Jim Connelly

While you were planning all of your World Cup parties, here’s what we were looking at:

• Tom, Don’t Sue The Chili Peppers! – Why Tom Petty suing the Red Hot Chili Peppers over the potential nicking of his song “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” really isn’t a great idea.
• All Hail Digital Publishing! – Digital Publishling, on the other hand, is a great idea.
• Stop With The Fracking Robo-Calls Already!!! – A plan to stop those annoying political phone calls, once and for all.
• In Defense Of The User-Generated Content Culture – You’d think that, in 2006, it wouldn’t need defending. Oh, wait, the media gatekeepers are afeared of the barbarians who just wanna, you know, express themselves.
• There May Still Be Hope For Google Video – Of course, despite their newfound cross-platformness (cross-platformity? cross-platformitude?), they still have that suck-ass UI.
• That’s What I Like: Audible.com – Speaking of UIs that could be improved, Kassia can live with Audible’s UI problems because they have such an impressive selection of content.

While you were praying for the strength to leg press 2001 pounds, here’s what we were looking at:

• Books And Bytes – It’s All Good – There is no one perfect method to store human knowledge and information. Just as long as we keep storing it in every conceivable manner.
• How Can I Burn iTunes Videos To DVD? – In the inaugural edition of yet another new feature, “Dear Lopy,” we tackle the thorny issue of why you can’t burn those cool iTunes videos you legally downloaded to a DVD for easy viewing.
• Some Saturday Suggestions – In the age of time-and-space shifting, perhaps the networks oughta rethink their wholesale abandonment of an entire evening.
• Long Tail: Introduction Version – Among many many other things, the Long Tail is also good for niche artists, who can have long, fruitful careers without ever becoming actual household names. Just ask Yo La Tengo.
• That’s What I Like: Jennifer Crusie – Kassia looks at an author who helps her get through the summer that has already exploded upon us with a thousand points of heat.
• Forget 2.0 WSJ Is Going Straight To 3.0 – Is the Wall Street Journal going turn into the first true newspaper of the 21st century?
• Teaching Kids About Copyright Laws – You know how The Joker or Lex Luthor would periodically pretend to perform great acts of public service, all the while furthering their nefarious purposes? Say hello to Captain Copyright, who just might be the Medialoper’s mortal enemy. What will happen next? Tune in tomorrow: Same Lope-Time, same Lope-Channel!

While you were trying to figure out exactly the hell was going on with that Lost finale, here’s what we were looking at:

• That’s What I Like: O’Reilly Media’s Safari Bookshelf – Kirk likes how O’Reilly migrated their essential technical books seemlessly into the eBook space.

• Publishing Versus The Net Generation – What that the rest of the publishing world could learn from O’Reilly’s success instead of fighting the inevitable.

• Copyright And The Artistic Process – Kassia wades into the continuing struggle between artists recontextualizing existing art to create new works and the copyright holders of said existing art.
• Why Not The NiPod? – It is, of course, entirely possible that the two greatest advertisers of our age will use their combined muscle to make the Nike+iPod Sports Kit the must-have item of Summer ’06. But I doubt it.
• The RIAA Is “Feeling Pretty Good” – Next up for the RIAA: suing a fetus for “future intent to download copyrighted music.”
• That’s What I Like: The Lightwedge – I’m really still amazed at how simple it is, and wonder why it took so long for somebody to come up with it.
• Lopetop Theater – Series One, Episode The First – Lopy is excited to be the emcee of our latest feature, and hopes that you’ll think of her as the Ed Sullivan of the 21st century.