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Intel
- 
Computer
- Marketing
- 
History
- Consumer
- 
Entertainment
- 
CA
- 
NV
- "Intel
Drops Logo After 37 Years; Seeks to Take Image Beyond PCs."
... "Intel Corp., whose marketing made its computer chips a household name,
is changing its logo for the first time in 37 years." ... "The dropped
``e'' in Intel will be shed in favor of a swoop around the company's name
with the tag line ``Leap Ahead.'' The ``Intel Inside'' phrase, a fixture
since 1991, will be dropped, Santa Clara, California-based Intel said yesterday."
... "Intel's image change, to coincide with next week's Consumer Electronics
Show in Las Vegas [Nevada], is part of an effort by new Chief Executive
Officer Paul Otellini to push Intel into home entertainment. The company,
whose processors run more than 80 percent of personal computers, is trying
to gain a foothold in the consumer market to counter slowing growth in
PC chips." -By Ian King
-Bloomberg
Hackers
- 
Music
- Entertainment
- Computer
- 
Business
- 
Technology
- Consumer
- 
Privacy
- "Sony
BMG tentatively settles CD software suits." ... "Sony
BMG Music Entertainment has reached a tentative settlement with consumers
who filed a class action lawsuit over the music company's copy-protection
software on CDs, court papers show." ... "Consumers complained that the
technology -- known as XCP -- violated their rights by potentially leaving
computers vulnerable to hackers and allowing the company to track listening
habits." -Reuters
Computer
- 
Internet
- 
Media
- Entertainment
- "Yahoo
Streams Two CBS Comedies: The shows will be available
for a week; this is the first time the Web portal has streamed a CBS show
in its entirety." ... "Yahoo Inc. is streaming this week CBS comedies "Two
And A Half Men" and "How I Met Your Mother," the latest example of the
merger of TV and the Internet." ... "The Yahoo move follows the movement
of TV shows to the Web. America Online Inc., a unit of Time Warner Inc.,
plans to launch early next year an online TV network that will stream classic
TV shows, such as "Welcome Back Kotter," "Growing Pains," and "Chico And
The Man." The showings are the result of a partnership with Warner Bros."
... "Another example of the trend is NBC and ABC making shows available
for download to Apple Computer Inc.'s video iPod. The shows are offered
through Apple's online music store iTunes." -By Antone
Gonsalves -InformationWeek
Iran
- Entertainment
- TV
- 
Radio
- Music
- Religious
- 
Law
- History
- "Iran's
president bans all Western music." ... "Hard-line
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from Iran's
state radio and TV stations an eerie reminder of the 1979 Islamic revolution
when popular music was outlawed as "un-Islamic" under Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini." ... "But as revolutionary fervor started to fade, some light
classical music was allowed on Iranian radio and television; some public
concerts reappeared in the late 1980s." ... "In the 1990s, particularly
during the presidency of reformist Mohammad Khatami starting in 1997, authorities
began relaxing restrictions further." ... "Ahmadinejad's order means the
state broadcasting authority must execute the decree and prepare a report
on its implementation within six months, according to the IRAN Persian
daily." -AP
via -USATODAY
Entertainment
- 
People
- Secrets
- "At
Inland Base, Scientologists Trained Top Gun: Tom
Cruise studied intensively at the remote compound near Hemet while becoming
a passionate messenger for the church." ... "In his own spiritual life,
Cruise has continued to climb the "Bridge to Total Freedom," Scientology's
path to enlightenment. International Scientology News, a church magazine,
reported last year that the actor had embarked on one of the highest levels
of training, "OT VII" for Operating Thetan VII." ... "At these higher
levels and at a potential cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars
Scientologists learn Hubbard's secret theory of human suffering, which
he traces to a galactic battle waged 75 million years ago by an evil tyrant
named Xenu." ... "According to court documents made public by The Times
in the 1980s, Hubbard espoused the belief that Xenu captured the souls,
or thetans, of enemies and electronically implanted false concepts in them
to keep them confused about his dirty work. The goal of these advanced
courses is to become aware of the trauma and free of its effects." (1,
2,
3)
-By Claire Hoffman and Kim Christensen
-LAtimes
Music
- Entertainment
- Business
- Secret
- Privacy
- Computer
- Web
- Hacking
- "New
security flaw vexes Sony BMG piracy battle: Expert
says patch makes problem worse." ... "Sony BMG Music Entertainment has
acknowledged a new security problem affecting nearly 6 million of its CDs,
and a Princeton University computer expert said yesterday that a patch
the company designed to fix the problem may only make things worse." ...
