Study: legal music far outweighs P2P on portable music players

Yet music downloads from legal services have eclipsed those stemming from P2P and other unauthorized sources. In fact, the study indicated that more than 70 percent of such music stems from legal sources, and that music download services are on the rise.

TechCrunch » Blog Archive » Google Books partners with Chinese publishers

Google Books, a program that’s been controversial in the US, has reportedly penned a deal with four publishing houses in China. Rival Baidu has deals with Chinese libraries instead; its program has access to 15 million books, the largest online collection of Chinese books in the world.

TechCrunch » Blog Archive » Use Red Swoosh to Serve Files For Free

Silicon Valley based Red Swoosh is launching a free, ad supported version of its file serving technology today (the link in this sentence is to the new site - redswoosh.net will redirect sometime overnight).
SNIU

Listening Post

Regardless of who makes it, an MP3 player with satellite reception could be pretty attractive, assuming users' needs are keep near the top of the priority list.

Wired 14.07: The Rise and Fall of the Hit

But even as NSync was celebrating its huge launch, the ground was shifting. Total music sales fell during 2000, for only the second time in a decade. Over the next few years, even after the economy recovered, the music industry continued to suffer. Something fundamental had changed. Sales fell 2.5 percent in 2001, 6.8 percent in 2002, and just kept dropping. By the end of 2005 (down another 8.3 percent), album sales in the US had declined 20 percent from their 1999 peak. Twenty-one of the all-time top 100 albums were released in the five-year period between 1996 and 2000. The next five years produced only two – Norah Jones’ Come Away With Me and OutKast’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below – ranking 79 and 91, respectively.

Wired News: Copy Instruments, Not Music

"What we're witnessing is a shift from passive listening to active playing," Robertson says. "Siblings are inspired by music-themed TV shows to come out and play instruments."

TV Is Now Interactive, Minus Images, on the Web - New York Times

But in the age of widespread broadband access, iTunes video and video sites like Youtube.com, television viewers are migrating en masse to the Internet, looking not only to watch their favorite shows online but also for ways to discuss and engage with those shows.

Strategy Shift by Microsoft to Fight iPod - New York Times

Entertainment industry executives who were briefed on the Microsoft music and video player said this week that the device was equipped with a wireless Internet connection and an advanced display screen, and that the company planned to release it before the holiday season, along with an online store.

The Not-So-Small Small Screen - New York Times

But within the walls of the big new homes, changes are occurring that affect how people will watch TV. Some trends will make it easier to fit in a screen as big as 103 inches. Others will make it trickier to find the right spot for even the sought-after 50-inch screen.

The Internet Knows What You'll Do Next - New York Times

Mr. Battelle, a founder of Wired magazine and the Industry Standard, wasn't the first person to figure this out. But he did find a way to describe the digital crystal ball better than anyone else had. He called it "the database of intentions."

Next-gen DVD formats fall to the first of many hacks

The folks at c't magazine have discovered a simple tool for beating the content protection on Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats: the print screen button. By pressing the print screen button once per frame, you can capture an entire movie at full resolution. Of course, you'd want to automate this task, but c't has shown that it can be done.
Repeat after me: Anything that can be seen can be copied.
Repeat after me: Copy protection isn't about protection from copying.

Students not interested in school-sanctioned music downloads

Currently, over 120 schools have deals with the likes of Rhapsody and Napster under which students have access to the services' music libraries, often for a fraction of the regular price, if not free. However, many undergrads are turning their noses up at the opportunity to use the legal download services.

Friendster granted key social networking patent

Clearly, Friendster's recent job cuts (down from 57 to under 30) have taken a toll on the PR staff, but the approval of the patent could give the company a major cash boost if it decides to pursue litigation against other social networking sites.

Technology forces Chicago radio station to confront change

For years, WBEZ Chicago Public Radio has been a major home for jazz programming in that city, with a full one-third of its weekday schedule devoted to music, along with a bevy of music shows on the weekend. Next year, that era will be coming to an end, as the station makes the switch to an a news/talk/public affairs format. That change is in response to—among other factors—altered listening habits as WBEZ's music audience shifts to satellite radio and portable music players like the iPod.

Media center PCs finally poised for takeoff?

With the arrival of faster in-home digital networking technologies such as MoCA, an industry-accepted framework for networked digital media distribution in DLNA, and the increase in both pay-TV and Internet content moving over in-home networks, the home media server is becoming a key beachhead in the digital home," according to principal analyst Michael Wolf.

Universal to offer tiered music sales model

Rather than serving up every product in the same 20-year-old CD case design, Universal will divide their offerings into three tiers with different packaging and different prices.

Slashdot | ABC Wants DVR Fast Forwarding Disabled

The television network ABC is looking to develop technology that would disable the fast-forward button on DVRs, and allow commercials to run as intended on their channel.

Slashdot | Aussies Brace for DMCA

Aussies are counting down to the introduction of the US-FTA-required DMCA legislation, and trying to pressure the government to listen to consumers and innovators, not just industrial copyright holders. Linux Australia has kicked off the campaign with iownmydvds.org and iownmymusic.org.

Techdirt: AP Looks At Piracy Around The World... Misses The Real Story

It's not surprising that the AP doesn't bother to mention how all that piracy helped created new and different business models for musicians in China that let them thrive despite the piracy (actually, in some cases, because of it). Nor does the AP bother to mention how software piracy helped boost certain aspects of the industry in China by decreasing the cost of inputs.

Furdlog » A Copyright Fight

Ren and Stimpy’s creator has a blog. He’s been posting links to YouTube, showing classic Warner Brother’s cartoons. Ooops! He doesn’t own the copyright, and promoting Warner Brothers without permission is bad.

--Ari