COPYCENSE

"Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs is given undeniable credit for jump-starting what is now a fast-growing digital music market, but some music executives complain that his company, with 70 percent of the digital download market, is setting the ground rules for their own business.

"While iTunes is designed to propel the sales of iPods–more than $1 billion worth in the last quarter alone–the labels complain that Apple’s policies are insensitive to their goals and limit their ability to grow their digital business even faster.

John Borland. Music moguls trumped by Steve Jobs?. News.com. April 15, 2005.

See also:
Steve Jobs’ resume.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology in our New Afternoon Edition. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Desktop publishing specialist Adobe Systems is buying multimedia applications maker Macromedia in a $3.4 billion deal geared toward building a software powerhouse.

"The all-stock deal, announced Monday, is designed to create a better-stocked source of tools for building and distributing multimedia content across a range of operating systems and devices, the companies said.

"They also stressed that the merger will enable them to expand more rapidly into the market for audio and video applications for handhelds and other gadgets."

Matt Hines. Adobe to Buy Macromedia for $3.4 Billion. ZDNet. April 18, 2005.

See also:
Clint Boulton. Adobe to Buy Macromedia for $3.4B. InternetNews.com. April 18, 2005.

Russell Shaw. What Adobe Buying Macromedia *Could* Mean for VoIP. ZDNet. April 18, 2005.

Paul Festa. Developers React to Adobe’s Macromedia Buy. News.com. April 18, 2005.

Paul Festa  and Martin LaMonica. Macromedia, Adobe Make Peace for Bigger Fight. News.com. April 18, 2005.

Adobe Systems Inc. Adobe — Macromedia Acquisition Announcement Frequently Asked Questions. (.pdf) April 18, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"TiVo is in talks with Internet search giants Google and Yahoo over a possible deal aimed at bridging television and the Web, CNET News.com has learned.

"A partnership between TiVo and a major Internet search engine would offer expansion opportunities for both. TiVo has long talked about becoming the ‘Google of TV,’ eventually enabling its 3 million subscribers to search for and watch any broadcast or broadband media. Though TiVo opened the door for video downloads straight from the Web, it does not yet offer such a feature.

"Meanwhile, Google and Yahoo are investing heavily in video services."

Stefanie Olsen  and Richard Shim. Search Giants Court TiVo. News.com. April 18, 2005.

See also:
Stefanie Olsen. Digital Ads Tune In. News.com. April 29, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"Amid pressure from the Universal Music Group, America Online has struck a deal to pay for the use of Universal’s music video libraries for its online service, people involved in the deal said.

"The licensing agreement, expected to be announced today, sets a potentially lucrative precedent for the music industry in the evolution of online and video-on-demand business. The major record companies have been trying to avoid a repeat of what they think was a costly error in the early 1980’s, when they agreed to provide videos free to a fledgling MTV."

Jeff Leeds. AOL Said to Reach Deal to Use Universal Videos. The New York Times. April 19, 2005.

See also:
Chris Marlowe. Music Vids Get Free Rein at AOL Music. Reuters. April 19, 2005.

(Editor’s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper’s fee-based Archive.)

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

Commentary by K. Matthew Dames, Executive Editor

In a direct attempt to compete with Google’s News offering, Yahoo! has launched a beta version of Yahoo! News. Yahoo News is a blend of bots and brains, as human editors refine the listings that the automated search algorithm produces. Like its competitor, the Yahoo News page will allow users to customize the interface using cookies.

What remains to be seen is whether Yahoo! News will encounter some of the copyright problems that Google News has begun to encounter. Last month, Google dropped Agence France Presse ("AFP") from it source list after the French news service sued Google, claiming that Google’s display of AFP’s headlines, images and story leads without permission ran afoul of U.S. copyright law. Earlier this month, news wire giant Associated Press announced that it was discussing with Google the possibility of licensing its content to the search company. Google currently uses the AP feeds in its News service without compensation.

In a talk I gave last week on Open Access, I drew a parallel between these actions taken by news industry giants, and the lawsuits lodged against consumers by the recording industry. In both instances, technological advances have disrupted the business and profit models that established companies in established industries have followed for years. In each instance, the response of established companies (or their lobbying organizations) has been to sue, either to maintain profit margins, or to maintain the status quo until another profitable business model can be developed. (Conistent with this approach, we may see AFP and AP join Reed-Elsevier and Thomson in promoting database protection legislation before Congress.)

And in each instance, this strategy totally misses the boat.

As has occurred in the music industry, the value of content in the news industry has been diminished. It seems clear that consumers are less likely to want to pay for most kinds of content, be it music, artistic, or journalistic. And when it comes to news content, people do not expect to pay at all. One could reasonably argue that this is shameful or wrong; be what it may, it is simply the way things are.

On the other hand, consumers seem willing to pay premium prices for content that includes something that adds value to the content. There are several ways that companies that specialize in providing printed content can add value: static citations, optimized PDFs, and multimedia enhancements are some of the initiatives that come to my mind.

With the advent of RSS, the trend toward open access (particularly outside the United States), and the decreased relevance of print material as a primary information source, the news industry is in the exact same position as the music industry. Hopefully, companies in the news industry will be smarter than their brethren in music and film and leverage new, disruptive, and distributive technologies into new customers and revenue streams instead of desperately clinging to business models that will render them extinct regardless of their legislative and litigation tactics.

See also:
Mark Glaser. Inside Yahoo News. Online Journalism Review. April 1, 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology in our New Afternoon Edition. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"The digitization of the world�s enormous store of library books�an effort dating to the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, the United States, and elsewhere�has been a slow, expensive, and underfunded process.

"But last December librarians received a pleasant shock. Search-engine giant Google announced ambitious plans to expand its ‘Google Print’ service by converting the full text of millions of library books into searchable Web pages.

"Most librarians and archivists are ecstatic about the announcement, saying it will likely be remembered as the moment in history when society finally got serious about making knowledge ubiquitous."

Wade Roush. The Infinite Library. Technology Review. May 2005.

SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.

"What are ‘orphan works,’ why are they important, and why I have I heard so much about them recently?

"This FAQ is answered by Peter Hirtle, Technology Strategist and Intellectual Property Officer for Cornell University Library."

Peter Hirtle. Adopting "Orphan Works". RLG DigiNews. April 15, 2005.

Editor’s note See also SNTReport.com’s prior story on orphan works.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.