"The problems for the company began last month, when computer programmer
Matt Russinovich found that Sony BMG was shipping many of its music discs
with a program called XCP." ... "XCP was designed to limit the number of
times a user could copy the tunes on the disc, and to ensure that these
copies could not be played on other computers. But the software also concealed
itself on users' computers and was extremely difficult to remove. In addition,
XCP secretly sent information about users' listening habits over the Internet
to Sony BMG." -By Hiawatha Bray
-Boston/Globe
California
- Entertainment
- Media
- Photos
- Privacy
- "Aniston
Sues Over Topless Photos: The actress accuses a paparazzo
of shooting images while she was in the privacy of her home." ... "A suit
filed by actress Jennifer Aniston accuses a paparazzo of invading her privacy
last month by using a powerful telephoto lens to take photos of her topless
or partially undressed in her home." ... "The suit filed Friday in Los
Angeles County Superior Court is the latest counterattack by Hollywood's
top stars against paparazzi, who are accused of becoming increasingly aggressive
as competition for images and the number of celebrity magazines has increased."
... "Aniston, star of the longtime NBC television hit "Friends," alleges
that Peter Brandt used "a high-powered telephoto lens" to capture images
of her partially clothed within her property in violation of California's
privacy laws." -By Richard Winton
-LAtimes
Entertainment
- 
Cartoon
- Marketing
- 
Children
- 
Health
- "Cartoon
characters caught in adults' food fight." ... "A
report Tuesday from the Institute of Medicine calls for dramatic changes
in the marketing of foods and beverages to children. For example, it asks
that licensed characters such as cartoon stars like SpongeBob and the
princesses in Disney features be used to promote only nutritious foods."
... "But in calling for marketing standards that support healthful diets,
the report does not define exactly what foods it's talking about. And not
everyone has the same definition of a healthful food." -By
Nanci Hellmich -USATODAY
Christmas
- Family
- Religious
- TV
- Entertainment
- Business
- History
- "The
Christmas classic that almost wasn't." ... "When
CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November
1965, they hated it." ... ""They said it was slow," executive producer
Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show
was almost defiantly different: There was no laugh track, real children
provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince
Guaraldi." ... "Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the
insistence by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever
TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of
Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus." ... "The first broadcast was
watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers." ... "And when the program
airs today at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, it will mark its 40th anniversary a run
that has made it a staple of family holiday traditions and an icon of American
pop culture. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award and began a string
of more than two dozen Peanuts specials." -By Bill
Nichols -USATODAY
Texas
- Computer
- Music
- Entertainment
- Company
- Privacy
- Hacking
- "Texas
sues Sony under anti-spyware law." ... "The state
[of Texas] sued Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Monday under its new anti-spyware
law, saying anti-piracy technology the company slipped into music CDs leaves
computers vulnerable to hackers." ... "Attorney General Greg Abbott accused
Sony BMG of surreptitiously installing "spyware" in the form of files that
mask other files Sony installed as part of XCP."
-AP via -USATODAY
TV
- Entertainment
- Advertising
- Market
- "AOL
Launching Online Video Of TV's Favorite Oldies."
... "America Online Inc. and Warner Bros. said Monday they plan to launch
early next year an online TV network that will bring back favorites from
TV's past, including "Welcome Back Kotter," "Growing Pains," "Chico And
The Man," and "Kung Fu."" ... "The partnership between the two divisions
of Time Warner Inc. is another example of how the Internet is changing
television by offering an additional distribution channel that's also tied
to the growing online advertising market, which JupierResearch says is
expected to double by 2010 to $18.9 billion from $9.3 billion last year."
-By Antone Gonsalves -TechWeb
via -InformationWeek
US
- 
Japan
- Music
- Entertainment
- Hacking
- Business
- "Viruses
use Sony anti-piracy CDs: Virus writers are exploiting
Sony's controversial anti-piracy software to hide their malicious creations."
