New York
– Classic video game "Tetris" has surpassed 100 million paid
downloads to mobile phones worldwide, according to distributors Blue Planet
Software and EA Mobile. The game was developer by Alexey Pajitnov in 1984
originally for the PC, but was later ported to the original NES, Nintendo Game
Boy and eventually mobile phones in 2001.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u4zzp
Beijing – Chinese video
portal Youku on Wednesday announced the launch of a new copyright
identification management platform, calling it "the first of its kind in China."
The company said it plans to "embark on content acquisition on an
unprecedented scale" this year, and that the new system will
"accelerate the industry’s movement toward legitimate content."
"Trial operation of the copyright identification system has already begun
for European and American audio-video copyright holders," said Yao Jian,
Youku’s chief technology officer. "Following this initial stage of
operations, we will continue to improve and perfect the system, making it more
efficient and more convenient to use."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u50h5
San Bruno, Calif.
– Google’s (NASD: GOOG) YouTube plans on Friday to test the waters with movie rentals, as it
launches a partnership with the Sundance Film Festival to make five films from
this year’s and last year’s festival available for rental to U.S. users. The
film rentals, which include "The Cove," "Homewrecker" and
"Bass Ackwards," will cost $3.99 for 48 hours access. The company
also issued a call for more independent filmmakers to join its new rental
program.
Related Links:
http://ytbizblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/youtube-to-sundance-independent.html
London
– Professional soccer club Manchester United, a team within the English Premier
League, has imposed a ban on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter for
its players, according to reports. The reports indicate that a Facebook account
for Man U player Wes Brown was taken down, while the "Walls" of
profiles for Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand were wiped clean. Twitter accounts
purported to be operated by Man U players Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Darren
Fletcher are no longer online.
Related Links:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/19/man_utd_social_networking_ban/
http://snipurl.com/u50jq
(EPL-Talk.com)
http://snipurl.com/u50jw
(Manchester United statement)
San Francisco
– Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) acknowledged that it has penalized an undisclosed
number of its Internet access subscribers who failed to comply with multiple
file-sharing warning letters with service interruptions, CNET News.com
reported. "We’ve cut some people off," Verizon Online spokeswoman
Bobbi Henson told CNET.
"We do reserve the right to discontinue service.
But we don’t throttle bandwidth like Comcast was doing. Verizon does not have
bandwidth caps."
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)
announced in late 2008 that it would end its campaign of copyright litigation
against file-swappers, saying it would instead partner with ISPs on a
"graduated response" campaign.
Verizon’s Henson told CNET that the
number of subscribers who had seen their service interrupted was small — revealing
that the warning letters have been effective.
"We’ve found that we don’t
have to warn most people a second time," Henson told CNET. "Most
people stop. Or they tell whoever [in their household] is doing it to stop."
Related Links:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10437176-93.html
http://snipurl.com/u50er
(DMW previous coverage)
Palo Alto,
Calif. – Despite speculation that
Apple (NASD: AAPL) acquired streaming music service Lala so that it could launch a
subscription plan alongside outright sales at its iTunes Store, digital music
veteran Michael Robertson postulated in a guest post on TechCrunch that the company
is actually planning a cloud-based service. Among Lala’s assets is a personal
storage service, which loads a user’s personal music library into an online
locker, so that users can stream their collection from any Web-connected
device.
"This technology plus the engineering and management team is the
true value of Lala to Apple," Robertson said.
Such a service would allow
Apple to expand the iTunes software for its more than 100 million users without
having to pay additional streaming licensing fees.
"Because users are in
possession of the materials no new licenses are required from the record labels
or publishers," Robertson added.
"Record labels are wary to give
Apple even greater dominance which is why Apple’s new strategy is designed to
sidestep new licenses from the major labels."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u509s
(TechCrunch)
Washington
– The Obama Justice Dept. has submitted a filing defending a $675,000 damages
award for copyright infringement on a file-sharing network, the Copyrights and
Campaigns blog reported. Joel Tenenbaum was found guilty of sharing 30 songs on
Kazaa, and ordered to pay the record labels damages of $22,500 per song. He has
since asked the court to either reduce the damages or grant him a new trial,
arguing the damages amount is unconstitutional.
In its filing, the Justice
Dept. argues that Tenenbaum’s actions caused "great public harm."
"In
establishing the range [of copyright damage amounts: $750 to $150,000 per
infringement], Congress took into account the need to deter the millions of
users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many
violators believe they will go unnoticed," reads the DOJ filing.
"The
harms Congress sought to address, moreover, are not negated merely because an
infringer does not seek commercial gain. Accordingly, the statutory range
specified by Congress for a copyright infringement satisfies due process."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5001
(Copyrights and Campaigns blog)
http://snipurl.com/u504m
(DMW previous coverage)
