Episode 0050, 05/21/2008
Title/Description: Napster is Back, Professor Sues Class Notes Company
Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 50, recorded May 21st, 2008. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.course.com for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.
Story 1 - Napster Gets Back To Its Roots
Napter, the file-sharing network that started it all, is ironically going back to its roots distributing 6 million unproteceted MP3 songs - with the record labels blessing. Just one catch... This time around, you have to pay --- 99 cents per track. However, the tracks are free of DRM protection, which means they can be played on any music player or software that support the MP3 format, which is all the popular portable players, and Windows and Mac software. Once purchased, the music can be copied or burned to disk. Previously, music purchased on Napter included DRM technology that prohibited the music from being played on the iPod and other devices and also limited the amount of times the songs could be copied. Napster claims to have the largest collection of DRM-free music. Amazon also offers DRM-free music, and iTunes has a special section of its store where DRM-free tunes are available. Although the music no longer has copy protection built in, it should be noted that copyright laws still apply. Losing the DRM makes it a lot more convenient for customers to listen to their legally purchased music wherever and whenever they want.
Sources: Hands on: Napster's new MP3 store stumbles out of the gate [Ars Technica]
Story 2 - Professor Sues Online Class Notes Company
A professor at the University of Florida was getting fed up with his students finding the answers to all of his exam questions at HowIGotAnA.com, also called Class Notes, and Einstein's Notes. Rather than attend class and studying the old fashioned way, some students are paying for the notes online and scoring pretty well on exams. The UF professor was pushed to the edge when a student came to him complaining that a test question marked incorrect should earn her credit since the answer she gave was the one provided at HowIGotAnA.com. Turns out you can't always trust these sites to provide the correct answers.
The professor began copywriting all his course material, lectures, lecture notes, study guides, PowerPoints, assignments, and exams. When he found his material popping up HowIGotAnA.com, he sued the owner of the Site, Thomas Bean. Mr. Bean replied that the publication activities of his company have always been and are entirely legal. It will be up to the judge and jury to decide.
Sources: Prof copyrights study questions to fend off web cheat sheets [Ars Technica]
And that brings us to News Briefs.
That's it for this week's CourseCast. Links to this week's stories and many more news and information resources are provided at the CourseCast Web site at www.course.com/coursecasts. E-mail us with your suggestions for the show at course.coursecasts@cengage.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!