The Recording Industry Association of America has found a new legal target for a copyright lawsuit: Usenet.
In a lawsuit filed on October 12, the RIAA says that Usenet newsgroups contain "millions of copyrighted sound recordings" in violation of federal law.
Only Usenet.com is named as a defendant for now, but the same logic would let the RIAA sue hundreds of universities, Internet service providers, and other newsgroup archives. AT
Social-media site Imeem , which focuses on ad-supported music and video playlists, announced Monday that it has acquired Snocap, the music-licensing company founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Reports of the acquisition had first surfaced in February .
The deal is all about Snocap's technology, as the company hasn't exactly been healthy recently: over half of its staff was let go last year. But the tools Snocap created, which handle digital music licensing and which power embeddable music-sale stores, appealed to Imeem, which was already using Snocap technology to identify files that users uploaded to its streaming-music service.
"The Snocap team built a great technology platform that will be useful to Imeem as we continue to grow," Imeem founder and CEO Dalton Caldwell said in a statement. "Together we'll build on that work in the coming months, and give labels and independent artists new ways to promote and sell their music through Imeem, MySpace and anywhere on the web."
Imeem acquired music start-up Anywhere.fm , which developed "smart playlist" technology, in January. The privately held company, once a lawsuit target , now has deals in place with all major music labels to stream songs online and provide artists and labels with a cut of the ad revenue.
Earlier this year artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley teamed up with Google to create what might be the oddest thing caught on Street View, Google Maps ' virtual man-on-the-street service. Hewlett and Kinsley managed to get a large group of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, locals together to participate in a variety of activities on-camera, including organized jogging , a sword fight , and a parade-- complete with band instruments and uniforms . All the while Google's Street View car captured every moment.
The result is a few square blocks of the zaniness that will be forever preserved for others to see--that is, until Google updates the imagery with newer shots. Hewlett and Kinsley have documented the entire project on their site, along with a "making of" documentary that captures the scope of how many people were involved:
What will remain far more interesting to most are all the unintentionally peculiar things caught in Street View's cameras , which continued to be chronicled by eagle-eyed individuals. On that front, worth checking out is StreetViewGallery , which has a Reddit -like system for promoting funny found Street View shots to the top.
Microsoft said Monday that it is adding a new licensing option, this one dubbed Select Plus and targeted largely at midsize firms.
The program's two main attractions are the fact that it is not tied to a specific term and it makes it easier for different subsidiaries of a company to take advantage of their combined purchasing power.
The additional option runs counter to the trend at Microsoft, which has been working to scale back the number of different licensing plans. The company had managed to shrink its number of options--from 107 programs in 2006 to 23 as of last year. With Select Plus, the number of Microsoft licensing programs has crept back up to 26.
Although it adds yet another option, Joe Matz, corporate vice president at Microsoft, said that Select Plus fills a need.
"Many customers end up with multiple agreements because Select is not as flexible as customers would like," he said. Microsoft isn't getting rid of Select, but expects that over time, customers will choose the new option.
The software maker has come under criticism from some customers and analysts for both the cost and the complexity of its licensing programs.
In a recent report, Forrester advised its clients to plan months ahead to figure out which Microsoft licensing option made the most financial sense. The analysis firm also said that Microsoft's Software Assurance support program is more expensive compared with rivals.
"Microsoft's software maintenance agreement is among the industry's most expensive--25 percent for server products and 29 percent for desktop products," Forrester said in the report. "In terms of upgrade rights--the major element--this is only cost-justified by a three- to four-year upgrade cycle, but Microsoft has undermined Software Assurance's value proposition by missing delivery dates for new versions."
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina .
Ze Frank, putting the audience at ease Ze Frank is a very, very funny man. He emceed the SXSW Web Awards Sunday night. It was a straightforward awards event and moved along at a nice clip. I learned about a few new companies when I was looking over the list of finalists. I'll be covering them soon.
SocialSaga lets people debate issues, using video clips
The two biggest awards were People's Choice and Best of Show. The people voted for an interesting experiment in interactive media: SocialSaga , a site where video clips ask questions, to which users upload their answers. The site currently is used to build pass-along stories, and for people to debate issues. As you watch watch a clip, you can see the tree of the video replies to it. It's like a threaded message board, but in video. Neat idea, although I don't know how the site won the award. By my research it's barely made a blip on the Web.
Related to SocialSaga and running a demo booth here at SXSW: ChoiceInteractive , a new site for showing--and helping people create--videos where users can influence the narrative by making choices at key points. Not an original idea, but if the team can deliver on its promise to bring this technology to the iPod, it could make long commutes a bit less mind-numbing.
OwnYourC's anti-smoking campaign
Back to the awards: The judges' selection for Best of Show was OwnYourC , a Flash-heavy site designed for teenagers who need to make choices--which careers to look into, the choice to quit smoking, etc. I don't get this award. Despite glitzy Flash programming, the interaction model is very flat, the site is filled with advertising, and I found it patronizing .
There was no award for belle of the ball, although Twitter , which would have won that title handily, did walk away with the honors in the Blog category.
For more, see the SXSW Web Awards page .
