WASHINGTON:  Artists Deliver Letter to White House
(Press release) A delegation of emerging artists in The Copyright Alliance's grassroots network of creators today delivered to the White House a letter signed by more than 11,000 artists nationwide. The letter asks President Obama and Vice President Biden to pursue policies supportive of artists' rights.  [Thanks to all of you who signed this very important letter after hearing about it here.]

LONDON:  CIAM Backs Legal Moves Against YouTube
By Andre Paine -- The International Council of Authors and Composers of Music  (CIAM), part of the global authors' rights body CISAC, has backed legal moves against YouTube/Google in Germany.  Legal proceedings are due to take place at the district court of civil law in Hamburg, following a complaint of violations of copyright and master rights in relation to user-generated content on YouTube.

The Price of Free
By Nicholas Carr -- Until recently ... the Net simply wasn't a viable alternative for distributing the signals traditionally sent over cables or beamed down from satellites. That's changing, and fast. With broadband becoming the norm and connection speeds continuing to quicken, what has happened to music companies and newspapers is beginning to happen to broadcast networks and cable companies.

Broadcast Pioneer NBC Prepares for Cable Takeover
By David Bauder -- Eight decades after pioneering the concept of broadcasting, NBC is on the verge of a startling move that illustrates broadcast television's decline. Cable TV operator Comcast Corp. is expected to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal, perhaps as early as this week.

Sezmi Says Hello to Los Angeles
By  Jon Healey -- Angelenos unhappy with the cable or satellite TV offerings in their neighborhoods will have a new, much less expensive option today: Sezmi, a novel combination of over-the-air broadcasting and broadband programming. ... TV services: just under $5 a month for local broadcasts, Internet channels and access to pay-per-view services, and an additional $20 a month for more than 100 cable TV networks.

All-In-One TV Service Sezmi Lands $25M

Hulu's Backers Bicker as Web Video Soars
By Greg Sandoval -- The Web's deepest stockpile of full-length TV shows and feature films is seeing some very public infighting over its future. The disagreements are over how Hulu should generate revenue and even how to sell ads, according to a report in Mediaweek.

Soft Approach to Musical Piracy Making Waves
The Economist -- Decade of lawsuits have not borne fruit, but new initiative draws downloaders into legal fold.

Harmonies on Net Neutrality
By Partick Ross -- ...legal and illegal traffic online must be treated separately; net neutrality should not empower copyright infringement.
 
UK: Spotify Outstrips Last.fm in Streaming Battle
By Ben Sillis -- Spotify is barely one year old, but the music streaming sensation is already closing the gap on online music giants, and even overtaking a few too: new research now pegs Spotify as more popular than Last.fm in the UK.

Would Anyone Pay For MySpace Music?
By Paul Bonanos -- Speculation arose this past week that News Corp.-owned MySpace Music is considering moving to a paid model, as the cost of free streaming is making its current model unsustainable. News Corp. digital chief Jon Miller expressed some interest in such a move...

CNN Cuts Back on a Web Video Project
By Brian Stelter -- CNN laid off its four Web anchors on Thursday and said it had stopped producing continuous live video for CNN.com, curtailing one of the Internet's biggest news experiments.

Ricky Gervais Helps Reveal Pain of Cell Phone Salesmen
By Chris Matyszczyk -- Ever wander into one of those Verizon or AT&T stores, attempt to have a conversation with one of the smartly dressed salespeople, and whisper to yourself, "What kind of emotionally awkward humans end up working in a place like this?" Well, I have good news for you...

What's Next For Future iPhones?
By Dan Moren -- As impressive as the iPhone has been since its debut ... much of what makes the iPhone such a revolutionary mobile device is more or less the same today as it was (when it was introduced) two years ago.

Terms of Digital Book Deal With Google Revised
By Brad Stone and Miguel Helft — Google and groups representing book publishers and authors filed a modified version of their controversial books settlement with a federal court on Friday. The changes would pave the way for other companies to license Google's vast digital collection of copyrighted out-of-print books, and might resolve its conflicts with European governments.

How Blogging Has Changed Over The Last 3 Years (Stats)
by Marshall Kirkpatrick -- Reader engagement with blogs has changed dramatically over the last three years, primarily because of the rise of online social networks...

Are Billboard And The Hollywood Reporter For Sale?
By Bruce Houghton -- Billboard Editor Bill Werde is fond of saying, "I'm on the crossroads of two of the most challenged industries in the world: music and publishing. But I still like the view".  Unfortunately, his view may be a bit cloudier today.

Oxford's Word of the Year? 'Unfriend'
By Caroline McCarthy -- Perhaps in a sign of how the plague of social media has numbed us all to the value of legitimate human connections, the New Oxford American Dictionary has picked the verb "unfriend," or "to remove someone as a 'friend' on a social networking site such as Facebook," as its 2009 Word of the Year.

Nov. 16, 1904: Vacuum Tube Heralds Birth of Modern Electronics
By Tony Long -- 1904: British engineer John Ambrose Fleming invents and patents the thermionic valve, the first vacuum tube. With this advance, the age of modern wireless electronics is born..

[Wonder is customers are limited to purchasing items that don't exceed 141 calories.]
In Los Angeles, It's the Attack of the Twittering Food Trucks!
By David Sarno -- Take a walk down Main Street during one of downtown L.A.'s Art Walk nights (the second Thursday of every month), and you will see an element that does not at first blend in with all the paintings, sculptures, high heels and hipsters. Lining the curbs from 4th Street on down are a caravan of parked food trucks, part of L.A.'s growing army of Twitterized mobile eateries...