Europe plans charter to safeguard Internet users (Reuters)

Nairobi (Reuters) – The European Council has plans to establish a charter internet users to ensure consumer rights in an era of increasing state attempts to take control of the network, says its Deputy Secretary General on Tuesday.

Internet activists say governments stretching from Egypt to Pakistan has tried to control the Internet through tactics such as filtering and blocking content and monitoring, making the lives of users and rights activists difficult. [ID: nL5E7KR1XT]

"We want to emphasize the development, perhaps in the form of a charter on the rights of Internet users so they can claim transparency, universality, accessibility and price, and possibly know who to turn to, if these principles are not respected," Maud de Boer-Buquicchio said.

"We've discussed this with our governments and we can start preparing an (Internet) users charter."

He told Reuters on the sidelines of a forum on Internet governance that the ideal situation would result in minimal government restrictions, because the Internet had become an essential tool of communication and commerce.

"They need to be regulated. The principle is that the Internet should be universal and free, and then over-regulation is not a good thing," de Boer-Buquicchio said.

Involve the drafting of the Governments of the Member States, industry and civil society, he said. The Council of Europe brings 47 states and especially on human rights.

States have an interest in embracing the concept of human rights, democracy and the rule of law in their principles of Internet governance, because it helps to understand the world, are transparent and serious corruption, he added.

"Show is taking action against this rampant scourge (corruption), which unfortunately is universal … confidence that other states or private investors may have is crucial to boost the economy of a country because people want to do business" he said.

Council reviews its 30 years of data protection laws to improve the conference in the Internet age, said de Boer-Buquicchio.

"These principles have been drafted in a technologically neutral way, which means that even today they apply," he said.

"But we are engaged in a review process because we want to make it more relevant to the use of the Internet".

(Edited by George Obulutsa and Jon Downloader-Carter)

Activists meet to defend Internet from state control (Reuters)

LONDON/NAIROBI (Reuters) – Internet activists accused governments of making it difficult for users of the Web, rights campaigners and private businesses to carry out their work through state attempts to seize control of the Web.

They said state officials were getting bolder in their drive to regulate the Web that has fueled Arab revolutions, enabled mass leaks of U.S. diplomatic cables and allowed online piracy to thrive.

"What we have seen in the last three years is that no longer do governments shy away from attempting to regulate Internet content," said Joy Liddicoat, project coordinator at New Zealand-based Association for Progressive Communications, which seeks to protect people's rights on and to the Internet.

They were speaking at the Internet Governance Forum in Nairobi on Tuesday, an annual event that brings together companies, non-profit groups, academics, engineers, government representatives and ordinary citizens.

Participants at the meeting said governments were increasingly filtering and blocking content on the Web, carrying out surveillance and making requests for data and privacy information in countries like Egypt and Pakistan.

"These are the sort of issues we would like to see discussed at the IGF and we think we need much more open and transparent discussions on how we should respond to these challenges," Liddicoat said.

They hope to show they are best placed to write the rules of the road ahead for the World Wide Web, an increasingly important driver of economic growth in a world on the brink of recession.

Maud de Boer-Buquicchio, deputy secretary general at Council of Europe, a 47-nation group that is mainly concerned about human rights, said that the growing relevance of the Web to millions of people as a tool of communication and commerce added impetus to the need for agreements on Internet governance.

"It is an important moment to come to some sort of principles that should govern the Internet at the level of those who govern the Internet," de Boer-Buquicchio said.

In a study published this year, consultancy McKinsey found the Internet accounted for 21 percent of GDP growth in mature countries, and that almost $8 trillion changes hands through e-commerce each year.

"Stronger influence of governments seems inevitable. The Internet has simply become too important for them to ignore it. They prefer a top-down approach," Markus Kummer of the Internet Society, which campaigns for the open Internet, told a recent London seminar.

Groups like the Internet Society fear the creeping use by governments of tools like "three strikes and you're out" laws to cut off Internet access from citizens caught breaking copyright rules, already passed by France and being considered in several other European countries.

