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Biting the hand that feeds IT

Fri, 16 May 2008 17:36:42 +0200

.::P2P soars, licensed music flatlines::.

Today is a good day to die download

Freeloading music is more habit-forming than paying for legal downloads, according to polling in the UK.…

Thu, 15 May 2008 23:13:25 +0200

.::RIAA ordered to shell out $100k for P2P witch hunt::.

Pigopolists pay for 471 hours

How many work hours does it take to fight off a false accusation of copyright infringement from the Recording Ass. of America?…

Thu, 15 May 2008 19:14:43 +0200

.::Wake up and smell the Doritos™ - Avril Lavigne's manager::.

Mmm. Doritos.

Copyright is over, and musicians should make themselves as pretty as they can for big brand advertisers, says top music manager and label boss Terry McBride.…

Thu, 15 May 2008 13:24:49 +0200

.::Top-slicing the Beeb: Clueless execs get busy::.

Smelling the Ovaltine, swirling down the drain

Some quangos, like jellyfish, seem to be able to reproduce asexually. It's what they live to do. What this means is that without any contact, parthenogenesis occurs and they simply spawn off a little version of themselves, which may grow as large as its parent. Britain's uber-regulator Ofcom, I learned this week, definitely falls into this class. I just hadn't realised how badly it longs to plop out lots of baby Ofcoms.…

Fri, 09 May 2008 02:19:55 +0200

.::When flash mobs go bad::.

Facebook water fight soaks up thousands of pounds of damage

An open invitation on Facebook to hold a massive water fight in Leeds has resulted in thousands of pounds worth of damage to its prize winning public garden.…

Thu, 08 May 2008 21:07:31 +0200

.::MySpace revs profile transfer engine::.

Down with the walled garden

MySpace has launched an initiative that will one day allow its social-networking-obsessed users to automatically shuttle their profile data to third-party web sites.…

Thu, 08 May 2008 18:20:34 +0200

.::MEPs deny sports 'intellectual property' landgrab::.

Own(ing) goals

Updated MEPs today voted against* a bigger role for intellectual property in sports, stoking a copyright head-to-head between the powerful governing bodies of world sport and the media organisations that seek to report it.…

Thu, 08 May 2008 01:25:55 +0200

.::Hollywood awarded $110m against TorrentSpy::.

Once beaten, twice fined

Operators of the once-popular TorrentSpy tracker have been ordered to pay more than $110m to Hollywood for facilitating illegal downloads of movies and television shows.…

Wed, 07 May 2008 14:20:25 +0200

.::Sky plays the victim over Ofcom pay TV rights probe::.

Clinging on to Premiership and movies

Sky has complained to Ofcom that a probe of its dominance of UK pay TV is too one-sided, ahead of a decision that could see the market for football and movie rights opened up to more competition.…

Mon, 05 May 2008 18:35:56 +0200

.::Server theft knocks Peter Gabriel off the web::.

Raid on ISP's data centre

Peter Gabriel's online music empire is reduced to a holding page, following the theft of servers from his web host over the weekend.…

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:45:29 +0200

.::Swiss start-up re-broadcasting UK TV channels::.

'We're not doing anything illegal'

An internet start-up is re-broadcasting UK television from Switzerland without the stations' permission. It is re-broadcasting all five UK terrestrial channels online, but claims it is not breaking the law.…

Fri, 02 May 2008 09:02:03 +0200

.::YouTube rolls out Scientology double standard::.

XenuTV vs. Anonymous Hate Crimes

It seems that YouTube has one set of rules for The Church of Scientology and another set for Scientology's critics.…

Thu, 01 May 2008 17:06:39 +0200

.::Songwriters score victory over AOL, Yahoo! and Real::.

Pay up

Songwriters could be as much as $100m better off after a court ruled they should be paid more money for online performances of their music.…

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:35:02 +0200

.::Nokia puts brave face on 'Comes Without Profits'::.

It does make money, really

Nokia has defended its "Comes With Music" giveway and insists it will make money from the promotion. Somehow.…

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:22:22 +0200

.::Why have Radiohead broken freetards' hearts?::.

One or two things you didn't know about In Rainbows...

Analysis As you may have heard earlier today, Radiohead's Thom Yorke says the band won't be repeating the band's digital deal which allowed users to download a version of its most recent album for free.…

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:35:54 +0200

.::Time Warner to amputate cable tentacle::.

'Anyone want AOL too?'

Time Warner has today confirmed widely-expected plans to pacify its long-suffering investors with a cash windfall from the sale of its US cable tentacle.…

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:56:05 +0200

.::US beak pecks at RIAA's 'making available' filesharing attack::.

