism and internet-generation journalism. His discussion of 'the mullet strategy' (where websites like The Huffington Post keep a closely edited front page but allow users to fill their subpages with unedited commentary and opinion), is an excellent analysis of how media companies might control but still incorporate public contribtions. Alterman's article also raises an important issue concerning the future of journalism: that The Huffington Post flags stories from other news sources but "shoulders none of the costs" of investigating and writing the story. This issue is indeed central to the discussion, but Alterman's argument falters when he claims that The Huffington Post's hiring of Thomas Edsall, a forty-year veteran of The Washington Post, as its political editor is a "rare" example. For a foward-looking article such as this, Alterman could be expected to see that such hirings might very quickly become industry standard. And as print journalism aficionados move toward 'citizen journalism' sites, their presence will provide credibility and professionalism for the front page, and probably beyond.

How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story

McLeary, Paul. "How TalkingPointsMemo Beat the Big Boys on the U.S. Attorney Story." Columbia Journalism Review. March 15, 2007.

This article by Paul McLeary overviews the role the news and gossip website TalkingPointsMemo played in breaking a news story about illegal firings of U.S. Attorneys. The article focuses on the ability of TalkingPointsMemo to bring a story to light in a different way than was possible for traditional journalists. TalkingPointsMemo, McLeary points out, harnessed their online sources effectively to tap a "variety of sources that had been largely untapped by the mainstream press" and to break the story before most traditional press rooms.

The method of journalism outlined by McLeary serves as an example of a possible model for future journalism. TalkingPointsMemo's success with the U.S. Attorney story exemplifies a hybrid method of journalism wherein 'citizen journalism' is combined with an editorial process to create reliable stories quickly and effectively. McLeary points out that sites like TalkingPointsMemo that display a "model of reporting [that] ... straddl[es] the divide between old school shoe-leather reporting and the more aggregate method of Web reporting" are rare, but if the effectiveness continues, the scarcity won't last long.

Saving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy

Victor Pickard, Josh Stearns & Craig Aaron. "Saving the News: Toward a National Journalism Strategy." May 12, 2009. www.freepress.net.

This article thoroughly outlines the state of affairs of journalism and news in America today and offers a comprehensive summary of most of the possible options for moving forward successfully. They examine the struggles of American newspapers today – in dealing with the economic downturn, internet competition and mistrust of the media. The authors address options as typical as media consolidation, the ‘do nothing’ approach and foundation support, and as creative as online micropayment, postal and print subsidies, municipal ownership and prepackaged bankruptcies. They argue that there is not a single ‘right’ answer that will solve the problems facing journalism today, but that a strategic national solution is necessary to protect the ‘lifeblood of democracy,’ journalism.

The authors' arguments are all firmly in favor of journalism, adamantly arguing that the practice is necessary to American democracy and that a natioanl strategy is necessary to preserve the practice. Their argument that investigative journalism is a cut above and better than opinion and commentary on the internet is certainly accurate, but they do not allow that opinion, commentary, and user interaction with news can enhance, support, and alter journalism significantly (and certainly sometimes for the better). It does not allow for journalism to morph with the changing media, for investigative journalism to find new methods of research and discovery just as it is finding new methods of publication. But that aside, the methods discussed are both clear, comprehensive, and realistic. Anyone striving to protect and preserve traditional journalism techniques should certainly read this article for an overview of the options.

Second District of Texas Court of Appeals | Judiciary Opinion

Kaufman vs. Islamic Society of Arlington, Texas, Islamic Center of Irving, DFW Islamic Educational Center, INC., Dar Elsalam Islamic Center, Al Hedayah Islamic Center, Islamic Association of Tarrannt County and Muslim American Society of Dallas. No. 2-09-023-CV. January 22, 2009.

This court of appeals decision from Texas rules on the case of Kaufman, the author of an online article asserting that Islamic extremists and terrorists were invading Six Flags during their Muslim Family Day. The court decided in favor of Kaufman, arguing that his article did not refer to any of the groups that filed suit against him, and that a 'reasonable reader' would in no way link the groups and implicate the Islamic groups in question with the groups mentioned by Kaufman as terrorist affiliated. The court asserts that "...an internet author's status as a member of the electronic media should be adjudged by the same principles that courts should use to determine the author's status under more traditional media." It's decision classifies Kaufman as an 'online journalist' and argues that his legal rights are thus equal to those of traditional journalists.

