mediaor

[TorrentFreak] President Obama Discusses Three Strikes Anti-Piracy Law

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:35 GMT

For years the entertainment industry has been lobbying for tougher measures against online piracy. In France this has resulted in the implementation of a ‘three strikes and you’re offline’ regime and many other countries are considering similar measures.

Thus far the United States Government has kept relatively quiet on this issue, but that doesn’t mean that such plans are not being discussed behind close doors.

According to Ari Emanuel, a famous Hollywood talent agent and the model for the character Ari Gold in the hit series Entourage, Hollywood lobbyists are working hard to convince President Obama and others to ram through similar legislation in the United States.

“We are in the midst of talking to the president and some attorney generals and [we are] trying to implement a three strikes and you’re out rule,” Emanuel said, while adding that this issue would most likely result in a “fight with ISPs”.

At this point it is impossible to assess the exact nature of these talks, but since Ari Emanuel is the brother of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, there is no doubt that these talks are taken seriously. President Obama, who vouched to decrease the power of lobbyists in Washington, is not turning a deaf ear to this one for now.

Before even considering the implementation of a three-strikes model, United States lawmakers might want to take a good look at what’s happening in France. Unlike earlier projections that up to 95% of the file-sharers could stop downloading copyrighted content, the piracy rate has actually increased in the face of the new law.

The entertainment industry, nevertheless, continues to push legislation as the solution to online piracy, while ignoring their own role in the creation of the problem.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

[THE MUSiC VOiD] David Maher Roberts – Sounds Digital Insider

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:01:48 GMT

[L.A. Times Tech Blog] With scaling issues out of the way, Blogger focuses on features, starting with powerful design tool

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:00:00 GMT

Users of Blogger can give their pages major makeovers starting Thursday morning thanks to a new tool called Template Designer.

After a few quiet years, Google's pioneering blog platform plans to add features with "momentum," said Blogger product manager Siobhan Quinn on the phone Wednesday.

The new design tool lets individual publishers choose from among hundreds of background images, tweak color schemes, drag and drop elements, resize the width of columns and easily manipulate practically everything on the page. Bloggers can access the beta product through Blogger Draft, and it will roll out to everyone within weeks.

Template Designer surpasses the limited options offered by most popular alternatives. WordPress has a smattering of attractive designs ripe for the picking, but they're difficult to tweak. Like a design but wish it had two columns instead of three? Tough.

This addition rivals the simple yet powerful layout tools from paid services like Squarespace and Moonfruit.

"We want you to be able to control everything," Quinn said. "The templates that have been offered have been very rigid.... They would soon become recognizable because of the huge number of people who are using Blogger."

Google doesn't say how huge that number is, but the network has more than 300 million readers, according to a company spokesman.

We snickered last month when, after Blogger remained mostly unchanged for months, the company added the ability to create pages. Sweet. WordPress has had that for years, and even relative newcomer Tumblr can do it. Then, a month later, Blogger comes back with a significant improvement to the design engine.

"You'll see our momentum is only going to grow from here," Quinn said.

Blogger spent much of last year "jumping on the whole social bandwagon," as Quinn called it. It added half-baked follower features and integration with Google Friend Connect, the redheaded stepchild of Facebook Connect.

Before that, Blogger was struggling with growth -- spam and infrastructure issues -- as well as adding tie-ins with Google AdWords' publisher monetization. Arguably essential but not the most glamorous features.

The Blogger team has since grown significantly -- now more than 25 -- and plans to "conquer a lot," Quinn said. "Blogger is really important to Google because Blogger feeds the content that Google can index."

Some improvements to Template Designer are already in the pipeline, including letting users upload their own background pictures. In addition, Blogger is working on overhauling its dated commenting system.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

Image credit: Google

[Business: Music industry | guardian.co.uk] Controversial digital economy bill amendment follows lobbyists' draft

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:53:31 GMT

[Billboard.biz - News] France’s Zimbalam Plants Flag In North America

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:36:51 GMT

[Billboard.biz - News] 'Green Day: Rock Band' Release Date Set

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:09:03 GMT

[Billboard.biz - News] Canadian Music Week: Ole's McCarty Tackles ISPs On Piracy

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:09:03 GMT

[RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter] RAIN 3/11: RAIN travels to Toronto for Summit event and Canadian Music Week

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:01:26 GMT

[Billboard.biz - News] Vevo's Traffic Surge

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:51:54 GMT

[Billboard.biz - News] Kings Of Leon Take 'Revenge' On iPhone Gamers

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:01:48 GMT

[ZeroPaid.com] UK ISPs: Site Blocking Risks Country’s Reputation

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:35:54 GMT

Join consumer advocates, MPs, prominent academics, and others in an open letter to the House of Lords criticizing recent proposal to amend the Digital Economy Bill in order force ISPs to proactively block websites suspected of copyright infringement.

