Mp3s Friend Or Foe Essays - File Sharing, Digital Audio

Mp3's: Friend Or Foe? MP3's: Friend or Foe? Are MP3's a breakthrough in technology or are they just another bomb waiting to explode on us? Many people say they are good, while others say they are not just bad, but horrifying to musicians that want to make it to the top. MP3's are widely used by teenagers on their computers usually illegally, and their distributors are constantly being threatened by the producers of the music. Millions of dollars are being lost due to the Internet craze of the MP3 technology. This is mainly because fewer people are buying the legal music from record stores. Now that the problem is here, Internet police are on the loose to find these illegal distributors of music and put them to a stop. MP3's are highly compressed, CD-quality, sound files. The MP3 has become the most commonly used unofficial file format, which is downloadable from the Internet. The only requirement you need to play an MP3 is a program like Winamp (found at www.winamp.com) or Microsoft Windows Media Player. The Internet allows users to download songs (in MP3 format) in a matter of minutes without paying any money. This compressed MP3 technology is popping up everywhere on the Internet. There is almost no music site that you can go to where an MP3 of some sort is not being offered. All you have to do is login and download. MP3's are breaking copyright laws and are a part of online piracy. Online piracy is playing, or downloading, songs and lyrics without authorization and without paying tribute to the artists, on the Internet. Downloading even one song without permission is considered online piracy. When people download MP3's from the Internet, they choose to ignore the copyright laws because the disclaimers are all written in font sizes under 10pts at the bottom of the page. If people stop going to the site, the site stops making money. All things that might make the user leave the site are hidden. The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) has two copyrights that apply to MP3's. 1. Copyright in musical work Lyrics and musical notes as they're written on paper. The songwriter or music publisher typically owns this copyright. 2. Copyright in the sound recording Which is a recording of a performer singing or playing the particular song. The record company usually owns this copyright. Therefore, the only legal way to copy, download, and upload an MP3 is to get permission, from the artist, which every user either forgets to do, or doesn't even bother. This is the primary cause for the war of legal rights that goes on today, because free is good right? Wrong! Having free MP3's on the Internet creates a problem. The problem is that millions and millions of dollars are lost everyday to all of the musicians that make the music possible. The Canadian Recording Industry Association reported that there are around 80,000 infringing MP3 sites on the Internet and each one is carrying around 300 or more recordings each. That means that there are around 24 million songs that are illegally on the Internet. Major money is being lost here. The RIAA also calculated that there are 120 million downloads from MP3 sites weekly and climbing, representing an annual loss of $5 billion (US) to the recording industry and around $1 million a day in the United States alone. The recording industry is going crazy trying to fix this problem. Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association spoke at a conference and said ?There are tens of thousands of sound recordings that are basically sitting around in a virtual record store with the door wide open and everyone is helping themselves? and concluded by saying ?Everyone using MP3's feels they have the inalienable right to use the product?. Because of an increase in hard drive capacity, users cannot only trade individual songs, but full albums too. This makes matters even worse because people just get what is called a CD-Burner and writes the MP3's onto a CD so they can now listen to MP3's on any audio CD player. People could also get what is called an MP3 player. An MP3 player is a small portable device that stores and plays MP3's. An

Flood Types and Classifications in U.S

Flood Types and Classifications in U.S Floods that occur in the United States and abroad can be classified in multiple ways. Theres no steadfast rule for categorizing  flooding along a floodplain or after a tropical cyclone. Instead, broad types of flood labels are applied to any type of water inundation that results in damages. Flooding is one of the most dangerous types of all natural disasters. Flash Floods Floods can be most broadly classified as either river floods or flash floods. The main difference is in the onset of the flooding. With flash floods, there is often little warning that flooding will occur. With river flooding, communities can prepare as a river nears its flood stage.   Flash floods are usually the most lethal. Heavy downpours, often in mountainous highlands, can lead to surges of water that turn dry river beds or flood plains into raging torrents  within minutes. Local communities usually have little time to flee to higher land, and homes and other property in the waters path can be totally destroyed. Vehicles crossing roadways that are dry or barely wet in one moment can be swept away in the next. When roads and railways are made impassable, delivery of aid can become much more difficult. Slow Onset Floods   Slow onset floods, such as those that hit Bangladesh almost every year, can also be lethal but they tend to give people much more time to move to higher ground. These floods are a result of surface water runoff. Flash floods can also be the result of surface water runoff, but the terrain is a larger factor in the severity of the flood. They often occur when the ground is already saturated and simply cannot absorb any more water. When deaths occur during slow onset floods, they are much more likely to come about due to disease, malnutrition or snakebites. Floods in China displaced tens of thousands of snakes into neighboring areas in 2007, increasing the risk of attacks. Slower floods are also less likely to sweep away property, although it may still be damaged or destroyed. Areas are likely to remain under water for months at a time. Storms, tropical cyclones, and other maritime extreme weather can also produce deadly storm surges, as happened in New Orleans in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina, Cyclone Sidr in November 2007, and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar in May 2008. These are most prevalent and dangerous along the coasts and near large bodies of water. Detailed Flood Types There are numerous other ways to classify floods. Many types of floods are a result of the location of the rising waters or other environmental factors. FEMA has a broad classification of flood types as follows: Riverine floodsUrban floodsGround failures, such as dam breaksFluctuating lake levelsCoastal flooding and erosion In addition, flooding can result from ice jams, mine accidents, and tsunamis. Remember that there are no steadfast rules for determining exactly what type of flood may be associated with any given area. Getting flood insurance and following the guidelines for flood safety are critical to keeping yourself, your family, and your property safe during a flood event.

Analysis of primary Document.DOCUMENT 15.1, Magazine article on the Essay

Analysis of primary Document.DOCUMENT 15.1, Magazine article on the changing caracter of immigration, by Kate Claghorn,in Wori - Essay Example Kate Claghorn considers the new system of presenting the statistics of immigration, introduced by Edward F McSweeney, as an effective system of classification, as it helps in disengaging the racial facts and the grouping of same race elements from different countries. According to the author, the predominance of the racial stocks of the Slavs, the Italian, and the Hebrews is the most noticeable feature of contemporary immigration, and these racial stocks are usually considered as lacking social and industrial values. Another characteristic of the recent immigrations is that it is mainly the patient family groups consisting of father, mother, children, grandparents, etc. that composes the major sections of the immigrated population, and the land of freedom and opportunity attract them. Immigration from city slums is practically diminutive, and there is very little immigrant population from cities.