Saturday, August 09, 2008

CHICAGO — Bernie Mac, an Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor and comedian, died suddenly Saturday at age 50 of complications from pneumonia. The comedian suffered from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory lung disease that produces tiny lumps of cells in the body's organs, but had said the condition went into remission in 2005.

He recently was hospitalized and treated for pneumonia, which his publicist said was not related to the disease. "Actor/comedian Bernie Mac passed away this morning from complications due to pneumonia in a Chicago area hospital," his publicist, Danica Smith, said in a statement from Los Angeles. She said no other details were available and asked that his family's privacy be respected.

Mac worked his way to Hollywood success from an impoverished upbringing on Chicago's South Side. Recently, Mac's brand of comedy caught him flack when he was heckled during a surprise appearance at a July fundraiser for Democratic presidential candidate and fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama. Toward the end of a 10-minute standup routine, Mac joked about menopause, sexual infidelity and promiscuity, and used occasional crude language.

The performance earned him a rebuke from Obama's campaign. But despite controversy or difficulties, in his words, Mac was always a performer. "Wherever I am, I have to play," he said in 2002. "I have to put on a good show." Mac started his comedy career at age 8, with a standup performance at a church dinner. In 1977, at age 20, he took that act to comedy clubs in Chicago.

August 10, 2008 @ 3:31 CST

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Isaac Hayes, the pioneering singer, songwriter and musician whose relentless "Theme From Shaft" won Academy and Grammy awards, has been found dead at home. He was 65. The Shelby County Sheriff's Office says a family member found Hayes unresponsive near a treadmill on Sunday. He was pronounced dead about an hour later at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis.

The cause of death was not immediately known. In the early 1970s, Hayes laid the groundwork for disco, for what became known as urban-contemporary music and for romantic crooners like Barry White. And he was rapping before there was rap. His career hit another high in 1997 when he became the voice of Chef, the sensible school cook and devoted ladies man on the animated TV show "South Park."

By Nate Anderson
July 22, 2008 - 12:06PM CT

Now that the EU plan to retroactively add 45 years of copyright protection to old sound recordings looks set to keep the work of the 50s and 60s locked up for another half century, resistance is solidifying. Yesterday, a group of independent academics from across Western Europe signed a letter to the Times arguing that the new plan would only pad the pockets of "record companies, aging rock stars or, increasingly, artists' estates.

It does nothing for innovation and creativity." And that's one of the more pleasant things being said about the idea. The academics are all experts in intellectual property or copyright law, and they trash the EU's assertion that no outside expertise was needed before formulating the plan. That's ludicrous, say the learned doctors, since the data filed with the EU came in large part from the recording industry.

Not surprisingly, the data showed that prices wouldn't rise, that artists would make more money, and "that the record industry will invest in discovering new talents, as if exclusive rights for 50 years had not provided an opportunity to earn returns." The professors questioned these assertions. They point out that independent outside evidence against the plan already exists major forms like the UK's Gowers review of intellectual property, but the EU seems to have ignored much of this in favor of Big Content's far-reaching claims.

If the goal is to make sure that artists have enough money to live on, the solution shouldn't be extending copyright but going after "unreasonably exploitative contracts during the existing term" and taking a look at "remuneration during the performer’s lifetime, not 95 years." The UK's Open Rights Group has some strong words of its own for the plan, which it sees as more of a rights grab than an attempt to help poverty-stricken musicians.

by Greg Sandoval
July 21, 2008 12:14 PM PDT

Hollywood can celebrate that pirated copies of this year's hit films aren't showing up on major Internet sites. Too bad for the studios' enforcement efforts that some can still be found on smaller sites. At the same time that the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, was drawing record audiences (the movie is estimated to have earned more than $155 million over the weekend), several copies of the film was available online.

A half hour after returning home from watching the film on Saturday night, I got home to find my colleague, Elinor Mills, has sent me a link that apparently originated at VideoEmbedder.com. Sure enough, a grainy and dark copy of the hit film was available for viewing and for download. It was still up on Sunday but could not be accessed on Monday. Finding newly released movies is nothing new. In the past, it was easy to find them at Google Video and other video-sharing sites.

