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Right idea, wrong time: Snocap’s corpse washes up at Imeem
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Andrew Orlowski
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Timing is everything in business, and having a visionary idea too early can prove fatal. So it is with Shawn Fanning’s Snocap, which has formally announced today that it’s being acquired by Imeem. Or what’s left of it – most Snocap employees were laid off last year, with Fanning long gone. Snocap was created to…
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So is sharing a folder copyright infringement?
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Andrew Orlowski
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A US Judge on Monday upheld the view that sharing copyrighted music is infringement. It’s a defeat for defendant Denise Barker and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a victory for the four record labels in the case, led by Warner’s Elektra. The Copyright Act is fairly clear. It defines “publication” as “offering to distribute copies…
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Creator haters at the LSE
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Andrew Orlowski
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“one last fag, then bop, bop, bop” – Wolfie Smith London School of Economics I saw one of the most disturbing of all. If you thought people don’t behave in real life like they do online, think again. Here were all the most unpleasant aspects of online behaviour – ignorance, rudeness, groupthink, and a general…
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US students, alumni to get legal P2P
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Andrew Orlowski
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US colleges and their alumni may be offered the right to P2P file-sharing under one of the most radical copyright reforms in a hundred years, The Register has learned. The amnesty would be part of a “covenant not to sue”, covered by a collective licence that offers the right to exchange major label repertory over…
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Nathan Barleys mourn Great Lost Quango
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Andrew Orlowski
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Soho’s Nathan Barleys were in mourning yesterday after Ofcom chief Ed Richards abandoned his shape-shifting flagship, the “Public Service Publisher” quango. Richards said in a speech to the Royal Television Society on Tuesday night that the “the PSP as a concept has served its purpose and we can move on to the relevant questions for…
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DAB: A very British failure
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Andrew Orlowski
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Emergency talks to save digital radio are taking place in Manchester today, the FT reports. Unloved, unviable, and often unlistenable, DAB is a technology the public clearly doesn’t want; so it comes as no surprise to learn that coercion will be used to persuading the public to get on board. With DAB, we’re expected to…