HIGH TECH CORNER: MP3 PIRATES TAKE ON WALL STREET WITH A BANG

Yes, the dawn of digital audio across the Internet has finally taken on a degree of Wall Street momentum.

MP3.Com went public with a starting price of $28 a share. After it shot up to $105 by noon, the market took notice. CNN's Lou Dobbs even had a major segment on it, because 15 million shares were traded on the first day.

Internet IPO's have the potential to make you more money quickly than almost any other stock available, but, of course, with any potential gain comes the same amount of risk.

This new stock offering from MP3.com, "MPPP" NASDAQ symbol, has a lot of potential for the long run. MTV has signed an agreement to broadcast MTV.com, VH1.com, Nick.com, SonicNet on the Internet using MP3 as a format. Additionally, Adaptec, the hardware-software company, is getting ready to release a new EZ CD Creator that will allow you to simply drag MP3 files from the net to your blank CD, thus allowing you to play these songs everywhere.

The reason that MP3 users have been labeled pirates by the record industry is the same as when the evils of cassettes were touted as the death of the music industry. People can make copies of songs and transmit them to other friends over the Internet while the recording industry never received a royalty payment.

Record label executives have blasted MP3, because they don't know how to make money off of it.

There are alternative formats out there from Liquid Audio and Microsoft that do offer copy protection. However, these formats have been shunned by the youthful music-buying public who have more disposable income than ever before.

If you want to see what all the MP3 hoopla is about, check out my WWW.DIGITALLABS.COM Web page under the AREA51 location to hear MP3's recorded live at Riverfest '99.

Compac has taken on the E-Commerce world with its new computer line designed to make you money over the Internet. If you want to join the masses of people doing business over the Internet and want a one-stop quick solution, then this might be the product line for you.

Their new E-Commerce boxes allow you to simply plug it into the Internet, and you instantly have secured Web pages for MasterCard-Visa transactions, e-mail server, and even local Web pages, because you will be the host of all your Web pages at your site instead of at your ISP.

This allows instant updates to your pages without hassle and time loss, while eliminating the cost of dollars per meg that ISP's charge. If you like Microsoft's Front Page 2000, then you will love the new E-Commerce line, because full-active server pages are supported.

In the video world of technology, Congress is getting involved to support network broadcasters to allow uploading of local programming to satellite for re-broadcast on Direct TV. Unfortunately, this will not hit Cape Girardeau any time soon. St Louis will have the direct uplink by the end of next year.

People in Cape Girardeau will be blacked out of these broadcasts due to outdated copyright laws. I recommend you get involved and let your congressman know you want access to any and all programming, independent of where it originated.

Can you imagine if your Internet access was denied to a Web page, if it was not hosted in Cape?

As always if you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me at DIGITAL@LDD.NET