Though the court's decision in favor of Kaufman holds little bearing on my thesis, their ruling affects the validity and status of online journalism because it equates it with print and traditional journalism. They argued that a blogger writing without an editor and without performing investigation and substantiation of their claims would not necessarliy be considered an online journalist and would not necessarily receive the same legal rights as online journalists like Kaufman. The questions is, of course, what makes Kaufman a 'journalist'. The court quoted U.S.C.A 552(a)(4)(A)(ii) (West Supp. 2009), arguing that media includes "any 'person or entity that gathers information of potential interest to a segment of the public, uses its editorial skills to turn the way materials into a distinct work, and distributes that work to an audience.'" By this measure, bloggers who discuss news (as opposed to just personal experience and opinion) are certainly included in the realm of online media.

Freedom To Teach: an Educational Fair Use Project.

Freedom To Teach: an Educational Fair Use Project. http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/research/freedomtoteach#

Description:

Freedom to teach is a project conducted by The Berkman Center at Harvard University under the direction of Dr Lewis Hyde Berkman, Fellow. The project's initial goal is to develop a statement of best practices for Fair Use in higher education. The ultimate goal is to offer "clarity and agency to an area where confusion and caution are now the rule." The project's description and proposal include a step-by-step description of the actions that the project will be taking in order to create a statement of best practices that will be true and useful to those teaching in higher education. The center will also include discussions and descriptions of items such as the history of Fair Use, the current problems with Fair Use and the issues identified as problematic with Fair Use guidelines. Dr. Hyde and his group also detail the need for change and clarification. Finally, the proposal explains the Best Practices Model and compares it with the research in current practice.

Analysis:

To understand the social value of the project being conducted at the Beckman Center, we could go back to Dr. Hyde's description of Fair Use as "a key part of the social bargain at the heart of copyright law. The rights that this doctrine gives to the scholars, teachers, and creative artists in higher education only come to life, however, when they are understood, claimed, and used." Therefore, Dr. Hyde and his group feel certain that the doctrine will bring clarity and understanding to Fair Use while and allowing the current Fair Use law to be once more what it was intended to be: a source of protection for professors, scholars and teachers while permitting them to use copyrighted material in a way that would allow owners to exercise control of their intellectual property in all other areas of society.

The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Project (Luncheon Audio) | Berkman Center

The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Lewis Hyde, Berkman Fellow, speaks on "The Pros and Cons of an 'Educational Fair Use' Project" http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/interactive/events/luncheon/2008/02/hyde

Description

In this video The Berkman Center for Internet and society of Harvard University and Dr. Lewis Hyde are discussing the problems with the laws, guidelines and practices related to fair use in education. Dr. Hyde speaks of the historical and current confusion around fair use in education and the negative consequences that such confusion has created for professor and instructor in higher education. The impact as Dr. Hyde discusses can be found in areas such as free speech, academic freedom and the quality of instruction. At the same time, Lewis Hyde is calling for an educational fair use project to be conducted by educators who will have small groups that will use their classrooms and instructional needs as guidelines to determine what should or should not be fair use in education. Such a project will then be used to negotiate with owners in good faith and with the goal of community service in mind.

Analysis:

Dr. Lewis Hyde from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society of Harvard University is in this video advocating for changes and measures to prevent owners from eroding fair use, free speech and academic freedom. In his presentation, Dr. Hyde effectively documents the history that brought fair use to this point of conflict while at the same time attempts to clarify the laws that regulate copyrighting. Professor Hyde's presentation also very clearly describes step-by-step the guidelines that one could use in order to conduct a project for fair use in education.

Fair Use for Media Literacy Education

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/resources/publications/code_for_media_literacy_education/ :

Discusses fair use in media literacy education, appropriate uses for educators and students of fair use when it comes to using copyrighted materials in order to teach media literacy. It also clarifies what benchmarks are as used by lawyers and judges to decide what is fair use as well as the myths and facts about fair use in the classroom. Finally, it encourages educators to be leaders, not followers in the process of establishing the best practices of fair use in education.

