The record labels love to sue Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com (sold to Vivendi in 2001 for $372 million) who now incubates a number of Web startups. One of them is MP3Tunes, which is billed as a music storage locker. But the record labels still don’t care about it. EMI is suing […]
The record labels love to sue Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com (sold to Vivendi in 2001 for $372 million) who now incubates a number of Web startups. One of them is MP3Tunes, which is billed as a music storage locker. But the record labels still don’t enjoy it. EMI is suing MP3Tunes for copyright infringement and demanded that the service turn over the more than 100 million music files stored in all 125,000 MP3Tunes accounts. (The argument is that even if there’s no sharing between lockers, users are transferring music to MP3Tunes, which is the same as distributing the music—a right only EMI has). A court in New York has denied that request, Robertson writes on his blog. Excerpt:
All access to a music Locker requires a very special username and password, and there’s totally no sharing between Lockers. . . . MP3tunes strongly objected to EMI’s request, because it was both an invasion of user’s personal storage, and because it would create a large technical and financial burden, with more than 300 terabytes of files in personal Lockers. Files are not MP3tunes’ possessions any more than the contents of a safety deposit box are owned by the bank that houses them.
No corporation should have the right to demand the content of tens of thousands of personal accounts be turned over to them. There’s no reason to suggest that the users are doing anything but listening to their own music collections in a modern manner. There are millions of Gmail accounts that have MP3 files stored in them � same with Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft’s email and hosting services. If EMI can gain unfettered access to wantonly look through personal accounts on MP3tunes those services will be next.
EMI is trying to eliminate online storage and take people back to a prehistoric time before Internet services existed.
It is a small victory that could be overturned by a higher court. But this court made the right decision. EMI shouldn’t be granted to go on a fishing expedition. It needs to be a tiny more specific in its requests for data. After all, those 100 million songs are not just EMI songs. And this whole theory that transferring music from your computer to a personal online storage service is the same as redistributing that music totally ignores modern reality. But that’s not surprising. The record companies are living in their own reality distortion field. After all, these are the same people who want to tax all Internet users for copyright infringement, even if you’ve never done any file-sharing in your life.
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Researchers at Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute have recently received a $270,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make this a reality: That’s right… Forget the lines, hooks, bait, nets, all that crap. Just call them, and when they show up, scoop them up into a big net and eat ‘em. Supposedly, it’s nothing […]
That’s right… Forget the lines, hooks, bait, nets, all that crap. Just call them, and when they show up, scoop them up into a big net and eat ‘em. Supposedly, it’s nothing more than classic Pavlovian conditioning: the researchers feed a group of fish in a tank right after playing a tone underwater. After repeating the 20 second tone 3 times a day for 2 weeks straight, “you have remote-control fish,” says Simon Miner, a research assistant on the project. “You hit that button [to play the sound], and they go into that [feeding] area, and they wait patiently.” The big question is whether or not the fish will remember. Preliminary results suggest that the fish will retain the the behavior for 5-10 days, but nobody is really sure what’ll happen when they try the same thing with 5,000 fish out in the ocean this spring. Even if they can only train half the fish to return until they’re large enough for market, it’ll still be more profitable than current fish farming methods. And, I’m sure, way tastier.
By Andrew Liszewski If you’re copying a few hundred JPEG photos you took at a birthday party to your PC, then speed is probably not a big concern. However if you’re copying hundreds of RAW files to your laptop with a looming print deadline then yeah, speed is probably an issue. Lexar’s UDMA dual-slot USB reader […]
By Andrew Liszewski
If you’re copying a few hundred JPEG photos you took at a birthday party to your PC, then speed is probably not a big concern. However if you’re copying hundreds of RAW files to your laptop with a looming print deadline then yeah, speed is probably an issue. Lexar’s UDMA dual-slot USB reader promises the fastest transfer speeds you can find as long as you’re using it with a high-speed UDMA memory card.
The dual slots are compatible with UDMA CF cards, standard CF cards, SDHC SD cards and regular SD cards and it even folds closed to keep out unwanted materials like dust and debris when it’s not in use. You can get it directly from the Lexar online store for $34.99.