Some countries have tried more radical measures, like Egypt cutting itself off from the Internet during the Arab Spring to stop flash protests being coordinated on websites like Twitter.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who applauded the Arab Spring, hosted the e-G8 in Paris this year, a conference of political leaders and Internet company bosses at which he put the case for more government regulation while paying lip service to an inclusive approach to governing the Internet.

"It was very exclusionary. For women and the global South there was virtually no consultation. It was a hand-picked group of white, male billionaires," Internet lawyer and consumer advocate Jeremy Malcolm told Reuters.

"The IGF is really the last best hope for this process. If it fails, what we're going to get is India, Brazil, South Africa, China, Kazakhstan, Russia and so on putting forward the idea that we need an intergovernmental process."

The Internet's potential to raise living standards is under-exploited in the developing world where just 21 percent of the population have access, compared with 69 percent in the developed world.

Its role as a catalyst for development will be a key theme of the IGF, a United Nations-sponsored event where speakers will include World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and EU digital agenda commissioner Neelie Kroes.

If it is to succeed in keeping governments at arm's length, the IGF will also have to show it is serious about cybersecurity

which companies now view as a bigger threat than traditional crime, natural disasters and terrorism.

The forum comes at a time of technical upheaval for the Internet where top-level domains such as .com or .org are about to be liberalized, enabling companies and communities to buy, create, name and run their own domains.

Web addresses in languages like Arabic and Russian have also recently been made possible, a move expected to transform the Internet and give more power to non-English speakers.

"The technology continuing to change is a given that we have to accept," said Jeff Brueggeman, who runs public policy for U.S. telecoms operator AT&T and will attend the IGF. "The idea is always to be looking ahead at the next issue."

(Additional reporting by Duncan Miriri in Nairobi; Editing by)

The top 10 songs and albums on the iTunes store (AP)

Official iTunes charts in the week ended September 26, 2011:

Top Songs:

1. "He moves like Jagger (Recording Studio" La Voz "Performance) (feat. Christina Aguilera)," Maroon 5

2. "Someone Like You", ADELE

3. "Water Pump Kicks," Encouraging people

4. "Rock Anthem Part" LMFAO

5. "Stereo Hearts (feat. Adam Levine)," Gym Class Heroes

6. "Sexy and I know," LMFAO

7. "We found love (feat. Calvin Harris)," Rihanna

8. "Without You (feat. Usher)," Usher, David Guetta

9. "Cheers (drink)," Rihanna

10. "You and I", Lady GaGa

___

Album:

1. "Intacto" Demi Lovato

2. "21", ADELE

3."The Reckoning", NEEDTOBREATHE

4. "Duets II" by Tony Bennett

5. "The night is ours," Lady Antebellum

6. 'Tha Carter IV' by Lil Wayne

7. "Sweet", Gavin DeGraw

8. "Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)," Various Artists

9. "Mylo Xyloto," Coldplay

10. "Sigh No More", Mumford & Sons

___

(Copyright) 2011 Apple, Inc.

Newspaper, bloggers stunned by killing in Mexico (AP)

Federal police officer sits on guard in his armoured police vehicle during a raid at a house in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY – The killing of a Mexican woman purportedly in retaliation for her postings on an anti-crime website has left stunned chat users and employees at the newspaper where she worked wondering who can still be safe in the violent border city of Nuevo Laredo.

Press freedom groups condemned the killing of Maria Elizabeth Macias, whose decapitated body and head were found Saturday next to a message citing posts she wrote on “Nuevo Laredo en Vivo,” a website used by Laredo residents to denounce crime and warn each other about drug cartel gunfights and roadblocks.

Some bloggers vowed to keep up the fight against powerful drug cartels but warned users to trust no one.

“If we want to regain our peace and our freedom, we always have to fight on, I wouldn’t ask anybody to take up arms, clearly, but with our reports, we can do them damage,” said one poster logged on as “anon9113,” who quickly added a note of distrust, “don’t become friends with anybody on here … we have to be careful with something as simple as giving out personal information.”

Another poster agreed. “Exactly, this (Macias’ death) should not be in vain, we should make it an example.” Others said that despite the risk, they would continue reporting. One user posted that he had seen four drug-gang lookouts in a compact car near a gas station, and gave part of the car’s license plate number.

