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Will the European Union extend copyright protection to new digital media? That question was still unresolved Friday, May 26, after extended talks between ministers of the EU's 15 member nations failed to produce a coherent result. Meeting in Brussels, the ministers have been discussing how best to protect the interests of copyright holders while allowing consumers adequate leeway to use and reproduce legally purchased music, movies, video, and computer software.

When we received notice several days ago from <A HREF="http://www.panasonic.com">Panasonic</A&gt; that the company was finally releasing its DVD-Audio players next month, we filed the press release for a couple of days to see if it would last the week (see <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10620/">previous story</A>). Apparently, the products are still a go. Panasonic says it will offer a full line of DVD-Audio/Video models under both the Panasonic and Technics brand names, with the first units arriving in stores in July. As <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/news/10509/">previously announced</A> back in August 1999, the Panasonic DVD-A7 will have a suggested retail price of $999.95, and the Technics DVD-A10 will have an SRP of $1199.95.

Build the audiophile kingdom and they will come . . . or do we need to get out there and proselytize? In <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/233/">"Fine Tunes" #22</A>, Jonathan Scull looks at the debate both ways and comes to a conclusion.

"But I want to buy Thiel loudspeakers over the Internet!" cried an insistent music lover from the back of the room.

At <I>Stereophile</I> we often gets requests for product reviews. What would you like to see reviewed?

Jonathan Scull stuffs as many "relatively inexpensive" building tweaks as he can fit into <A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com//finetunes/230/">"Fine Tunes" #21</A>. Find out about basic room and electrical treatments on the relative cheap.

In an effort to smooth the way for websites that wish to legally reproduce copyrighted music, <A HREF="http://www.bmi.com">BMI</A&gt; announced last week that it has now become the world's largest online digital rights management company with the launch of its Digital Licensing Center (DLC) and "Klick-Thru" online copyright licensing system. The company says that the DLC is intended to help Internet companies digitally obtain a music-performance license through BMI.com, allowing them to publicly "perform" any of BMI's 4.5 million copyrighted works from its 250,000 songwriters, composers, and music publishers.