Rrreeeeewiiiiiiind!

A US federal judge has shot down one of the Recording Industry Ass. of America's key arguments in its brave pursuit of students, idiots and grandmothers it accuses of sharing music over peer-to-peer networks.…

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:12:14 +0200

.::Radiohead diss freetards::.

No repetition of In Rainbows 'honesty' experiment

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has said the band will not be repeating its In Rainbows experiment which allowed fans to download the album at a price of their choice - allegedly nothing, in most cases.…

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:35:46 +0200

.::Watchdog demands MSN Music mea culpa::.

Run some Google ads, Steve

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is demanding that Steve Ballmer make a public apology to all people silly enough to purchase tunes from MSN Music, Microsoft's long-defunct iTunes wannabe.…

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:42:01 +0200

.::US Department of Justice banned from Wikipedia::.

CAMERA and The Electronic Intifada

Wikipedia has temporarily blocked edits from the US Department of Justice after someone inside the government agency tried to erase references to a particularly-controversial Wiki-scandal.…

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:40:46 +0200

.::MySpace stripped of myspace.co.uk domain victory::.

Nominet elections feel the hand of Rupert Murdoch

UPDATED An independent appeals panel has overturned a heavily-criticised decision to hand control of the myspace.co.uk domain to Rupert Murdoch's Fox Interactive Media.…

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:13:44 +0200

.::Web 2.0 bloat trebles web's waistline::.

Go on, embed my widget... it's only waffferr thiiin

The web is getting fatter faster than a middle-aged November goose on an all-spaghetti diet, thanks to webmasters and bloggers greasing their pages with Web 2.0 lard.…

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:37:50 +0200

.::Web jukebox sued::.

Project Playlist slapped for copyright infringement

Unlicensed music discovery service Project Playlist is being sued for copyright infringement.…

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:32:37 +0200

.::Coldplay in digital and vinyl giveaway::.

Viva La Vida freebie single

Coldplay have announced they'll be giving away a free download of Violet Hill from their forthcoming album Viva La Vida, as well as an old-school 7-inch vinyl version of the ditty with 7 May's NME.…

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:24:43 +0200

.::Nokia decks execs as it counts cost of free music::.

Doing a Hoover?

Exclusive Nokia faces a crippling financial bill for its strategy of bundling free music with handsets, which will give users unlimited song downloads with Nokia phones.…

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:35:54 +0200

.::BBC defends iPlayer against Murdoch Jr's 'anti-competitive' claims::.

Kitchenware blackness symposium to follow

The BBC Trust, Auntie's independent oversight body, has today defended the iPlayer against claims by James Murdoch that it squashes competition and innovation in online TV.…

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:13:19 +0200

.::Starbucks exits music biz::.

Offloads Hear Music

Starbucks has offloaded its music tentacle Hear Music just a year after pulling off a major coup in signing Paul McCartney to the label, Variety reports.…

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:11:48 +0200

.::Clash vet pens 'Don't tase me bro!' ditty::.

'It's gonna go like this - dun-dun-dun... Aaaargh!'

Former Clash guitarist Mick Jones has immortalised in song the legendary "Don't tase me, bro!" arrest of Andrew Meyer, the student who decided it was a good idea to get shouty at senator John Kerry and received a solid tasering for his trouble:…

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:47:57 +0200

.::Why has Sony bought Gracenote?::.

Oiling the machine

$260m is a lot to pay for a pile of information about a dying music format - but Sony might just have made the deal of the century. The entertainment giant now has the biggest store of music metadata in the world, with the acquisition of Gracenote. The deal is expected to be completed in May.…

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:12:16 +0200

.::Anti-Scientology crusader vaporized from YouTube::.

'Help me, Stephen Colbert. You're my only hope'

YouTube has vaporized a popular user account dedicated to criticizing The Church of Scientology.…

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:50:35 +0200

.::Futurist's music widget goes titsup 2.0::.

Didn't see that coming...

Music's best-known "futurist" has admitted his latest business idea has flopped and the service will close. Gerd Leonard of "Music 2.0" fame, who popularised the phrase "music flows like water", has discovered that on the internet, revenue flows like set cement.…

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 01:05:20 +0200

.::Freetards fill their boots - music survey::.

P2P for free, for me

Punters only paid for 42 per cent of music acquired in the US last year, according to market research outfit NPD, down from 48 per cent in 2006.…

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:55:10 +0200

.::Pirate Bay-probing cop on Warner Brothers payroll::.

