July 1, 2009, 2:37 PM EST

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Karl Malden, the Academy Award-winning actor whose intelligent characterizations on stage and screen made him a star despite his plain looks, died Wednesday, his family said. He was 97. Malden died of natural causes surrounded by his family at his Brentwood home, they told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

He served as the academy's president from 1989-92. While he tackled a variety of characters over the years, he was often seen in working-class garb or military uniform. His authenticity in grittier roles came naturally: He was the son of a Czech mother and a Serbian father, and worked for a time in the steel mills of Gary, Indiana, after dropping out of college.

Malden said he got his celebrated bulbous nose when he broke it a couple of times playing basketball or football, joking that he was "the only actor in Hollywood whose nose qualifies him for handicapped parking." Malden won a supporting actor Oscar in 1951 for his role as Blanche DuBois' naive suitor Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire" — a role he also played on Broadway.

He was nominated again in 1954 for his performance as Father Corrigan, a fearless, friend-of-the-workin gman priest in "On the Waterfront." In both movies, he costarred with Marlon Brando. Among Malden's more than 50 film credits were: "Patton," in which he played Gen. Omar Bradley, "Pollyanna," "Fear Strikes Out," "The Sting II," "Bombers B-52," "Cheyenne Autumn," and "All Fall Down."

June 28, 2009

Television pitchman Billy Mays — who built his fame by appearing on commercials and infomercials promoting household products and gadgets — died Sunday. Mays, 50, was found unresponsive by his wife inside his Tampa, Fla., home at 7:45 a.m. on Sunday, according to the Tampa Police Department.

Police said there were no signs of forced entry to Mays' residence and foul play is not suspected. Authorities said an autopsy should be complete by Monday afternoon. "Although Billy lived a public life, we don't anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times," Mays wife, Deborah, said in a statement on Sunday.

Mays was well known for his numerous television promotions of such products as Orange Glo and OxiClean. He was also featured on the reality TV show "Pitchmen" on the Discovery Channel, which followed Mays and Anthony Sullivan in their marketing jobs. Born William Mays in McKees Rocks, Pa., on July 20, 1958, Mays developed his style demonstrating knives, mops and other "as seen on TV" gadgets on Atlantic City's boardwalk.

For years he worked as a hired gun on the state fair and home show circuits, attracting crowds with his booming voice and genial manner. After meeting Orange Glo International founder Max Appel at a home show in Pittsburgh in the mid-1990s, Mays was recruited to demonstrate the environmentally friendly line of cleaning products on the St. Petersburg-based Home Shopping Network.

By Joe Fay
26th June 2009 09:23 GMT

The death of Michael Jackson yesterday brought US websites low as fans old and instant sought to confirm they were indeed experiencing their own JFK moment. Gossip site TMZ is credited with being the first to report that the 50 year old Jackson had been found unconscious at his LA home and had been taken to hospital after paramedics failed to revive him.

Jackson reportedly never regained consciousness, and his brother Jermaine announced Michael's death at 2.26pm LA time. The report was quickly picked up by the mainstream press and the blogosphere, both of which promptly began to buckle under the strain as page load times stretched even as headline writers trotted out "The Day the Music Died" headlines. Meanwhile, Wikipedians apparently worked themselves up into a frenzy as editors sought to fight off other editors who repeatedly added updates on Jackson's condition.

No doubt they are currently trawling Jackson-related entries to locate any Ronnie Hazelhurst-style pranksters. (Was Jackson's best friend in the 70s really a rat? What was the thing with the glove? etc.) Twitter search crumpled too as fans old and new attempted to make sense of it all. Further evidence that the web does not move at the speed of thought quickly mounted this morning, as Europeans who'd gone to bed at a sensible time on Thursday woke up to (analogue) radio reports of Jackson's death.

As of 8am this morning, the website for the O2 Arena was still advertising tickets for Jackson's massive 40 gig comeback engagement at the venue. By 10am, the site had a note saying ticketing information would be released "in due course". Meanwhile, in the early hours, NME's website carried news of the singer's demise, alongside adverts for secondary ticket sales for the O2 gigs. And Amazon demonstrated that there were plenty of Jackson fans who didn't actually own any of his records, with its Top Ten bestselling CDs now exclusively made up of Jackson albums.