A number of UK ISPs have joined forces with consumer advocacy groups, prominent academics, filmmakers, actors, and even websites eBay, Facebook, Yahoo, and Google to forge an open letter to the House of Lords criticizing the recent proposal to amend the Digital Economy Bill.

Amendment 120a, as written, would use the threat of “injunctions” against those ISPs that have “actual knowledge of another person using their service to infringe copyright,” but has failed to “prevent copyright infringement content being accessed at or via that online location or taken reasonable steps to remove copyright infringing content from that online location (or both).”

What it doesn’t spell out is exactly how ISPs are supposed to verify claims of copyright infringement (a new ISP detective bureau?) or the means of appeal. Some site operators may be falsely accused of copyright infringement and subsequently erroneously sanctioned by their ISP.

It’s already been observed that it would cause a “chilling effect” on the Internet, but these signatories add that it would “have unintended consequences that far outweigh any benefits it could bring.”

“Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended,” they add.

In fact, they argue that the amendment threatens the “reputation of the UK as a place to do online business and conflict(s) with the broader objectives of Digital Britain.”

The signatories include:

Tom Alexander,Chief Executive, Orange
Richard Allan,Director of Policy EU, Facebook
Neil Berkett,Chief Executive, Virgin Media
Matt Brittin,Managing Director, Google UK and Ireland
Charles Dunstone,Chairman, Talk Talk Group
Stephen Fry
Jessica Hendrie-Liaño,Chair, Internet Services Providers Association
Jill Johnstone,International Director, Consumer Focus
Jim Killock,Executive Director, Open Rights Group
Mark Lewis,Managing Director, eBay UK
Ian Livingston,Chief Executive, BT Group
Sarah Oates,University of Glasgow
Jenny Pickerill,University of Leicester
Mark Rabe,Managing Director, Yahoo! UK and Ireland
Paul Reilly,University of Leicester
Jess Search,Founder, Shooting People independent film makers
Ian Walden,Queen Mary, University of London
Tom Watson MP

The real problem with the amendment is that it could shutter websites with merely the threat of action since there’s no mechanism to make a case or even appeal the findings. All one has to do is be accused of copyright infringement to run afoul of the law.

Stay tuned.

jared@zeropaid.com

[Music Ally] Technology bosses attack Digital Economy Bill

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:09:04 GMT

An amendment to the UK’s Digital Economy Bill that could force ISPs to block access to copyright-infringing websites has been slammed by the heads of the four largest UK ISPs, along with Google, Facebook, eBay and Yahoo.

The joint letter to the Financial Times claims that “the amendment seeks to address the legitimate concerns of rights-holders but would have unintended consequences that far outweigh any benefits it could bring”. The letter doesn’t pull its punches:

“Blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended. To rush through such a controversial proposal at the tail end of a parliament, without any kind of consultation with consumers or industry, is very poor lawmaking.”

This is the very real issue with the Digital Economy Bill. Despite a long and frankly tortuous consultation process, since the bill got to its latest House of Lords reading, it’s been the subject of a barrage of amendments from all angles – some of which have never been discussed as part of the consultation.

Standing outside the ongoing needling between rightsowners and ISPs / tech firms, it’s hard not to wonder whether this is any way to put together such an important piece of legislation, which is supposed to be tackling online piracy while also fostering innovative new business models for digital media.

And that’s without even mentioning the fact that the whole thing is having to be hurried through before the UK’s General Election – currently expected to take place in May.

[BusinessInsider] The Apple Investor: Apple Stock Blasts To Another New High, Now Worth As Much As Walmart (AAPL)

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:08:00 GMT

[Blog Entries] What the Strait Laces Are Expecting from SXSW 2010 by David Hill

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:40:24 GMT

[Hear 2.0] Social Media at Ford goes Local

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:37:00 GMT

Check out this video with Ford's head of Social Media, Scott Monty (from the Online Marketing Blog).

