Patent Sought for Tri-Format DVD
A patent application has been filed for a disc that would play two competing high-definition DVD formats. If successful, the disc could help resolve a battle that has divided Hollywood and confounded consumers.
The patent application was filed by three Warner Bros. employees, two of whom are engineers for the company.
The “multilayer dual optical disk” would [...]
The Knack Sue Run-DMC Over “It’s Tricky” Riff
We thought we’d seen everything when it comes to lawsuits over hip-hop samples, but this one takes the cake: Twenty years after the release of Run-DMC’s “It’s Tricky,” the Knack are suing over that “My Sharona” riff.
A few thoughts: 1) It was a different world back in the Eighties when it came to clearing samples, [...]
U.S. to Renew Web Domain Pact
The Commerce Department said Wednesday that it would extend its oversight of the Marina del Rey- based organization that handles Internet domain name policies, while finding ways to improve the group’s accountability and transparency.
John Kneuer, the department’s acting assistant secretary for communications and information, said the government’s agreement with the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names [...]
U.S. Uploads Anti-Drug Videos to YouTube
The White House is distributing government-produced, anti-drug videos on YouTube, the trendy Internet service that features clips of wacky, drug-induced behavior and step-by-step instructions for growing marijuana plants.
The decision to distribute public service announcements and other videos over YouTube represents the first concerted effort by the U.S. government to influence customers of the popular service, [...]
Amazon Unbox – Terms Undermine Value
Value is what consumers expect most when they make a purchase. Violate that sense of value and they will walk away every time. As Digital Music News editor Paul Resnikoff pointed out a few months ago there are people who spend $50,000 on a car and half-a-million on a house, but won’t spend $20 for [...]
Whose content is it anyway?
Chico Bongalar is a tubby twenty-something guy – real name Grant – and he likes making videos. At the moment Chico is the No 1 attraction on Trouble Homegrown, the UK television channel’s attempt to mirror the runaway success of web sites like MySpace and YouTube.
Chico talks about his life, getting a suntan and eats [...]
CRIA and Private Copying
CRIA is currently leading a coalition that includes Apple, Bell, Rogers, and Napster in opposing an application for a new tariff for online downloads (I briefly posted on Graham Henderson’s appearance before the Copyright Board last week and his startling claim that he had not read Nielson SoundScan data months after he referenced that data [...]
Torrents, piracy and beyond: will the film industry survive?
For many years now people have been telling us how much the media world is changing. And it is. Faster than we ever imagined.
I downloaded my first Torrent this week. It took me about 20 minutes to download and install the software and get an album called Wu Orleans – a mash-up of Old New [...]
Copyright hindering scholarship in the humanities and social sciences
A report from the British Academy, launched on 18 September, expresses fears that the copyright system may in important respects be impeding, rather than stimulating, the production of new ideas and new scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.
It is in the nature of creative activity and scholarship that original material builds on what has [...]
Users want video downloads on the TV
Users want more control over the content they watch on their television sets according to an Accenture report released this morning. Over 10,000 Internet users were surveyed in China, South Korea, Italy, Canada, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Germany, United States and Japan—with 1,609 being from the United States—to get a feeling for what consumers want in [...]
