p2pnet World Headlines: Oct 27, 2009
What is the future of music online? BBC
For years, the music industry has, in the words of Bonnie Tyler, been holding out for a hero. For the industry, this hero must come up with an idea that is great enough to tempt fans away from illegal file-sharing sites, while simultaneously making money for artists, songwriters and record labels. Spotify and We7, the music streaming services funded by adverts and subscriptions, have come closest so far. And for a while, it looked like Sky and Virgin would save the day. They planned services offering unlimited downloads for an extra fee on top of an existing broadband and TV subscription. But both are believed to have stumbled because major labels did not think they would generate enough cash. Sky launched a watered down service on Monday. The struggle to offer unlimited downloads on a subscription is seen as a missed opportunity by many observers. So other than being punished, how will fans be tempted away from illegal services, and how will artists, songwriters and labels make money in the future? A range of industry executives and commentators offered their visions of the future at the In the City music conference in Manchester.
AT&T and VEVO Team Up to Harness the Power of Premium Music Content on the Web PRNewswire
VEVO, the new premium music video and entertainment service powered by YouTube, and AT&T have entered into a branding and marketing agreement whereby AT&T will support VEVO’s comprehensive services across multiple connected platforms. The announcement was made today by Rio Caraeff, president and chief executive officer of VEVO, and Chris Schembri, vice president of media services for AT&T. Launching later this year, music fans will have the ability to view professionally-created content from Universal Music Group’s and Sony Music Entertainment’s broad array of chart-topping artists through VEVO, the innovative online premium music video hub being built for consumers, advertisers and content owners that will blend the very best in top-notch music content with YouTube’s leading edge video technology and user community. The content will be made available on YouTube, on VEVO.com, the service’s marquee destination site, and through a special VEVO branded embedded player. The service will also serve as a syndication platform for additional internet destination sites, expanding the reach of the VEVO brand across the worldwide web.
MSN, MySpace in music talks — report MarketWatch
News Corp.’s MySpace is in early negotiations with Microsoft-owned MSN about allowing MySpace Music to help provide music for the Web portal, according to an item published Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital blog. Microsoft doesn’t want to have to forge numerous deals with music labels, agreements MySpace Music already has in place, All Things Digital said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the talks. MySpace Music is among the top-ranked online music properties, placing No. 2 behind AOL Music in April according to a report by comScore, All Things Digital noted.
Sony Unit Draws U.S. Antitrust Probe Wall Street Journal
Sony Corp. said it received a subpoena from the antitrust division of the U.S. Justice Department seeking information about its U.S. optical disk drive business. The Tokyo-based consumer electronics company said the subpoena involves Sony Optiarc America Inc., a unit that sells optical disk drives used in personal computers. It also said it “understands the [Justice Department] and agencies outside the U.S. are investigating competition in optical disk drives.” Justice Department officials declined to comment on the matter, and the precise nature of the subpoena from the antitrust division hasn’t been made public. Sony said it intends to cooperate “fully with the [Justice Department] and other agencies in this inquiry,” without identifying the other agencies.
On2 to settle suits challenging purchase by Google Associated Press
Video-software company On2 Technologies Inc. said Monday it settled several lawsuits by shareholders who had challenged On2’s purchase by Google Inc. On2’s digital-video-compression technology may help Google cut costs for its video-sharing site YouTube, as it can shrink files, making them easier to send. In August, On2 agreed to a takeover by Google in a deal valued at about $106 million. On2 shareholders later filed lawsuits against On2 in New York and Delaware, claiming On2 directors agreed to a deal that undervalues their shares. The shareholders also argued that the deal doesn’t give them a significant premium in return for the change in control. The lawsuits had sought class-action status.
