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FreeAllMusic is “iTunes Meets Hulu”
Users will be able to download songs for free after viewing a 15-30 second advertisement, but will it catch on with music fans and will advertisers really embrace it? Many, myself included, are always criticizing the music industry for its repeated inability to think outside the box, and the fact that 10 years after Napster it still needs our advice proves it’s shortcomings. However, two of the so-called Big 4 record labels have signed up to provide their music libraries for a new site called FreeAllMusic where users can download songs for free after watching a brief 15-30 second advertisement.
Continue reading »South Korean Copyright Groups Demand P2P Site Filters “Or Else”
Not satisfied with “three-strikes” alone, says that all P2P sites that refuse to install filters preventing users from uploading copyrighted material by the end of the year will face “severe measures.” Back in July of this year South Korea earned the infamous distinction of being the first country in the world to enact a “three strikes,” or “graduated response,” system for disconnecting illegal file-sharing from the Internet. Apparently unhappy with that power alone, the the Korean Film Producers Association and the Digital Content Network Association held a joint press conference recently demanding that all P2P sites install a digital content filtering system that will prevent users from uploading copyrighted material to the Internet by the end of the year or face “severe measures.” “From now on, the failure to install the software will be taken as an offense against consumers and copyright holders,” they said in a press release. “We will seek stern legal measures.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the reason for the move is the fact that some P2P sites have already voluntarily agreed to install the filtering system while others have not, creating an unfair business advantage for those that have.
Continue reading »IFPI: P2P Does Not Increase Music Sales
Responds to recent poll that found file-sharers spend an average of £75 ($123 USD) annually on music purchases versus £44 ($72 USD) for non-file-sharers. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has responded to the recent Digital Music survey conducted for Demos, a UK-based think tank, and as usual it claims the net effect of illegal file-sharing has been to reduce legitimate music sales. It says that all the survey showed is that there is an “overlap between those people who download music illegally and those who purchase music,” that music fans typically acquire music from a variety of sources, some legal and some not.
Continue reading »Shsssh! Google Voice has 1.4 million users
PDF error spills confidential count Despite the fact that Google Voice remains an “invitation only” service, it has grown to well over 1.4 million users with a cool 570,000 folks using it daily.…
Continue reading »Blow-Up Over Artist’s Giant Copy Of Obama Stipple Drawing
Pablo Picasso once said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” But Wall Street Journal illustrator Noli Novak says Spanish artist Jose Maria Cano engaged in outright plagiarism in producing a large painting that meticulously duplicates Novak ’s stipple portrait of President Barack Obama, including the surrounding text that ran on the front page of the Journal last year. Jose Maria Cano's giant hand-painted copy of Noli Novak's Obama drawing “He copied it dot by dot,” Novak said. Cano, who could not be reached for comment, has produced an entire series of paintings copied from the Journal ’s signature stipple portraiture — all of them several times larger than the newspaper clippings from which they’re derived.
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