... "In late October Sony was found to be using stealth techniques to hide
software that stopped some of its CDs being illegally copied." ... "Now
three virus variants have been found that use the Sony software to evade
detection by anti-virus programs." ... "The stealthy methods that Sony
BMG used to protect its anti-piracy system were uncovered by Windows programming
expert Mark Russinovich on 31 October." ... "The CDs affected are only
being sold in the US."-BBC
/News
Halloween
- Parents
- Consumer
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- "Kids
treat themselves to multiple costumes." ... "Halloween
used to carry with it predictable statistics: One costume plus one plastic
jack-o'-lantern equaled 100 pieces of candy." ... "But Halloween is a multiple-event
holiday now, requiring multiple costumes: Bare-armed garb for a sunny day
of marching, cozy outfits to ward off autumn's evening chill. Heroes and
princesses for daytime events, hooligans and witches for spooky nighttime
activities. Elaborate ensembles for school functions, less-fussy ones for
trick-or-treating, when sidewalk stumbles are a risk." -By
Olivia Barker and Jenny Clevstrom -USATODAY
Halloween
- Business
- Florida
- Los
Angeles - California
- "Halloween
turning into monthlong holiday: Theme parks putting
on a show for fall visitors." ... "Not so long ago, Halloween was merely
a one-day holiday, observed primarily by kids dressed in fake blood, plastic
teeth, ballerina tutus or superhero costumes, who traipsed from door-to-neighborhood
door dragging pillowcases full of candy." ... "Not anymore. Over the past
five years or so, the nation's $11 billion amusement park industry has
appropriated the holiday as its own, helping transform Halloween into a
monthlong celebration." ... "Halloween gave the regional parks an extra
incentive to extend the season longer and offered the year-round destination
parks in Orlando [Florida] and Los Angeles [California] a marketing tool
to get people through their gates during what traditionally was a slow
period." -AP
via -CNN
Halloween
- Consumer
- Entertainment
- Fashion
- "Halloween's
a treat for everyone this year." ... "It's a scary
proposition, but adults are having as much fun at Halloween as kids. Skulls
and bats and jack-o'-lanterns sprout at office cubicles, and inflatable
ghosts and pumpkins decorate lawns and porches. Halloween has grown into
the second most decorated holiday, right behind Christmas." ... "Despite
the holiday's pagan roots, the trappings of Halloween "have spread grass-roots
fashion" throughout the national culture, says Pamela Danziger, a marketing
consultant and author of "Why People Buy Things They Don't Need."" ...
"A survey commissioned by the National Retail Federation found that 53
percent of all consumers plan to buy a Halloween costume this year, spending
an average of $31.88 each." -By Nanine Alexander
-OregonLive.com
- "Nic
Cage Hopes To Push Buttons With Trigger-Pulling 'War':
Actor says he wants people to think about who profits from violence." ...
"It begins with a startling title sequence: a bullet travels from destination
to destination, from box to hand to gun, finally coming to rest within
the soft, fleshy forehead of a young boy. After that, "Lord of War" only
gets more audacious." ... ""Lord of War" attempts to tell the story behind
the newscasts, employing the Oscar winner as Yuri Orlov [Nicolas Cage],
a morally ambiguous weapons dealer who not only sells weapons to anyone,
but often goes out of his way to supply both sides of a conflict. Critics
are already raving over Cage's transformative performance that begins with
a young Yuri realizing that people will always need guns and bullets, and
concludes several decades later with Cage's character transformed into
an unfathomably wealthy, and impossibly lonely, king of his own crime empire."
