Big Music, BigChampagne, big puzzle
It's been around for four years, but I wasn't aware of BigChampagne until the other day, and it's puzzling that its impact isn't bigger than it is.
An Internet-oriented marketing company, BigChampagne provides information about popular entertainment on-line, with a special focus on the world's file-sharing networks, originally started by Napster and now carried on by Limewire, Bearshare, Kazaa, Morpheus, and hundreds of others.
It carries on its front page a list of the top 10 songs downloaded on these services. Just the idea that BigChampagne exists has confirmed my suspicion that the big recording companies are chasing the wrong rainbow.
Considering the sheer number of people who use (or even would use, if it were legal in the United States) peer-to-peer networks, data about the most popular downloads would be incredibly valuable. I can imagine no better yardstick for gauging the public demand than seeing what tens of millions of people do on-line — not only for music, but also movies, videos, TV shows, games and software.
I don't know whether Big Music is using BigChampagne, but the ferocity with which they are suing downloaders in the United States suggests they aren't.
Which tends to add credibility to my theory that the only reason they're suing individuals is simply because they can — the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which they (among others) demanded, is forcing the recording companies to sue just because the act makes copyright issues the centre of all marketing.
The same would happen in Canada, should parliament pass a law based on the recommendations of the parliamentary Heritage Committee to ratify the World Intellectual Property Treaty.
And what's on the "TopSwaps" chart for this week? Brace yourselves.
(1) Mario, Let Me Love You; (2) Destiny's Child, Lose My Breath; (3) Eminem, Like Toy Soldiers; (4) Green Day, Boulevard Of Broken Dreams; (5) Ludacris, Get Back; (6) Destiny's Child, Soldier; (7) Fabolous, Breathe; (8) The Game, How We Do; (9) Snoop Dogg, Drop it like It's Hot ; (10) Usher, My Boo.
That's what people really want? How intimidating.
On second thought, maybe I'm not so sure that I'd want the record companies taking their cues from a list like that.
E-mail Jack Kapica at jkapica@globeandmail.ca
Posted Dec. 31, 2004, at 10:23 p.m.
The ever-seeing eye: The Camware Model 100 is not entirely new as devices go, but it's being pushed along by an ingenious idea.
The Model 100 is a wearable hands-free mini camcorder that clips to the bill of a baseball hat or to your glasses.
It is being marketed, however, as an "after-the-fact" camcorder for people who just didn't have the time to press the "record" button when something interesting happens. Instead of slapping your forehead and saying, "I missed that shot!," you can be secure knowing the camera has already captured and saved it.
That's because the Model 100 is always on — the controls and flash memory storage are contained to a PDA-sized hip-pack. The camcorder can capture up to 30 seconds of action that took place right up to when the user starts recording video. Users can keep the 30-second video clip in the SD cards, or they can edit the saved clips to specific video frames using software provided with the camcorder.
The Camwear Model 100 is being sold for $399 (U.S.) at www.mydejaview.com and at retailers including Target, Neiman Marcus, and Amazon.com.
E-mail Jack Kapica at jkapica@globeandmail.ca
Posted Dec. 30, 2004, at 12:10 p.m.
The China factor: It happened yesterday, when most of us were occupied with news of the terrible tsunami in Asia, so it didn't make much of a ripple here, but China has leapfrogged the rest of the world in Internet technology.
The China Education and Research Network — CERN, not to be confused with the CERN computer lab in Switzerland — launched CERNET2, the world's largest "next-generation" network, one based on the IPv6 standard, which sends Internet Protocol data at 10 gigabits per second.
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the successor to IPv4, which most of the rest of the world uses. It delivers greater capacity and dramatically increases the number of possible addresses using today's 32-bit technology. With huge numbers of users coming on-line in China, Japan and South Korea, a shortage of available IP addresses has made the new standard inevitable.
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