Technology News

Analysis: RIAA Strategy Shift Mired in Murky Legal Waters

Source: All About Jazz
December 23, 2008

The Recording Industry Association of America's new enforcement strategy is based on a questionable interpretation of what constitutes copyright infringement. And its copyright-detection services remain under a cloud at the center of a class action legal challenge. The RIAA, the record labels' legal and lobbying arm, announced Friday it would begin phasing out its five-year campaign of suing individuals 30,000 in all on allegations of copyright infringement. Instead, the group said it would notify internet service providers that RIAA snoops ...

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What the RIAA Doesn't Want You to Know...

Source: HypeBot
December 23, 2008

The RIAA is telling us they're going to stop suing and get internet service providers to help them stop illegal file sharing. The RIAA says that it's worked for the movie industry (sort of) and they're talks with ISP's have been going well.

Here's what they're not telling you: While a few ISP's have said they'll send warning notices to RIAA identified abusers, not one has yet agreed to actually cut anyone off. Shut off without due process ...

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RIAA Qualifies Statement on No New Copyright Lawsuits

Source: All About Jazz
December 23, 2008

The Recording Industry Association of America is clearing the air over its comments that it has not initiated litigation in months against alleged copyright scofflaws.

On Friday, the RIAA announced it was abandoning its legal strategy of suing individuals for copyright infringement, and said it had not sued anybody for months. Ray Beckerman, an attorney the RIAA has declared as “vexatious," posted Friday on his blog Recording Industry vs. The People that dozens of RIAA lawsuits have been filed within ...

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Music's Long Tail Just Got a Lot Shorter

Source: HypeBot
December 23, 2008

173,000 of the 1.23M albums available sold at least 1 copy last year That means 85% of albums did move a single copy all year. 80% of of all single track sales revenue came from 52,000 tracks

All this is according to a new study by Will Page, chief economist of the MCPS-PRS Alliance, the UK based not-for-profit royalty collection society.

Does this meanthat we should all be back to chasing hits? No, but ...

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SonyBMG Signs on with Project Playlist

Source: HypeBot
December 23, 2008

Project Playlist, who late last week had its widget banned from MySpace at the request of “major music companies", today announced an agreement with SONY BMG for both audio and video. A least one other label is rumored to be close to deals as well.

Prior to the MySpace takedown, Project Playlist's web site and widgets had more than 40 million users according to ComScore. The service provides music fans with the ability to easily discover digital music, ...

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An Ode to Magazines Who Left Us in 2008

Source: HypeBot
December 23, 2008

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ScrollMotion Developer Strikes E-Book Deals with Major Publishers

Source: All About Jazz
December 22, 2008

ScrollMotion, a New York mobile app developer, has concluded deals with a number of major publishing houses, and is in talks with several others, to produce newly released and best-selling e-books as applications for the iPhone and iPod touch.

Publishers now on board include Houghton Mifflin, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Hachette and Penguin Group USA.

Having these big names is a big step forward for iTunes itself in becoming an e-book shop and the iPhone in becoming a legitimate ...

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8 Signs That Apple Customers Are No Longer Special

Source: All About Jazz
December 22, 2008

Remember when Apple customers felt hip?

There was a time when a glowing Apple logo symbolized radical nonconformity. Being part of a miniature customer base was, to Mac users, like being a member of a holier-than-thou, secret society a “Cult of Mac," if you will. But when Apple's ecosystem grew beyond notebooks and desktops to phones and internet services, that era came to an end.

Apple's ubiquitous presence in pop culture, news headlines and even politics prove that it's no ...

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