Vlog TV on Denver Public Access
OMG! It’s BrowseTV years later!
It’s basically a call-in request-a-youtube-video show. Viewers call in and drop the names of their favorite YouTube or other videos and the VJs play them over the air. If the video contains any profanity, such as when they showed Shoes (below), the VJs mute the audio. You can see the OS X volume graphic appear briefly when they do it.
(via Vlog TV Denver | Negatendo.Net) thx, revgeorge!
Climb the Charts, Schmimb the Charts
A record will hit the top of the Bilboard charts on or shortly after its release — there is no “chart climbing”. Infovis by Mike Frumin
Beware self-proclaimed social marketing experts – 10 simple rules to tell who you are talking to, from social media stats service Traackr.
#1 stands out. Preach it!
If someone tells…
CBS announced plans Thursday to buy CNet for $1.8 billion, a matchup that would combine an old-school television network with one of the Internet’s pioneers.
The deal would instantly give CBS a Top 10 presence on the Internet. At the same time, the move is likely to help CNet appease shareholders who have pressed for changes amid frustrations about the company’s stock performance and business execution.
A federal district court in New York ruled Wednesday that the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is owed “reasonable license fees” by online media powerhouses AOL, RealNetworks, and Yahoo for the music streamed and distributed on their sites.
The license fees would cover music distributed as early as July 1, 2002, and then up through the end of 2009. Because songwriters and composers often aren’t affiliated with record labels that distribute their music as performed by another artist, they presently are left without licensing fees from digital distribution on the three companies named in the court decision.
U.S. District Court Judge Neil V. Wake denied the RIAA’s request for a summary judgment against a couple who had copied music files from their CDs onto their computer and downloaded file-sharing programs. [More]
Affirming this would create a good common-sense precedent favoring music consumers. The ruling obviates assertions that merely making files accessible equals piracy. This is reasonable on two grounds:
- Accessibility doesn’t result in damages until actual dissemination occurs. (Even here, there are grey areas. Do streaming and downloading both qualify as infringing ‘distribution’?)
- File sharing software often defaults to sharing user’s files without adequate disclosure, making the user herself a potential victim. With any legal duty in checking application settings uncertain - guilty findings should require demonstration of specific intent.
The RIAA should stop coercing consumers and courts into believing what was fair use (backing up music/videos and exhibiting them in non-commercial settings) is now theft; that lacking full awareness of what your file-share software exposes rises to piracy; or that restricting digital content when there’s demonstrable demand at a premium for unencumbered access is good customer service. Once they straighten that situation out, I will endorse their efforts to tackle collegiate cartels and bootleggers.
