HIGH TECH CORNER: RIAA HAS NOT KEPT UP WITH TIMES

Napster is a term that resonates around every collage dorm. If you haven't heard of it, you can bet your kids have. Young people around the world are sharing music like there is no tomorrow. They compare this use of technology to a public library where all the books are covered by the U.S. copyright law, and you can check them out for free. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) however does not share that position and sued Napster in December for copyright infringement. The record labels claim they lost millions in profits because of music piracy made possible by the company's software. The 11th-hour victory for Napster came recently when two federal judges granted a stay, allowing it to remain online -- at least temporarily.

How big a treat is this to the RIAA? Well, about 20 million users a day are sharing millions of songs for free. On one Web site, more than 75,000 people had signed an electronic petition vowing not to buy music unless the RIAA dropped its lawsuit against Napster. That would cost the industry more than $1 million if each refused to buy just one $15 CD.

I believe that this is an industry that simply has not kept up with the pace of technology and has kept pricing high while the cost of technology has dropped dramatically to create a CD. I recall when the same arguments were made of the cassette by the same RIAA. An even bigger example would be the advent of the VCR with the motion picture industry clamed that if the VCR were allowed to survive that no one would go to the movies anymore.

My thoughts are that any person who has done the work of creating a song, movie or a book should get paid for that effort. The easiest way that I have seen presented to solve the Napster issue is by way of a service subscription. The company www.emusic.com has got the idea correct. For a simple $9.99 per month subscription you can download unlimited MP3 songs. The recording artists still get their cut and it keeps the American public honest, which I support. So the next time you see your kids downloading music, please recommend this honest and morally correct way of getting music off of the Net.

With blackouts and brownouts happening around the U.S., I take my hat off to AmerenUE. I monitor the power at my research lab and have found that this year's blackouts due to bad weather or even excessive power usage have been far fewer this year. Many states like California are having forced rolling blackouts to simply keep the power grid up and running. Now, it's not to say that we would have more here as we have just entered August, a high energy usage month.

So to keep your PC up and running, I recommend you go out and get a battery backup. A crash of your system due to a brownout or blackout could destroy a file you are working on. Or even worse on those days when the power flicks on and off several times your PC could be destroyed. For as little as $79 at Sam's you can get a 500 VA battery backup unit that would give you enough time to do a proper shutdown until the power gets stable. In this case, bigger is better. The larger units, starting at $149, offer not only more power keeping your computer up longer but in fact generate better power. The 60 Hz sine wave that makes up AC electricity is far superior on the larger units. It's like running your car on old gas or fresh high-octane gas. Keep in mind that many of these units offer an insurance policy of $10,000 in case your PC is damaged while it is connected to the battery backup. In battery backups, it truly is the case that the more you pay, the better unit you get.

As always, if you have any comments or questions please contact me at rich@digitallabs.com.