Leader: The CD debate

In many ways CDs and CD-ROMs seem so old media - ironic, given how it was only just over a decade ago they were analogous with everything 'multimedia' and cutting edge. Anyway, the humble CD - or rather, doing without it - keeps on cropping up.

First today, witness Virgin being the latest company to set up an online music store. It will be a good tie-up with its Virgin Mobile services around the world and the company looks better placed than some upstarts, tech players and the likes of Coca-Cola to sell sounds.

Such services do seem to be gaining ground and the prospect of a European DMCA - a nasty bit of legislation in the US which has left the average Joe susceptible to all kinds of heavy-handed tactics - has civil liberties groups up in arms. The European Parliament casts votes this week on the subject of intellectual property rights. The result could give Virgin and co another fillip.

But just as one industry moves in this 'virtual' direction ('virtual' rather than virtual as we still need physical players, for which the likes of Apple are eternally grateful), the humdrum world of software patching and updating clings to the past. silicon.com readers - or at least a significant proportion of you, 38 per cent to be precise - would like to receive quarterly CDs with all Microsoft's security antidotes on board.

There is a certain comforting feeling to this but let's not be fooled. Waiting months for patches - a wait which equates to a vulnerability from the moment the next bit of appropriate malware comes along - isn't a good idea. But then again, if you don't have a broadband connection, snail mail may prove the only option. Perhaps the only solace to take is knowing that dial-up, inevitably not always-on, means less of a risk than DSL, cable, leased lines and so on.

And speaking of seedy content (CD... seedy... we know you'll geddit), a BT plan to find another use for public phone boxes - away, that is, from venues for prostitute calling cards, as they have become in all too many areas as opposed to places to make calls - has to be applauded.

Withdrawing cash or connecting to multimedia services is likely to be the way forward. Or how about downloading music or getting the latest patch for your laptop? You heard it here first.