Thu Jun 25, 2009 6:44pm EDT
By Jill Serjeant

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actress Farrah Fawcett, the "Charlie's Angels" television star whose big smile and feathered blond mane made her one of the reigning sex symbols of the 1970s, died on Thursday after a long battle with cancer. She was 62.

Fawcett, who first vaulted to stardom by an alluring poster of her in a red swimsuit, was diagnosed with anal cancer in late 2006. It spread to her liver in 2007, proving resistant to numerous medical treatments in Germany and California. "After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away," Fawcett's long time companion, actor Ryan O'Neal, said in a statement.

"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world." Fawcett's death in a Los Angeles hospital came just six weeks after the TV broadcast in May of a video diary she made chronicling her battle with cancer and her final months.

Called "Farrah's Story," the documentary was effectively a self-penned obituary by the actress, who was bedridden and had lost her famous hair by the time it was shown. O'Neal said she had wanted to tell her story on her own terms. Earlier this week, O'Neal said Fawcett had agreed to marry him before her death, but a marriage never took place, a spokesman for the actress and O'Neal said.

Jun 25, 2009 9:35pm EDT
By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson, the child star turned King of Pop who set the world dancing but whose musical genius was overshadowed by a bizarre lifestyle and sex scandals, died on Thursday. He was 50.

Jackson was pronounced dead at about 2:26 p.m. PDT (5:26 EDT) after arriving at a Los Angeles hospital in full cardiac arrest, said Fred Corral of the Los Angeles County Coroner's office. The cause of death was not known and an autopsy would likely take place on Friday, he said. Jackson's sudden death had been reported earlier by U.S. media, which said he was taken ill at his home and rushed to the hospital by paramedics who found him not breathing when they arrived.

Known as the "King of Pop," for hits that included "Thriller" and "Billie Jean," Jackson's dramatic, one-gloved stage presence and innovative dance moves were imitated by legions of fans around the world. He transformed music videos and his lifetime record sales tally is believed to be around 750 million, which, added to the 13 Grammy Awards he received, made him one of the most successful entertainers of all time.

But Jackson's belief that "I am Peter Pan in my heart", his preference for the company of children, his friendship with a chimp, his high-pitched voice and numerous plastic surgeries also earned him critics and the nickname "Wacko Jacko." Jackson, who had lived as a virtual recluse since his acquittal in 2005 on charges of child molestation, had been scheduled to launch a comeback tour from London next month.

Ed McMahon, one of the great wingmen in show business history and an essential, elemental and indispensable part of Johnny Carson's act for over thirty years, died last night. He'd been hospitalized since February for pneumonia, and had been diagnosed with systemic bone cancer. More details as they come. The news was just announced on "The Today Show." He died at the UCLA Medical Center.

by Greg Sandoval
June 15, 2009 12:51 PM PDT

Weeks after writing off its Imeem investment, Warner Music Group has once again thrown in with the video- and music-focused social network, a source confirmed on Monday. Only this time, Warner doesn't have to dip into its wallet to acquire an even larger interest in the start-up, according to a story by Peter Kafka at All Things Digital, who broke the news.

What the third largest recording company has agreed to give up for the stake is to rip up the old licensing contract and create a new one that asks for less money each quarter, according to Kafka. My source, who is familiar with the deal, confirmed this. Warner didn't appear happy last month about having to write down $33 million, most of it from investments made in music site Lala and Imeem.

Warner Music's writedown--$16 million in Imeem and about $11 million in Lala--is a reflection of the company's valuations during the economic downturn, said Edgar Bronfman Jr., Warner Music's CEO at the time. The top four music labels--Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner, and EMI--have all been relaxing the financial terms they require from start-ups. Too bad SpiralFrog and Ruckus couldn't have held out a few more months, perhaps the music services that went bust earlier this year might have negotiated better terms.

By Nate Anderson
June 11, 2009 4:12 PM CT

Rejecting every argument made by Jammie Thomas-Rasset and her legal team, a Minnesota federal judge has ruled that MediaSentry's data-gathering on P2P users violated no laws, and its evidence can be used during next week's trial.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset's attempt to bar all MediaSentry evidence from her copyright infringement retrial next week has failed, as has her attempt to assert a "fair use" defense. Judge Michael Davis oversaw the first Jammie Thomas trial and was sympathetic to her plight. After a jury awarded the music labels $222,000 in damages for Thomas' file-sharing, the judge made clear that he disapproved of the penalty:

While the Court does not discount Plaintiffs' claim that, cumulatively, illegal downloading has far-reaching effects on their businesses, the damages awarded in this case are wholly disproportionate to the damages suffered by Plaintiffs. Thomas allegedly infringed on the copyrights of 24 songs—the equivalent of approximately three CDs, costing less than $54, and yet the total damages awarded is $222,000—more than five hundred [emphasis his] times the cost of buying 24 separate CDs and more than four thousand times the cost of three CDs...