Michael Moore's documentary, Sicko, was posted to the Web even before it had debuted in theaters. Following the appearance of Sicko on the Web, some argued that movies posted to the Internet can help boost interest in a film. Back then, Google Video was loaded with full-length films and TV shows. The site is now focused more on shorter videos even while there is no limit on duration.

What this illustrates is the coming storm bearing down on the film industry. The size of movie files used to be too large to allow them to be streamed or downloaded easily. That's changing rapidly. The time to download big movie files is speeding up and streaming technology has also improved. The simple fact is it's getting easier to share movie files.

By Nate Anderson
July 18, 2008 - 06:00AM CT

Dutch academic Dr. Johan Pouwelse knows BitTorrent well, having spent a year of his life examining its inner workings. Now, as part of the EU-funded P2P-Next team, Pouwelse and his researchers have been entrusted with €19 million, and what the EU wants in return is nothing less than a "4th-generation" peer-to-peer system that will one day be tasked with replacing over-the-air television broadcasts.

P2P-Next is the largest publicly-funded team in the world working on such technology (though plenty of researchers at Microsoft, IBM, and countless tiny startups are also racing to deliver a better P2P experience), and today the team launched a trial program designed to test its progress to date. What sets the project apart from the traditional BitTorrent architecture is its focus not on downloadable video, but on live streaming.

Current BitTorrent implementations, focused as they are on offering easy access to downloadable content, aren't well suited to delivering live streaming TV across the Internet, but Pouwelse is convinced that this is the future. There's "no doubt that TV will come through the Internet in a few years," he told Ars earlier this week. Obviously, deployment of such a system depends on consumer electronics firms and broadcasters, but Pouwelse's job is to make sure that the technology is ready when they are.

Currently, streaming solutions like YouTube and Hulu are generally based on a server model; this doesn't scale well without inflicting massive bandwidth costs on the broadcaster. Downloadable video, already being experimented with by the BBC and NBC, can use P2P for distribution, but is only suited to after-the-fact viewing.

by Garett Rogers
June 29th, 2008 @ 11:27 pm

It’s unknown what kind of money was involved in the deal, but Google has teamed up with the creator of Family Guy to create two minute episodes of a new cartoon called “Seth MacFarlane’s Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy”.

MacFarlane will take a percentage of the profit made by advertising that accompanies the 50 two minute episodes that he plans to distribute only on the internet. The cartoon is to be distributed on the AdSense network, though I’m not completely sure how successful this will end up being.

I am guessing that Google will eventually provide a library of content that people can host on their websites — “Cavalcade” is just the beginning. The viewers, if they click on embedded advertisements in the video, will help the website owner, and content creators, generate revenue.

I guess if the content is entertaining enough, people will watch — but for the same reason Google is having trouble monetizing YouTube, I fear this won’t be a huge success either. According to the New York Times, this deal between Google and MacFarlane is one of the largest ever for AdSense.

by Greg Sandoval
June 20, 2008 11:31 AM PDT

news analysis Netflix, don't take half steps with your digital-delivery service. Give your users what they want, and what they want is the latest hit movies. CEO Reed Hastings and his management team have hit a home run--or at least a solid run-scoring triple--by partnering with Roku, the company behind the Netflix Player.

The $100 device enables customers to stream movies from the Web to their TVs. Most reviewers have applauded the device for its low cost, easy setup, and viewing quality (a good Internet connection means no stalling or long download delays). But a month after the Netflix Player went on sale, I haven't read a single review that hasn't deducted points for the lack of films available with Netflix's streaming service. It's the biggest complaint from device owners I've spoken with.

Mr. Hastings, you've done a good job by setting up your "Watch Now" streaming service with 10,000 catalog titles, but you need to go further. Let customers purchase new releases on a per-video basis if they want. Some might resent being asked to pay in addition to their monthly subscriber fees, but if you explain that Hollywood charges more for new releases, your customers will understand. Give us choice.

"Why would anyone feel alienated by this?" said Michael Pachter, a financial analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities. "You can't get a better deal elsewhere. Netflix would be essentially giving you Apple TV without charging you for the Apple box." This is an important comparison because Apple has already begun offering new releases for rent via iTunes.

June 23, 2008

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — George Carlin, the dean of counterculture comedians whose biting insights on life and language were immortalized in his "Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine, died of heart failure Sunday. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart trouble, went into St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pain and died later that evening, said his publicist, Jeff Abraham. He had performed as recently as last weekend at the Orleans Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas.