CBS released a high definition player today in the labs area of their site, along with a few clips. They are currently streaming (not progressive download) in H.264/AVC format at 480p, with 720p and 1080p coming soon, they say. Hulu and others are also beginning to test high definition streaming. Some shows on Hulu, for example, […]
CBS released a high definition player today in the labs area of their site, along with a few clips. They are currently streaming (not progressive download) in H.264/AVC format at 480p, with 720p and 1080p coming soon, they say.
Hulu and others are also beginning to test high definition streaming. Some shows on Hulu, for example, are optionally available in 480p format. They also have a few clips available in 720p.
Update: We’ve had a chance to speak with Eric Feng, the CTO of Hulu, about how this CBS announcement compares to the video quality provided by Hulu.
Hulu currently provides three levels of quality: 360p, 480p, and 720p. The first two levels are streamed whereas the third is progressively downloaded. Since CBS has yet to stream anything above 480p, these new tests are nothing extraordinary…yet. However, even if CBS begins to stream 720p or higher, consumers might not see much benefit. According to Feng, the median broadband download rate in the US is 1.9mb/sec and high definition video (ordinarily considered 720p or higher on the web) consumes 2.5mb/sec. So if CBS tries streaming 720p, they’d probably run into lots of buffering issues.
We should note that 480p and 720p are not available for all videos on Hulu. Only a certain selection of movies are available in 480p and only very few samples are available in 720p. Hulu doesn’t currently plan to deploy 1080p because it takes up too much bandwidth and processing power.
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We learned yesterday that Warner Music, the third largest music label, is gunning for a $5/month music tax on U.S. residents. Some of the details were in the article: they’ve hired industry veteran Jim Griffin to create a new entity around the project, presumably to get other labels involved. Griffin threw out the idea of a […]
We learned yesterday that Warner Music, the third largest music label, is gunning for a $5/month music tax on U.S. residents.
Some of the details were in the article: they’ve hired industry veteran Jim Griffin to create a new entity around the project, presumably to get other labels involved. Griffin threw out the idea of a $5/month tax (which would be added to people’s ISP bill), generating $20 billion/year in revenues. The tax won’t be mandatory, he implies. And he also said that it isn’t really a “tax”: “we have no such interest in government running this or having any part of it.” Griffin also talked about advertising subsidies for partners who don’t want to pay the fee.
Users who are paying the tax will be able to download music from the Internet legally, through all the normal channels (BitTorrent, other P2P networks, etc.).
Nothing he said is strictly untrue. But a source with knowledge of the project clarified a number of points for. Those details, combined with the vague outline provided by Griffin, show a scheme that is very similar to classic criminal protection rackets. We threw out that term to describe the scheme in our post yesterday as well - today, with these additional details, it seems to fit like a glove. Here’s What They’re Really Planning: Pay Us Not To Sue You
The tax will not, in fact, be mandatory. But that is misleading - it won’t be mandatory for ISPs who provide Internet access to actual users. But if ISPs join the scheme, it will apply to all of their customers and be added to their bill as a surcharge.
Why will ISP’s agree to this? Mainly to avoid liability. The core of the plan is a covenant not to sue anyone who pays the fee. Griffin touched on this in the article, saying ISPs will want to “discharge their risk” around file sharing that occurs over their networks.
The rollout plan will hit colleges and universities first, who will simply add the fee to tuition bills so they won’t have to worry about getting dragged into lawsuits. Then Griffin will approach consumer ISPs. If an ISP joins, their users will not have the option of not paying, even if they don’t download music from the Internet. So, basically, the tax is only voluntary if you define avoiding it as not going to college, or using the Internet.
The advertising-supported option is likely a red herring to satisfy critics, and would be dumped before the project launches. It just isn’t feasibly to try to aim advertising at users who are downloading music from BitTorrent and putting it on their iPod. There’s no touch point to force advertising down their throat.
So the plan essentially comes down to telling ISPs that they can avoid any copyright infringement liability if they pay the fee on behalf of customers. And while the government wouldn’t be directly involved, the willingness of law enforcement agencies and the judicial system to enforce civil and criminal copyright infringement laws is the stick by which Griffin will convince ISPs to jump on board. It’s government endorsed extortion, nothing more and nothing less.