Roku introduces two new set-tops, teases additional content channels coming next month CNetNews
Roku is prepping its set-top box line for the holiday season by adding two new models and new content “channels” due within the coming weeks. The step-up Roku HD XR Player ($130) adds faster 802.11n. Wi-Fi and a USB port “for future use.” The step-down model–the Roku SD Player–loses the HD outputs of its siblings; it’ll retail for $80. The two new boxes will have the same look and feel of the existing Roku box, which is being redubbed as the Roku HD Player. That model (802.11g Wi-Fi, no USB port) will continue to be available at the same $100 price point.
File-sharing: Handle Winny at your own risk Japan Times
More than a decade since the heyday of Napster shareware, peer-to-peer file distribution remains a key tool for Internet users exchanging music and movie files online. The leading program in Japan is Winny, an application distributed free of charge since May 2002 by former University of Tokyo researcher Isamu Kaneko. While Napster creator Shawn Fanning was hit with a series of lawsuits and taken to civil court by the music industry, Kaneko has faced criminal charges for allegedly encouraging Winny users to commit copyright infringement. The software also has been a reason for countless cases of data leaks, varying from private information on personal computers to internal government documents. Winny most recently made headlines earlier this month, but this time for a controversial ruling by the Osaka High Court overturning a lower court judgment and acquitting Kaneko. [Also see Guilty ruling against Winny developer overturned]
Blinkx attempts to crash the music video party CNet News
Video might’ve killed the radio star, but the Web sure hasn’t killed music videos. Less than a week after News Corp.-owned social site MySpace announced its MySpace Music Videos portal, video search engine Blinkx announced the debut Tuesday of “Blinkx Music,” a search tool specifically designed to trawl through. “There are hundreds of thousands of music videos available on the Web today which makes it nearly impossible to navigate and find what you are looking for,” Blinkx founder and CEO Suranga Chandratillake explained in a release. “Based on the success of blinkx Remote, our online TV guide, we recognized there was a need to help organize music videos and make them easily searchable on the Web. By leveraging our award-winning video search index, we built Blinkx Music to help our users find their favorite music videos quickly, easily and in one place.”
Q&A: A front-row seat for media’s meltdown CNetNews
During a visit to Hollywood last week, I wanted to talk to people who knew a thing or two about the film industry’s burgeoning meltdown. One of the people I sought out was Eric Garland, CEO and co-founder of Big Champagne. Beverly Hills, Calif.,-based Big Champagne has collected data on file sharing and sold it to media companies for almost 10 years. Garland’s company has survived all that time, even while making the same sad pitch. He tells the music labels and film studios they are going to be chopped down at the knees by the Internet and online piracy–but that doesn’t mean they can’t survive. As anyone might have guessed, almost everybody in media initially told Big Champagne to stick a cork in it. Back in the early part of the decade, nobody wanted to hear it, and Garland logged lots of five-minute meetings. Thanks to his persistence, though, he saw up close how digital technology buffeted the music industry. Now, some of the big labels are striking partnerships with his company. What makes Garland an important speaker on this subject is that despite his gloomy message, he’s bullish on both the Internet and movies. His interests and Hollywood’s are aligned, he says, because if the studios don’t survive then he loses customers. He wants them to do well but he just doesn’t think that telling them what they want to hear, the “bedtime stories” as he calls it, is going to help. In his interview with CNET, Garland predicted that the film business is in for a period of downsizing and cost cutting; that Hollywood’s digital evolution will likely be similar to the music industry’s but will unfold much faster; and that great wealth will still flow into the sector.
MPAA prez urges Japan to lead Internet piracy legislation Business of Cinema
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president and COO Bob Pisano addressed delegates attending the Asian Intellectual Property Symposium in Tokyo about the serious consequences of illegal file sharing on the internet. The symposium was hosted by the Anti Counterfeiting Association (ACA) and Nikkei Inc. with support from the National Police Agency, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, Ministry of Finance …
A Virtual Voyage Through the Brain of a Mouse New York Times
Whole Brain catalog. A screen shot of a video representing the structures of the mouse brain from the Whole Brain Catalog. Mouse brain enthusiasts can finally relax. They have a place of their very own to hang out, swap stories and share information. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego, have released something they’re calling the Whole Brain Catalog. At its core, the catalog is meant to serve as a repository for data gathered about the mouse brain. Scientists around the globe can opt to pop their brain studies into the catalog and help create a richer, shared set of information than what’s available at each individual research institution. Mark Ellisman, a neurosciences and bioengineering professor at U.C.S.D., likens the project to Google Earth. He said scientists were trying to build a 3-D model of the mouse brain that could be explored at various levels, from the overall structure of the brain down to its most intricate features. Such an effort requires the scientists to harness an immense amount of data.
