EMI looking to slash funding for RIAA, IFPI
By Eric Bangeman
November 28, 2007 - 04:16PM CT

One of the Big Four labels is apparently unhappy with its return on investment when it comes to funding industry trade groups such as the IFPI and RIAA. British label EMI, which was recently purchased by a private equity fund, is reportedly considering a significant cut to the amount of money it provides the trade groups on an annual basis.

According to figures seen by Reuters, each of the Big Four contributes approximately $132.3 million to fund the operations of the IFPI, RIAA, and other national recording industry trade groups. That money is used in part to fund the industry's antipiracy efforts—including the close to 30,000 file-sharing lawsuits filed by the record labels in the US alone.

The IFPI confirmed to Reuters that it was working through its annual budget-setting process, and "as one would expect in this market, there is a focus on efficiencies and savings." The IFPI wouldn't provide any details beyond that to Reuters, and neither it nor the RIAA has responded to Ars Technica's requests for comment.

With music revenues dropping with no end in sight, despite the increased popularity of online sales, all of the Big Four labels are being faced with tough budget choices. The industry has been quick to lay the blame for its tough economic times squarely at the feet of pirates, but there are other factors at work too.

Ars Technica
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TiVo to bust out of the living room and onto your PC
By Eric Bangeman
November 28, 2007 - 12:31PM CT

TiVo is poised to break out from the confines of the set-top box and into the PC. The DVR maker and Nero, creators of the popular CD- and DVD-burning software, are partnering to bring TiVo to upcoming versions of Nero.

The newly announced agreement means that TiVo's much-loved interface and ease of use will be available to owners of any PC with a TV tuner card or USB dongle. The Nero deal is a first for TiVo. The company's biggest product is its lineup of set-top boxes, including the TiVo Series 3 and the newer TiVo HD.

After its biggest customer, DirecTV, stopped offering TiVos as part of a move to DVR products in-house, TiVo began work on porting its software to third-party boxes. Comcast has begun deploying TiVo-powered DVRs to some customers, and boxes for Cox customers should arrive sometime next year.

"This agreement provides TiVo with an opportunity to deliver its interface and differentiated feature set globally via the PC, enabling TiVo to use all avenues of mass distribution—from consumer electronics, to cable and satellite boxes and soon, the PC," said TiVo CEO Tom Rogers.

Ars Technica
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Quiet Riot Lead Singer Kevin Dubrow Found Dead at 52
November 26, 2007

LAS VEGAS — Kevin Dubrow, lead singer for the 1980s heavy metal band Quiet Riot that scored a hit with "Cum on Feel the Noize," was found dead in a Las Vegas home. He was 52. The cause was not immediately known. A neighbor summoned police and paramedics Sunday to the house where he was pronounced dead, police and coroner's officials said.

There was no forced entry, and no suspicious circumstances were reported, police Officer Jose Montoya said Monday. Quiet Riot was perhaps best known for its 1983 cover of "Cum on Feel the Noize." The song, featuring Dubrow's powerful, gravelly voice, appeared on the band's album "Metal Health" -- which was the first by a metal band to reach No. 1 on the Billboard chart. DuBrow recorded his first solo album in 2004, "In for the Kill," and the band's last studio CD, "Rehab," came out in October 2006.

"I can't even find words to say," Quiet Riot drummer Frank Banali wrote on his Web site. "Please respect my privacy as I mourn the passing and honor the memory of my dearest friend Kevin DuBrow." Determination of the cause of death was pending an autopsy and toxicology results, Clark County coroner's spokeswoman Samantha Charles said.

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The insanity of France's anti-file-sharing plan
By Eric Bangeman
November 25, 2007 - 11:06PM CT

It's hard to engage in file-sharing if you don't have any Internet access. That's the threat behind a new memorandum of understanding between the government, ISPs, and Big Content in France that would see repeat P2P infringers lose their Internet connections. In exchange, the French music industry would make its French-language archive freely available available sans DRM.

