Picture yourself in a supermarket that runs 24 hours a day and 7 hours a week.
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Trusting in the Power of the Internet to Make Money
Posts Tagged ‘world’
Trusting in the Power of the Internet to Make Money
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009Billionaires gather to discuss effects of recession on charities
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Organised by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, and with Oprah Winfrey in attendance, the world’s wealthiest people collaborate on how to help charities through the economic downturn
Rarely have so many dollars been represented in a single room. An exclusive group of the world’s richest individuals held a clandestine gathering in Manhattan this month to mull over the impact of the global financial crisis on philanthropy.
The two wealthiest men on the planet, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, organised a private conclave for fellow billionaires, including the currency speculator George Soros, the New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the CNN media mogul Ted Turner and the Blackstone private equity tycoon Pete Peterson.
Held on May 5 in a riverside room on the medical campus of Rockefeller University, the unprecedented assembly of financial power also included property magnate Eli Broad, banking heir David Rockefeller, hedge fund manager Julian Robertson and Oprah Winfrey, the chat show host who is one of the richest women in entertainment.
The get-together, left off billionaires’ public diaries and passed completely beneath the media radar until news leaked this week, lasted five hours and was intended to be an exchange of views on how to optimise charitable donations during a period of financial upheaval.
Those present were worth a combined $120bn, according to estimates on Forbes magazine’s annual rich list.
“The overwhelming reason for the meeting was need – that was the issue that galvanised everyone to participate,” Patricia Stonesifer, a former head of the Gates Foundation who sat in on the meeting, told the television network ABC.
Describing the discussion as “100% about philanthropy‚” Stonesifer said topics included emergency relief efforts, scholarship initiatives, educational projects and global healthcare.
She said there was nothing cloak and dagger about the encounter: “It was meant to be a private exchange but it wasn’t a secret really, just a private meeting.”
The brainstorming session took place inside the on-campus residence of Rockefeller University’s president, Sir Paul Nurse, the Nobel prize-winning British scientist, who was not present.
According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, between them, those in the room have given more than $70bn to good causes over the last 13 years.
The chronicle’s editor-in-chief, Stacy Palmer, said the ongoing economic meltdown was decimating the philanthropic world as charities’ endowments sink in value and donors tighten their belts.
“The economy has changed the world of philanthropy,” said Palmer, who estimates one in ten of America’s not-for-profit organisations are at risk of closing. “Non-profit groups are having a very tough time and there would have been a lot to talk about.”
Longstanding friends and regular bridge partners, Gates and Buffett collaborate closely on charitable efforts. Buffett has pledged much of his fortune to the Microsoft billionaire’s Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has assets of some $55bn and concentrates its efforts on tackling diseases such as malaria, Aids and poli
- Charitable giving
- Warren Buffett
- Bill Gates
- Michael Bloomberg
- New York
- Economics
- United States
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Download music and keep it legal
Friday, April 24th, 2009As the operators of Pirate Bay face year-long jail sentences, Jessica Bown looks at lawful ways to download cheaply
The music industry claimed a victory earlier this month when four men behind file-sharing site Pirate Bay were sentenced to a year in jail and ordered to pay £2.5m in damages for helping internet users to download music, films and computer games without paying for them.
But as much as 95% of the music downloaded online is still done illegally. Matt Philips of the BPI, which represents the music industry in the UK, says: “Sales through licensed legitimate platforms are growing, but unlawful downloading still accounts for 95% of online purchases.
“As the legal market has grown, illegal downloading has increased too.”
The Pirate Bay website is used by 25 million people around the world – including millions of Britons. It argues that it does not break the law because no copyright content is hosted on its servers; instead, it hosts “torrent” links to TV, film and music files held on users’ computers.
It plans to continue to operate from computers around the world and the four men involved are also planning to appeal against the judgment that they have breached copyright law in Sweden, which is less strict than in the UK.
However record companies, which claim that illegal file-sharing has cost them billions of pounds in lost revenue, argue that new music will suffer if people continue to download without paying.
“Some £200m a year is invested by the music industry, the recording industry specifically, in new bands,” Philips says. “Artists need that financial support.”
How do I download music from the internet?
To get started, you will need a computer with plenty of hard disk space, a sound card and a connection to the internet.
To register and buy songs you will have to give the site your credit card details, so it is important to buy from an established and secure provider. Otherwise, you could be overcharged or have your card details stolen.
The services on offer also vary so it is worth browsing a few sites before signing up.
Sites such as iTunes and 7digital allow you to buy songs individually, without having to subscribe to a service but others, such as Napster, ask you to sign up and pay a set fee per month. It also operates a pre-payment system.
You may need to download software. With Napster, for example, you will need Microsoft Media Player – it comes with most recent PCs and is downloadable for free from Microsoft.
What are the legal alternatives?
Apple’s iTunes Music Store, launched in April 2003, sells single tracks for 79p, while albums start at £7.90.
Napster offers new users a free seven-day trial, after which you can choose from Napster Light, which also charges 79p a track, Napster Unlimited at £9.95 a month and Napster To Go for £14.95 a month.
The To Go service is more expensive because it allows users to download an unlimited amount of music on to a compatible MP3 player.
The Unlimited service only lets you download to up to three different computers.
You do not have to break the law to find cheaper music online, though.
Amazon recently cut the price of many of its top-selling music downloads, such as Lady GaGa’s Poker Face, Lily Allen’s The Fear and The Prodigy’s Omen, to 29p, while albums start from as little as £3.
Other sites worth looking at include 7digital, where singles start at 50p and albums cost from £5, Playlouder, which offers music news and feature content as well as downloads, and the websites of music store groups such as HMV and Virgin.
These sell CDs as well as downloads and HMV is currently offering a range of albums for £2.99 with free delivery.
But beware: content from some of the sites is only compatible with certain MP3 players, so check this first before buying if you plan to listen to your music this way.
What about streaming?
If you are more interested in listening to music online than buying it, you can choose to stream it.
Streaming audio is sound that you listen to “live” over the internet, but which is not downloaded to your hard drive – often for copyright reasons. So, you can listen to the music while you are online, but you cannot download and keep it.
Some sites, such as deezer.com, stream tracks for free, while others charge you a small amount (such as 1p per track) to listen.
Many radio stations also stream their shows over the internet.
- Consumer affairs
- Music industry
- Downloads
- Pirate Bay
- Piracy
- File sharing
- P2P
- Internet
guardian.co.uk ? Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds