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after a half-century of people being able to purchase pop music and doing whatever they wished with those purchases, massive restrictions on computer files didn’t make sense to people.

they saw it as a marketing opportunity: fans of an artist were marketing that artist to other fans. Using the most powerful tool of all: the artist’s music.

What people don’t remember was that the original pricing was 99 cents per song, and $9.99 per album. After about a year, research showed that while people valued their downloads, they didn’t value them in the same way they valued physical media.

After all, one of the ongoing complaints about .mp3 files has always been sound quality, and with bandwidth increasing, storage getting cheaper, and portable devices supporting lossless formats, it only makes sense.

The great mass of people even today has not yet progressed very far away from savagery - it wants to believe in magic

Almost every era has its new magic, black or white, and its new magician

Therefore, the warriors (samurai) were educating themselves not only in the martial arts but also in literature, philosophy and the arts, e.g. the tea ceremony.

During the Edo period and especially during the Genroku era (1688 - 1703), popular culture flourished. New art forms like kabuki and ukiyo-e became very popular especially among the townspeople.

The most important philosophy of Tokugawa Japan was Neo-Confucianism, stressing the importance of morals, education and hierarchical order in the government and society:

The social hierarchy began to break down as the merchant class grew increasingly powerful while some samurai became financially dependent of them.

n the end of the 18th century, external pressure started to be an increasingly important issue, when the Russians first tried to establish trade contacts with Japan without success

All factors combined, the anti-government feelings were growing and caused other movements such as the demand for the restoration of imperial power and anti western feelings, especially among ultra-conservative samurai in increasingly independently acting domains such as Choshu and Satsuma.

estivals of Thanksgiving were observed sporadically on a local level for more than 150 years. They tended to be autumn harvest celebrations. But in 1789, Elias Boudinot, Massachusetts, member of the House of Representatives, moved that a day of Thanksgiving be held to thank God for giving the American people the opportunity to create a Constitution to preserve their hard won freedoms. A Congressional Joint Committee approved the motion, and informed President George Washington. On October 3, 1789, the President proclaimed that the people of the United States observe "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" on Thursday, the 26th of November. The next three Presidents proclaimed, at most, two days of thanksgiving sometime during their terms of office, either on their own initiative or at the request of a joint Resolution of Congress. One exception was Thomas Jefferson, who believed it was a conflict of church and state to require the American people hold a day of prayer and thanksgiving. President James Madison proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving to be held on April 13, 1815, the last such proclamation issued by a President until Abraham Lincoln did so in 1862.

Thanksgiving holiday may be given to Sarah Josepha Hale. Editor of Ladies Magazine and Godey's Lady's Book, she began to agitate for such a day in 1827 by printing articles in the magazines. She also published stories and recipes, and wrote scores of letters to governors, senators, and presidents. After 36 years of crusading, she won her battle. On October 3, 1863, buoyed by the Union victory at Gettysburg, President Lincoln proclaimed that November 26, would be a national Thanksgiving Day, to be observed every year on the fourth Thursday of November. Only twice has a president changed the day of observation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in order to give depression-era merchants more selling days before Christmas, assigned the third Thursday to be Thanksgiving Day in 1939 and 1940. But he was met with popular resistance, largely because the change required rescheduling Thanksgiving Day events such as football games and parades. In 1941, a Congressional Joint Resolution officially set the fourth Thursday of November as a national holiday for Thanksgiving.

early all of the country's inhabitants belong to the same ethnic group and share the same racial background and cultural characteristics.

Within the villages, households consist of large families. This usually includes a farmer, his wife and children, grandparents, and grown sons and their families.

Yayoi culture originally developed in northern Kyushu, the western and southernmost of Japan's main islands.

Japanese city life is much more Westernized than that of the countryside.

ayoi culture spread into Honshu (Japan's largest island) and present-day Tokyo in the Middle (100 BC-100 AD) to Late Yayoi (100-300AD) period.

Modern entertainment is also active in the cities of Japan.

The Japanese celebrate many holidays and practice many customs throughout the year.

On May 5 Kodomo-no-Hi (Children's Day) is celebrated. This is a day set aside to honor all children.

Perhaps the most important development of the Yayoi period was the cultivation of rice, probably introduced from the area near the Yangtze River delta in southern China.

November 23 marks Kansha-no-Hi (Labor-Thanksgiving Day). On this day, the Japanese give thanks to laborers and for a successful harvest.

apanese men and women did not choose their marriage partners based on love. Instead, marriage was arranged by families who paired couples based on their social and economic status.

At the end of the day a large bathtub is filled with hot water. Then, each family member, in turn washes and rinses thoroughly before getting into the tub.

In addition to pottery and iron and bronze tools, archaeologists have depended largely on burial remains to uncover Yayoi culture.

For years, the Japanese have taken great pride in their performing arts. Dance and theater are essential parts of Japanese culture.

n northeastern Japan, secondary burials were conducted in which the bones of the dead were exhumed, painted decoratively, and placed in ornamental clay jars.

"No plays" are other types of theatrical performances common in Japan.

The gagaku, for example, is classical music that was introduced into Japan from China in the 8th century A.D.

Western music is also popular in Japan.

For many years the Japanese style of dress consisted of long, flowing robes called kimonos.

The climate of Japan varies a great deal from heavy snows and extreme cold along the west coast to warm and humid summers in the rest of the country.

Buddhism was introduced to Japan in the year 538 or 552 and was promoted by the ruling class. Prince Shotoku is said to have played an especially important role in promoting Chinese ideas.

In 645, Nakatomi no Kamatari started the era of the Fujiwara clan that was to last until the rise of the military class (samurai) in the 11th century. In the same year, the Taika reforms were realized: A new government and administrative system was established after the Chinese model