Pink Floyd Sues EMI Over Digital Royalties, Unbundled Albums
London
– Veteran rock band Pink Floyd has filed suit against major record label EMI
over the way in which royalties have been paid to the band for digital music
sold online. The band’s ten-year-old contract was signed before Apple’s iTunes
Store existed, and stipulates that the band’s albums may not be sold as
individual tracks.
"It’s a matter of fact that the defendant has been
permitting individual tracks to be downloaded online and that therefore they
have been allowing albums not to be sold in their original configuration,"
Robert Howe, Pink Floyd’s attorney, said in Britain’s High Court, according to
BusinessWeek’s coverage.
"Pink Floyd is well-known for performing seamless
pieces. Many of the songs blend into each other."
For its part, EMI is
arguing that the contract the band signed refers to physical, and not digital
albums.
"In 1999, when it was negotiated, iTunes didn’t even exist," EMI
attorney Elizabeth Jones told BusinessWeek.
"I can’t say it’s obvious from
the agreement what the commercial intent of the parties was. I’m sure the
claimants would have liked to protect their records and EMI would have liked to
have had full control to exploit."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uqedt
(BusinessWeek)
Avid Acquires Blue Order
Tewksbury, Mass. – Avid (NASD: AVID), the developer of digital audio and
video postproduction technology, announced that it has acquired Blue Order, a
product that transforms Avid’s production asset management technology into a
full media asset management product.
Avid said its Interplay product line now
includes a new module, Interplay Media Asset Manager, based on the Blue Order
Media Archive product.
The new module enhances content-related workflows by
allowing media organizations to collect, index, catalog, manipulate, retrieve
and distribute rich media.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Related Links:
http://www.avid.com
Mobile Ad Network Todacell Lands $1 Million
Tel Aviv, Israel
– Todacell, the provider of a mobile display ad network, announced on Tuesday
that it has raised $1 million in a new round of funding, from existing investor
AfterDox.
Israel-based Todacell works with publishers including Fring,
MobiLuck, Mocospace and TuneWiki, and its network reaches mobile devices
including handheld game devices from Nintendo, Sony, Apple and Amazon.
The
company will use the funds to expand sales and marketing efforts, to include
the opening of five new sales offices in New York,
Los Angeles, Toronto,
London and Bombay.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uqcq0
Govt. Rule Change to Bring Wi-Fi to China Unicom iPhone
New York
– Due to a relaxation of government rules, China Unicom is expected to offer an
Apple (NASD: AAPL) iPhone with Wi-Fi in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Current iPhones lack Wi-Fi support due to China’s previous stipulation that
any device use its own native WAPI standard. The rule change means that iPhones
in China
may now support Wi-Fi if they also offer WAPI.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/upoi1
(WSJ)
Apple Debuts First iPad Commercial During Oscars
Cupertino,
Calif. – Apple (NASD: AAPL) debuted its first
TV commercial for its forthcoming iPad tablet computer last night during the
Academy Awards telecast, which can be viewed at a link below. The device is
slated to begin shipping on April 3; pre-orders will be taken starting on March
12.
Related Links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiUs8HQu_1o&
Torrent of Songs From SXSW Bands Weighs in at 5.43GB
Austin, Texas – Following a recent tradition, an interested
party has assembled all of the free MP3s offered by bands participating in the
South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival into giant torrent files, which this
year weigh in at 5.43GB, TorrentFreak reported. One 3.35GB torrent contains 646
songs, while another 2.08GB file contains 392 songs, making for over 1,000 in
total. TorrentFreak notes that previous editions of the SXSW torrent offering
have been downloaded more than 100,000 times.
Related Links:
http://torrentfreak.com/sxsw-2010-on-bittorrent-3-35-gb-of-free-music-100306
http://snipurl.com/upq6m
(Wired.com)
Hulu Adds Content From NFL Films
New York
– Hulu, the online video portal joint venture between News Corp., NBC Universal
and Disney, announced on Monday that it has added a range of content from NFL
Films to the service. The deal includes more than 600 videos featuring over 400
hours of NFL content, including NFL Films shows like "Game of the
Week," "Hard Knocks," "Team Highlights" and "America’s
Game: The Super Bowl Champions."
Related Links:
http://www.hulu.com/nfl
Dailymotion Licenses Warner Music Videos
Paris – France-based video
site Dailymotion has inked a deal with major label Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) that will
allow the site to stream Warner music videos in the U.S.,
Europe and Africa. The deal with Warner
follows a similar agreement signed between EMI and Dailymotion, which counts
over 65 million unique monthly visitors, according to comScore data.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/uppzq
(Billboard)