-MTV.com /News
Hurricane
Katrina - Disaster
- 
-
-
- "Kanye
West criticizes Bush on TV benefit show." ... "Hip-hop
star Kanye West added his voice to those from the U.S. African-American
community who see race as a reason for the poor emergency response to the
disaster in New Orleans." ... ""(U.S. President) George Bush doesn't care
about black people," he declared Friday night on a benefit concert broadcast
on NBC -- before the camera cut away from him." ... "West also said America
is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow
as possible."" -With contributions by Graham Richardson
-CTV.ca
Hurricane
Katrina -
-
-
-
-
- "NBC
deletes rapper's remark from telethon: Kanye West
said Bush 'doesn't care about black people'." ... "Kanye West's impromptu
attack on President Bush during a live telecast Friday night prompted NBC
to delete his remark in its West Coast broadcast of the benefit for victims
of Hurricane Katrina." ... ""George Bush doesn't care about black people,"
West said. The rap star also criticized coverage of the catastrophe, saying,
"I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family,
it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for
food."" -By Matea Gold and Scott Collins
-LAtimes via -HoustonChronicle.com
- Religion
-
- "Fresh
blast rocks Indian capital: One person has been injured
in an explosion in the Indian capital Delhi -just hours after two bomb
attacks on cinemas showing a controversial film." ... "The blast occurred
when a man opened an abandoned handbag near a railway crossing in eastern
Delhi, police said." ... "One person was killed and at least 49 injured
in blasts at two cinemas were showing a film criticised by Sikh leaders
for denigrating their faith." ... "The film, Jo Bole So Nihal, was withdrawn
from theatres across the largely Sikh state of Punjab last week, following
protests." ... "The highest decision-making body of the Sikh religion said
the title misused a battle-cry."-BBC
/News
- Drugs
- "Tackling
crime, Baltimore [Maryland] style." ... "Such is
the self-confidence of the drug-dealing fraternity, that last year they
made a DVD called "Stop Snitching"." ... "After a few months of careful
production, they've [the police] released a video of their own, complete
with hip hop soundtrack." ... "Videos are not the only potent hip hop medium
that the police are dealing with." ... "A few months ago, several manufacturers
began making Stop Snitching T-shirts, and one local chain began selling
them in its stores." ... "The police have now printed their own T-shirts
too." -By Matthew Wells-BBC
/News
-
-
- "When
dogma meets drama on television: Soft-focus spirituality
on TV gives way to programs with a more explicit religious viewpoint. Will
audiences accept it?" ... "But even as the major networks scramble to cash
in on the latest trend, religious-themed programming is here to stay, say
media watchers. The convergence of several long- and short-term trends
is behind this programming development." ... "First, and perhaps most important,
is the general misperception - shared by Hollywood - that the number of
evangelical Christians in the United States is growing, says Charles Brown,
a professor of sociology at Albright College in Reading, Pa. According
to church estimates, the actual number (somewhere between 25 million and
75 million, depending on the definition) has remained steady over the past
three decades, says Professor Brown." ... "Instead, the Christian entertainment
industry has simply become more sophisticated." -By
Gloria Goodale -CSMonitor
-
-
-
-
- "MTV
Site Revs Into Overdrive." ... "MTV on Wednesday
unveiled plans for MTV Overdrive, a Web channel through www.mtv.com offering
more advanced viewing and video-on-demand capabilities for an audience
accustomed to instantaneous content." ... "The initiative is a great example
of giving viewers MTV programing "available whenever they want it," [President
of M TV networks Van] Toffler said. He added that the online platform gives
"much more breadth and depth" than what can be offered on TV." (1, 2)
-By Kathleen Anderson and Chris Marlowe
-HollywoodReporter -Reuters
-
- 
- "Gore's
TV network set to launch with Google tie-in: Former
Vice President Al Gore and partners have renamed their upcoming youth-oriented
TV network and set Aug. 1 as its launch date." ... "The venture, formerly
called INdTV, will be called Current.tv, it was announced on Monday. The
24-hour network will target an 18- to 34-year-old audience and offer short-form
content--15-second to five-minute segments--to be contributed by viewers."
... "In addition to the videos, the new network reached a pact with Google
to include the search firm's the most popular Web searches." -By
Richard Shim -CNET
via -ZDNet>News
-
-
- "'CSI'
Effect or Just Flimsy Evidence? The Jury Is Out:
The Blake case raises the issue of whether forensic shows influence how
much proof is needed." ... "Blake's defense attorney, M. Gerald Schwartzbach,
said he purposely picked jurors who would not be turned off by scientific
experts testifying about particles of gunshot residue and the way blood
spatters. He said he wanted jurors "who were interested in science because
I knew [the prosecution] did sloppy scientific work."" ... "Potential Blake
jurors were asked, "How often do you watch TV programs that show real-life
or dramatized police activities (for example, 'Cops' and '911,' 'Law &
Order,' 'CSI')?" Half the jurors ultimately selected said they watched
such shows regularly. Two said they watched them "rarely." The answers
of the others were not made public, at their request." -By
Andrew Blankstein and Jean Guccione-LAtimes
via KTLA
-
-
- "Sony
Taps 1st Foreign CEO for Turnaround: Sony Names Howard
Stringer As Its First Foreign CEO to Lead Turnaround at Company." ... "Determined
to break with its past, Sony Corp. tapped a foreigner former CBS executive
Howard Stringer as CEO Monday and vowed to turn around its lagging electronics
sector by linking it with its entertainment businesses a goal that has
long eluded the company." ... "A native of Wales who later acquired U.S.
citizenship, Stringer, 63, has helped make Sony's music and movie business
one of the Japanese company's few bright spots in recent years. He replaces
Nobuyuki Idei, 67, who has led the Tokyo-based company for a decade." (1,
2,
3)
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Cost
of ads on 'Friends' finale at Super Bowl level."