In addition, DVDs would be on store shelves within six months of a film's theatrical release, instead of the current seven and a half months. The proposal is backed by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and arose from the findings of a independent review commission appointed by Sarkozy shortly after taking office. That commission was headed up by the chairman of French consumer electronics retailer FNAC, Denis Olivennes.

Given his position, it's not surprising that Olivennes is no friend to ISPs and fans of P2P. He recently authored La gratuité, c'est le vol: Quand le piratage tue la culture, in which he argued that P2P not only harmed retailers, as well as the music and film industries, but also directly impacted French culture by reducing the amount of tax income from movies and cable television. P2P users are killing French culture, he says.

It should be no surprise, then, that the plan's trade-offs fall almost entirely in the favor of Big Content to the detriment of just about everyone else, including people who don't use P2P software. Like it or not, the total cost of Internet service will rise because French ISPs have signed on to the plan.

Ars Technica
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Hollywood giants sue Chinese Internet site
November 22, 2007 - 1:14 PM PST

Five Hollywood studios have sued a Chinese online service and Internet cafe they accuse of offering pirated downloads of Pirates of the Caribbean and other hit films, state media reported on Thursday.

Beijing-based Jeboo.com and an Internet cafe in Shanghai face a legal showdown with Twentieth Century Fox, Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, and Universal Studios, the Xinhua news agency reported. The filmmakers allege Jeboo.com created software the cafe used to run a movie download business, and they are demanding 3.2 million yuan ($432,000) in compensation, Xinhua said.

Jeboo.com promotes itself as "My online cinema" and claims to be China's biggest film download provider with close to 30,000 movies and television series customers can copy onto computers. A company official, Xie Jiangping, "refused to comment on whether it had violated the film companies' copyright," said Xinhua.

A statement on the Jeboo.com Web site says its vast range of entertainment is "legally obtained" through "content providing partners" who sign copyright contracts. The case to be heard in Shanghai promises to be one more skirmish in a battle of words and legal threats between China and the United States, which says the rough-and-tumble Asian economy does far too little to stop commercial pirates.

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Big Content asks presidential candidates for more restrictive copyright laws
By Ryan Paul
November 21, 2007 - 09:33AM CT

The Copyright Alliance, which counts the MPAA and RIAA amongst its members, has sent letters and questionnaires to presidential candidates in an effort to determine where they stand on issues relating to intellectual property law.

In a copy of the letter seen by Ars, Copyright Alliance executive director Patrick Ross says he speaks "on behalf of the 11 million Americans employed in the creative industries," and asserts that piracy reduction is essential. "The future of our creative output in the United States is at stake in the 2008 presidential election," the letter to the candidates says.

"It is critical not only for members of the creative community but also for the US economy to ensure that copyrights are respected and piracy is reduced. We are asking you to let us know what you would do to help preserve one of America's greatest strengths, its creative community."

A questionnaire attached to the letter is written in a manner that reflects the Copyright Alliance's agenda and is clearly intended to serve as an instrument of persuasion. The introduction to the questionnaire states that "the livelihood of the next generation, and America's global competitiveness, will increasingly depend on the strong copyright protection that allows creativity to be rewarded."

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UK retailers to record labels: DRM is killing us
By Ryan Paul
November 21, 2007 - 08:57AM CT

In response to declining music sales in the UK, the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) has called for the music industry to put an end to DRM. The organization-which represents retailers who sell music and DVDs-blames draconian digital copy protection technologies for the slow growth of the digital music market.

Consumers are increasingly dissatisfied with copy protection systems that erode fair use rights and impose limitations on where and how content can be used. To make matters worse, market fragmentation has led to the emergence of incompatible DRM formats which often confuse consumers and leave them wondering whether or not the content they buy will work on all of their electronics devices.

