MTV Redesigns Itself for the Tiny Screen
“A boyish-looking 41-year-old man wearing jeans and a green-and-purple-striped sweater was in the room recently one spring morning because just a few months earlier MTV redrew its organizational chart and gave him a new job it considers extremely important, one with the unwieldy title of executive vice president for multiplatform production, news and music. Translated, it means that he is the guy responsible for figuring out how his network will continue to thrive creatively, and thus financially, in a world where television’s center of gravity seems to be rapidly shifting, away from immobile TV sets and toward roving screens: laptops, P.D.A.’s, iPods, game players and, most important, cellphones.
“The shift is not simply changing the way the medium looks and feels. Even now, in its infancy, mobile video is starting to make the very definition of television, as a place where people watch ‘shows’ on ‘channels,’ sound pleasantly anachronistic, like a description from an old issue of Popular Mechanics. It may also be creating a new way to make a whole lot of money: one model projects that the worldwide market for mobile television will be $27 billion by 2010.
“By the most optimistic counts, there are only about 3 million people out of the almost 200 million cellphone users in the United States who now watch video on their phones. Other analysts say the number of those who watch regularly is much lower. Judging by what is happening in other parts of the world, where the mobile-television experiment is well under way, the more pertinent questions are: What are they going to want to watch? Will it be regular live television, redirected to their phones? Or typical television fare, edited and re-packaged to suit a screen smaller than a business card?
“It might end up being neither, but instead a new amalgam that feels little like traditional television and more like the increasingly video-dominated Web — like computer games, like the kind of shaggy user-generated video and mashed-up video clips that began as novelties for people killing time in their cubicles but are now on their way to becoming big business.”
Randy Kennedy. The Shorter, Faster, Cruder, Tinier TV Show. The New York Times Magazine. May 28, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Big Film Sues Cablevision Over DVRs
“Hollywood studios and TV networks are asking a federal court to stop a video recording service that Cablevision Systems Corp. planned to start offering next month.
“The companies sued Cablevision, the nation’s sixth-largest cable TV provider, in U.S. District Court in New York on Wednesday, saying the service, known as a ‘network DVR,’ violated the companies’ copyrights.
“Cablevision announced in March that it would offer subscribers a way to retrieve recorded shows from the cable company’s system, rather than from a hard drive installed on a special set-top cable box.”
Gary Gentile. Cablevision Sued Over Planned DVR Service. BusinessWeek Online. May 25, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Dell & Google Fight eBay & Yahoo!
“Google and Dell have agreed to a first in a series of deals to preinstall Web and desktop search software on the PC maker’s computers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said.
“Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas, Schmidt discussed details of a long-rumored deal between the No. 1 search engine and the No. 1 PC maker, which is a strike against Google rival Microsoft. Under the deal, millions of Dell PCs will be loaded with the Google toolbar for Web and PC search, along with a co-branded home page, before they’re shipped to consumers.”
Stefanie Olsen and Tom Krazit. Dell Embraces Google. News.com. May 25, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
Maya Roney. Google-Dell Benefits Aren’t Free. Forbes.com. May 26, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Electronic Content Poses Copyright Conflict in Classrooms
“As digital technology proliferates, legislation and the publishing industry are racing to keep up with the possibilities for file-sharing, website posting, and other forms of electronic exchange of copyrighted materials. Publishers are working to crack down on the digital circulation of documents without permission, and universities are rapidly becoming one their main targets for copyright enforcement.
“Over the last few decades, most lawsuits involving copyright infringement of academic materials dealt with the duplication of articles and book chapters for course packets without proper permissions.
“However, investigators are now shifting their focus from companies profiting from the reproduction of copyrighted academic materials to individuals acquiring and exchanging those materials online for educational purposes, most often professors and students.”
Christie Toth. E-violations of Copyright a Problem for Faculty, Students. Portland State University Vanguard. May 23, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
Dell & Google Fight eBay & Yahoo!
“Google and Dell have agreed to a first in a series of deals to preinstall Web and desktop search software on the PC maker’s computers, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said.
“Speaking at a Goldman Sachs conference in Las Vegas, Schmidt discussed details of a long-rumored deal between the No. 1 search engine and the No. 1 PC maker, which is a strike against Google rival Microsoft. Under the deal, millions of Dell PCs will be loaded with the Google toolbar for Web and PC search, along with a co-branded home page, before they’re shipped to consumers.”
Stefanie Olsen and Tom Krazit. Dell Embraces Google. News.com. May 25, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
Maya Roney. Google-Dell Benefits Aren’t Free. Forbes.com. May 26, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
California Court Rules Against Apple in Blogger Case
“Applying traditional First Amendment protections to the exploding universe of online journalism, a state appeals court on Friday rejected Apple Computer’s bid to unearth the identities of individuals who leaked inside information on a new company product to bloggers.
“In a 69-page ruling, the San Jose-based 6th District Court of Appeal broke new ground by concluding that bloggers and Web masters enjoy the same protections against divulging confidential sources as established media organizations. Civil liberties groups and journalism organizations have argued that online journalists need to protect the confidentiality of sources just as much as traditional media, such as the New York Times and CNN.
“Apple triggered the closely watched case two years ago when the company went to court to pry loose the identities of individuals who leaked internal company documents on a new product called ‘Asteroid’ to three Web pages devoted to Apple-related news. Among other things, the plans for Asteroid, including an exact drawing of the yet-to-be released digital music device, were posted on a Web site called PowerPage, operated by Pennsylvania blogger Jason O’Grady.”
Howard Mintz. Apple Loses Case Against Bloggers. MercuryNews.com. May 27, 2006.
Related Stories & Documents:
Ellen Lee. Bloggers Can Shield Sources, Court Rules. SFGate.com. May 27, 2006.
Ars Technica. Apple Dealt Loss in Apple v. Does Trade Secret Case. May 27, 2006.
Court of Appeal of the State of California — Sixth Appellate District. Jason O’Grady et al. v. The Superior Court of Santa Clara County & Apple Computer Inc, (H028579) (.pdf) May 26, 2006.
Ina Fried and Declan McCullagh. Apple Thwarted in Bid to Unmask Leaker. News.com. May 26, 2006.
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
CopyCense on Break
Due to the Memorial Day holiday in the United States and vacation, CopyCense will not publish between Monday, May 29, 2006 and Tuesday, June 6, 2006. We will resume our normal publication occasionally on Wednesday, June 7.
K. Matthew Dames
Executive Editor
CopyCense
CopyCense™: The law, business, and technology of digital content. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.
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