Macias had previously been identified by an official in Tamaulipas state as Marisol Macias, who had worked as a newsroom manager for the Nuevo Laredo newspaper Primera Hora. But an editor at Primera Hora said Monday that Macias was the daily’s advertising supervisor. The editor would not give his name for security reasons.

The editor said the killing apparently was not related to Macias’ job at the daily, which, in the face of intimidation and threats by drug gangs, had stopped even reporting on drug violence two years ago.

“We were taken by surprise, because since about two years ago, we don’t even do crime reporting,” said the editor. “We don’t have a crime reporter.”

He said police have not talked to the paper, nor given it any information on the killing. The paper, according to weekend editions posted on its website, has not even reported on her death.

Nuevo Laredo, located across the border from Laredo, Texas, has been dominated for about the last two years by the violent Zetas drug cartel.

Mexico’s Human Rights Commission says eight journalists have been killed in the country this year and 74 since 2000.

With local newspapers forced to avoid crime reporting by threats in many border cities Mexicans have increasingly turned to local online chat sites like “Nuevo Laredo en Vivo” to report and read about cartel activity. The site includes numbers to phone in tips to police and the military.

The message found next to Macias’ body on the side of a main thoroughfare Saturday referred to the nickname she purportedly used on the site, “La Nena de Laredo,” or “Laredo Girl.” Her head was found placed on a stone piling nearby.

“Nuevo Laredo en Vivo and social networking sites, I’m The Laredo Girl, and I’m here because of my reports, and yours,” the message read. “For those who don’t want to believe, this happened to me because of my actions, for believing in the army and the navy. Thank you for your attention, respectfully, Laredo Girl…ZZZZ.”

The letter “Z” refers to the Zetas.

It was unclear how the killers found out her real identity; the newspaper editor said he did not know, but some posters suggested it could have been through someone she worked with.

The gruesome killing may be the third so far this month in which people in Nuevo Laredo were killed by a drug cartel for what they said on the internet.

Earlier this month, a man and a woman were found hanging from an overpass in Nuevo Laredo with a similar message threatening “this is what will happen” to internet users. However, it has not been clearly established whether the two had in fact ever posted any messages.

“As Mexican citizens, including journalists and media, are increasingly turning to new technology in the face of rampant censorship, drug cartels are using violence to control information on the Internet,” Carlos Lauria, the Americas senior program coordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, wrote in a statement. “The stability of Mexico’s democracy will ultimately depend on the restoration of the media’s ability to report the news without fear of reprisal.”

(This version CORRECTS Corrects in 10th paragraph that Nuevo Laredo is opposite Laredo, Texas instead of El Paso. This story is part of AP’s general news and financial services.)

Asian tech firms face stiff challenge in mobile systems (Reuters)

SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Mobile operating systems developed by Asia's top technology firms will at best only chip away market share from dominant leaders Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

And such a scenario would only be possible if these companies, such as China's Baidu Inc and Alibaba Group are able to court enough application developers, analysts said.

"The challenge for Baidu, Alibaba, other firms looking to deploy their own mobile operating systems is how to develop and market one with sufficient appeal to users, app developers, device makers, and other parties," said Mark Natkin, Beijing-based technology consultant with Marbridge Consulting.

Baidu and Alibaba Group have launched mobile operating platforms named Baidu Yi and Aliyun respectively to capture a slice of the growing mobile Internet market.

Baidu is working with Dell to produce smartphones based on Yi, while Alibaba already has phones on sale running Aliyun.

China is home to more than 900 million mobile phone subscribers, the world's largest mobile phone market, but only about 10 percent are 3G users, highlighting the growth potential.

Media reports have said Taiwanese handset maker HTC Corp has expressed interest in buying a mobile OS, while Samsung Electronics, which is heavily focused on Android software, is expanding features available for smartphones running on its own operating system, Bada.

Android users have more than 100,000 Android applications to choose from, while Apple's App Store has more than 425,000 applications. In comparison, Samsung's Bada has access to 13,000 applications.