The effects on innovation in music would be disastrous if such a scheme were ever to become reality. It’s clearly good for the music labels, who are facing their imminent extinction. For everyone else, though, this is the worst possible thing that could happen.
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One of the great flameouts of the 1990s tech boom was Kozmo, which started in Manhattan, and let you order a pint of Ben & Jerry’s online and a Kozmo bike messenger would deliver it to your door. After burning through $280 million in capital, they closed shop. Well, now New Yorkers have […]
One of the great flameouts of the 1990s tech boom was Kozmo, which started in Manhattan, and let you order a pint of Ben & Jerry’s online and a Kozmo bike messenger would deliver it to your door. After burning through $280 million in capital, they closed shop. Well, now New Yorkers have Wakozi. It just launched and only covers Manhattan wine shops, liquor stores, and delis. But they’ve learned from the failure of Kozmo. They don’t actually deliver anything themselves. Instead, they only list inventories of shops that make their own deliveries. Founder Rob Rizzo explains the concept:
Through our site, you can order virtually anything that you would find in a bodega, deli or wine shop and get it delivered to you in less than an hour. So if you want a bottle of Chardonnay or a six-pack late at night or if you’re partying with friends and need another bottle of Belvedere, you can now get it without leaving your apartment. We don’t hire delivery guys or stock any of our own inventory—instead we work with the stores in your neighborhood who already have all the stuff you want and can get it to you the fastest. Right now we’ve got stores in every neighborhood in Manhattan and we’ve initially knocked out what we think everyone cares about most: booze
So this is really a lead generation site for local businesses. (For another approach to tryingto reinvent the Kozmo model, see our coverage of LicketyShip). Wakozi’s site is built entirely on Adobe Flex and lets you drill down into the inventory of your local wine shop. Once it loads, the user interface is fast enough, but the developers chose a faded look for the Website that is hard to read (or is that just Flash?). And the initial loading time is pretty slow. You have to wait again when you click through to an individual store as it loads up what it has in stock. Also, the only information presented is the inventory on the shelves and the price. For wines, you can sort by region or type in search terms. But there is no other information that would help you make a purchase of a wine you’ve never heard about before, such as tasting notes. If you know what you want, this is fine. If you want to try something new, you are better off walking to your local wine store and asking for advice.
A search near my office in downtown Manhattan yielded nine participating stores. I just ordered a bottle of Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin from Gramercy Wine & Spirits about an hour ago. Let’s see if it can get here before I leave my office.
Update: My wine has arrived, exactly an hour and a half after I ordered it. I am a very happy customer, although I’d be happier if they could get the time down to under an hour. Now, I’ve got some more important research to do. (Where’s that corkscrew?)
If Yahoo agrees to Microsoft’s buyout offer, the deal would still have to be pass muster with antitrust regulators here in the U.S, in Europe, and in China. As John Markoff points out in the NYT, a new Chinese law that’ll go into effect in August gives the Chinese government regulatory oversight over […]
If Yahoo concurs to Microsoft’s buyout offer, the deal would still have to be pass muster with antitrust regulators here in the U.S, in Europe, and in China. As John Markoff points out in the NYT, a new Chinese law that will go into effect in August gives the Chinese government regulatory oversight over any merger that “involve acquisitions of Chinese companies or foreign businesses investing in Chinese companies’ operations.” Yahoo owns a big stake in Chinese Web marketplace Alibaba, which also runs Taobao, Alipay and Yahoo China. It is unclear what China’s position would be on a Microsoft-Yahoo merger, but it could be the first big test of how it is going to exert its new regulatory muscles. Speeding up the deal before the Chinese law goes into effect probably wouldn’t help avoid a Chinese regulatory review, since it is unlikely that any deal would be approved by both the U.S. and Europe before August. (DoubleClick took a year, XM/Sirius took longer).