... "Advertisers paid up to $2 million for 30 seconds on the "Friends"
finale tonight, making it the Super Bowl of sitcoms." ... "That puts the
one-hour finale, which NBC has estimated will draw an audience of at least
50 million people, second in price only to the Super Bowl this year. CBS
took in $2.3 million for a half-minute of ad time on the Super Bowl."
-AP via -TucsonCitizen.com
- Microsoft
News - "Microsoft
reaches out beyond the PC." ... "Bill Gates on Wednesday
unveiled a series of initiatives to extend Microsoft's
reach beyond the personal computer to deliver digital entertainment, including
a portable video player and an internet-enabled wristwatch." ... "He also
outlined a key piece of technology that forms an important link in Microsoft's
efforts to promote its PC-centric view of home entertainment. The technology,
which makes it possible to send music or video from a computer to other
devices such as televisions or music players, could eventually help to
turn the PC into the main engine of home entertainment." -By
Richard Waters -FT.com
-
-
- "Music
Pirates Going Clean." ... "For whatever reason, the
number of Internet users who download music free of charge took a dive
over just six months last year." ... "A couple of things happened that
may explain the decline." ... "Last September, the Recording Industry Association
of America began suing individuals for downloading music files -more than
340 cases so far. That might have pricked the conscience of many digital
freeloaders, or at least scared them off." ... "The other change was Apple
Computer's promotion of its iPod listening device and iTunes website, which
allows many popular songs to be downloaded for 99 cents each. Other websites,
including the one that once offered free downloading, Napster, also began
to offer paid service." -CSMonitor
-
-
- "The
recording industry gets silly." ... "Just before
the holidays, a United States appeals court ruled against the recording
industry, which had been trying to wrest the names of suspected pirates
from Internet Service Providers. The court said that the industry's strong-arm
tactic "borders upon the silly." No joke." ... "This in important step
to preserving privacy amid the hysteria over piracy. The ruckus started
when the Recording Industry Association of America attempted to force Verizon,
one of the country's largest Internet Service Providers, to turn over the
names of subscribers suspected of swapping pirated tunes. The new ruling
reverses an earlier decision that allowed the RIAA to subpoena companies
such as Verizon to get user names." -By David Kushner
-RollingStone.com/news
-
- "Last
Lord
of the Rings film sets a box office record."
... "The final instalment of the The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
sold $246m worth of tickets worldwide between Wednesday and yesterday,
the highest total takings over the first five days of any motion picture."
... "The strong box office performance of The Return of the King
provides a welcome boost for Time Warner, the media conglomerate that owns
New Line Cinema, the film's distributor, and raises hopes that it could
become only the second film after Titanic to gross more than $1bn during
its run." -By Simon London
-FT.com
-
- "'Rings'
Shows Trend Toward Global Premieres." ... "From Singapore
to Stockholm to New York to Mexico City, fans lined up this weekend to
see the final cinematic episode of the J. R. R. Tolkien trilogy, "The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," part of a growing global
moviegoing phenomenon." ... "By opening in 28 countries in its first five
days, "The Return of the King," made by New Line Cinema, raked in $246
million an astonishing sum, nearly a quarter of a billion dollars from
fans eager to revisit the world of hobbits and orcs." -By
Sharon Waxman -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "Inspired
by a Movie, Brothers Win a National Science Contest."
... "In the 1999 movie "October Sky," the teenage sons of coal mine workers
in rural West Virginia build rockets and improbably wind up winning a national
science contest." ... "That movie inspired two brothers from Connecticut,
the sons of a nuclear engineer and a special education teacher, who took
top honors as a team in this year's Siemens Westinghouse Math, Science
and Technology competition." -By David M. Herszenhorn
-NYTimes
via-Google-News
-
- Civil
Liberties News
- "Outkast
Denied By U.S. Supreme Court In Rosa Parks Case."
... "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition by Outkast and
their record labels asking the court to intervene in a lawsuit involving
civil-rights icon Rosa Parks and the rap duo's Grammy-nominated single
bearing her name. The move clears the way for Parks to sue Outkast for
what she claims is false advertising." -MTV.com
/ News
-
- "Sony
and Bertelsmann Announce Plans for Merging Music Units."
