njondet - Slashdot User

Prankster wins copyright battle against MySpace-> 0

Submitted by

njondet

on Tuesday November 20 2007, @11:56AM

njondet writes "In June, a Paris court ordered MySpace to pay almost 60,000 ($88,000) in damages to a French comedian for breach of his copyrights and personality rights. The court considered that MySpace, acting as a publisher, was liable for copyright infringement as unauthorized copies of the comedian's work had been posted on the web page of a MySpace member."
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France to Google: help us promote our culture-> 0

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njondet

on Thursday October 25 2007, @10:07AM

njondet writes "It now seems long gone are the days when France saw Google as an instrument of American cultural imperialism which needed to be challenged by European governments. Earlier this month, the French Culture Minister officially asked Google for recommendations on how to promote the online presence of French culture . This constitutes a remarkable change of heart for France which, under the Chirac presidency, had planned the launch of European projects, such as the Quaero search engine, in order to challenge Google's technological dominance and protect France's cultural independence in the digital world. France now appears to consider that its culture and Google can thrive together. This u-turn can be explained by the pragmatic realization that anti-Google projects would fail as they have done in the past. A realization that France was all the more willing to make under its new president, Nicolas Sarkozy, a self-proclaimed pro-American eager to break with the policies of Chirac, his predecessor, former mentor and bitter rival. The reconciliation with the Californian company was also assisted by the reassurances given by Google to the Culture minister that its new filtering technology for YouTube would help secure the copyrights, and thus the revenues and future, of the French cultural industry."
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10 years of Winamp-> 0

Submitted by

Will Fisher

on Wednesday October 10 2007, @09:37AM

Will Fisher writes "On 10/10 at 10:10 the 10th anniversary edition of Winamp (version 5.5) was launched. Winamp has been a central part of the mp3 revolution, and is now staging a resurgence. Key features of this new release are a completely new interface (but you can still use all your old winamp skins), album artwork and remote access of your media. Wired has a good write-up of the release."
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Sony BMG and Deezer sign internet music deal-> 0

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njondet

on Wednesday October 10 2007, @09:24AM

njondet writes " Deezer.com, a free on-demand streaming website has signed a deal with Sony BMG, the second largest record label in the world, to allow the broadcasting of 165,000 titles from artists such as Justin Timberlake or Alicia Keys. This deal represents an important milestone both in digital music distribution and in Deezer's tortuous journey towards legality. Deezer, whose previous incarnation had been shut down for copyright improprieties, was re-launched this summer thanks to a royalty payment deal with a French collecting society representing music artists. To become fully legal, Deezer still had to secure individual deals with each record label, in order to obtain authorization to broadcast their music. This quest for authorizations got off to a bad start as Universal Music refused to cooperate, denouncing the service as illegal. But the deal with Sony constitutes a decisive and positive step in securing Deezer's future and an opportunity for a major record label to test the viability of a new revenue stream."
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French lawmaking 2.0?-> 0

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njondet

on Tuesday October 09 2007, @08:50AM

njondet writes "In its effort to clarify French laws and improve their consistency, the Law Commission of the French Parliament has launched a website inviting the internet community to submit suggestions for their simplification. The website is very basic insofar as it operates as a very centralized interface which does not facilitate interactions between users. Yet, in spite of (or maybe due to) its minimalism, the website has already generated many comments. Eventually, the website might have to evolve towards the much hyped "web 2.0" functionalities which allow for more user participation. The French Parliament may consider following in the footsteps of New-Zealand which has created a wiki to review its Policing Act."
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'Heroes 2' VOD success erodes piracy in France-> 0

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njondet

on Saturday October 06 2007, @09:48AM

njondet writes " The Hollywood Reporter reports that TF1, the French broadcaster of the hit TV show 'Heroes' has welcomed the success of its video-on-demand (VOD) offer which allows French internet users to watch episodes of the second season of Heroes just 24 hours after their original US broadcast. With more than 50,000 paid viewings of the first episode in three days, it is by far the most successful VOD product in France. And although these figures still pale in comparison with the estimated 1.5 million illegal downloads per episode for the first season in France, TF1 is confident that it is building a viable alternative to piracy."
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Universal Music challenges legality of free stream-> 0

Submitted by njondet on Monday September 17 2007, @10:20AM

njondet writes "The claim by Deezer.com, a free on-demand music streaming website, that it had become the first legal service of its kind thanks to a royalty payment deal with a French society representing artists ( see report in Slashdot ), has been challenged by Universal Music . The record label has denounced as illegal the use by Deezer of songs from its music catalogue and has asked for their removal from the website. In doing so, the label want to reassert its copyrights but maybe also to protect a new music venture with a French ISP under which customers of the ISP are offered unlimited downloads to Universal's music."
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Comment: Re: Fly to France and download it from there (Score 1) 691

by njondet on Friday August 31 2007, @09:12AM (#20424157) Attached to: NBC Universal Drops iTunes

If you miss the episode in the US, book a flight to Paris and download it from there 24 hours after. NBC and TF1, the French broadcaster of Heroes, have signed a deal to put episodes of the second vision on VOD. You'll get the French subtitles as a bonus. C'est fantastique!

'Heroes 2' on French VOD a day after US broadcast-> 0

Submitted by

njondet

on Thursday August 30 2007, @04:48AM

njondet writes "In an unprecedented move to curb piracy, French television broadcaster TF1 has announced yesterday that it will make episodes of the second series of Heroes available on its video-on-demand service 24 hours after their broadcast in the US. The deal between TF1 and NBC, (the US network which produces and distributes the series), ensures that the VOD service, TF1 vision, will offer the new episodes for download and streaming starting on September 25. The episodes will be subtitled in French and cost as little as 1.99 Euro ($2.70) each (dependent on the pay package chosen)."
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French ISP offers free access to Universal's music 0

Submitted by njondet on Monday August 27 2007, @06:29PM

njondet writes "French-law.net reports that a deal between Universal Music and Neuf-Cegetel, a French Internet Service Provider (ISP), allows the ISP's customers to have unlimited access to songs in the Universal catalogue. At no extra-cost, Neuf's broadband customers can listen, download and transfer all songs from one of the musical genres included in the label's catalogue. The service is only accessible to continuing customers and is not compatible with Apple's iPod. However, despite these limitations, and possible competition and antitrust concerns, the deal marks an interesting new development in digital content distribution."