After years of tension, the Arabian Civil War broke out over in Saudi Arabia, officially beginning over in early of 2002. The House of Saud and their loyal military factions against what would be called the New Arab Coalition, filled with various liberals, leftists, Neo-Baathists and other groups, with a mix of prominent individuals such as Osama Bin Laden. The major powers agreed not to get involved into the affairs outside of just sending forces to assist civilians medically. However, this did not include some of Saudi Arabia's neighbors. Unsurpisingly, the Republic of Qatar as well as Syria have pledged assistance to the New Arab Coalition, given the shared ties of Neo-Baathism in those nations and in fact Neo-Baathists being the single most prominent force in the Coalition. Many have compared the conflict to that of Nepalese Civil War regarding the scope and levels of conflict. For the NAC, it was not just about overthrowing the House of Saud, but also bringing change over to the Arab peninsula. For some, it meant ending the monarchy and putting a republic. For others, it was something more radical. Of course, the coalition wasn't completely united. After all, a couple faction looked down at the House of Saud for not being sufficiently devout enough while others did it because they viewed Wahhabism and similar practices as heretical and impractical. For the civilian, they were still trying to live their lives as best they could and were grateful for international aid, especially as some began leaving the nation for neighbors. Omar and Yemen meanwhile found themselves gravitating toward more prominent neighbors, such as Omar getting closer to Iran or Yemen with Ethiopia. While it has been a messy war with plenty of guerilla fighting, no clear victor has been and many wonder how long the House of Saud can stand against this... and if they will survive the onslaught.
Back at home, the tech boom continues to grow with the continuing changes. As NeXT Inc absorbs Apple and Steve Jobs taking back his old kingdom under his new empire, the question remained over Be Inc, BeOS and its assets. Discontinuing it would likely land them into trouble and be seen as a slap in the face to the workers. Additionally, spinning t off and selling it would help NeXT Inc gain the funds needed to continue growing so they began looking for potential buyers. What helped was the Clinton administration helping out various companies from the effects of a stock drop (though it was not a "dotcom bubble" or crash as some feared). Before long, NeXT Inc would announce they were in negotiations with Sun Microsystems over for Sun acquire Be Inc and their assets. With Microsoft's division, companies saw a potential chance to try and grow once more and they were gonna take their chance. Sun Microsystems began talks after securing some government bailout from stock troubles, having done so to ensure they would not have to close many of their hardware facilities. While there were some other potential buyers, Sun Microsystems was the current big name talking and people were wondering if this would mean a greater focus of Sun Microsystems selling personal computers to the general public. Akashica was another company that kept growing. Going from just an online bookstore, it expanded to include media such as music, film and television. While some plans were considered for greater expansion for general items, Bezos rejected it on a number of grounds, such as customers' buying habits of most items becoming more localized since the 1980s and likely a shifting focus for services and the like. Others noted it was also perhaps out of concern for ending up like Microsoft while some even speculated it was due to Bezos' own ambitions shifting to further places. That said, Akashica had quite the impact so far, both in financial success and culturally, as the website who launch a "Graphic Novel Renaissance", thanks to being able to introduce an increasingly large audience to a wider assortment along with donating excess product to public libraries, which would foster growing interest and expand the consumer base.
On a more mixed news came the court case decisions over with
A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc, though the plaintiff consisted of various more groups. The plaintiffs attempted to go after Napster for copyright infringment regarding the users sharing music files and causing financial loss to the industry. Various defenses were propped up, a more unusual one being that it actually helped sales in the long run by serving as a promotional tool with various musicians suc as Chuck D from
Private Enemy supporting Napster while
English rock band
Radiohead noted their album
Kid A had been downloaded alot prior to the release and that, isolated from other variables that could be attributed to it, Napster helped the album become more popular than it other would've been. [1] Another note was on the note by prominent copyright lawyer and founder of Creative Commons, Lawence Lessig. He noted that when Napster told the district court that it had developed a technology to block the transfer of 99.4 percent of identified infringing material, the district court told counsel for Napster 99.4 percent was not good enough. Napster had to push the infringements 'down to zero.' He believed that this argument framed the whole thing as a war on file-sharing technologies, not a war on copyright infringement. [1] The court noted on if it was actually practical to get it to zero for that matter. While Napster would avoid having to pay any fees for it, the site was still in danger of shutting down regarding potential other penalities and actions they may have to do. It also drove a notable wedge in the music industry. Chuck D's endorsement caught the attenton of various other musicians and groups on the possibility of promoting content through Napster, especially with Napster's genuine attempts on fixing problems. While some of the major music artists and so on were sour on the exchange and bitter for the potential loss of money, other artists, notably independent artists, viewed it as valuable. Napster users would take note on who supported and who was against them. One group in particular would approach Napster as the smoke was clearing for potential collaboration: Artistshare. Recognized as the first commercial cowdfunding website along with serving as a
record label and
business model for artists, Artistshare enables artists to fund their projects by allowing the general public to directly finance, watch the creative process, and in most cases gain access to extra material from an artist. [2] Napster and Artistshare saw alot of promise in the potential for collaboration; Napster could be kept afloat and not have to worry much while Artistshare could get a large network already to introduce new artists to and have them grow. And this would not be the only interest, as more groups were coming in. Overall, this was seen as the beginnings of conflict as technology kept evolving on various fronts and some people not wanting to embrace it, while others saw it as a way of the future.
Besides technology growth and global conflicts, there was plenty of other events over on the news to note. Besides the Arabian Civil War, Zaire would become the recipient of various assistant programs, especially by the Soveriegn Union, when hundreds of thousands of people would be displaced with the eruption of
Mount Nyiragongo. Beyond assisting the displaced people and rebuilding, there was also the increased need to monitor the volcano. On more pleasant news,
Queen Elizabeth II of the
Commonwealth realms celebrates her
Golden Jubilee, marking 50 years since her accession to the thrones of the
United Kingdom,
Canada,
Australia and
New Zealand. [3] Many found a sort of nostalgic constant that Queen Elizabeth remained on the throne and an impressive legacy of the time she came from and how far they came. Though speaking of European news, the beginning of the year would see the
Euro being officially introduced in the
Eurozone countries. The former currencies of all the countries that use the Euro ceased to be legal tender on February 28. [3]
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[1]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster
[2]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArtistShare
[3]- Information and phrasing from here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002