8 June 2009, 14:55

HE SWEDISH Pirate Party picked up at least one, and possibly two, seat(s) in the European parliament in an election which should have both the entertainment industry and the established political parties quaking in their boots.

The problem is not that one or two people got on the EU gravy train, but that the sudden victory heralds a growing backlash against politicians who are corrupted by the entertainment industry. In this election the Pirates got 7.1 per cent of the vote, beating several established parties. To Sweden's main political parties that means that so many people were so incensed about their ministers pandering to the entertainment industry that they decided to kick them out of government.

Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge told TorrentFreak, "The older politicians have taken apart young peoples' lifestyle, bit by bit. We do not accept that, the authorities' mass-surveillance." The Pirate Party gained increasing popularity as it became clear that the Swedish government was prepared to lock up people for Internet filesharing, at the behest of the entertainment cartel.

After the trial of the Pirate Bay four, Pirate Party membership increased swiftly to the point that it now has 48,000 registered members. What should alarm the entertainment industry is that mainstream politicians will have to respond to this threat to their power by giving the supporters of Pirate Bay what they want.

By Emil Protalinski
June 8, 2009 6:45 PM CT

Zune.net will be going down tonight and should be up in the next few days. Microsoft is promising new features and content in reward for being patient. According to Zune Insider, Zune.net will be going down tonight at 10pm PDT. The team explained that Microsoft will be adding new features and new content.

The software giant did not specify a time for when to expect the site to return. Nevertheless, there's some good information here, so it's worth quoting the explanation in full: When we return, we'll have some new features on the web - including "follow an artist," where you can explicitly state that you like a particular artist and get news and updates from that artist.

We'll do RSS feed aggregation on artist pages - which means that from the one artist page on zune.net, you can see your favorite artist's latest Twitter posts, blogs, and so on (and if your favorite artist doesn't have this data already, you will be able to add the links yourself). We're adding more content, including concert dates, to the web, and we've redesigned our home page to showcase more of our social data.

And finally, we made a bunch of improvements to the site performance. The last update to the site (which took less than 48 hours) was in March, and added various features. Microsoft tweaked the front-end as well as the back-end in that update, but this one appears to a more minor one, though performance improvements are always a great thing.

By Nate Anderson
June 7, 2009 6:30 PM CT

As P2P file-sharing defendant Jammie Thomas prepares for her retrial this month, her lawyer has sough to have the main evidence against her thrown out. In its response, the recording industry says that the complaint is based "on an entirely fictional set of facts and law."

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, whose P2P file-sharing retrial begins June 15 in Minneapolis, has a new lawyer named "Kiwi" Camara, and he's doing all he can to have the main evidence against her tossed out. Camara has attacked MediaSentry, the firm that investigated the case on behalf of the RIAA, then went further to attack the ethics of all the lawyers involved.

The RIAA has just dropped a scathing filing of its own on the court, saying that Camara's motion to dismiss is "premised on an entirely fictional set of facts and law" and that the ethics claim is "merely an unfortunate and unprofessional attack made in a desperate attempt to suppress evidence that Defendant and her counsel know is ruinous to her defense." Such an accusation "merits no further response."

There's nothing like condescension, hostility, and personal dislike to keep a court battle interesting; judging from the recent filings by both legal teams, this case will be a fiery one. Reading the RIAA response, one can practically see the disdain dripping from the page. In the view of recording industry lawyers, the debate over MediaSentry is little more than a circus sideshow.

by Steven Musil
June 3, 2009 8:00 PM PDT

Yahoo has filed a lawsuit against the NFL Players Association, contending that it shouldn't be forced to pay royalties for using players' names, statistics, and photos in its online fantasy football game because the information is publicly available.

The complaint, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for Minnesota, alleges that the players group has threatened to sue the Internet giant if it doesn't pay licensing fees for the information. Yahoo had licensing agreements with the players union for previous football seasons, but the last of those deals expired on March 1, according to the complaint.