... "Bertelsmann A.G. and the Sony
Corporation said today that they had signed a preliminary agreement
to combine their music divisions in a joint venture, becoming the latest
dance partners in an industry roundelay that reflects the turbulent economics
of recorded music." ... "The nonbinding letter of intent signed by Bertelsmann
of Germany and Sony of Japan envisions a 50-50 venture to be called Sony
BMG. It would be the world's second-largest music company, after Vivendi's
Universal Music Group, with 25 percent of the global market and a stable
of stars ranging from Elvis Presley and the Dixie Chicks to the cellist
Yo-Yo Ma." (1, 2)
-By Mark Landler -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
- "Voters
back Arnold, oust Davis." ... "Californians staged
a historic revolt Tuesday by voting to throw Gov. Gray Davis out of office
and electing action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger a Hollywood ending to
one of the most extraordinary political melodramas in the nation's history."
... "Davis, 60, banished from office less than a year after being elected
to a second term, becomes only the second governor in the nation's history
to be recalled." -By Kathy Kiely
-USATODAY
- "Schwarzenegger
to run for governor: Film star Arnold Schwarzenegger
has announced he will run as a Republican candidate for governor of California."
... "Mr Schwarzenegger, best known for his role in the Terminator films,
revealed his intention during a taping of the American television programme
The Tonight Show, despite widespread rumours that he would not run because
of concerns expressed by his wife."-BBC/News
-
-
- "Fellowship
of the online gamers." ... "In such fantasy worlds,
players who've never met in person form tight allegiances - and the ties
are based on tests of individual character, not gender, class, or race.
While critics decry the violence in many of these games, or worry about
the social maladjustment of adolescents who spend hour upon hour playing
them, the popularity seems rooted in the fellowship of the players, not
in the virtual mayhem and carnage. In fact, even as video games become
less violent and more interactive, more and more players are logging on."
... "This contradicts the widely held belief that violent onscreen images
are what draw kids to video games." -By Elizabeth
Armstrong -CSMonitor
-
- 
- "Hatch
Takes Aim at Illegal Downloading." ... "During a
discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange
music and movie files over the Internet, [Utah's Republican Senator Orrin]
Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved
in such file trading. Legal experts have said any such attack would violate
federal anti-hacking laws." ... ""No one is interested in destroying anyone's
computer," replied Randy Saaf of MediaDefender Inc., a secretive Los Angeles
company that builds technology to disrupt music downloads. One technique
deliberately downloads pirated material very slowly so other users can't."
... ""I'm interested," Hatch interrupted. He said damaging someone's computer
"may be the only way you can teach somebody about copyrights."" -By
Ted Bridis -AP
via -WashingtonPost
>TechNews
-
-
- "Judge:
Millions of CD buyers owed money: A judge has
approved a settlement agreement in a music antitrust lawsuit that will
result in more than 3.5 million consumers receiving nearly $13 each." ...
"The lawsuit, signed by the attorneys general of 43 states and territories
and consolidated in Portland in October 2000, accused major record labels
and large music retailers facing competition from discounters like Target
and Wal-Mart of conspiring to set minimum music prices." ... "The defendants
-- Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music Distribution, Warner-Elektra-Atlantic
Corp., Universal Music Group and Bertelsmann Music Group, and retailers
Tower Records, Musicland Stores and Transworld Entertainment -- deny any
wrongdoing. Attorneys representing the companies declined to testify in
court." -AP
via -CNN
-
- "Pillaging
the cartoon universe: Fred Flintstone as a
mob boss! Yogi's pal BooBoo as a terrorist! Jonny Quest as the subject
of a gay child-custody battle! All these outrages and more can be found
on Cartoon Network's hilarious, hallucinatory "Harvey Birdman: Attorney
at Law." ... "Forget for a second that we're talking about an animated
short on Cartoon Network that airs around the witching hour, a time when
not one kid in North America is burning the midnight oil -- at least not
with his parents' permission. And forget also that we're talking about
an ornithological superhero who wears a three-piece suit and litigates
for a living." ... "Rather, pretend we're witnessing a bizarre discourse
on popular culture, fictional systems (including their explosion) and psychosexual
norms. Because it is then that Larry McCaffery's theories on metafiction
and intertextuality -- the mechanisms of postmodernism outlined in his
seminal work of literary criticism, "The Metafictional Muse" -- come into
play. If, as McCaffery argues, "we inhabit a world of fictions and are
constantly forced to develop a variety of metaphors and subjective systems
to help us organize ... experience," then metafiction is the pomo tonic
for our time, a Derridean (the name-dropping will end soon, I promise)
playfulness that "becomes a deliberate strategy used to provoke readers
to critically examine all cultural codes and established patterns of thought.""
