

The
Dean's List
Music,
Copyright and New Technology in the News
From
a Creator's Perspective
11/17/2009
_____________________________________________________________________________
When
consumers AND creators are happy
everyone
in the middle will have gotten digital distribution right
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...