If China tries to use this chance to extract unreasonable concessions from Microsoft, there’s always the option to sell Yahoo’s Alibaba stake, which is worth at least $3 billion. But that would mean abandoning a strong foothold in China, a market no Web company can ignore. On the other hand, China could go the other way and show its pro-market stance by being the first to approve the deal. That would be a great goodwill gesture to put out there during the Beijing Olympics.
Does Microsoft Need to Worry About China Blocking A Yahoo Deal?
Yes, The Chinese Will Try To Squeeze Too Many Concessiosn Out Of Them
By Andrew Liszewski I’ve never tried ‘canned shapes’ before but if they’re half as tasty as this can shaped memory card reader is useful, I’ll start stocking my pantry. But Y3K preparation aside, Brando has once again managed to stick another piece of everyday technology into an unusual package. This time it’s an SD, SDHC, MMC, […]
By Andrew Liszewski
I’ve never tried ‘canned shapes’ before but if they’re half as tasty as this can shaped memory card reader is useful, I’ll begin stocking my pantry. But Y3K preparation aside, Brando has once again managed to stick another piece of everyday technology into an uncommon package. This time it’s an SD, SDHC, MMC, XD, CF and MicroSD friendly card reader crammed into what appears to be a short aluminum can. It connects to your PC via USB 2.0 and even includes 3 extra USB ports lining the base of the can. A clever design unless you work in an office where the cleaning crew will probably toss it in the recycling bin.
Google has announced that YouTube users will now have access to in depth statistics for their videos. Stats include how often videos are viewed in different geographic regions and how popular they’re relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. The lifecycle of videos is tracked, including how long it […]
Google has announced that YouTube users will now have access to in depth statistics for their videos.
Stats include how often videos are viewed in different geographic regions and how popular they’re relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. The lifecycle of videos is tracked, including how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.
To quote Tracy Chan from YouTube:
“Insight gives the creators an inside look into the viewing trends of their videos on YouTube, and helps them to increase views and become more popular. Partners can evaluate metrics to superior serve and comprehend their audiences, as well as increase ad revenue. And advertisers can study their metrics and successes to tailor their marketing — both on and off the site — and reach the right viewers. As a result, Insight turns YouTube into one of the world’s largest focus groups.”
To access the statistics, users click on the “About this Video” button under My account > Videos, Favorites, Playlists > Manage my Videos.
More analysis to follow; at the time of writing all I get from YouTube when clicking on my account button is the twin messages of “This functionality is not available right now. Please try again later,” and “We are currently performing site maintenance. Be cool - we’ll be back 100% in a bit.” Update: it’s now up. The main chart feature is nearly identical to Google Finance. The break down via country and say is handy. This will suit most YouTube users and its a definite step forward.
BeInSync, an Israeli startup that provides software for the synchronization of files across computers and access them while on the road, has been acquired by Phoenix Technologies for an undisclosed amount (first reported here in Hebrew), although we’ve heard from a source that it went for $25M. The four and a half year old startup had […]
BeInSync, an Israeli startup that provides software for the synchronization of files across computers and access them while on the road, has been acquired by Phoenix Technologies for an undisclosed amount (first reported here in Hebrew), although we’ve heard from a source that it went for $25M.
The four and a half year old startup had previously raised $8M in two rounds from Alta Berkeley Venture Partners, Aviv Venture Capital Fund, and Eurofund. The three founders - Tal Barnoach, Sharon Carmel, and Adi Ruppin - are said to be serial entrepreneurs.
BeInSync competes with the likes of FolderShare and Sharpcast, as well as many other file backup and sharing services. FolderShare was acquired by Microsoft in 2005 for an unreported amount.
The press release for the acquisition of BeInSync can be found here.
The record labels love to sue Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com (sold to Vivendi in 2001 for $372 million) who now incubates a number of Web startups. One of them is MP3Tunes, which is billed as a music storage locker. But the record labels still don’t enjoy it. EMI is suing MP3Tunes for copyright infringement and demanded that the service turn over the more than 100 million music files stored in all 125,000 MP3Tunes accounts. (The argument is that even if there’s no sharing between lockers, users are transferring music to MP3Tunes, which is the same as distributing the music—a right only EMI has). A court in New York has denied that request, Robertson writes on his blog. Excerpt:
CBS 
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