-By Scott Thill -Salon
-
-
-
- "Hail
to the Chicks! Dixie gives the Dixies a warm
welcome." ... "Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines began the band's U.S.
tour with an open invitation to heckle her. "If you're here to boo, we
welcome that because we welcome freedom of speech," she said from the stage
of Greenville, South Carolina's Bi-Lo Center Thursday night. "So we're
going to give you fifteen seconds to get whatever you have out."" ... "Instead,
the 15,000-strong crowd erupted in cheers." ... "It was the Dixie Chicks'
first U.S. concert since Maines told a London audience on March 10th that
they were ashamed the president is from their home state of Texas." -By
Andy Paras -RollingStone.com/news
-
-
-
- "4
students to pay fines for 'Napsterlike' sites." ...
"Four college students will pay the major music labels fines ranging from
$12,000 to $17,000 each for sharing music on campus networks, the first
time file-swapping individuals have agreed to pay damages to the music
industry for copyright violations." ... "Students at Princeton, Michigan
Tech and Rensselaer were sued in early April for setting up what the Recording
Industry Association of America called "Napsterlike" internal networks
that shared up to 1 million songs on campus servers. The RIAA asked for
$150,000 a song; the four settled out of court Thursday for $60,000." -By
Jefferson Graham -USATODAY
-
-
-
- "Recording
industry targets users of Kazaa, Grokster with warnings."
... "The Recording Industry Association of America, a trade association,
will collect the user names of those it suspects are offering copyright
material with the Kazaa and Grokster file-sharing services, RIAA President
Cary Sherman told reporters during a conference call Tuesday." ... "He
called the effort "educational" and said "there's no enforcement connected
to this."" ... "In a separate action, the RIAA has sued four college students
who allegedly offered more than 1 million recordings over the Internet,
demanding damages of $150,000 per song." -By Alex
Veiga -AP
via -SFGate.com
-
-
- "Judge
rules file-sharing tools are legal: A US federal
judge has reversed many of the recording industry's previous victories
over peer-to-peer services, comparing Morpheus and Grokster software to
VCRs and photocopy machines." ... "In an almost complete reversal of previous
victories for the record labels and movie studios, federal court Judge
Stephen Wilson ruled that Streamcast -- parent of the Morpheus software
-- and Grokster were not liable for copyright infringements that took place
using their software. The ruling does not directly affect Kazaa, software
distributed by Sharman Networks, which has also been targeted by the entertainment
industry." -By John Borland with contributions by
Lisa Bowman -CNET/News
-ZDNet.co.ukt>News
-
- "Prepare
to Meet Thy Doom: John Carmack's game engines
set the standard for PC graphics - and legions of gamers and the industry
love him for it. Now he's brought the world to the brink of Doom III."
... "A $108 million brand (counting the first two titles and various expansion
packs), Doom napalmed the path for everything that followed: the first-person
shooter action of Halo, the Internet play of EverQuest, the ultraviolence
of Grand Theft Auto III. Doom was the first product to invite gamers to
get under the hood and fiddle around with accessible, adaptable code that
allowed for modifications, or mods, and there are versions based on everything
from Star Wars to Aliens. As Doom and its successors became gaming standards,
companies like Valve and Raven licensed id's graphics engines to create
their own shooters." ... "Eventually, Carmack says, real-time rendering
will be so dynamic that animators will be able to produce films using game
engines. Motivated modmakers will have the tools - for free, if Carmack
has his way - to bring to life a vision as compelling as the new film Finding
Nemo (see Swimming
With Sharks). In his book Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
writes about a "Garage Kubrick." Carmack foresees a Basement Disney." (1,
2,
3)
-By David Kushner 200305Issue
11.05 -Wired -Magazine
- 
-
-
-
- "MLB.TV
Puts Live Games Online." ... "Looking to cash in
on the popularity -- and exclusivity -- of online audio broadcasts of baseball
games, Major League Baseball's Web portal on Tuesday launched a new MLB.TV
service that offers on-demand and live access to pay-per-view video feeds."
