Why to check before sharing your iTunes library
If you’re the type who loves audio books and short stories, make sure you selectively share your iTunes library. The first few I bumped into below were fine, it was the last one which made me blush!
The dark side of the force
I’ve jumped the fence and am now writing this on a beautiful new MacBook Pro! Sheez, it’s different. It took me nearly 30 minutes to work out how to do a print screen (Command-Shift-3). Otherwise, I’m in love with it.
One of the first things I did was install Parallels so I could run XP. The screen shot shows me installing my second XP instance. I’ve set up one for work and another for my own personal home stuff. It runs quite nicely.
Am looking forward to getting to know it better. For the moment, I’ll have to contend with searching Google for every small thing I can’t figure out. Right click anyone?
iPods could be illegal in Australia
Owning an iPod, DVD recorder or camera phone could soon become illegal in Australia. Proposed changes to the Copyright Bill make it illegal to load tracks onto your iPod, even if you legally own the original CD.
The new bill is a result of the Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the U.S. An obvious mechanism to try and protect the music and movie associations of the U.S. Once the issues with more legitimate use were raised, ammendments to the bill were proposed. These ammendments actually do nothing to protect the more accepted usage of iPods and MP3 devices.
Ironically, exceptions in the bill were supposed to legalise copying music from a CD to a device such as an iPod but Kim Weatherall, law lecturer and associate director of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia, said the exceptions were too narrowly drafted.
The exceptions allow users to make one “main copy” of a CD as well as “temporary copies”, but the temporary copies must be destroyed at the “first practicable time”.
Loading music onto an iPod involves having one copy on the device and another on the computer in iTunes, meaning the user has two main copies in addition to the original CD. This is illegal even if the new bill is passed.
So, sell up your iPods and MP3 devices, and stash up on those old portable CD players. The current Australian Liberal government is clearly living in the past with no concern or forethought for future innovations.