India MusicaMagic Software579MBPrice:Rs 1,595It is amazing how in India frontiers of technology can coexist with extreme backwardness of attitude. While a CD-ROM on Indian classical music is certainly a wonderful and progressive idea, its execution in the product under review is marred by gross unprofessionalism. As there is no credit given to anyone but the production house, Magic Software, one does not know whom to blame for the technical, creative or editorial errors and misinformation which abound.As CD-ROMs are going to be the future of the publishing industry, the norms set now are of vital importance. Thus it would be better if publishing houses arrived at a consensual set of rules regarding intellectual and creative property rights and observed them. And crediting sources should be one basic norm. India Musica has used several pieces of previously published and unpublished information, visual material, audio and video tracks without a line of credit anywhere.What is worse, it has used such recordings and mismatched them. So blunders have crept in, like raga Bhairav playing a phrase of raga Yaman instead. Then again, several audio feeds are missing: you can click on an icon but not get any audio because a Wave device hasn't been installed and there are video examples which have only video and no sound. Ordinarily such a product could not have been put on the market at the price quoted anywhere in the world. It is only in India and perhaps only in the non-priority area of classical music that this can happen. But it should not detract from the basic idea - to make CD-ROMs on Indian culture, as this company seems to be doing. One has not seen its other products which include language primers and a title enigmatically called India Mystica. Sadly, India Musica casts a doubt on the reliability of the entire brand..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 7, 1998--- ENDS ---