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
October, 2009
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October 27th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
French Branch of Scientology Is Convicted of Fraud
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/10/27/1731221/French-Branch-of-Scientology-Is-Convicted-of-Fraud
“The French branch of the Church of Scientology was convicted of fraud and fined nearly $900,000 on Tuesday by a Paris court. But the judges did not ban the church entirely, as the prosecution had demanded, saying that a change in the law prevented such an action for fraud. The church said it would appeal. The verdict was among the most important in several years to involve the controversial group, which is registered as a religion in the United States but has no similar legal protection in France. It is considered a sect here, and says it has some 45,000 adherents, out of some 12 million worldwide. It was the first time here that the church itself had been tried and convicted, as opposed to individual members.”
October 27th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
More on the French Branch of Scientology Conviction of Fraud:
http://blogs.nzherald.co.nz/blog/your-views/2009/10/28/scientology-movement-organised-fraud/?c_id=2&objectid=10605835
The church of Scientology has been branded an “organised fraud” by a French court and fined 600,000 euros ($1.2m) for preying financially on vulnerable believers. Judges in the Paris criminal court stopped short of outlawing the cult’s organising bodies. But, in an unusual step, it ordered the church to pay for adverts carrying its findings to be placed in newspapers around the world.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/10/27/scientology-fraud-france-court-charges.html
The court convicted the Church of Scientology’s French office, its library and six leaders. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used “commercial harassment” against recruits. The court handed down prison sentences ranging from 10 months to two years and fines of $8,000 to $47,750 to four leaders of the group.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2009/s2725958.htm
OLIVIER MORICE (translated): This is an historic decision. I repeat that this is the first time in France that Scientology has been condemned for organised fraud and we are extremely satisfied with this decision. EMMA ALBERICI: The case centred around the claims of former Scientologists who say they were conjoled into spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on personality tests, vitamin cures, sauna sessions and counselling. The investigating judge criticised what he called Scientologists obsession with financial gain.
More info that came out today not related to the above:
Questions over Scientology’s 19 calls in 48 hours before 110,000-volt suicide
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/questions-over-scientologys-19-calls-in-48-hours-before-110000volt-suicide-20091027-hih7.html
October 27th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
China accuses Google of ‘malicious’ censorship
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/27/china_peoples_daily_google_censorship_accusation/
People’s Daily said its online book section was blocked from Google searches via a malware warning for three days beginning last Wednesday. It insists the blockage was “malicious revenge” for the book section prominently featuring stories about how Google’s rather dubious practice of scanning books without permission might violate the rights of Chinese authors.
Will they sue? Maybe Mcaffee is behind it?
October 27th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
“Instead of cutting people off the internet, I’d much rather they sent the worst offenders into studios for a week to do community service to understand exactly what goes into the process of making music.”
That’s actually a neat idea. I like that.
October 28th, 2009 at 1:59 am
Does the “process” of making music mentioned include all the sponging off of funds to go into executive pockets?
Does it include all the times a great song is passed on in favor of a mediocre one for a single?
Or perhaps it refers to all the times the band is kept from designing their own albums, and the band ends up having to pay a “professional” they don’t even want.
And the song invention process would be interesting to read about… all that stealing songs from unsigned legitimate bands then giving them to no-talent signed hacks…
The vocal alteration process… the Photoshopping “good looks” onto singers process… the price markup process…