It is still early to determine the attractiveness of the platforms based solely on the number of applications available, but technology companies going into the space are keenly aware of the importance of attracting developers to their platform.

Earlier this month, Baidu's Chief Financial Officer told Reuters in an interview that her company was looking at acquisitions in the cloud computing space to support its push into the mobile arena.

"We will continue to improve our technology and if there are teams or are technologies that help us, that will naturally be our target," said Jennifer Li.

"Ultimately, we want to build a platform that is easily accessible – where Baidu services and where good applications can be available," Li said.

Alibaba will hold a conference this year to show developers how to create applications for its phone and discuss industry practices, a company spokeswoman said. Its OS, the Aliyun, currently has about 30 applications but its platform is compatible with Android applications.

LIMITED IMPACT

Many analysts are skeptical that the new mobile operating systems will be able overtake Android or Apple even in the long term.

"I do not see any of these guys getting enough traction to get significant market share. None of them will be able to go from nothing to a third of the market in just three years the way Android has," said Pat Maloney, an analyst with technology consultancy RedTech Advisors.

The new platforms will be competing against four major mobile operating systems — iOS, Android, and Microsoft's Windows and one by Research in Motion — whose combined market share will continue to remain at more than 90 percent until 2015, according to research firm Gartner.

Google announced a deal in August to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, in a move to protect its Android platform from rivals such as Apple.

Any move by HTC to develop its own mobile OS is unlikely to have a big impact on Android, analysts said.

"In the long run, it gives HTC more flexibility; HTC can then revolve in its own pace, rather than being controlled by Android," said Richard Ko, a Taiwan-based analyst with KGI Securities.

"But it'll be very hard for HTC to compete with Android, which is such a large player and owns a complete ecosystem."

Android is expected to emerge as the top mobile operating system in China in the medium-term but the company's high-profile fallout with Beijing last year leaves the door open for Alibaba and Baidu, analysts said.

Many of Google's products such as YouTube, Blogger, Google Maps and Gmail are blocked or partially blocked in China following the dispute stemming from Google's refusal to self-censor searches.

"Apple and Google have said that the Asian market is important, that it is a key area of growth for them, so any competitors especially ones that have got specific regional focus and strong brands will be a kind of risk for them," said Nick Dillon, a London-based analyst with Ovum.

(Additional reporting by Clare Jim in TAIPEI, Lucy Hornby in BEIJING and Miyoung Kim in SEOUL; Editing by Kazunori Takada and Anshuman Daga)

Netflix signs pay TV deal for Dreamworks animation (Reuters)

(Reuters) – The online video rental company Netflix Inc. said it has won the pay TV rights to the Dreamworks animated film from 2013, the first time a major Hollywood studio has chosen a player on the Internet on a continuous Traditional cable channel.

The news of the contract led Netflix stock up nearly 7 percent to a maximum of $ 137.88 in early trade Monday on Nasdaq.

Netflix did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

However, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg told the New York Times that the agreement, worth $ 30 million for Dreamworks picture on a number of years, was "changing the game" and represented a bet that the the public will soon make a distinction between content on the Internet or cable.

The agreement will allow Netflix Dreamworks – the studio behind the family, the degree of "Shrek" and "Kung Fu Panda" – is to avoid pay-television HBO on-line transmission, reported Times. HBO is a unit of Time Warner Inc.

"We are starting to see a roadmap to long term where the industry is heading," was Katzenberg said that the newspaper in an interview.

The deal comes days after Netflix content, which has seen prices fall sharply after the influence of a series of errors, struck an agreement to broadcast television, Discovery Communications Inc.

Netflix to add more content to its streaming service to support the development of new customers and fend off competition from the likes of Amazon.com Inc., Google and Apple Inc.

The actions of the former darling of Wall Street has fallen 50 percent in two months.Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has apologized for not moving enough to explain, from an astonishing price rise in July to a separation of its DVD-mails from streaming services and the company tries to win back customers.

However, adding customers are suddenly hard, with Netflix on the receiving end of heated complaints from customers are still upset about the price increase was announced in July.