That makes file-sharing more attractive for some consumers. Many companies in the recording industry still refuse to adjust their business models to account for consumers' preferences when it comes to DRM, believing instead that the near-ubiquitous practice of file-sharing can be abolished with more draconian copy protection mechanisms and litigation.

Music retailers appear to be more in touch with consumer expectations and see a very different picture. peaking on behalf of UK music retailers, ERA director Kim Bayley told the Financial Times this week that the copy protection mechanisms are "stifling growth and working against the consumer interest."

Ars Technica
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Total HD dual-format discs unlikely to ever see the light of day
By Eric Bangeman
November 20, 2007 - 01:01PM CT

Once touted as a way of dampening the HD format wars, Warner's Total HD discs have been put on the back burner yet again, and it now looks as though the dual-format discs will never see the light of day. Announced at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, Total HD was touted as an optimal solution for consumers confused by the HD format wars, as they would contain HD DVD content on one side and Blu-ray on the other.

A Warner Home Entertainment Group executive recently said that Total HD has been set aside once again. "The short answer is, for the moment, it [Total HD] is on hold," WHEC SVP Jim Noonan told High-Def Digest. "We're the only studio producing content in both formats. If we were to put out Total HD with just our titles, it wouldn't really provide the solution to our retail partners that it was intended to provide."

Noonan also cited concerns that retailers wouldn't have enough shelf space for Total HD titles, what with DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray already duking it out for prime real estate in big-box retailers. Of the six major US studios, three of them are Blu-ray only, two are in the HD DVD camp, and Warner is alone in supporting both formats.

Paramount had originally decided to support both formats, but after extensive lobbying from Toshiba and the HD DVD Promotional Group (including massive wads of cash), the studio decided to forego Blu-ray releases altogether.

Ars Technica
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Bare shops redo of 'Green Acres'
By Nellie Andreeva
Nov 19, 2007

Veteran TV helmer Richard L. Bare, who directed all 168 episodes of CBS' 1960s sitcom "Green Acres," said he has acquired the rights to remake the series for TV from the widow of "Acres" creator Jay Sommers.

Bare is hoping that the classic TV series will appeal to the networks which are short of original material as the writers strike continues. Bare calls his timing going out with "Acres" during the writers strike "coincidental" but said that it helps his chances. "Studios are going to be searching for properties that have been written and ready to go into production without upsetting WGA in any way," he said.

Bare said he already has a pilot written by veteran scribe William Justice Forbes that takes place a month after the 1971 finale of the series, which starred Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a New York attorney and his wife who try to live as genteel farmers in the bizarre community of Hooterville.

The Hollywood Reporter

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RIAA told to show cause why .edu subpoenas shouldn't be quashed
By Eric Bangeman
November 18, 2007 - 10:49PM CT

A federal judge in Washington, DC, has handed the RIAA another setback in its campaign against on-campus file-sharing. In Arista v. Does 1-19, a case brought against 19 George Washington University students by the Big Four record labels, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has ordered the RIAA to show cause why the ex parte subpoenas issued to GWU shouldn't be quashed.

Judge Kollar-Kotelly's order comes in response to a motion filed by Doe number three last week. In that motion, the unnamed student asked the judge to quash the subpoena, arguing that the RIAA was relying on the wrong law to obtain the subpoena, and furthermore, that there was no applicable law that authorized the issue of ex parte subpoenas to colleges and universities.

The RIAA typically relies on the Cable Communications Policy Act to obtain the names and addresses of suspected file-sharers in its lawsuits. Doe three argued that, since GWU is a university and not a cable provider, the CCPA could not be used to authorize a subpoena. Doe three's argument followed a ruling in Interscope v. Does 1-7, a case brought against seven students at the College of William and Mary.

The judge in that case told the RIAA that the CCPA wasn't applicable, and that the only avenue available to it was the DMCA. One problem: the RIAA never issued any takedown notices, which are required by the DMCA before a lawsuit can be filed. And it looks like there's no way a DMCA notice could be issued in a campus file-sharing case. Only entities that host, cache, or transmit infringing content can be served with DMCA takedown notices, and GWU did none of the above.

