iTunes Gets Exclusive on Beatles-Cirque du Soleil Album, Doc

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Hollywood – In another Beatles exclusive, Apple’s (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store
has added the Beatles "LOVE" album and a feature-length documentary
about the making of "The Beatles LOVE by Cirque du Soleil." Both the
album and the doc ("All Together Now") are now available for
pre-order, and will be released on iTunes worldwide on Feb. 8. The announcement
also states that the Beatles have now sold more than 5 million songs and 1
million albums on iTunes worldwide.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4hqafgg

Google 'Art Project' Offers Hi-Res Artwork Images, Museum Tours

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Mountain View, Calif. – Google (NASD: GOOG) on Tuesday announced the
launch of Art Project, a new tool that provides "super
high-resolution" images with "brushstroke-level detail" of more
than 1,000 of the world’s greatest works of art. The tool also lets users take
virtual tours of acclaimed museums such as MoMA, The National Gallery, Uffizi
Gallery and Van Gogh Museum, via an "inside" Street View feature.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/4ezsmqo

(Google blog)

http://www.googleartproject.com

http://maps.google.com/museums

Sellaband Brings Fan-Financed Recordings Service to Japan

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Munich – Sellaband, the operator of a fan-financed
recordings service, has announced the launch of its crowdfunding platform in
Japan. As most digital music in Japan is consumed via mobile, Sellaband will
allow fans to "invest" in artists there via mobile payments in the
local Yen currency.

 

Related Links:
http://www.sellaband.jp

U.S. Seizes Domain of Spain-based Sports Linking Site Rojadirecta

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Washington – U.S. authorities have seized another Web domain
accused of piracy, this time taking Spain-based Rojadirecta.org, a site that
offers links to unauthorized online broadcasts of sporting events, TorrentFreak
reported.

Similar to the dozens of sites seized by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland
Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) unit last November,
Rojadirecta.org now features a notice from ICE that the site was seized for
copyright-related violations.

That operation targeted sites including
Torrent-Finder.com and DVDProStore.com.

For its part, Rojadirecta — which does
not host copyrighted material, instead providing links to where it is hosted
elsewhere — has been declared legal twice by Spanish courts.

"In our
opinion the US authorities are completely despising the Spanish justice system
and sovereignty," Rojadirecta’s Igor Seoane told TorrentFreak.

Despite the
.org domain seizure, Rojadirecta.com, Rojadirecta.es and a number of other
addresses for the service remain available.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/48sxktf

(TorrentFreak)

http://tinyurl.com/4exeav7
(DMW previous coverage)

http://tinyurl.com/359dbv8
(DMW previous coverage)

http://www.rojadirecta.org

http://www.rojadirecta.com

Venture Capital Performance Begins to Improve in Third Quarter

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Arlington, Va. – Venture capital performance at the end of
the third quarter improved modestly across most time intervals, according to a
new report by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), based on data
compiled by Cambridge Associates.

The figures indicated the first signs of
recovery since the financial crisis of 2008.

"The third quarter of 2010
brought a change of direction to a performance trend that has been pointed
downwards for several quarters," said Mark Heesen, president of the NVCA.

"Based on the current market dynamics, we would expect this positive
reversal of fortune to continue into 2011 and bring the venture capital industry
back into positive territory."

Returns improved over the quarter, year,
three-year and 20-year horizons, though dipped slightly over 10- and 15-year
intervals.

They remained the same over a five-year span.

 

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/45sqbge

Porn Company Drops Lawsuit Against 670 File-Swappers

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Dallas – An adult video production company has dropped its
lawsuit against 670 alleged downloaders of its films.

Mick Haig Productions
filed the suit in September 2010 in federal court in Texas, alleging the 670
had downloaded the film "Der Gute Onkel."

Digital civil liberties
groups the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Citizen took the defendants’
case, and asked the court to disallow subpoenas seeking the identities of the
670 accused from their Internet service providers — arguing many were filed in
the wrong jurisdiction, and failed to meet constitutional standards for
obtaining identifying information.

"When adult film companies launch these
cases, there is the added pressure of embarrassment associated with
pornography, which can convince those ensnared in the suits to quickly pay
what’s demanded of them, whether or not they have legitimate defenses. That’s
why it’s so important to make sure the process is fair," said EFF’s
Corynne McSherry.

"Rather than choosing competent local counsel
experienced in intellectual property law, the Court appointed a trio of
attorneys renowned for defending internet piracy and renowned for their general
disregard for intellectual property law," Mick Haig Productions said in
its notice of dismissal.

"Now, four months after the initial filing of
this case, with little chance of discovery in sight, Plaintiff feels it has
lost any meaningful opportunity to pursue justice in this matter."

The
case against the defendants was dismissed "with prejudice," meaning
the company cannot re-file copyright claims against them at a later time.

 

Related Links:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2011/01/31

http://tinyurl.com/4v7vrzz
(TorrentFreak)

Report: Minorities More Likely Smartphone Owners in U.S.

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New York – Members of ethnic and racial minority groups are more
prevalent owners of smartphones in the U.S., where nearly a third (31%) of all
mobile consumers reported owning smartphones in December, according to a report
from Nielsen.

Among Asian/Pacific Islanders in the U.S., smartphone penetration
is 45% among mobile users, while Hispanics (45%) and African-Americans (33%)
were also more likely than White mobile users (27%) to own smartphones.

Although only 42% of White who purchased a mobile phone in the past six months chose a
smartphone, that number was 60% among Asians/Pacific Islanders, 56% among
Hispanics and 44% among African-Americans.

While choice of smartphone was
fairly evenly divided, Nielsen’s report found 36% of Asians/Pacific Islanders
chose an Apple iPhone, while 31% of African-Americans favored RIM’s BlackBerry.

 

Related Links:
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/?p=25901

Report: Facebook Readying New Web Comments System

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Palo Alto, Calif. – Facebook is preparing to launch a third-party
comments system in coming weeks, which could potentially be used by bloggers and news sites to
manage their reader comments, CNET News.com reports.

Facebook already allows
publishers to integrate social elements into their comments systems, where
users can login via their Facebook accounts to comment, and make their comments
on other sites appear as Facebook status messages.

It’s unclear how popular
such a service would be, given the general ability for users to comment
anonymously on blogs and news sites, and Facebook’s reliance on real-world
identities.

A source told CNET the new Facebook comments system may permit
login via Google, Yahoo or Twitter IDs.

"Based on feedback from developers
about ways to improve our existing comments plugin, we’re testing an updated
plugin that leverages authenticity and social relevancy to increase
distribution," Facebook said in a statement.

The company added that it is
currently testing the new plugin on its Facebook Blog and Developer Blog.

 

Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20030106-36.html

http://tinyurl.com/48un6cl
(TechCrunch)

Bing Google

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CMW2011_7280x90

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