'Talk about a conflict of interests'

A Swedish policeman who helped investigate The Pirate Bay is now working for Warners Brothers, one of the big-name film companies that helped drive the investigation and is now a plaintiff in the pending court case against the swashbuckling P2P file sharing site.…

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:14:35 +0200

.::Blockbuster gets legal poke for Facebook Tupperware campaign::.

Beacon Borking

A woman in Texas is sueing Blockbuster for using Facebook's controversial "Beacon" advertising system to reveal to her friends which movies she rented.…

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:06:05 +0200

.::F1 chief seeks French ban on orgy video::.

Bonne chance mon brave

Formula One boss Max Mosley is seeking a French ban on the video footage showing him engaging in unsavoury activities with five prostitutes.…

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:07:02 +0200

.::This DVD will self-destruct in 48 hours::.

It's smokin'!

A German company has introduced a disposable DVD that can be viewed for 48 hours, then thrown away. The DVDs will sell for just €3.99 ($6.44 /£3.20).…

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 17:13:17 +0200

.::Harvard bitch seeks to strip Zuckerberg's Facebook trademark::.

De-friending your classmates

A former classmate of social networking bitch-in-chief Mark Zuckerberg is bidding to strip Facebook of its trademark, alleging Zuck had no right to claim ownership of the term in 2005.…

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:34:53 +0200

.::US courts erode protections for online publishers::.

Liability for user-posted content in question

Two recent judgments could erode vital protections for web publishers in the US. The rulings could undermine protections from liability for user-posted material previously enjoyed by publishers.…

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:24:44 +0200

.::Pirate Bay offers uncensored, ad-backed blog hole::.

Vows to protect 'uncomfortable thoughts'

The Pirate Bay has opened a blogging site, and is promising not to remove anything as long as it doesn't break Swedish laws.…

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:08:12 +0200

.::Pirate Bay to sue music industry::.

Website block provokes damages demand

The Pirate Bay is threatening to seek damages from music industry lobby group The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for blocking access to its website.…

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:49:55 +0200

.::Google's Great American Wireless Auction 'game' annoys US lawmakers::.

'Duping the FCC'

Several US lawmakers are annoyed that Google was allowed to "game" the recent 700-MHz wireless auction.…

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:10:08 +0200

.::Tesco piles into MP3::.

But are there enough 'Paytards'?

Does Tesco know something the rest of us don't? The supermarket has announced that it's opening an online store of MP3 music, with all 3.3 million tracks DRM-free by the end of the year. Movies and TV shows will follow, says Tesco. It seems odd for two reasons.…

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 11:27:04 +0200

.::Penguin goes electronic::.

But without the orange covers?

Pearson, the publishing company that owns Penguin books, will be releasing e-book versions of all Penguin, Dorling Kindersley, and Travel titles from September this year.…

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:04:51 +0200

.::BBC technology chief bounces on to Project Kangaroo::.

ISPs: 'Don't forget to write'

Ashley Highfield, the BBC's chief technology executive, is to quit the corporation to take the helm at Project Kangaroo, the cross-broadcaster internet TV venture.…

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 16:21:14 +0200

.::Earth to Ofcom: They're our airwaves. Give them back::.

A better Public Service Broadcasting

Sometimes Ofcom, Britain's media and telecomms uber-regulator, likes to agonise in public whether Britain needs a media and telecomms uber-regulator.…

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:23:13 +0200

.::PS3 owners game iPlayer::.

'Wii want BBC streaming too'

Less than 24 hours after the BBC gave great fanfare to its new iPlayer streaming service for Nintendo Wii at a media conference in France, jealous Playstation enthusiasts had used it to cobble together a version of their own.…

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 12:19:33 +0200

.::French sites fined for linking to privacy-invading Kylie content::.

Minogue/Martinez stories provoke lawsuit

Three French websites have been found guilty of invading an actor's privacy for publishing links to articles containing the offending material. The Paris Tribunal has fined the operators of all three sites.…

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:51:46 +0200

.::Billy Bragg: Why should songwriters starve so others get rich?::.

Singing for the VC Supper

Interview Why should songwriters starve so that the Web 2.0 kids and tech VCs get rich? Billy Bragg asked the question recently, and the downloaders and VCs quickly shot back - it's because you should be grateful that we're here!…

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:50:46 +0200

.::Yahoo! Flickr video play sparks online revolt::.

Unrest in Web 2.0 land

Yahoo! tries ever so hard to be like Google. But it's always a struggle.…

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:12:45 +0200

.::Max Mosley loses battle to get sex video off web::.

NoTW reposts 'orgy' footage

Formula One boss Max Mosley has lost a High Court bid to stop the News of the World from putting a video of him and five prostitutes back on its website.…