iTunes Music Store Accepts PayPal
"Apple Computer Inc. on Friday said customers of its iTunes online music store can now use eBay Inc.’s online payment service PayPal to buy songs and audiobooks, becoming the second major online music store to do so.
"Starting Friday, purchases from Cupertino, California-based Apple’s online music store can be funded via PayPal, using a credit card, bank account or a stored account balance.
"Until now, the Apple store accepted credit cards, gift certificates and account balances as forms of payment."
No author. Apple Says ITunes Music Store Now Accepts PayPal. Reuters. Dec. 10, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
High Court to Hear MGM-Grokster case
"The Supreme Court, accepting urgent pleas from the recording and film industries, agreed on Friday to decide whether the online services that enable copyrighted songs and movies to be shared freely over the Internet can be held liable themselves for aiding copyright infringement.
"For the entertainment industry and for everyday consumers, the case is likely to produce the most important copyright decision since the Supreme Court ruled in 1984 that the makers of the videocassette recorder were not liable for violating the copyrights of movies that owners of the devices recorded at home.
"The earlier decision, Sony Corporation of America v. Universal City Studios, ushered in one technological revolution. The new case, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster Ltd., No. 04-480, comes as another is already well under way. More than 85 million copyrighted songs and a smaller but rapidly growing number of movies are downloaded from the Internet every day by people using file-sharing services."
Linda Greenhouse. Justices to Hear Case on Sharing of Music Files. The New York Times. Dec. 11, 2004.
See also:
John Borland. Supreme Court to Hear P2P Case. News.com. Dec. 10, 2004.
Ashlee Vance. The Supremes Prep for P2P Battle Royal. The Register. Dec. 10, 2004.
(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.)
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Canada Buries Copyright Myths
"The intense lobbying for stronger copyright legislation in response to music downloading, which culminated in last month’s lobby day on Parliament Hill, is premised on three key pillars. First, that the Canadian recording industry has sustained significant financial losses in recent years due to decreased music sales. Second, that those losses can be attributed to peer-to-peer file sharing. Third, that the losses have materially harmed Canadian artists. The time has come to acknowledge that each of these pillars is a myth.
"Last week’s column addressed the first two pillars. It documented how CRIA has been inconsistent in its claims of financial losses. The column also demonstrated how peer-to-peer file sharing is at best only marginally responsible for the losses that have been sustained in recent years.
"Following last week’s column, readers highlighted yet more factors including a significant decline in the number of new releases issued over the past five years and the view that the CD sales decline simply reflects broader economic conditions.
"Against this backdrop, along with news that shipments of CDs in Canada jumped by more than 12 per cent in the six-month period following the Federal Court of Canada’s file sharing decision, it is time to slay the third peer-to-peer myth � that Canadian artists have been materially harmed by the decline in revenue."
Michael Geist. Time Music Industry Focused on Product. Toronto Star. Dec. 6, 2004.
See also:
Michael Geist. Numbers Don’t Crunch Against Downloading. Toronto Star. Nov. 29, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
AOL Locks Out Users
"America Online Inc. has confirmed that it mistakenly deactivated a number of AOL Instant Messenger accounts this week as part of its regular cycle of opening unused screen names to new users.
"AOL, whose instant messaging service is among the most widely used worldwide, had begun releasing screen names that had gone unused when it snarled the accounts of some active users in the process, an AOL spokeswoman confirmed to eWEEK.com. The Dulles, Va., company is working to restore the mistakenly turned-off accounts by Monday.
"The mistake surprised AIM users, many of whom took to Weblogs to try to figure out if they were alone in being cut off from IM."
Matt Hicks and Ryan Naraine. AOL Locks Out IM Users. eWeek. Dec. 9, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
The Challenge of Free, Creative Expression
"For kids reared on comic books, what could be more natural than tumbling into the backyard with their friends to make up new adventures for their favorite superheroes? How many comic book fans adorned their grade-school notebooks with hand-drawn images of the X-Men, the Incredible Hulk, and Captain America?
"Apparently Marvel Enterprises Inc., which owns the copyright and trademark rights in these classic superhero characters, thinks that these generations of American children were all infringers, little better than the downloaders targeted by the music and movie industries. At least that’s the impression left by a complaint (.pdf) filed Nov. 10 by Marvel against NCSoft Corp. and Cryptic Studios, the operators of an online game called ‘City of Heroes.’
"Marvel is alleging copyright and trademark infringement, as well as a variety of state law claims. The chief claims are for contributory and vicarious copyright and trademark infringement. In other words, Marvel’s complaint is premised on the notion that NCSoft and Cryptic should be held responsible for the infringing activities of the players in the game. According to the complaint, the players are infringing Marvel’s copyrights and trademarks by creating characters that are recognizable copies of Marvel characters, including Wolverine and the Incredible Hulk."
Fred von Lohmann. Et tu, Marvel?. Law.com. Dec. 3, 2004.
See also:
Daniel Terdiman. Marvel Battles Role Players. Wired News. Nov. 16, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
MSN Bloggers Try to Circumvent Censorship Tools
"MSN Spaces, Microsoft’s new blogging service, has sparked a new game for some of its users: trying to circumvent its censorship controls.
"BoingBoing, a popular Web log, on Friday reported that MSN Spaces is rejecting certain blog titles or URLs because they contain words that Microsoft has deemed inappropriate.
"However, like so many censorship tools, Microsoft’s is proving less than perfect. BoingBoing found that all of the most obvious profanities fell foul of Microsoft’s electronic sentries."
Graeme Wearden. MSN Bloggers Try to Foul up Censorship Tool. News.com. Dec. 3, 2004.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Musicians Mixing Soundtracks with Video Games
"In the past three years, particularly this year, the link between the music industry and the video game industry — the former in a revenue slump, the latter on a revenue high — has gotten only closer.
"For example, the rock-punk band Incubus wrote music for Halo 2, and Snoop Dogg’s cover of the Doors classic ‘Riders on the Storm’ made its debut on Need for Speed Underground 2. Both games were released last month.
"For artists as established as Green Day, whose ‘American Idiot’ has just been nominated for a Grammy as record of the year, winning a spot on Madden NFL’s soundtrack is like having a 20-second commercial on ‘Monday Night Football’ or ‘Desperate Housewives.’ For an up-and-comer such as the Game, it’s an even bigger deal, the kind of break that gives instant celebrity. For both, it’s a new route to an old audience, as sure a bet as any when it comes to grabbing a prized demographic: 18-to-34-year-old males, 75 percent of whom play video games, according to Nielsen Interactive Entertainment."
Jose Antonio Vargas. Musicians Are Making Tracks to Video Games. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 9, 2004.
(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
COPYCENSE 