Here's a company that understands marketing and social media (even if it's social media in a suit and tie).

Notice the emphasis on the "localized approach." They're taking their marketing to "the very local community."

You can make that easier for them - and be part of that connection process - if you want. Or you can keep trying to sell spots to the local dealership with none of the additional value that Ford is actively embracing.

Focus on your product, says Scott. Listen to your audience - they're "dying to hear from you and dying to connect."

Ford's social efforts are focused at The Ford Story.

Which reminds me...you're not a brand until you have a story.

[BusinessWeek] Pink Floyd Contract Applies to Digital Sales, U.K. Court Rules

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:04:12 GMT

[hypebot] Gaelic Storm Follows Recipe For Email Success

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:47:31 GMT

Gaelic Storm has grown from playing pubs to selling out theaters with no label and almost no airplay. Their success has come in large part because the band and Matt Maher's ROAR management team have consistently used modern marketing to stay connected with the many fans earned at their fun live shows.

This isn't rocket science. But in a single email, the band includes a free mp3 teasing their new album, a contest for a trip sponsored by Southwest Airlines, their tour dates, an invite to an after-party where they asks fans to wear Gaelic Storm t-shirts for a group photo, a couple of trips fans can go on and a call to buy merchandise. The fan gets rewarded with a free mp3 at the top of the email and then is offered a variety of ways to stay engaged with the band through the email and on their active website.

Very basic stuff, but when executed all together and done repeatedly it’s incredibly effective. View the full email here.

[The Register - Music and Media] Punters: we want our internet TV

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:28:28 GMT

[The Beals Media Update] Web Standards for E-books

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:23:00 GMT

Here’s an excellent article about the real world challenges and pitfalls of producing an eBook in 2010. Toronto journalist and author Joe Clark does a wonderful job of watering down and simplifying the often complex process of using XHTML and EPUB to produce eBooks that look good, no matter what device they are read on. (Thanks to Dave H. over at MacRaven for sharing!)

[The latest on digital from MusicWeek.com] Pink Floyd win digital royalties battle with EMI

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:21:00 GMT

[TorrentFreak] Pirate Bay Court Appeal Set For Just After General Election

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:01:59 GMT

In April 2009, all four defendants in the Pirate Bay trial were found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison and a fines of $905,000 each. The defense didn’t accept the decision, and went on to file for an appeal.

Their appeal is now expected to head to the Court of Appeal on 28 September 2010. Nine days have been allocated in all, and the last is due on 15 October.

The dates are not fixed in stone and could be changed if the plaintiffs or defendants have any objections, which even at this early stage seems to be the case.

Peter Sunde has already taken note that the provisional date is penciled-in for after the Swedish parliamentary elections which take place on 19 September 2010.

Sunde says that the four are only available for an appeal before the elections, commenting: “Who said this case is NOT political?”

If the appeal was heard before the elections, there would be a very real chance that an affirmation of the original conviction could turn into a major political issue in Sweden. Following the conviction of the ‘four’ in 2009, the Pirate Party received 7.1% of the vote in the European Parliament elections, receiving more votes from those under 30 than any other party in Sweden.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

[hypebot] ScatterTunes V-Album Takes On Apple's iTunes LP

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:56:00 GMT

Can the album format be saved? Does adding bonus content encourage fans to open their wallets? ITunes LP hoped so, but so far few have embraced the format. Entering the fray is ScatterTunes with a bonus product package called the V-album.

The format requires download proprietary player software, but then a $9.99 purchase of Jimi Hendix Valley Of The Neptunes comes complete with high quality mp3's lyrics, a 24 page booklet, 4 videos and a photo gallery. Here's an overview:

[The Register - Music and Media] Sony launches 'WiiMote for PS3'

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 11:33:54 GMT

[The Register - Music and Media] Microsoft shows Bottom to Young Ones

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:47:24 GMT

[The Register - Music and Media] PayPal restores Cryptome for real

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:28:46 GMT

[Engadget] PRS Guitarbud jacks your axe, ego into iPhone / iPod touch

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 09:19:00 GMT

[SFgate] Panasonic, Samsung 3-D sets priced about $3,000

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 08:00:00 GMT

[Inside Music Media] Commodity Radio Kills Off Joey Reynolds

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:02:00 GMT

[hypebot] More Music Industry News: imeem's Caldwell Is Back, EMI, Rock Band 3, Mexico, Redeye & More