Analysis:

The article is aimed at educators with the purpose to educate teachers about the guidelines of fair use in the classroom. The principal goal of the article is to encourage educators to use technology in the classroom and to contribute to the current dialog and process of establishing best practices in fair use in education and in particular media literacy. The underlying goal of the article is to call on educators (uses) to participate in the conversation about fair use in order to create an environment where all educators feel more comfortable using the media and therefore, have students and the public in general take advantage of the benefits of media literacy.

ALA | Distance Education and the TEACH Act

"ALA | Editorial Statement," American Library Association, .
http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=Distance_Education_and_the_TEACH_Act&Template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=25939 (Accessed July 22, 2009)

Summary

This article is published by the American Library Association: The text is a summary of the laws and regulations in the TEACH Act (Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization Act). It discusses how The TEACH Act replaces section 110(2) in regards to copyright and fair use in the Distance Learning environment. The article also highlights what is new in terms of Copyright and fair use for Distance Education as well as what is problematic about the new laws. It is also an attempt to clarify ambiguities within the law and point out areas of improvement as it replaces section 110(2). The article also presents a brief summary of copyright law and closes with the roles of instructors and librarians.

Analysis

The American Library Association ALA presents a really well organized and clear summary of the changes taking place in copyright law in the area of distance education. It provides librarians, instructors and the general public with a quick review of the historical facts as well as the most updated information. It also provides a definition of the TEACH Act and within such a definition a comparison between the previous regulations guided by section 110(2) and the current provisions of the TEACH Act. It summarizes for the reader what is new, what is the same and what is problematic about it. The article is problematic as it is almost mandating a series of guidelines to instructors while perhaps taking the role of librarians as gate keepers a bit too seriously. In the end although the ALA does a great job in summarizing and describing the laws, it is going a bit too far when it comes to "instructor's duties".

New Pauly Online

New Pauly Online
The entire text of Metzler's Der neue Pauly, which was published in 18 volumes (13 on Antiquity, 5 on the Classical Tradition) and one index volume, is available here together with all volumes of Brill's New Pauly now in print, with regular updates when new translations become available.

Penn Web Style Guide: Page Title

university style manual

It's Just the 'internet' Now

Hollywood Games People Play

This article examines the Hollywood Stock Exchange and gives basic information about its usage and what happens with the collected data. In the case of HSX, the value lies not in the prediction of the future, but rather the accumulation of the preferences (tied to the demograpic information) of the average users. That data is then sold to production companies who can adjust their upcoming films, and determine more intelligent money allocation based on their consumers. This model works two ways, predicting the value of actors, producers and movies and also informing the film industry about what the average consumer desires.

While the Hollywood Stock Exchange does not release their demographic information on their website, they operate an entire research end that enables studios to selectively purchase certain types of data collected. In this case it is important for the average person to join in on the trading, not only to get data on the target audience but also to give reason to attract experts, who see opportunity to do well. These experts' opinions are important and might not be harnessed in other more traditional methods.

Prediction Markets as an Aggregation Mechanism for Collective Intelligence

Collective Intelligence is described here as a tool to be harnessed, since crowds can also have negative or difficult characteristics in most other contexts and are generally not preferred to deal with "directly". The formed collective can almost be thought of as a almost a distinct individual or expert according to Watkins. Prediction markets here are examined as "sophistocated aggregation tools" bringing together communities of self-selected individuals who already perhaps have an emotional investment in the issues. Watkins is also concerned with issues of trust and how to cultivate public trust in collective intelligence as a reliable source of information.

Watkins touches on the characteristics of particular communities and the individuals who are drawn to prediction markets, an area that I plan on focusing on more intesively through the study of forums and demographic data on each of the particular sites. In additon, the notion of trusting this collective prediction over that of the experts interacts interestingly with Surowiecki's theory that they experts often partake in the predicting.

What's the Future of the Music Industry? A Freakonomics Quorum

Dubner, Stephen J. "What's the Future of the Music Industry? A Freakonomics Quorum." Freakonomics Blog, New York Times. 20 September 2007. <http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/09/20/whats-the-future-of-the-music-industry-a-freakonomics-quorum/>

This 2007 New York Times blog compiles the opinions of five different experts on the music industry. They are asked to reflect on the "future" of music in the context of the digital revolution. One expert is the author of the previously-referenced "Effects of File-Sharing on Record Sales," three are major music executives, and another is the founder of Engadget and a free, online-only music label. Essentially, they all offer disparate perspectives regarding the way in whcih music consumption is changing.

