On “The Gong Show,” you had a host who brought out acts (Chuck Barris), and three judges who rated them. Right behind judges was a gong. When an act came out and performed, judges would vote for it utilizing a one-to-ten scale. The scores would then be totaled up, and whichever act had highest total at end of show won. It was fair, simple to understand, but that wasn’t best thing about “The Gong Show.” The best thing was whenever a truly crummy act came out and performed. If it stunk to high heaven and back, any one of three judges could turn around and strike gong - that meant act had to stop performing right then and there. And since “The Gong Show” only offered a few hundred bucks to whomever won, overall quality of their acts was generally poor, which made them great fun to watch. Especially more fun to watch than these slicked up kids they’ve got on “American Idol.” They’re all too squeaky clean, not one hair out of place, and their song selections are simply atrocious. The other night I almost swallowed a whole ice cube when one of Idol contestants sang old Partridge Family hit, “I Think I Love You.” The bad thing was, young man was singing it like it was most serious song he‘d ever heard. It nearly caused me to curse out loud, which is something I’ve never done before in my life.

Folks, let me go ahead and tell y’all what’s gonna happen on Idol. Those record company execs who run show have pretty much decided that either Carrie or Bo has potential to sell most records. So Randy, Paula, and Simon are going to steer public opinion towards those two as much as they can. Just watch, I’d bet a BTO CD on it. And while I’m watching it all unfold over next few weeks, I’ll better understand why my mind keeps flashing back to “Gene, Gene, The Dancing Machine,” “The Unknown Comic,” “Larry and his drum,” and that simple little gong....

In late 2003 record companies started suing individuals that were downloading free music. With file-sharing networks like Grokster and Morpheus it will be much harder for recording industry to track down files that are uploaded by individual users.

With Supreme Court now involved they are expected to make some type of ruling in June 2005 on what if any action should be taken against makers of file-sharing network software.

The wrong decision could discourage future development of products like iPod or other file-sharing software programs that could be used for legal purposes.

Since Grokster and Morpheus do not monitor or have any knowledge of who or what is being downloaded, a federal judge in Los Angeles and U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected copyright infringement charges against both these file-sharing networks.

Based on 1984 ruling of Supreme Court that stated use of Sony Betamax, which allowed users to make copies at home of copyrighted TV programs, was legal.

The recording industries angle last week was that approach companies like Grokster and Morpheus are making by advertising their software will provide access to free copies of copyrighted materials should allow them to be sued and shut down.

While jury may be out on this one for sometime – file sharing networks and free music downloads will continue with most users not really worrying about getting sued, since most do not download free music in excess of a few files per month.

Copyright 2005 - Tim Somers, 3G Enterprises, LLC