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:20:00 GMT

imeem founder Dalton Caldwell has raised $370,000 of a proposed $600,000 for his stealth startup Mixed Media Labs (Venture Beat)
Same old song at EMI? Charles Allen seems a surprising replacement for Elio Leoni-Sceti but at least he wants to be there. (Guardian, Hypebot)
This music is sponsored by ... With the music industry in free fall, musicians turn to corporate advertising and product placement to promote their work. (LA Times)
Rock Band 3 will be released in time for the holidays and EA will distribute. (MTV)
Facebook Will Allow Users to Share Location. (Bits)
Emily White: Why I love email lists. (MidemNet Blog)
A New Frontier for Indie Rock, Down in Mexico. (NY Times)
Redeye Distribution has added Los Angeles based Autumn Tone Records to its roster. Created in 2006 as a companion to the popular music blog, Aquarium Drunkard, Autumn Tone artists include The Henry Clay People, Happy Hollows and Roadside Graves, whose last album appeared on many of 2009's "best of" lists. Their new album will be released March 23rd.
Uplaya enters the "get your song rated" sector and is offering feedback for two songs free for a limited time.

[Indie Music Tech] Record, Upload and Share Sound Bites on the Go with Chirbit

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:50:45 GMT

Ever been at a music conference and needed an easy way to capture a quick thought about a panel, conversation or event you could share with your friends via your iPhone? With Chirbit, you can, and just in time for SXSW next week.

Simply signup with Chirbit, and use your iPhone's built-in Voice Memo app to record, and you'll be sharing micro-podcasts and soundbites within minutes to your friends on Facebook. You could even provide daily updates from Austin via your Twitter account.

There are some size limitations, but the service appears to be free, at least for now. To learn more about Chirbit, visit with them during their official launch at SXSW during TechKaraoke (3/15/10). In the meantime, here's their official screencast:

[Engadget] Pioneer DJM-2000 digital mixer sports multitouch screen, per-frequency mixing delight

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:32:00 GMT

[L.A. Times Tech Blog] As Twitter improves website, app makers push tweets in other directions

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:32:28 GMT

Twitter engineer Alex Payne upset a flock of third-party developers recently when he boasted about new features the company plans to roll out to its website. "If you had some of the nifty site features that we Twitter employees have, you might not want to use a desktop client," he wrote on his Twitter page.

Software makers feared that Twitter was trying to squeeze them out. Payne did damage control -- all of these tweaks are built on top of options we've already given to developers, he pleaded.

But developers who had built countless products and entire companies on the back of the social network remained understandably concerned. Rather than butt heads with the beast, some are looking at other ways to aggregate and display tweets.

Twitter had struggled with unprecedented growth practically since its launch. For the first few years, the company spent the majority of its resources not on building new features or making money but rather on optimizing code and investing in servers to keep the site running. The service's unreliability "almost killed us," site creator Jack Dorsey said last year.

Now that investors are plentiful, revenue from search deals is flowing and "fail whales" (the alert indicating the service is down) are few, Twitter is building upon its website.

On Wednesday Twitter added the option to automatically include your location with tweets from its website. It recently launched a vastly improved version of its mobile site, one of the fastest-growing phone-optimized sites on the Web, according to ComScore. Last month, the company rolled out a sleek new ability called Hovercards.

Brizzly maintains a competing Web interface that, above all, offers support for seamlessly switching among multiple profiles. Twitter has yet to integrate such a feature.

Thing Labs, which makes Brizzly, announced two new products Wednesday. One, the Guide, expands on a smaller feature of the company's current product, creating a sort of news page that relies on Twitter's trending topics and Wikipedia-style crowd-sourcing.

The other is a free iPhone application built by the creator of the critically acclaimed Birdfeed app. Birdfeed was among the pricier Twitter software in the App Store, and the Brizzly app packs many of those features while undercutting the competition.

Although Twitter has a bustling mobile site, the company shows no sign of building an official iPhone app. Brizzly previously indicated that it planned to attack mobile with a Web app rather than a native app that needs to be downloaded. After all, Thing Labs has the creator of Google Reader's mobile site.

But Thing Labs founder Jason Shellen pointed out that "uploading photos just isn't possible from a mobile website," he wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "We wanted something that felt quick and responsive but could maybe do heavier lifting down the road."

Take that, mobile.twitter.com.