... "The MLB.TV service, an extension of a three-year exclusive deal with
Seattle-based RealNetworks (Quote,
Company
Info) will employ IP tracking to protect network television rights
of local games but, because the technology has been unreliable as a geo-location
tool, it's likely to raise the ire of MLB's television partners that shell
out billions of broadcast rights." ... "According to Arbitron's Webcast
Audience Profiles, fans who tune in and pay for baseball Webcasts were
a prized lot." -By Ryan Naraine
-InternetNews.com
-
- 
- "The
Goodbye Girl: Sarah Michelle Gellar: Why I
quit ''Buffy.''" ... ""''Buffy, in this incarnation, is over.''" ... "With
those words, Sarah Michelle Gellar drives a stake into the hearts of ''Buffy
the Vampire Slayer'' fans everywhere. After seven years --five on The WB,
the last two on UPN -- the young ''Scooby-Doo'' star (a.k.a. Mrs. Freddie
Prinze Jr.) is leaving the cult pop sensation that made her a household
name." (1, 2)
-By Jeff Jensen -EW.com
-
- Microsoft
News - "Report:
Microsoft, EA Mull Bid for Sega." ... "Microsoft
Corp MSFT.O
and Electronic Arts Inc ERTS.O
are separately exploring the possibility of buying all or part of Japanese
videogame maker Sega Corp 7964.T,
the Asian Wall Street Journal said on Friday." ... "The paper, quoting
people familiar with the situation, said the two U.S. companies have yet
to hold formal talks with Sega and that no deal was imminent."-Reuters/Business
-
- "Pop
and Politics: Grammy Organizers Deny Stifling
Anti-War Artists." ... "Some musicians say they were warned not to use
the Grammy podium to make anti-war statements, but show organizers deny
any effort to stifle the artists." -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Nia
Vardalos builds 'Big Fat Greek' franchise." ... "CBS
passed on Nia Vardalos' pilot about her raucous Greek family for last fall's
schedule. But the mood changed when her $5 million film, My Big Fat Greek
Wedding, became the year's surprise hit and grossed more than $240 million."
-By Bill Keveney -USATODAY
- "Pyrotechnics
used at R.I. club in past: Other musicians
say owners knew of fireworks." ... "Musicians from two rock bands said
today that they had set off pyrotechnics inside the Station nightclub with
the full knowledge of the owners." ... "Last week the heavy metal band
Great White set off pyrotechnics in the Station, igniting a fire that killed
97 people, the fourth-worst nightclub fire in the nations history. Owners
of the club have denied giving permission for the pyrotechnics display."
-By Michael Powell and Christopher Lee-WashingtonPost
via -MSNBC
-
-
-
- "Liberal
Radio Is Planned by Rich Group of Democrats." ...
"The group, led by Sheldon and Anita Drobny, venture capitalists from Chicago
who have been major campaign donors for Bill Clinton and Al Gore, is in
talks with Al Franken, the comedian and author of "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big
Fat Idiot." It hopes to enlist other well-known entertainers with a liberal
point of view for a 14-hour, daily slate of commercial programs that would
heavily rely on comedy and political satire." ... "The plan faces several
business and content challenges, from finding a network of radio stations
to buy the program to overcoming the poor track record of liberal radio
shows. But it is the most ambitious undertaking yet to come from liberal
Democrats who believe they are overshadowed in the political propaganda
wars by conservative radio and television personalities." -By
Jim Rutenberg -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
-
- "Net
Providers Must Help in Piracy Fight: Judge
Orders Internet Providers to Help Trace Users Who Illegally Download Music."
... "Internet providers must abide by music industry requests to track
down computer users who illegally download music, a federal judge ruled
Tuesday in a case that could dramatically increase online pirates' risk
of being caught." ... "The decision by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates
upheld the recording industry's powers under a 1998 law to compel Verizon
Communications Inc. to identify one of its Internet subscribers who was
suspected of illegally trading music or movies online." ... "Verizon promised
Tuesday to appeal and said it would not immediately provide its customer's
identity." -AP
via -ABCNEWS.com
-
-
- "Norwegian
Hacker, 19, Is Acquitted in DVD Piracy Case." ...
"A three-member panel of the Oslo City Court, including a judge and two
technical experts, ruled that Mr. Johansen had not broken any laws by using
and distributing the software and that he was free to view DVD's he bought
in any fashion he chose. Mr. Johansen has said that the software was intended
to help him play DVD's he already owned on a Linux-based computer, for
which DVD software had not yet been written." -By
Timothy L. O'Brien -NYTimes
via -Google-News