It lowered its subscriber forecast by 1 million, said it now expected to get 24 million subscribers by the end of the third quarter. Last time, Netflix reported a decrease in subscribers during the second quarter of 2007 when Blockbuster was aggressively driving a DVD rental package called Total Access.

According to the Times Netflix was quick to pump up the Dreamworks deal.

"This is one of the few brands family entertainment that matter," was the Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos said."There is also a signal to people that we in no way a departure from films. Our programming is simply more and more people think about it."

(Reporting by Edwin Chan in Los Angeles and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore, Editing by Peter Cooney, Viraj Nair)

Bill to crack down on cyber-bullies introduced in New York (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York State Senator Jeffrey Klein, a new "cyber-bullying" bill on Monday, saying pre-dates digital harassment laws do not punish, tyrants and smartphones that use the Internet to harass others.

The New York bill is a response to several highly publicized cases of adolescent suicides as a result of any form of online bullying. Klein, a Democrat from the Bronx and Westchester, has argued that current state law has not been keeping up with technology, such as life increasingly moved online.

"If the people are hard to find a law on the books and will be punished, will act accordingly," Klein said in a press conference in front of Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City, where he was joined by members of two organizations, anti-bullying.

At least 30 states already have laws dealing with online harassment.At least five have laws that explicitly with the cyber-bullying, a study last year, perhaps even more difficult for the victim as corporal punishment or verbal abuse.

In view of Klein's crime of stalking in the third degree would be updated to explicitly molested a child with electronic communications.

To better the nature of interactions online, the bill eliminates requirements that initiate the contact with the author, and that the victim is a direct recipient of the communication.

Although it was a crime "intentionally cause or aid" the suicide of another person to update the account of the status of second-degree manslaughter was specifically cyber-bullying as a possible cause of this suicide.

Senator Diane Savino, a Democrat from Staten Island and Brooklyn and a co-sponsor of the bill, said that while bullying exists, "because Cain and Abel", has been transformed by the Internet and smartphone technology.

A dismissive review in the schoolyard can be heard from a couple and, finally, forgotten, he said .. But the same comment posted online can potentially be seen by everyone, and linger on indefinitely.

Anne Isaacs, whose daughter Jamie, now 15, had to change schools because of bullies, said that bullying was also much harder to get than other forms.

"When Jamie goes online to do homework, she would go online and screaming, because the messages would come," says Isaacs, who joined Klein at the press conference.

An attempt to legislate against bullying at the federal level failed in 2008, and left to the Member States to decide how to deal with the problem.

Mary Sue Backus, a law professor at the University of Oklahoma who has studied cyberbullying, was quoted several times in the arguments supporting Klein's name. She said in an interview that she generally opposes such legislation, he worked for, which could fail to have a deterrent effect and instead lead to the criminalization of youth behavior.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Johnston)

Netflix snatches DreamWorks rights from HBO (AP)

SAN FRANCISCO – Netflix unveiled a coming attraction its disillusioned subscribers might like: the Internet video rights to films and television specials from DreamWorks Animation.

The multiyear deal announced Monday will give Netflix Inc.’s streaming service the exclusive rights to show the latest content from DreamWorks, the studio behind a list of popular franchises that includes “Shrek,” “Kung Fu Panda” and “Madagascar.” It comes after weeks of disruptive changes that irked Netflix’s 24.6 million U.S. customers and spooked its shareholders.

But even this bit of good news had a downside. The DreamWorks rights don’t kick in until 2013, so the studio’s material won’t immediately placate Netflix customers who are clamoring for Netflix’s streaming library to widen its selection of box office hits.

The complaints could escalate early next year when Netflix loses the streaming rights to Walt Disney Co. movies and other films that it got through a licensing deal it had with Starz Entertainment.

Still, the DreamWorks deal represents a badly needed coup for Netflix, which has been reeling from a customer backlash triggered by sharp price increases and an upcoming spin-off of its DVD-by-mail service into a website called “Qwikster.”

Netflix snatched the DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. rights from pay-TV rival HBO, providing the latest sign that Internet video has emerged as a compelling — and lucrative — alternative for Hollywood movie and TV studios.

