Read all about it! Read all about it! Apple’s new 3g iPhone will soon be entering the market! While this alone is very exciting news for many Apple fans and potential iPhone buyers, the much more exciting news is that the 3g iPhone may be subsidized by up to $200, bring the price down to a much more manageable $200 or so; the subsidy will of course be in return for customers signing a new two year contract.

Apple AT&T have not officially released news of this subsidy – or indeed many details about the 3g iPhone. The word on the street is that the 3g iPhone will be available around the 1 year anniversary of the first model’s release, so look towards the end of June.

Before this release date Apple plans, according to an insider, to stop shipping the old model of iPhone. This will create a supply lacuna and an explosion of demand when the new iPhone finally arrives.

Nokia’s move last year to offer music downloads to its customers was a brave move and one which won it plaudits within the free music community: not only were the unlimited music downloads free, they were also devoid of the fun-wrecking DRM. Hurrah for Nokia.

Hurrah indeed, as the mobile giant announced recently that its “Comes With Music” campaign will include tracks from Sony BMG’s catalogue. The music downloads that we once dreamed about may be here.

This comes at the same time as Sony’s agreement with Peter Gabriel’s We7 online music store (offering (almost) unlimited music downloads, again without DRM) which will allow its users to stream the entire Sony back catalogue.

While it is a step from Sony offering music downloads to the entire industry model changing for good, it is a step in the right direction for what is one of the major opponents to file-sharing and other forms of free music.

What others are saying:
Music downloads will surpass CD sales in four years
We7 gets support from Sony to offer free music downloads

The RIAA took a few punches this week with the news that a US federal judge has shot down the claim that simply making songs available for free music download on filesharing networks counts as distribution.

The RIAA has been steamrolling ahead with suing anyone and everyone accused of filesharing under the impression that making tracks available is enough to get a court verdict in their favor. This all seems to be changing.

Pamela and Jeffrey Howell are accused of making tracks available over the filesharing network Kazaa. They were originally ordered to pay $40,000 in damagers, but after an appeal, the case will now go before a jury after the judge overturned the initial decision.

The “making available” argument has typically been a big weapon in the RIAA’s battle against filesharing. The RIAA responded by calling the decision strange and against hundreds of other filesharing rulings in the US.

Might be a sign of things to come.

There is a new drug on the block and it is making inroads into the markets previously dominated by Marijuana and LSD. The good news? It is entirely legal. The bad? It might not be legal for very long.
Salvia is a plant with hallucinogenic properties hailing from Mexico. Its sale, use and possession is entirely legal in most U.S. States and in Mexico, and the plant is solid in both leaf and extract form on the Internet. Its use induces hallucinations lasting for around one hour. While the effects are said to be stronger than those provided by Marijuana they only last an hour or so.
Pro-Salvia commentators claim that Salvia is a relatively harmless drug and that those wishing to see it banned are making a lot of fuss over a very small problem.
Some states have already banned Salvia or limited its use in some way, and with others likely to follow perhaps now is the time to make the most of Salvia’s legal status.

A children’s charity in the UK has decided to take on the issue of filesharing and spread the word about the evils of illegal music downloads, which are both against the law and “unsafe”, apparently.

One converted child said, “I used to use Limewire, but didn’t realise it was wrong and my parents didn’t know what I was doing.”

Oh dear.

Childnet admirably campaigns to improve Internet safety for children. There’s nothing wrong with that. The charity is sending a leaflet to schools to persuade kids to take care while surfing the net and using their mobile phones.

The clear message is that filesharing is an adults’ games. While America’s college students haven’t been so lucky, UK children will be “educated” about the errors of their filesharing ways. How noble.

However, for the million of non-children who still use filesharing programs like Limewire, there is no hope of salvation.

More campus activity this week. This time, the University of Arkansas has been targeted by the RIAA for filesharing students.

The RIAA has formally requested that UA complies with its dealing with filesharing activities, which means that the university must supply the names that match up to IPs that show illegal filesharing activity.

This has caused much uproar, as some at the university have slammed the request, saying that the RIAA does not have the right to do such a thing.

One senior compared this filesharing monitoring to phone tapping. The RIAA has basically requested that UA keep records of all Internet filesharing activity that occurs on campus.

What this means is that the UA’s IT department finds filesharing culprits who are getting free music downloads and passes on their names to the RIAA, who in turn send a letter to the students demanding damages or a court case.

UA responded by issuing a statement saying that students’ details will not be passed on unless a there is a subpoena.