Ars Technica
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Sirius, XM OK merger deal
By Paul Bond
Nov 14, 2007 - 3:40 p.m. PT

Shareholders of the two U.S. satellite radio firms on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted in favor of a merger, though their plans still face regulatory scrutiny amid significant objection from traditional radio broadcasters.

Sirius Satellite Radio said more than 96% of its voting shareholders were in favor of the plan to give 4.6 Sirius shares for each XM share and split the combined company 50-50. XM said more than 99.8% of shares voted were in favor.

News of the vote sent shares of each company higher on Tuesday, with Sirius up 6.5% to $3.63 and XM up 9.7% to $15.06. The U.S. Department of Justice and the FCC must approve the merger, and XM and Sirius executives repeatedly have said that they expect such approval by year's end.

Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin said he would sue if the FCC blocked the proposed merger. The same day shareholders voted their approval, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt wrote in support of the plan, saying that a combined Sirius-XM could inspire "the elephant-like industry" of traditional radio to improve its offerings amid increased competition.

The Hollywood Reporter
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Net Video Bad For Network TV, Good For Network Web Sites
By Nate Anderson
November 12, 2007 - 07:25AM CT

Web video (both authorized and otherwise) is exploding in popularity, but is it simply drawing viewers away from the TV? Or are people watching more content then ever? That's a question tackled by University of Pennsylvania business school prof Joel Waldfogel in a recent paper (PDF, still in draft and recently mentioned on the Freakonomics blog).

His study, though it has some major caveats, indicates that the availability of popular television shows on the web does in fact depress television viewing. It's a result that might make network admen weep, except that the decrease in TV viewing has a flip side: web viewers spend more total time watching network-owned properties. Waldfogel surveyed 287 students at Penn about their TV-watching habits.

The thinking was that tech-savvy students would be an excellent population for getting a sense of how web distribution of content will change the future of TV. (Also, students are widely available, and generally fill out surveys in return for M&Ms or beer money.) This is not, and was not intended to be, a wide-ranging statement about the general population.

Waldfogel asked the students to write down the TV series they had watched for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons, along with whether such viewing was on 1) television, 2) authorized web sites, or 3) unauthorized sites, including BitTorrent. (Note that self-reporting opens the survey results to inaccuracies.) Waldfogel then crunched the numbers and found a huge spike in categories two and three between the two seasons of responses.

Ars Technica
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Prince To Sue The Pirate Bay
by Greg Sandoval
November 9, 2007 - 4:41 PM PST

Continuing an aggressive campaign to defend his copyrights, pop star Prince is preparing to file lawsuits in three countries--including the United States--against The Pirate Bay, CNET News.com has learned.

One of the world's best-known BitTorrent indexing sites, The Pirate Bay has defiantly linked to pirated copies of films, TV shows, music videos, and other content while often boasting that it ignores Hollywood's requests to remove them. The Pirate Bay does not host any unauthorized movie files, but the service is internationally famous for being a highly effective pirate tool.

Within the next few days, Prince will file similar suits against The Pirate Bay in the U.S., France, a country with laws favorable to copyright owners, and Sweden, where The Pirate Bay is based. In addition, Prince is preparing to take civil action against some of the companies, many of which are headquartered in Israel, that advertise on The Pirate Bay, according to John Giacobbi, Web Sheriff's president.

Prince has hired Giacobbi and Web Sheriff, a service that protects copyright materials from Internet piracy, to coordinate the legal challenges against The Pirate Bay and others who the singer believes has violated his copyright. Giacobbi said Web Sheriff is also helping to launch an investigation into The Pirate Bay's off-shore connections to determine whether the company is compliant with Swedish and international income and corporation tax laws.

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