Although the financial terms weren’t spelled out, DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg left no doubt that Netflix is paying his studio more than Time Warner Inc.’s HBO currently is. “This arrangement allows us to get more value for our content while giving us a greater degree of flexibility in how we distribute it across multiple platforms in today’s evolving digital world,” Katzenberg said.

The rising cost for streaming rights is the main reason that Netflix recently increased its prices by as much as 60 percent for U.S. customers who want both DVDs and Internet video.

Netflix, which is based in Los Gatos, Calif., is counting on the higher prices, which kicked in earlier this month, to bring in the additional revenue it needs to keep adding more titles to its streaming library. The strategy could backfire if too many subscribers upset by the higher prices cancel their service; Netflix already has said it expects to end this month with 600,000 fewer U.S. subscribers than it had in June when the total stood at 24.6 million.

Locking in DreamWorks as an exclusive deal also was important to Netflix, too, because it’s facing tougher competition in Internet streaming.

Amazon.com Inc. one of Netflix’s most formidable rivals, expanded its streaming service Monday with the addition of TV shows and movies from News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox studio. Most of the TV shows that Amazon is picking up from Fox already are can be streamed through Netflix. In a notable exception, Amazon will have “The Wonder Years,” a coming-of-age TV series from the 1980s and 1990s that is only available on DVD through Netflix.

Amazon says its streaming service now has more than 11,000 titles, doubling the total it had when it started seven months ago. Netflix’s hasn’t specified how many titles are in its streaming library, but an analysis done last month by another rival, Dish Network Corp., found nearly 32,000 selections.

Amazon includes unlimited video streaming as part of another service, called “Prime,” that provides free and discounted shipping to the Internet merchant’s customers. Prime costs $79 per year, slightly below the $96 annual subscription for Netflix streaming.

The next logical step for Amazon would be to buy Netflix’s streaming service, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. He thinks Netflix is spinning off its DVD-by-mail service primarily to make its streaming service more attractive to Amazon.com. Netflix’s plummeting stock price has made a takeover bid more affordable too. Since the company announced its higher prices in mid-July, Netflix’s stock price has lost more than half its value.

In a Sept. 22 research note, Pachter predicted Amazon would pay up to $7.2 billion for Netflix’s streaming business. That would translate into about $130 per share.

Both Netflix and Amazon declined to comment on the speculation.

Netflix shares gained $2.86, or about 2 percent, to close Monday at $132.22 while Amazon shares added $6.24, or nearly 3 percent to finish at $229.85.

Is the Era of Music Video Games Really Over? (Mashable)

Scott Steinberg is the author of the new book Music Games Rock (100% free to download online). He is a noted technology expert, the CEO of high-tech consulting firm TechSavvy Global, and a frequent keynote speaker and media analyst for ABC, CBS and CNN. A celebrated author and entrepreneur, he also hosts video series Gear Up and Game Theory.

[More from Mashable: 6 Indie Games We Can’t Wait to Play]

The universe gave us rock ‘n roll. Then it snatched it back in 2009, when the music video game industry collapsed from a record $1.7 billion the year prior.

The market suffered a nearly 50% sales collapse across the board in 2009. It didn’t help that MTV sold Rock Band maker Harmonix, and Activision decided to temporarily bench the once-proud Guitar Hero series. Some have even gone on to predict these kinds of setbacks could mean curtains for the genre. Just one problem for critics: Such prognoses are complete and utter bull.

[More from Mashable: 6 Tips for Launching a Product on Facebook]

Long before the Fab Four ever flirted with blockbuster band simulations, or Dance Central allowed us to get awkwardly footloose, each enjoyed a healthy romance with gaming fans – not to mention success across other eras, concepts and formats.

For instance, mobile and online-enabled games like Tap Tap Revenge 4 and Slayer: Pinball Rocks continue to tear up the charts, and prove a more cost-effective alternative to $120 instrument bundles. Fans are also enthusiastic over karaoke and dancing games — like Just Dance 3 and Dance Central 2 — given the multiplatinum-selling success of Michael Jackson: The Experience. But, in all fairness, given the recent topsy-turvy performance of the rhythm gaming genre, one can’t exactly blame industry naysayers.

