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The past year has been a busy one for Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She suffered a humiliating">http://tirian.magd.ox.ac.uk/~nick/UnionDebate/">humiliating defeat at England's Oxford">http://www.oxford-union.org">Oxford Union Debates, celebrated new">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11548/">new agreements with Silicon Valley companies, and led her organization in the attack on file-sharing service Kazaa. Rosen and the RIAA have also attacked college kids and put pressure on universities to police their students.

One of the more intriguing discussions we had at last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was with Jim Weil of Berkeley, CA–based Sound">http://www.soundapplication.com">Sound Application.

People are often unaware that they might benefit from industry- or union-sponsored funds or participate in class-action settlements. In early January, we were notified of a fund for session musicians with over $3 million still unclaimed, and of a procedure enabling consumers to collect a small share of the payout from the "MAP" (minimum advertised price) lawsuithttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11461/">lawsuit; that was settled by the music industry last year.

The digital music market balances on at least five legs: software producers, technology developers, electronics manufacturers, consumers, and regulating bodies. So, can a two-legged agreement stand? That's the question industry watchers are asking as representatives of two groups, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the technology sector, announced that they have reached agreement on a "core set of principles" to guide their public policy activities regarding the distribution of digital content.

Robert Deutsch tackles the Balanced">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/749/">Balanced Audio Technology VK-40 preamplifier, noting "Few topics will get audiophiles into an argument more readily than a discussion of the relative merits of tubed and solid-state equipment."

Back to the Alexis Park for a press conference with Classic Records, which has decided to release its first DVD-Audio disc around February 15. Classic was one of the very first labels to take advantage of the original DVD specification's ability to hold a 24/96 two-channel audio track, and it started releasing DAD discs exactly five years ago. The company's first DVD-A release will be the Vanguard title Songs of the Auvergne, which will feature a 24/192 two-channel DVD-A track and 24/96 two-channel DVD-V track.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) officially opened today and we spent our time at the Alexis Park noticing even more exhibitors than last year. On hand were plenty of new products, companies, and high-rez software demos. Multichannel demos were in heard in several rooms—all to good effect.