Technology News

White House Opposes Expanded DOJ Copyright Enforcement

Source: All About Jazz
September 24, 2008

Intellectual Property The Bush administration is opposing sweeping legislation granting it the ability to prosecute civil cases of copyright infringement.

The legislation, backed by Hollywood, labor unions and manufacturers, sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee, 14-4, on Sept. 11.

In a letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy and Arlen Specter, who were among the sponsors of the legislation, the Justice Department wrote Tuesday it “strongly" opposes expanding its powers. Doing so, the letter said, could undermine the department's ...

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Songwriters Submit Agreement to Copyright Royalty Board

Source: All About Jazz
September 24, 2008

Songwriters, record labels, and webcasters have reached an agreement on mechanical royalties for songs played on web radio services. However, the “disastrous" performance royalty that threatens to drive Pandora and other webcasters out of business remains in effect.

Webcasters will pay 10.5 percent of their revenue to songwriters and publishers minus any performance royalties already being paid to labels. The move comes as part of music publishers' drive to start collecting mechanical royalties for compositions played online after giving online ...

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Add More Cowbell to Your MP3s at MoreCowbell.DJ

Source: All About Jazz
September 23, 2008

The History of “More Cowbell" “More cowbell" is an American pop culture catch phrase originally derived from an April 8, 2000 Saturday Night Live comedy sketch about the recording of the song “(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult. The sketch featured guest host Christopher Walken as music producer Bruce Dickinson and Will Ferrell as fictional cowbell player Gene Frenkle. In the television special Saturday Night Live: 101 Most Unforgettable Moments, this sketch is moment number five. The Technology ...

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Kuwait Orders ISPs to Block Youtube

Source: PC Magazine
September 23, 2008

Kuwait has ordered local Internet service providers to block online video-sharing website YouTube over clips that could offend Muslims. “Since the website displays the Koran in the form of songs sung with the oud (stringed instrument) ... and displays disrespectful pictures of the Prophet Mohammad ... please proceed with immediate effect in blocking the website www.youtube.com," read a copy of a memo obtained by Reuters. The Ministry of Communications was not immediately available for a comment. The website could still ...

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Gogimon Launches Aggregated Web Search App

Source: PC Magazine
September 23, 2008

Israel-based Gogimon wants to change the way you search, with its new desktop app that combines results from all three major web-search engines—Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live Search. Since it's a locally installed program, the tool can learn your search habits and personalize results without requiring you to send your search history to the company's servers, as is necessary with Google. Gogimon can also automatically generate a My Yahoo-like personal portal based on your favorites and search history. A later ...

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SanDisk Launches New Music Card Format

Source: PC Magazine
September 23, 2008

Can't find enough ways to access your music? SanDisk announced Monday that it will soon release a microSD card for phones, MP3 players, and computers that will come pre-loaded with DRM-free music. The slotMusic card will feature artists from EMI Music, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music, SanDisk said. The format will debut later this year at U.S. brick-and-mortar stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, and will later expand to European outlets. Users will insert the slotMusic card ...

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Attorney General Pulls Immunity Trigger Denies 'Dragnet' Surveillance

Source: All About Jazz
September 21, 2008

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Saturday denied that the Bush administration -- in conjunction with the nation's telecommunication companies -- devised a “dragnet" electronic surveillance program that funneled Americans' communications to the National Security Agency without court warrants.

But the attorney general also insisted that defending his claim in court would harm national security.

Specific information demonstrating that the alleged dragnet has not occurred cannot be disclosed on the public record without causing exceptional harm to national security. However, ...

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Comcast Discloses Throttling Practices -- Bittorrent Targeted

Source: All About Jazz
September 20, 2008

Comcast came clean with the Federal Communications Commission late Friday, detailing how it throttled and targeted peer-to-peer traffic -- maneuvers it has repeatedly denied.

The cable concern said (.pdf) it indeed hit “particular protocols that were generating disproportionate amounts of traffic." The peer-to-peer protocols, Comcast said, include Ares, BitTorrent, eDonkey, FastTrack and Gnutella -- vehicles used to transport copyrighted material without the owners' permission.

On Aug. 1, when the FCC ordered it to abandon its throttling practices, Comcast denied that ...

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