Following hot on the heels of my Diaspora article comes news of a fairly impressive project which aims to make classical music free and available to all.

Downloadable music is a contentious subject in our modern times of illegal downloads, but this is exactly what the folks at Musopen.org are aiming for, except they are aiming to make their downloads legal.
Currently even if you buy music composed by a genius such as Tchaikovsky which is firmly in the public domain, the work of the musicians as published artists may be protected by copyright.
This means that you cannot then use their recording as you please, on youtube, private video or to broadcast without paying them royalties or obtaining permission.
There is nothing wrong with this as learning a musical instrument to a standard where you can gain employment through your talents deserves reward, however as Tchaikovsky himself gains no reward for his original compositions it all becomes a morally grey area.

What the folks at Musopen.org are attempting to do is to hire one of the well known orchestras to record such classics, and then to release those recordings free of binding copyright and royalties, free to download by anyone.

Utilising the Kickstarter website they have been pledged more than their target amount of $11000 and they will be passed this collected sum of money on the 14th September, so we should see some wonderful things start to happen thereafter.
You can still contribute if you wish, in fact you probably should, they are a worthy cause and will be giving a unique, selfless and significant product back to the global community in return for your pledge.

A truly selfless and community driven project. Bravo guys and gals, a truly virtuoso endeavour!

Set to launch on the 15th September, an Open Source alternative to Facebook entitled "Diaspora" is drawing attention across the globe.

Developed by four graduates fron New York, Diaspora aims to rival Facebook by allowing the user a greater level of control over their exposure and privacy on the net.
The project drew an initial contribution of £130,000 in the first twelve days, including a contribution from Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook.

Don't get too excited though, the project has a long way to go before it becomes a widely used or functional as facebook, but it does have promise.

For anyone who uses Facebook and has found that it has recently become a platform for advertising, personal promotion and endless irritating browser games Diaspora comes as a breath of fresh air.

Keep up the good work guys!

From 27th to 30th August, Team-Aero will be competing at the i40 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare tournament.

i40, or Insomnia 40 is a major LAN event in the Multiplay i-Series, hosted by major UK game server provider Multiplay.
This is, as the event label would suggest, the 40th Insomnia LAN event, and it will hold tournaments for games such as Counter Strike: Source, Team Fortress 2 and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare amongst other games, as well as various exhibitions.

The Team-Aero lineup is as follows:

• Aero.Devour
• Aero.LMKM
• Aero.Mac
• Aero.Shuan3h
• Aero.Orixey

As little added homeage to The Group Thing, we are informed Team-Aero will be sporting Aero.TGT as their tags at this event.

Be sure to follow and support the team attending i40 by checking in on www.team-aero.co.nr this weekend for updates in the form of scores, pictures, videos and general happenings from their i40 attendance.

The Group Thing wishes Team-Aero the best of luck!
May all their frags be humiliating and cruel.

Official Multiplay i-Series website:
iseries.multiplay.co.uk