LATEST ADDITIONS

S<I>tereophile</I> readers with a hunger for licorice pizza may wish to turn their attention to the Phonogram mailing list---an online, noncommercial discussion forum for those interested in vinyl and related topics. According to Phonogram's material, "the group is an open, informative, interesting, and just plain fun place for people to share their enthusiasm for, knowledge of, and opinions on music on shiny black discs. Although the focus is primarily on 33 1/3rpm vinyl LPs, comments and questions on 45s, 78s, open-reel tapes, or other media (even CeeDees) are welcome. Discussion of hardware supporting record playback (e.g., turntables, tonearms, cartridges, phono stages, and accessories) is fair game as well."

The February issue sees the latest update of <I>Stereophile</I>'s "Records To Die For," in which the magazine's staff reveals what got them going in 1998. But what about <I>your</I> choice?

Musician, martial artist, and electronics whiz Ben Blish has loved audio since he was a little kid staring into the glowing tubes of his father's Scott hi-fi equipment. Thirty-four years after catching the bug, he still nurtures it daily.

In January, <A HREF="http://www.npr.org/">National Public Radio</A> launched an ambitious series chronicling the history of the 20th century in sound. <I>Lost & Found Sound</I> began with the first half of a two-part piece on the father of audio technology, entitled "The Rise and Fall of Thomas Alva Edison." Part two, which examines Edison's competition, will be broadcast this week.

<I>This series of articles is based on a paper presented at the 103rd Audio Engineering Society Convention, New York, September 1997. The preprint, "Loudspeakers: What Measurements Can Tell Us&mdash;And What They Can't Tell Us!," AES Preprint 4608, is available from the AES, 60 East 42nd Street, Room 2520, New York, NY 10165-0075. The AES internet site, <A HREF="http://www.aes.org">www.aes.org</A&gt;, offers a secure transaction page for credit-card orders.</I>

MP3 audio files have quickly become the dominant format for downloading music over the Internet, and have just as quickly raised the ire of music labels and artists looking to protect their musical assets. For example, a petition signed by nearly 400 European recording artists (including Mstislav Rostropovich and Barbara Hendricks) was handed to the European Parliament last Tuesday by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre to protest lax copyright protections exacerbated by digital technology. The petition states, in part, "We want to use new digital technologies like the Internet to create and to deliver our music, but we will only feel confident doing so if we know that the laws are there to stop our works falling victim to pirates."

E<I>ditor's note: For months now, we've been reporting about the the problems and dilemmas created by audio formats such as MP3, which are often used to pirate and illegally distribute music over the Internet. Correspondent <A HREF="mailto:sazanka@yahoo.com">Leonid Korostyshevski</A> offers a decidedly unique Russian spin on the situation. His previous stories are <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10131/">here</A&gt; and <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10331/">here</A&gt;. Photos were taken last week by Leonid Korostyshevski</I>