Tweetie, Loren Bricther's standout iPhone app, is adding a feature that integrates Foursquare, a competitor in the location-based social networking space. Don't expect Twitter itself to do that any time soon.

TweetDeck, a high-end desktop app, is prominently promoting its unique directory of Twitter personalities front and center. Digg also has a Twitter directory called WeFollow. Twitter's own phone book of sorts is limited to several dozen profiles in 20 categories rather than several thousands in the others.

Meanwhile, Seesmic, which has both desktop, mobile and Web-based clients, gives top billing on its site to a new product called Seesmic Look. The Windows program is designed with tablet computers in mind and caters to Twitter newbies.

To predict the future of Twitter apps, you might want to look where Twitter, the company, isn't.

-- Mark Milian
twitter.com/markmilian

Photo: Twitter Chief Executive Evan Williams. Credit: Associated Press

[TechCrunch] doubleTwist’s iTunes Alternative (That Works With Android) Adds Podcast Support

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:15:05 GMT

Over the last six months, doubleTwist, the iTunes alternative that lets you manage your music, videos, and photos, has really been stepping up its game. In October the company integrated an Amazon-powered MP3 store, allowing users to download and sync their music directly with any of hundreds of compatible devices, much as they would with the iTunes/iPod combo. And today it’s adding a new feature that makes it an even more viable iTunes competitor: support for podcasts.

Co-founder Monique Farantzos says that doubleTwist has built and integrated a podcast search engine with 20 times as many podcasts as iTunes offers. Rankings are based on popularity (as opposed to a simple listing that would grow unmanageable with that much content). The new feature is launching on Windows now, with Mac support for podcasts coming next month. Later this year, doubleTwist will offer an API allowing other applications to tap into the podcast search engine. The company is also planning to launch a client for Android (which would presumably allow users to stream content) over the summer.

Farantzos says that doubleTwist is also going to start offering more cloud-based services. In May, users will be able to store the podcasts they’re subscribed to server-side, so they’ll be able to use the same subscriptions on their desktop and mobile clients without having to dock them together.

While it supports many devices, doubleTwist is becoming increasingly popular as an ‘iTunes for Android’. In January, it forged a partnership with T-Mobile, which promotes doubleTwist and has pre-installed it on some devices. Now, 53% of doubleTwist users are using it to sync with Android phones. The application also supports syncing with many other devices, including WebOS, BlackBerry, Sony PSP, and digital cameras.

doubleTwist is still missing some of the functionality that iTunes has, like the ability to download TV shows and movies. But the podcast functionality will add some video content, and 1 in 5 users are using it to manage video content they already have. And some people may even appreciate the added simplicity if they’re just interested in music. In any case, it probably isn’t worth holding your breath for doubleTwist to add movies and TV downloads any time soon — content owners are still set on wrapping that content in DRM.

Also see Songbird, another iTunes alternative (you can see our past coverage here).

CrunchBase Information

doubleTwist

Information provided by CrunchBase

[Financial Times] EMI quickly needs to change the record

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:00:00 GMT

[Techdirt] American Idol Contestants Have To Give Up Their Social Media Presence?

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 01:57:00 GMT

[TechCrunch] Sonos To Take Investment From Index Ventures, Add Mike Volpi To Board Of Directors

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:41:05 GMT

Sonos, the Santa Barbara, California based startup that develops of wireless multi-room music systems, is taking a new round of financing from London-based Index Ventures, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Partner Mike Volpi, a forcer Cisco exec who found himself in the middle of a huge drama last year around eBay’s Skype spinoff, will join the board of directors of Sonos.

Volpi will bring real expertise to the Sonos board. As recently as 2007 he ran an $11 billion routing and access products busines for Cisco. He clearly knows how to sell products at scale.

Sonos has been around since 2003 and has raised some $40 million from private angel investors and BV Capital. Until last year the company sold very high end music products that users loved passionately, but the mutli-thousand dollar price point for a complete system made mainstream penetration difficult.

But in 2009 Sonos began selling a new product, the S5 music system, that users control via their iPhone. The S5 is just $400 and has driven “massive growth” says the company.

Like Flip last year, Sonos likely had a choice between selling now or raising new money for major expansion. Flip sold to Cisco. Sonos, it seems, is taking more money, but adding an ex-Cisco exec as well. Perhaps they’ll get their cake and eat it, too.

Sonos wouldn’t comment on this story. But we believe the deal will close and be announced in the next week or two.