Technology News

Google's Schmidt Talks Privacy, Internet Domination

Source: PC Magazine
April 19, 2009

Google CEO Eric Schmidt appeared at his alma mater, Princeton University, on Saturday to discuss the Internet and globalization, Google products that have recently made headlines, and how not to be evil. Schmidt downplayed the recent controversy over whether Google is fleecing the nation's newspapers by putting their content on Google News. “We use newspaper content with their permission," he said. “In every case, they have chosen to give us that information in turn for sending traffic to their sites." ...

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Mog Music Network Gets a Makeover

Source: HypeBot
April 19, 2009

Music destination MOG is now capitalizing on the strength of its massive d.i.y blogger network alongside relationships with several professionally produced content providers to offer what it hopes will become the go to place for music news. MOG has long provided a platform for fans to blog about the music they love. But until now, the 80 blog posts created hourly during peak times has created river of uneven content - interesting but tough to slog ...

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Myspace and CD Baby Deliver DIY Upgrades

Source: HypeBot
April 19, 2009

Two small but significant upgrades should make every indie musician smile.

MySpace has quietly upped the limit on songs that artists can upload from 6 to 10. More artists tools are promised soon, but no word yet on compensating unaffiliated artists for song streams.

CD Baby distributed artists will be able to choose to sell at any of iTunes new variable price points - $.69, $.99 and $1.29 - starting some time this summer. The company will laso begin offering ...

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Court Bars RIAA Trial Webcast

Source: All About Jazz
April 18, 2009

A federal appeals court on Thursday barred the webcasting of a live courtroom proceedings of a Recording Industry Association of America file sharing trial.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that the Massachusetts trial judge that authorized the webcast was “palpably incorrect" in concluding that streaming coverage of the case was allowed in that state.

It would have been the first time an RIAA filesharing hearing would have been broadcast. The RIAA, which has sued 30,000 individuals, objected ...

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Why File Sharing Will Save Hollywood, Music

Source: All About Jazz
April 18, 2009

To hear some tell it, file sharing gutted the music industry by encouraging people to gorge themselves on free, illegal content.

Indeed, unless Friday's landmark verdict against The Pirate Bay is overturned, four Swedes will spend a year in jail and owe millions of dollars to entertainment companies for operating a file sharing network.

Nonetheless, sites like The Pirate Bay taught and continue to teach valuable lessons to the content industry. Even as music labels and movie studios try to ...

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Jail for File-Sharing Foursome

Source: All About Jazz
April 17, 2009

Four men connected to The Pirate Bay, the world's most notorious file sharing site, were convicted by a Swedish court Friday of contributory copyright infringement, and each sentenced to a year in prison.

Pirate Bay administrators Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were found guilty in the case, along with Carl Lundstrm, who was accused of funding the five-year-old operation.

In addition to jail time, the defendants were ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) ...

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Pirate Bay File Sharing Creators Guilty

Source: Michael Ricci
April 17, 2009

Swedish court finds Pirate Bay file sharing creators guilty, Hollywood hails ruling.

In a victory preliminarily, at least for Hollywood, a Swedish court today handed down prison sentences for four men behind the Pirate Bay, a popular file-sharing search engine, and ordered them to pay $3.6 million in damages to such entertainment giants as Warner Bros. and EMI.

The four defendants were convicted of facilitating copyright violations and given one-year prison terms for their role in setting up and bankrolling ...

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YouTube Unveils New Section for TV Episodes and Feature Films

Source: Michael Ricci
April 17, 2009

“YouTube Shows" is designed to draw marketers that aren't comfortable advertising against a 30-second clip of a teenager crashing his skateboard.

The website known for its user-generated videos will showcase Hollywood content in an effort to boost revenue and compete with the growing popularity of Hulu. Once considered the scourge of traditional entertainment, YouTube is making an aggressive new play to earn friends in Hollywood.

The Google Inc.-owned Web video giant Thursday unveiled a new section on its site and ...

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