by Eliot Van Buskirk, Contributor, Epicenter, Wired.com
MySpace, rumored to be on the verge of purchasing the free music streaming site imeem, is struggling to keep up with its own payments to music copyright holders, according to a top News Corp executive–a problem that has plagued every other licensed free music service.
Michael Fricklas is Viacom’s general counsel, and it’s his job to oversee the company’s legal efforts, including its $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube.
Michael Carrier, a law professor specializing in intellectual property law, was kind enough to let us know about a paper he recently wrote analyzing the Swedish court’s ruling in The Pirate Bay Case, and seeing how the reasoning set forth might apply to two other services: Grokster and Google.
When web video juggernaut Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog debuted last year, it inspired fan-made contributions to the world of the series almost immediately–something the Whedon family encouraged by soliciting supervillain applications to be included on the official DVD.
As cheap, powerful automatic cameras and camera phones proliferate, the music industry–and its sports counterpart–have had to realize they can’t control fans’ ability to take pictures.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
Live Nation today said it expects the acquisition of the company by Ticketmaster to close in the first quarter of next year. Meanwhile, both companies today posted solid results for the third quarter.
by Eric Savitz, Blogger and Columnist, Barron's, Tech Trader Daily
You should not be surprised to learn that a federal judge yesterday ordered BlueBeat.com to immediately stop selling Beatles songs and other music from its site, rejecting a goofy assertion that the company had copyrights on the songs via the use of something called “psycho-acoustic simulation.”
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
News Corp.’s digital chief said Thursday that the company’s social-networking property MySpace is going in a different direction than rival Facebook, based on how its members socialize and share interests.
Microsoft’s big launch of the new Windows 7 operating system on Friday in Beijing was much like its launches around the world: a huge, boisterous demonstration of new features such as being able to share music across multiple computers in one home.
The US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple today that reveals various concepts behind a newly advanced service in development that entails subsidizing an incredible array of hardware from Apple.
by Sarah McBride, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Cult musician Mojo Nixon hasn’t had a hit in years, but he’s moved over a million songs at Amazon.com so far this month.
The artist, who calls his revved-up rockabilly sound “psychobilly,” earlier this year cooked up a scheme to put almost his entire catalog up on Amazon.com, for free.
by Andrew LaVallee, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Music-download service 7digital faces plenty of skepticism since its U.S. launch two weeks ago.
According to Ben Drury, its co-founder and chief executive, many of the questions–how do you compete with iTunes, how do you stand out amid a sea of music services–are valid ones.
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