As the record industry stumbles and hesitates over what to do about digital distribution of music, some bands are taking dramatic steps to adopt the technology.
A few days ago the US duo They Might Be Giants announced they would release an entire album only in MP3 digital format, available from the band's own site (www.tmbg.com) and the website of the publisher Goodnoise (www.goodnoise.com). Up to 100 individual tracks are also available to buy, for about 60p each, for people who do not want to buy a whole album. Band member John Flansburgh said the album would be a compilation of old songs and new material due for release on a forthcoming "real" album.
The band has a reputation for innovation, musically and in other ways - its "Dial-a-song" service has long been a big hit with fans.
A FRENCH webspace provider has begun a fund-raising campaign after it was ruled responsible for illegal content posted online by a user. The operator of the Altern site (http://altern.org), which provides free webpages to anyone who signs up, was taken to court after nude pictures of French superstar Estelle Hallyday appeared on a user-built site.
The judge ruled against Altern for breaching copyright and ordered that it pay substantial damages to Hallyday, daughter of French pop idol Johnny Hallyday and a popular singer and model in her own right. The ruling has upset French Internet users, who fear it could have repercussions on dozens of other similar sites.
Altern's operator, Valentin Lacambre, has now posted a response to the judgment, a history of Altern, and a plea for help from other Internet users, at http://altern.org/defense/.
IN an attempt to "set the record straight", the human rights organisation Amnesty International has launched a new website called Rhetoric Vs Reality (www.amnesty.org/tunisia). Its aim is to expose another site it says is presenting "misleading information" about Tunisia.
The Amnesty site uses frames to show the "Tunisian propaganda" site at www.amnesty-tunisia.org, which Amnesty says is not presenting an accurate view of human rights in the country.
An Amnesty spokesperson said: "The official Tunisian website has nothing to do with Amnesty International. It was created by supporters of the Tunisian government in an attempt intentionally to mislead the public."