According to a cybercrime advisor for the U.S. Treasury Department (there is one?), the profits for global "cybercrime" exceeded the profits made from illegal drug sales last year.

This is in dispute, of course, and sounds like a way for the feds to justify harsher penalties for cyber-criminals. (Can you say "illegal music downloads"?) While the advisor claims that the global sales of illegal drugs exceeds $105 billion, the U.N. stats put the figure at more like $322 billion. Waaay more than the Treasury Department esitimate.

Looks like the feds will say anything to justify sending hackers and downloaders to jail for a long stretch... what surpises me, though, is that they are trying to compare "cybercrime" with the rats who sell illegal drugs.

Click here to read the article at arstechnica.com.

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I found an excellent article that tells you how to build a nice, compact studio rack for your project studio. It has detailed instructions and has room for a set of small studio monitors and a couple of keyboards. It also has two rack mount cabinets so you can rack up plenty of gear.

The best part is you can build it for just a few bucks over $100 and a little elbow grease. To download the plans for the basic rack, follow the download instructions at the bottom of the article linked below. There are other, more advanced plans there and you can buy them all to download for $9.95. The basic rack plan is free (as in beer.)

Click here to read the article at TheFrankes.com.

Click here to view all the available plans.

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If you own a Yamaha S90 ES Synth, you might be in for a loud surprise. Apparently, under certain conditions, the synth might emit an ear-piercing noise that could damage your hearing.

Yamaha is supposed to be contacting owners of this synth directly to arrange for repair or replacement of the unit. Fortunately, no injuries have been reported.

Click here to read the press release.

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When I was a "kid", I remember you could go to a rock concert and see a top-of-the-charts band for as little as $15.00. There weren't CDs back then, but you could buy a record or cassette album for around $8.00. My peers at the time had no ethical problems with making "party tapes" that compiled music from all their favorite albums. They would give them to their friends, who would in turn make copies to give to their friends. When we heard a band we really, really liked - we actually went out and bought the album. Those were the days.

In the digital age, that typical kid behavior can now land you in court and cost you thousands of dollars. As illustrated by the Sony Rootkit fiasco, consumers are beginning to get a taste of the Digital Rights Management software being slipped onto the latest batch of CDs that keep you from "ripping" the song to your iPod.

Consumers have seen the future of DRM... and are beginning to realize that it SUCKS!