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*                                                            *

*                         CYBERSPACE                         *

*         A biweekly column on net culture appearing         *

*                in the Toronto Sunday Sun                   *

*                                                            *

* Copyright 1999 Karl Mamer                                  *

* Free for online distribution                               *

* All Rights Reserved                                        *

* Direct comments and questions to:                          *

*   <kamamer@yahoo.com>                                      *

*                                                            *

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Back in January 1999 I reported on the near death of the 

popular International Lyrics Server (www.lyrics.ch). The 

International Lyrics Server let users search through a data 

base of over 100,000 popular songs lyrics. 



On January 14, Swiss police, responding to a criminal copyright 

violation complaint filed on behalf of eight music publishing 

companies, shut down the International Lyrics Server.



Luckily for those searching for the words to the latest 

Barenaked Ladies song, the site's founder Pascal de Vries 

didn't walk away from his creation. While simultaneously trying 

to fight the criminal charges, he entered into negotiations to 

secure the rights to republish song lyrics with the Harry Fox 

Agency, which represents the interests of thousands of music 

publishing companies.



The negotiations were a success and the site is back up. Sort 

of. Not many song lyrics are actually available yet. It seems 

the Fox Agency has to approve each song before it's posted. 

This could take a while...



Meanwhile, there's a smaller lyrics archive at 

www.bigfoot.com/~songlyrics that might hold you.



                So It Goes



Speaking of lyrics, a nearly two year old cyber-hoax has taken 

on a new, odder dimension.



On June 1, 1997, Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune published 

a cute little parody of a commencement address. It began with 

the now immortal and sage advice "Wear sunscreen." A month 

later, for reasons unclear, the text of her column started 

getting passed around via email. The email claimed it was a 

transcript of a real commencement address given by the 

compound-sentence avoiding humorist Kurt Vonnegut.



Lots of people seemed to get flustered when the hoax was 

revealed. Vonnegut's wife received the email and was fooled by 

it. Vonnegut, winner of some of science fiction's highest 

literary awards, actually loathes computers. The hoax didn't do 

a lot to change his opinion on the social benefits of 

automation.



Just as the matter was settling back into obscurity, a musician 

named Baz Lurhman has released Schmich's text set to a funky 

musical beat. Lurhman's "(Everybody's Free) To Wear Sunscreen" 

single has been climbing the dance charts.



Schmich's text is pretty clever (you can read it at 

www.wesselenyi.com/speech.htm), although it doesn't really sync 

well to music. Still, lines like "Keep your old love letters / 

Throw away your old bank statements" and "Dance, even if you 

have nowhere to do it but your living room" deserve to be 

celebrated in song. It's better advice than "get jiggy with it" 

or some such drivel.



If you really want to read Vonnegut's most recent commencement 

addresses, see www.duke.edu/~crh4/vonnegut/mit.html.



              Star Bores



In a column back in February 1999, I noted Toronto Star Wars 

fans were fully prepared to line up a month before the May 19 

release of the new Star Wars film. The line started May 5, not 

quite a fully insane month before the release. Those unable to 

join the line "fun" and hoping to live vicariously (something 

you seem to do more when you're older) were disappointed to 

find that the Toronto line page at 

starwars.countingdown.com/lines was underutilized. Other than 

some note about a pre-line "bash" at Swiss Chalet (was 

someone's grandmother organizing this?), there weren't a lot of 

exciting details made available.



The Electric Bean cybercafe's line web cam at 

www.electricbean.com/lineup.html promised daily photos although 

only a few dismal photos were ever posted. And they didn't even 

look like Star Wars fans, more like squatters on Parliament 

Hill. Nary an impromptu lightsaber battle.



              Cool Text



If you plan to spend a few hours lined up around a block 

waiting to get into see /Star Wars/, here's some neat text 

files you can download to your Palm Pilot and read to occupy 

yourself in line.



In 1994 cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling wrote an interesting 

non-fiction book called /The Hacker Crackdown/. As the title 

implies, it's a book about hackers and law enforcement 

officials. Sterling simultaneously released a "literary 

freeware" version to the net. It's a great read and you can 

download the complete work at 

lonestar.texas.net/~dub/hackcrck.html.



Bill Maher's TV show /Politically Incorrect/ is one of those 

shows I'd like to stay up late to watch but the demands of a 

day job prevent me from catching it. One can read the amusing 

transcripts at abc.go.com/pi/forum/word_index.html.