M&M’s World Headlines: Feb 26, 2009
AT&T Didn’t Violate Antitrust Laws In Wholesale DSL Pricing Tech Dirt
Well, this is certainly interesting. Just as the US government seems to be hinting at the possibility of declaring Google a monopoly, the Supreme Court has overturned a lower court ruling on whether or not AT&T violated antitrust laws in pricing its wholesale DSL lines at a price above its retail rates (i.e., other DSL providers could resell AT&T DSL lines, but they would have to price them significantly higher than AT&T or lose money). The Supreme Court has now said that it’s not an antitrust violation to have priced line sharing in this manner.
»»»
China Shuts Down ‘Unregistered’ Websites Tech Dirt
You may recall a few years back that China started demanding that all websites register with the government for approval. We hadn’t heard much about the program since then, but apparently the government has recently decided to shut down thousands of “unregistered” websites, mostly of small businesses.
»»»
Recording Industry Lobbying Group Pushes Congress To Tax Radio Stations More Tech Dirt
MusicFIRST, a recording industry lobbying group that already has some controversy surrounding it due to contributions from groups not allowed to be involved in lobbying, is continuing to push forward with its campaign to claim that radio is a kind of piracy and demanding legislation that forces radio stations to pay extra to play music. For most of the history of radio, radio stations have paid songwriters and publishers royalties for playing music on the radio, but they didn’t pay the musicians (really: the record labels). In fact, the money often (illegally) went in the other direction, with the labels paying the radio stations to play certain artists to help promote them. However, these days, with the recording industry unable to adapt to the changing marketplace, they’ve taken to demanding that others (individuals, ISPs, video games, Apple, webcasters, etc…) simply give them money instead. Their latest target, of course, is radio stations. It started with that silly claim that radio is a form of piracy — then advanced to a bill, being introduced by a Congressional Rep, John Conyers (whose last campaign was heavily funded by those connected to the labels and this lobbying group), to force radio stations to pay the record labels as well. [Also see The RIAA and the Broadcaster Shakedown.]
»»»
MTV Supposedly Boycotting Warner Music Artists In Rock Band Tech Dirt
A bunch of folks have sent in an article from the latest issue of Wired Magazine about Warner Music’s fight with the publishers of music video games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero. To be honest, the article doesn’t cover much more ground than stories from last year, when Warner Music’s Edgar Bronfman Jr. first demanded more money from the game publishers. But, it does include one juicy tidbit. After reposting Bronfman’s silly quote demanding more money: “In response, Rock Band publisher MTV Games is now boycotting Warner artists, according to a source close to the negotiations.” This is yet another example (in an increasingly long line) of how Warner Music’s recent actions have done plenty to harm its artists. You may recall that a similarly ridiculous whine from Warner Music execs that YouTube wasn’t paying enough money resulted in YouTube pulling all Warner Music videos from the site, pissing off many Warner Music artists.
»»»
EMI Continues Suing Innovators And Their Investors Tech Dirt
Warner Music has led the way for the big record labels to combat any innovation: it tends to sue every new startup that does anything remotely innovative with music, and as part of any “settlement” demands they either shut down or give a big equity stake to Warner Music. It’s extortion by lawsuit — and it’s designed to prevent any sort of innovation. However, it looks like EMI is quickly following suit. Despite its new (non record industry) owners who declared that it was time for EMI to take a new approach to the industry, and even hiring some tech industry hotshots, the company just can’t stop suing small innovative startups. It’s sued MP3Tunes for letting people store and listen to their own, legally purchased music. It’s sued Hi5 and VideoEgg for having user-uploaded videos that include music — despite the DMCA’s safe harbors that remove liability from them.
»»»
‘Lucky Charms’ guilty of breaking ad rule CNet News
An ad campaign for Lucky Charms cereal has proven unlucky for General Mills in Quebec. The Canadian branch of the cereal giant has pleaded guilty to violating provisions of the provincial consumer law with an ad targeting children under 13 years old.
»»»
Hacking contest offers $10,000 for iPhone exploit The Register
An annual hacker competition planned for next month has setting its sights on Apple’s iPhone and four other smart phones in a contest that will pay cash prizes of $10,000 to anyone who can break in to the mobile devices.
»»»
Identifying Yourself As A Lesbian Gets You Banned On XBOX Live Consumerist
Teresa says that she was harassed by other players and later suspended from XBOX Live because she identified herself as a lesbian in her profile. When she appealed to Microsoft, she says they told her that other gamers found her sexual orientation “offensive.” We’ve heard of gamers being suspended for identifying themselves as gay in their GamerTag, and even one case of a guy whose name was actually “Richard Gaywood” but his tag was suspended anyway because apparently the word “gay” is so offensive that it doesn’t matter if its actually your name. As far as we know, Microsoft is unwilling to reconsider this position.
»»»
New Microsoft patent-infringement case involves Linux ZDNet News
Microsoft has filed a patent infringement case against a GPS-navigation system company. What makes the case interesting is its Linux connection. MIcrosoft filed the action on February 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, as well as with the International Trade Commission, according to the company. It names TomTom NV and TomTom Inc. for infringing on Microsoft patents. According to Microsoft’s statement, “We have taken this action after attempting for more than a year to engage in licensing discussions with TomTom.” On TechFlash, blogger Todd Bishop is reporting that Linux figures into Microsoft’s patent case. Microsoft is suing over eight patents, “including three that relate to TomTom’s implementation of the Linux kernel.”
»»»
OctoMom Offered $1 Million to Make a Porno TMZ
OctoMom is used to having multiple people inside of her at once — and now one porn company is willing to shell out big bucks to harness that skill on film. Major porn distributor Vivid Entertainment has just fired off a letter to Nadya Suleman, offering her 1 million bucks to star in a skin flick of her own. Vivid is willing to go one step further, by telling us they’ll give her family full medical and dental insurance if she becomes a “contract girl”… meaning she’ll have to do multiple videos.
»»»
Ticketmaster slammed again over early sale of Leonard Cohen tickets CBC
More complaints are surfacing about Ticketmaster, this time about inflated ticket prices for Leonard Cohen’s upcoming concerts in Canada. Ticketmaster’s website says tickets don’t go on sale until Wednesday for most Canadian dates, but the company’s affiliated website, TicketsNow, began selling tickets to the shows for hundreds of dollars more than their face value before that. Tickets to Cohen’s concerts were withdrawn from sale by TicketsNow sometime Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. Tickets with a face value of $99 to $250 were being sold on TicketsNow.com for between $568 to $856, plus a service of charge ranging from $85 to $128 per ticket.
»»»
Police Shut Down Latvian BitTorrent Trackers TorrentFreak
Latvia continues its clamp down on BitTorrent trackers, as two more sites have been pulled offline by the local police. Whether the attempts will prove effective is doubtful. File.lv, Latvia’s largest BitTorrent tracker was taken down last summer but has since returned, despite an ongoing lawsuit.
»»»
Canada not blamed for Piracy by Nintendo Game Politics
Nintendo has pointed the piracy finger at several nations in a press release issued today. Interestingly, Canada, which was recently singled out by the ESA over its relaxed posture toward mod chips, does not come in for a mention by Nintendo. [Also see http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3707/196/]
»»»
Teen sacked for ‘boring’ job Facebook comment The Register
A teenager from the international financial powerhouse that is Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, was given her marching orders after bosses discovered she’d described her office administrator’s post as “boring” on Facebook. Kimberley Swann, 16, was dragged before the powers that be on Monday morning and summarily dismissed from her job at Ivell Marketing & Logistics, the Telegraph explains. She was handed a letter which read: “Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect.”
February , 2009
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It’s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