It’s a troubling sign that even games paired with headlining bands struggle to go multiplatinum. Furthermore, some of the most ambitious and fulfilling digital diversions fail to even tweak the dial on most fans’ radars. However, dig a bit deeper into the reasons behind the recent financial troubles. You’ll find primary relegation to mobile and social games such as Tap Tap Glee and Say What?!, as well as general-purpose apps such as Songify and Cambox.

Today’s economic headaches are causing cash-strapped gaming enthusiasts to budget more than ever. Publishers have also been slow to realize when it’s time to give up the ghost. Much as virtual spin-offs sell as the interactive equivalent of collector’s boxed sets — from DJ Hero to Green Day: Rock Band — too many have flooded shelves in too short a period of time. Worse, most not only play to an increasingly limited audience, but also require the use of pricey plastic instruments. That’s a hard pill to swallow, especially because one is able to download value-priced content (e.g. new songs and track packs) that keep older games feeling fresh.

Nowadays, shoppers are smarter about how they spend their money. They’re less willing to buy pricey accessories only compatible with a small range of titles. Even more, the price of the average music and rhythm game more than doubled that of the average video game in recent years. Pair that with the rise of free-to-play alternatives for web browsers, smartphones and PCs, new on-demand digital download platforms, and a growing, but still relatively nascent audience averse to overspending on polystyrene turntables. Pullback is inevitable.

However, just as detractors once tried to write off rock ‘n roll, or dub it a tool of the devil, one shouldn’t be so quick to abandon music gaming quite yet. It’s easy to see that music not only impacts every human being on the planet, but it also serves as a common unifier across age, gender, class and religion. Capable of bringing people of all ages together around shared social experiences, music games are an ideal way to bridge the gap between disparate backgrounds and generations — hence the reason they’ve dubbed karaoke this generation’s happy hour activity of choice.

From a retail standpoint, new games that play to niche audiences, like Child of Eden and Rocksmith, may continue to face an uphill battle. However, each new day brings heightened acceptance and growth for the field, especially after an acclaimed musician endorses a game. Consider titles like Rock Band, which one might have expected to flounder without former parent company MTV’s guidance. Still going strong, it offers 2700+ songs by over 900 artists, with a million players continuing to login each month to download new tracks. It has now digitally distributed over 100 million tracks.

Already, we’ve watched games like Madden NFL provide an additional outlet for bands. Using this type of platform, bands have a better chance at mainstream success than individual radio station promotion. The world’s largest record labels are starting to feel threatened by the rise of music games, which offer audiophiles an interactive way to enjoy tracks. We’ve just begun to witness the rise of groundbreaking virtual distribution services such as Rock Band Network, which allows independent and unsigned bands the chance to be discovered by millions, without the need for a label’s input. Finally, the greatest acts of yesteryear have begun embracing music games as a way to bridge the gap between generations.

All things considered, critics shouldn’t be so hasty to dismiss music video games. These games’ SoundScan numbers may be irrelevant. Instead we should be pioneering new ways to experience and enjoy some of history’s greatest recordings, not to mention blow open the doors for tomorrow’s headlining acts. Today’s market is not an indicator that it’s time to take a final bow. The music game industry’s current growing pains may rather be a sign that the party’s just getting started. Get your devil horns ready…

Images courtesy of Flickr, snailsareslimy, - reuben -

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Feds returning funds to online Ponzi scam victims (AP)

WASHINGTON – Federal authorities say they are torn again based on $ 55 million through a Ponzi scam people on the Internet.

The Justice Department and the Secret Service announced on Monday that they are the means of 8,400 victims at the sites managed by daily AdSurf Inc. invests

Company founder Thomas "Andy" Bowdoin Jr., Quincy, Florida has been indicted in connection with the investigation, but has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial. He is with the development of promising investors returns 125-150 percent of your money collected if you see web pages for a few minutes each day.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington got the money for the victims by the seizure of numerous bank accounts, real estate, luxury vehicles and boats to pay. Information for victims, please call 1-800-644-1535.