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The record companies have declared war on their customers when it comes to the fair use rights of purchased music, and it would appear that they want the government to enlist in their crusade. Previous weeks have seen South Carolina senator Ernest Hollings propose draconian copyright">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11287/">copyright legislation as well as recent pro-Hollywood remarks from California's senator Diane Feinstein.

During copyright protection hearings in Washington the last week of February, South Carolina Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings labored mightily to please patrons Michael Eisner, CEO of Walt Disney Company, and Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Pictures Association of America (MPAA). Hollings' questioning of panelists from concerned industries was generally even-handed, according to several reports, except for his treatment of Intel executive vice president Leslie Vadasz, whose opposition to government-mandated copy control provoked an especially vindictive outpouring of vitriol from the 80-year-old Senator.

John Atkinson gets high with the HeadRoom">http://www.stereophile.com//amplificationreviews/530/">HeadRoom Supreme headphone amplifier and reports on the results. "The quest to make the headphone listening experience more equivalent to normal speaker listening is not new," writes JA. Has the Supreme made the cut?

According to a recent report from Arbitronhttp://www.arbitron.com">Arbitron; and Edison">http://www.edisonresearch.com">Edison Media Research (EMR), approximately nine million consumers who have ever listened to Internet audio said they would be willing to pay a small fee to listen to the one audio channel they listen to most online.

If you find yourself spending more time in a car seat than in your audio system's sweet spot each day, the trend pairing high-end audio companies with car manufacturers may offer a little relief. Lexus made a big splash last year by incorporating Mark Levinson technology into its latest cars, joining collaborations between Dynaudio and Volvo among others.

A year ago, Marantz gained full command over its own operations when Philips reduced its participation in the company from 50.5% to 49% by selling 1.5% of the shares to Marantz Japan Inc. (MJI).

Perhaps even more than the typical living room, the automobile might be considered multichannel audio's natural environment.

An intriguing loudspeaker technology which generates believable surround effects from only two small enclosures will be arriving at stores later this year, according to a February 24 announcement from Nirotek">http://216.87.12.168/enf/nirotek/niroson.html">Nirotek America Corporation.

Michael Fremer says he has heard many phono preamps in his career as vinyl's pre-eminent advocate, but a few do stand out. MF lived with the Conrad-Johnson">http://www.stereophile.com//analogsourcereviews/525/">Conrad-Johnson Premier 15 phono preamplifier for several months to see if it would be one of the medalists. Jonathan Scull also adds some thoughts on the Series 2 version.

The most entertaining part of the 44th Annual Grammy Awards wasn't the "Lady Marmalade" production number that opened the show or Alicia Keys' awkward tango later. It was Recording Academy President Michael Greene's rant about the criminal enterprise of electronic music swapping, a phenomenon that, he warned, threatens the music industry's very existence.