"He was a genius and I will miss him dearly," Jack Burns, who was the other half of a comedy duo with Carlin in the early 1960s, told The Associated Press. Carlin's jokes constantly pushed accepted boundaries of comedy and language, particularly with his routine on the "Seven Words" -- all of which are more or taboo on broadcast TV and radio to this day.

When he uttered all seven at a show in Milwaukee in 1972, he was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace, freed on $150 bail -- and typically unapologetic on his release. A Wisconsin judge dismissed the case, saying the language was indecent but citing free speech and the lack of any disturbance.

by Greg Sandoval
June 18, 2008 1:01 PM PDT

For a long time, I've said that YouTube could become the Web's supreme ruler of short-form and long-form video should it ever offer feature films and TV shows. The Web's top video-sharing site now appears to be preparing to make such a move. YouTube has begun experimenting with delivering longer videos than the typical 10-minute clips allowed on the site, Fortune magazine reported Wednesday.

On YouTube now are several full-length documentaries and TV shows. (See one of those videos, Howard Buttelman, Daredevil Stuntman, embedded below.) The question is whether Google is making the move too late. Long-form content would mark the latest attempt to help Google cash in on YouTube's massive audience. Two years after acquiring YouTube for $1.65 billion Google still hasn't figured out a way to profit from the site, CEO Eric Schmidt has said several times recently.

Google hasn't yet responded to my inquiries on the Fortune report. While Schmidt has declined to detail why the company is struggling to squeeze profits from YouTube, some of the site's shortcomings as a money maker are obvious. YouTube has become a massive video-hosting service, where people post clips of baby's first steps, a sleeping puppy, or the family picnic. Most don't attract mass audiences. Nevertheless, Google still has to pay the bandwidth costs.

Each minute, more than 10 hours of video are posted to YouTube, which "is now the majority of outbound bandwidth" for Google, Schmidt said last week in an interview with The New Yorker. "We had to retool the network." Bandwidth costs are likely less of a worry than the advertising issues. If YouTube hasn't become a cash cow after three years as the Web's top supplier of short-form, homemade clips, perhaps its time to conclude advertisers just don't like user-generated content--or at least they don't like it enough.

by Zack Whittaker
June 18th, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

This seems to fit quite nicely with my “illegal music sharing/copying” post a couple of days ago. Back on the 22nd April 2008, Microsoft gave all those who downloaded music through MSN Music the two fingers, when it announced:

As of August 31st, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers.

MSN Music died a cruel, miserable death in 2006, but those who downloaded music through the service were still allowed to move the files to a new computer, and download a new licence to allow it to play - but timebombing the music until the MSN Music site finally gets cremated… probably 2010-2011, so you’ve got a good while yet. However, Microsoft have double backed on their previous announcement, and announced they’ll continue, past the original 31st August 2008 deadline. From an anonymous source, the email reads:

On April 22, Microsoft notified you that as of August 31st, 2008, we would be changing the level of support for music purchased from MSN Music, and while your existing purchased music would continue to play, you would no longer be able to authorize new PCs and devices to play that music.

WASHINGTON - Deep inside the national headquarters of the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) is a purple room.

Tinted windows shade the faces of young men and women working behind computer screens. They are part of the team investigating the illegal sharing of music files over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, and they protect their identities carefully.

Such precautions are a reflection of the charged environment in which the music business is operating. The RIAA, the trade group for the major US labels, views anti-piracy enforcement as vital to the recording industry's future.

Since 2003, labels have filed more than 28,000 lawsuits against individual file sharers. Only one suit has reached trial. Jammie Thomas, a single mother who was ordered by a federal jury in Minnesota last October to pay $222,000, is waiting for the federal court's decision on her request for a new trial.

May 29, 2008

LOS ANGELES - Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and was seen to hilarious effect on the big screen in "Blazing Saddles," died Thursday. He was 81.

Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said. He had undergone several major operations. "He was a brilliant comedian and a brilliant father," daughter Kate Korman said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "He had a very good sense of humor in real life."

