31
August
2007
|
03:24 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Newswatch 8.31.07: APPL to NBC: 'Nyah-nyah'

Amazon to launch music service in Sept?

[Reuters] Amazon.com Inc has tentatively set a mid-September target for the launch of its music service, the New York Post reported in its online edition on Friday, citing sources familiar with the situation.

Apple to sell ringtones

[NY Post] In a new twist, iPhone users will have the ability to choose any part of the song they want as their ringtone. Most major ringtone offerings from Verizon, AT&T or Sprint feature pre-determined samples.

Spamhaus relieved of $11m judgment

[Ars Technica] An appeals court has overturned a $11.7 million award against Spamhaus after the antispam group failed to show up in court to defend itself. Spamhaus was sued by a spammer unhappy about finding his company's name on the Spamhaus blacklist.

RIAA tired of being called a cartel

[Ars Technica] One of the common defenses against the music industry's lawsuits is to accuse the record labels of copyright misuse by collusion and acting as an illegal cartel in their legal campaign. In UMG v. Lindor, the labels are attacking that defense in a motion filed earlier this week, asking a federal judge to either strike the defense or force Marie Lindor to amend it to include something other than "mere conclusions and buzzwords."

NBC walks away from iTunes

[Newsfactor.com] Many analysts see Hollywood taking steps to break the iTunes stranglehold on the digital downloads market. Besides balking over lack of control, "intellectual property owners other than record labels are really offended by Apple's royalty rate," generally believed to be 35 percent, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities.

Apple issues a raspberry to NBC

[News.com] "Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September," Apple said in its statement.

Sweden invalidates its OOXML vote

[InfoWorld] The reason given by SIS was not the controversial circumstances surrounding the vote, in which Microsoft was found to have offered companies "incentives" if they voted in favor of OOXML. Instead, SIS cited a technicality, saying proper procedures had not been followed.

Thailand lifts ban on YouTube

[NYT] The Thai government said today it has lifted a ban on YouTube after the Web site agreed not to allow videos that violate the country’s laws or are deemed offensive there.

GOOG to host wire stories

[SEL] Today, Google News will begin offering articles from several major wire services and news agencies hosted on its own site, rather than sending readers away from Google. The move is part of licensing agreements that have been stuck over the past year. Google News is also promising better duplicate story detection, so that the original source of a news article should be more likely to get visitors and readers get a better experience by not stumbling over the same story hosted by different publications.