Bucc5062 - Slashdot User

Submission + - In role reversal, CRIA sued for 60B dollars (nextbigfuture.com) 1

Submitted by

Bucc5062

on Thursday December 10, 2009 @09:59AM

Bucc5062 writes: "In a twist of fate, four major recording studios (Warner, EMI, Sony, and Universal) are being sued to the tune of 60 billion dollars for copyright infringement. Since the late 1980's the recording studios in Canada have used songs in compilation albums and CDs and did not pay royalties on the use of the song immediately. Instead they created a "pending list" of the songs with the "intent" to pay later. They never payed. The estate of Chet Baker, a late 1950s jazz musician, is leading a class action suit against the four studios along with small time names like Bruce Springsteen, Beyonce, and Sarah McLachlan.

From an article written by Michael Giest:

The class action seeks the option of statutory damages for each infringement. At $20,000 per infringement, potential liability exceeds $6 billion. These numbers may sound outrageous, yet they are based on the same rules that led the recording industry to claim a single file sharer is liable for millions in damages
"

Submission + - LaserMotive Climbs to the Top (nextbigfuture.com)

Submitted by

Bucc5062

on Thursday November 05, 2009 @09:04AM

Bucc5062 writes: "LaserMotive has achieved the first step towards the creation of a working space elevator by qualifying for the $900,000 prize in a contest sponsored by NASA. To achieve this 1st level, laserMotive needed to propel a platform at over 4 meters per sec. They hit a top speed of 4.13 m/s. The next level of qualification will be to achieve a climb speed greater then 5 meters per sec.

LaserMotive (Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009) beamed roughly 400 watts of laser power to a moving target at a distance of 1 kilometer, as part of the vertical laser alignment procedure. The target was a retro-reflective board a little larger than 1 meter on a side. I don't know offhand if that is a record; I will have to check once things calm down. (It's a record that will likely be broken tomorrow by one or more teams, of course.)
The contest will continue for another two days with at least two other teams challenging for the prize. The grand prize of 2 million is within the sights of the LaserMotive team:
To win the Power Beaming competition, the LaserMotive system uses a high-power laser array to shine ultra-intense infrared light onto high-efficiency solar cells, converting the light into electric power which then drives a motor. Our system will track the vehicle as it climbs, compensating for motion due to wind and other changes. Building on our experience from last year’s competition, we are designing an improved system able to capture the full $2,000,000 prize.

The future looks up for laserMotive as they climb higher in obtaining the ultimate prize of ground to earth orbit with a space elevator. Next floor, International space station, satellite maintenance, and ET wear."

Submission + - The downside of Monopolies

Submitted by

Bucc5062

on Monday September 17, 2007 @10:45PM

Bucc5062 writes: "About two months ago I was discovering an new old band called October Project which had success in the mid 90's. Great sound, amazing vocalist. That got me to looking for any video on the band. I found two MTV style videos from their hit songs on YouTube (now google video). I then found two live videos from a show called FX. (Live on FX 11/29/95). I watched the videos and reveled in seeing this band live, even in the TV studio.

A couple of weeks go by and I would like to see the live videos again. Shocked I am as the Live FX shows have been suspended. What? I try a general search and almost every link leads back to YouTube and no ability to see the videos. Why? No reports as to why. No statements, just that these two videos are not unavailable for viewing.

So I discover a problem with centralized data. Once any large entity takes over a pool of data, removing it from the public control is subject to the whims of the very small minority. Every link I could find save two was linked to YouTube. Social networking is good, but when it is co-opted like YouTube then it is not good, because a few can now censor the many.

In the case of October Project and (Live on FX 11/29/95), I cannot see how blocking these videos would be good for any one. Google suspended the account that held the videos, but what is even worse, everyone linked to YouTube thus in one chop, Google cut access to some great video of a great band. I ask the Slashdot community, is there an alternative to YouTube Is the a way to stop censorship of data by the few, and is there way to get those two videos back into the public eye?"

Submission + - Royalty Rates Rock Internet Radio

Submitted by

Bucc5062

on Monday March 12, 2007 @09:03AM

Bucc5062 writes: "With all the attention on DRM, DCMA, *IAA arm twisting and their effect on the music industry, an area of digital music that is been less talked about, but important to diversification of music listening is Web Radio or streaming radio. Congress has started to impose higher and higher fees on each song "performed" such that within a year, smaller internet radio stations may have to go off line.

Those affected by the new rates, which change the royalty paid to a song's performers from a percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee, include not just Web-only outfits mimicking traditional radio stations, but also more specialized digital music services such as Pandora (pandora.com) and the Internet streams of traditional broadcast stations. "It's absurd," said Hanson. "Under this, our royalty would go to $600,000 for the year, which means we would be bankrupted."

SaveTheStream.org http://savethestreams.org/ has established a site to information and promote the fight against these rate hikes. The Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/technology/columnist s/chi-0703070314mar07,0,6077662.column?coll=chi-bu siness-hed covers this lesser known but important story. Internet radio is a grass roots system to hear music from around the world or the local home front. It needs to be saved."

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