A natural second banana, Korman gained attention on "The Danny Kaye Show," appearing in skits with the star. He joined the show in its second season in 1964 and continued until it was canceled in 1967. That same year he became a cast member in the first season of "The Carol Burnett Show." Burnett and Korman developed into the perfect pair with their burlesques of classic movies such as "Gone With the Wind" and soap operas like "As the World Turns" (their version was called "As the Stomach Turns").

Another recurring skit featured them as "Ed and Eunice," a staid married couple who were constantly at odds with the wife's mother (a young Vickie Lawrence in a gray wig). In "Old Folks at Home," they were a combative married couple bedeviled by Lawrence as Burnett's troublesome young sister. Korman revealed the secret to the long-running show's success in a 2005 interview.

May 27, 2008
By Sharon Gaudin

A Brooklyn, N.Y., man was convicted of copyright infringement late last week in the largest criminal music piracy case in the United States. Barry Gitarts, 25, was convicted by a jury in federal court in Alexandria, Va., for his role in the so-called Apocalypse Production Crew, an online piracy group that specialized in stealing and disseminating not-yet-released music.

Gitarts, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000. He was also ordered to make full restitution. He is slated to be sentenced on Aug. 8. Gitarts, who used the alias Dextro, was the 15th member of the group to be convicted on piracy charges. All were charged in early 2004 when law enforcement agents around the world acted on search warrants aimed at several online piracy groups.

The other 14 members of the Apocalypse Production Crew who were charged have pleaded guilty."Our hope is that it will deter people from pirating material on the Internet," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay V. Prabhu, who prosecuted the case. "The intellectual property industry has estimated that the money [lost] to piracy and is in the billions of dollars.

There are hundreds of groups like this, but these guys were a significant provider." Gitarts, according to court records, paid for and maintained the server that the piracy group used. The server was based at a Houston hosting provider but Gitarts controlled it from his home. APC, and other online piracy groups work by stealing music, movies, software and video games before they're released for sale.

By Nate Anderson
May 22, 2008 - 08:38PM CT

When AOL released "anonymized" search results from more than 500,000 users back in 2006, the resulting firestorm even blew into the mainstream media, which managed to track down and identify some of the "anonymous" users simply from their search queries.

Now, two years later, a seedling emerges from those ashes as a Philadelphia theater company launches USER 927, a new play based on one user's rather unorthodox set of queries. Ars spoke to writer Katharine Clark Gray about the piece and what led her to create it.

A play about search queries might sound as enjoyable as listening to Winnie Ille Pu read entirely in Latin (I speak from experience), but AOL user 927 was no ordinary searcher. The Consumerist picked 927's queries from the complete archive and published them online in 2006, which inspired director Michael Alltop to pitch Gray on the idea of doing "a play about it."

The queries start harmlessly enough. Sure, user 927 has some medical problems ("heal time for broken legs," "human mold," "mold on humans," "skin mold") but who has the time these days to keep themselves entirely fungi-free? But things quickly take a turn for the worse with the sudden appearance of "dog sex" at 9:28 PM one evening.

By Nate Anderson
May 21, 2008 - 10:50PM CT

Pre-twentieth century music all exists in the public domain, but that doesn't mean it's easy to get access either to recordings or sheet music. Want to include a Beethoven sonata as background music in your wedding video, documentary, or indie feature film?

You'll need to pay unless you can dig up an ancient recorded copy from the early 1900s (and can live with the sound quality). Want to pass out sheet music of that same sonata to your high school band? Again, you will need to pay unless you can track down an ancient, out-of-copyright score. One web site has the ambitious goal of doing away with such restrictions, putting both classical recordings and sheet music into the public domain for use by anyone in the world.

Musopen has been around for a couple of years but has recently rolled out a new version of its web site, added freely-downloadable sheet music, and raised enough cash to professionally record the entire set of 32 Beethoven piano sonatas and place them in the public domain. One of the site's innovative features is its bidding system, in which users can pledge contributions toward specific pieces. When they necessary amount is raised, a professional musician is hired to perform, say, Bach's Goldberg Variations (currently the top request).

Most of the money used to fund the Beethoven Sonatas was also raised from users in small increments, with a $5 average contribution. While individuals can spend that same money purchasing their own copies of such works, a donation to Musopen helps fund a musical commons that makes the pieces available worldwide and for any application. Aaron Dunn, who started the project while in college, tells Ars that big projects are in the works for the site, including deals with the Internet Archive and the OLPC project.