In a paper meant to argue a particular position about the success of new online music distribution methods, any novice or statistical opinion must be tempered by that of the experts. This New York Times column is a unique and valuable compilation of 5 different expert opinions. Largely, everyone seems to agree that the music industry is undergoing substantial change and that the labels must be open to reinvention. One suggestion undrestood by the labels in 2007, it seems, are advertising-supported models. Most interestingly, in their opinions these experts define exactly why the internet has changed the demand for music so thoroughly: it has affected scarcity. This is a crucial basis of understanding for any marketing or revenue model that follows.

Free Nine Inch Nails albums top 2008 Amazon MP3 sales charts

Anderson, Nate. "Free Nine Inch Nails album tops 2008 Amazon MP3 Sales Charts." Ars Technica. 6 January 2009.

This article summarizes experiemental distribution of Nine Inch Nails's new album and the effects the new online distribution model had on sales. Nine Inch Nails released the album Ghosts I-IV under a Creative Commons license, which allows legal free sharing and remixing. Despite this, the album garnered huge profits; both via digital download on Amazon.com, and perhaps more significantly in limited edition "extras" sets. The Ars Techinca article goes on to pose two questions to Fred Beneson of Creative Commons: Why would fans buy the album when it could be had for free, and would Creative Commons Lisencing work for record labels? Bereson addresses these questions speculatively, with optimism as well as some analysis of the factors necessary for the success achieved by NIN.

This is a major success story for Creative Commons, and an example of a profit-making model that still offers free download and distribution of music. The profits of Ghosts I-IV speak to the appeal for a product that is not available for free download (extras, convenience, or the authenticity of supporting an artist directly). Understanding the presence of this demand is necessary for understanding the way people want to consume music in the digital age. Profits can be achieved via different music products and services.

Google and Big Music Labels Bet on Free Downloads in China

Barboza, David. "Google and Music Labels bet on Downloads in China." The New York Times. 5 April 2009.

This article addresses one of the most recent experiments in new profit models based on digital music: Google's free music search engine in China. Very recently, several of the biggest international record labels partnered with Google and a Chinese company (top100.com) to offer a free music-download service. Because online piracy of music is particularly rampant in China, the success of this model could have lasting implications on policies in the US. The New York Times article offers both critical and supportive opinions on the initiative. Notably, Google will have to struggle to contain the music-downloading to China, employing "legal and technical hurdles."

The partnership of Google with major international music labels represents a new way for record companies to remain profitable without trying to stop free music downloads. This unlimited-download service is supported not through subscription, but by advertisements. Although it is difficult to anticipate the success of such a model, the adoption of this idea certainly reflects a major change in the way that the entertainment industry is approaching its consumers. The willingness of labels (even on this controlled scale) to abandon control over music distribution to this degree is a symptom of their desperation, certainly. However, it is likely also a necessary move towards a new kind of support for music development.

The Challenge of Change: Perspectives on the future for Content Providers

Accenture Media and Entertainment. "The Challenge of Change: Perspectives on the future for Content Providers." Accenture Global Content Study 2008. Accenture: 2008.

This report is the result of a market research firm initiative, in which they surveyed 100 entertainment executives to determine their opinions on the future of revenue models based on digital media. The results of the survey show that the ad-based model is the most popular model for the surveyed executives, as opposed to subscription or iTunes-like services. Though the focus in the report seems to be on forms of entertainment other than music media, it provides a successful context for profit-garnering models in digital entertainment. It also reflects the point of view of those that will ultimately be responsible for shaping the way that media is transferred to the consumer (legally) online.

This report represents yet another perspective on successful provision of internet content (without greater legislation). The importance of advertising on maintaining free content on the internet cannot be understated -- many argue that advertising-based models represent the future of music revenue. Ad-based music models are already being put into place: the music-search engine developed by Google in China, for example. The Accenture report is important, therefore, because it provides data and quotes from industry experts that address the longstanding relationship between advertising and entertainment.

18th Century Collections Online ( ECCO )

Comprehensive online collection of English books, pamphlets and broadsides published between 1700 and 1800.

18th Century Collections Online ( ECCO )

Comprehensive online collection of English books, pamphlets and broadsides published between 1700 and 1800.

Online Video Lectures and Course Materials b