3686505
submission
Anonymous Brave Guy writes:
What happens when the might of Google clashes with the might of Big Media? We're about to find out: after failing to negotiate a licensing deal with the PRS (one of the UK's collective licensing bodies for music), YouTube has simply pulled the plug, and as of 6pm Monday, premium music videos will start disappearing for visitors from the UK. From the BBC article, it seems the PRS asked for an unspecified but large increase in the royalties, and when Google worked out that they would actually be losing money on the service at that price, they firmly declined. The PRS has asked YouTube to reconsider as a "matter of urgency".
306851
submission
Anonymous Brave Guy writes:
The BBC have an interesting article up today about the demise of Virgin Digital, which has offered music on a monthly subscription system, and how this is leaving their customers in a jam because they signed up to a DRM-based subscription service. This is no doubt not a new concern to many here, but it's the second real-life example of such a service folding within a matter of weeks, and interesting that a well-regarded mainstream news source is now openly condemning DRM and vendor lock-in, and advising people to avoid such services.
112813
submission
Anonymous Brave Guy writes:
The BBC reports that CD-Wow, the third largest on-line music retailer in the UK after Amazon and Play, has been found in contempt of court for selling illegally imported CDs into the UK. Describing the verdict as "CD woe", the company claimed that all they were doing was bringing CDs into the UK that had been legitimately purchased from the big media companies elsewhere, with any breach of copyright down to human error, and that "At a time when the record industry is losing vast revenue to piracy, it seems ludicrous that they can set out to destroy a section of the market that is actually making them money."
75700
submission
Anonymous Brave Guy writes:
Supreme Commander, the game developed by Chris Taylor and widely viewed as the "moral sequel" to the classic RTS Total Annihilation, went gold today, 18 January.
52292
submission
Anonymous Brave Guy writes:
The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property, a large-scale, government-commissioned review of the current IP framework in the UK, has today published its final report. The report itself doesn't seem to be available yet, but the government's response (which includes a summary of the Gowers recommendations) is contained in the pre-budget report, linked from the same site.
Highlights include: proposing much stronger enforcement/penalties for infringement of IP rights, possibly including a fast-track litigation process and up to 10 years in prison for on-line copyright infringement; introducing a "private copying" exception to legalise format-shifting; and a recommendation that the European Commission should not extend copyright protection in sound recordings and performers' rights any further than the existing 50 years.
The government seems to be endorsing the Gowers recommendations pretty much in their entirety, and in particular has acknowledged the recommendation on not extending copyright terms via the European back door.
12447
submission
Anonymous Brave Guy writes:
It looks like Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket, is planning to take on software giants like Microsoft with a new range of cheap, own-brand software covering office apps, photo editing and more. Tesco's Daniel Cook said, "When it comes to software there is little choice and prices are high. Our new range of software changes this." There's no sign yet on Tesco's web site, but an October date is mentioned in the BBC article. Sounds like a good time to be buying sell options... But in which company?