Yahoo claims it no longer needs the union's permission to use the players' information, citing an April court decision in a similar case between the players group and CBS Interactive (the parent company of CNET). The court in that case found that CBS Interactive didn't have to pay for use of football players' names or statistics because the information was already in the public domain. The players association is currently appealing that decision.

Major League Baseball lost a similar case in 2007 to CBC Distribution and Marketing--a Missouri company that sells fantasy sports products via the Web, e-mail, regular mail, and phone. MLB's Internet media arm, later joined by the pro-baseball players' union, had claimed that CBC was using baseball players' names and statistics without a license, thereby violating the players' rights to publicity under state intellectual property laws.

By Nate Anderson
June 1, 2009 7:50 PM CT

The US government tells the Supreme Court that the decision allowing Cablevision's remote DVR to go forward should stand. As the government notes, "From the consumer's perspective, respondents' RS-DVR service would offer essentially the same functionality as a VCR or a set-top DVR."

The US Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, used to be Harvard Law's dean (and Charles Nesson's boss). These days, though, she represents the US government before the Supreme Court. Her office has just told the court that it should not hear a case involving Cablevision's remote storage DVR (RS-DVR)—which means that a previous appeals court ruling would stand and Cablevision would prevail.

The fight over the RS-DVR has gone on for years. Cablevision wanted to offer DVR services to its customers without shipping expensive gear out to every house. Instead, cable subscribers would access "their" DVR through the network, with all the gear residing in Cablevision facilities. But because Cablevision equipment was now making a copy of the TV content in question and retransmitting it to customers, networks sued for copyright infringement.

A federal court found in favor of the networks. Even though the recording of shows was only done when customers requested it, Cablevision did make a continuous copy of 1.2 seconds of all material for the system's software buffer. An appeals court reversed the decision, claiming that the buffer (which was never "fixed" and was immediately overwritten) did not qualify as a copy.

By Steven Marks
May 31, 2009 10:30 PM CT

Op-ed: In this opinion piece, RIAA General Counsel Steven Marks takes on Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson and his "three-ring circus." According to Marks, the litigation campaign against file-swappers is secondary to creating vibrant legal alternatives—but it's still absolutely essential and completely fair.

Yes, we "get it" - It is a fascinating and challenging time to work in the music business. The record industry is swept up in a sea of change and we have embraced it. It’s a new day for the business and a new day for fans—25 years ago, it was just radio and records, but today’s music marketplace is dramatically different, with hundreds of different fully licensed digital music services and models.

Yet even with this emerging legal landscape, the rights of artists, songwriters, and record labels deserve protection. Unfortunately, there are those who seem to overlook that fact, including a Harvard law school professor, his class, and their client Joel Tenenbaum, a defendant in one of our illegal music downloading cases. We welcome a healthy debate about our decision to defend the rights of record labels and artists online.

The passion that fans and commentators exude toward music is a sign of its enduring power and connection. That’s a great thing, but emotion should not obscure the facts. Let’s be clear: the best anti-piracy strategy is a vibrant legitimate marketplace rich with content and innovative business models. We get that. And that is today’s music industry.

by Greg Sandoval
May 28, 2009 4:00 AM PDT

Paul McGuinness, manager of the iconic band U2, sees stronger copyright laws in France, the Pirate Bay on trial, U.S.-based Internet service providers doing more to protect music, and still he isn't satisfied. In January 2008, McGuinness delivered a speech that would become a call to arms on both sides of the free-content debate.

During his address to attendees of the Midem music conference, the largest recording industry trade show, McGuinness lashed out at the "hippy values" of technologists, accused ISPs of profiting "on the back" of music creators, called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act a "thieves charter" and criticized the big record companies for a "lack of foresight."

Last year, Paul McGuinness, stuck one of the world's most popular and beloved rock bands almost dead into the center of the debate over piracy, copyright, and the role of Internet service providers in protecting music and movies from illegal file sharing. The fallout and criticism, much of which came from technologists and proponents of free content, hasn't shaken McGuinness from his views.

In an interview with CNET News, McGuinness once again was critical of ISPs, calling some of their recent piracy-prevention efforts insincere and "illusory." A year after McGuinness' speech, France this month adopted a "three strikes law," which calls for ISPs to suspend a subscriber's service if they are accused three times of pirating copyright material.