This site is in pre-alpha, please bear with us. Thank you.
technews.am is a new community for breaking news across the technology sector. We are still in Alpha, so please bear with us.

Comparing File Sharing To Payola: Could Have Had That Promotion For Free

TechDirt  Nov 24 09

BullJustin points us to a short NPR piece about four massive failures by the recording industry. If we skip over number 3 (Kevin Federline), the other three are pretty relevant to what we talk about here on a regular basis: the Sony BMG rootkit fiasco that opened up security holes on computers without letting anyone know, the RIAA's lawsuit strategy of suing fans and the record labels' ongoing efforts at payola to get songs played on the radio. However, BullJustin makes an amusing point in the submission concerning that last one: It cost the industry untold millions in actual payola, independent promoter fees, and then more than $25 million in settlements, not to mention lawyer fees. Full story...

More stories from techdirt »

Williams Sonoma Nastygrams Blogger Who Helps People Build Their Own Furniture

TechDirt  2 days ago

Brad Hubbard writes "I regularly read a blog called "Knock Off Wood" -- a site where a woman teaches readers how to build various designer-looking pieces of furniture at home for a lot less.

Google, Facebook Sued Because Without Some Random Patent No One Would Ever Access A Social Network From A Mobile Phone

TechDirt  2 days ago

Wireless Ink was a company that I remember getting some buzz back in the 2005/2006 timeframe... and then they dropped completely off my radar.

Irony Alert: Hollywood Howard Berman To Introduce 'Internet Freedom' Bill

TechDirt  2 days ago

Earlier this year we noted this was likely, but now it appears that Rep. Howard Berman is getting ready to introduce an "Internet Freedom Bill," that would limit how US companies could operate in "internet-restricting countries.

Viral Video Producers Want To Charge You To Embed Their Videos

TechDirt  2 days ago

You may have seen some of the rather popular videos by Common Craft, which has built a rather large following based on these videos about technology and social media using paper diagrams on whiteboards.

Truncated RSS Is A Bad Business Decision

TechDirt  2 days ago

A few years back, I wrote about why we had found full text RSS feeds to be much more powerful and useful than truncated RSS feeds.

Reuters Social Media Policy Gets It Half Right, Half Wrong

TechDirt  2 days ago

Just a couple of months ago, I wrote about something that I thought was really impressive by Thomson Reuters.

Netflix Cancels Plans For New Netflix Prize As Part Of Privacy Lawsuit Settlement

TechDirt  2 days ago

Netflix, of course, received tons of attention and (apparently) a lot of valuable research, with its Netflix prize competition, that allowed anyone to take a bunch of Netflix data and try to improve on Netflix's ranking algorithm.

Screenwriters Claim Sony Copied Their Plot For A Video Game

TechDirt  2 days ago

The entitlement some people feel because someone else had a somewhat (but not really) similar idea to what they had, and then actually executed on it better, is really astounding.

UK Paper Ghost Wrote Blatantly False Facebook Attack Article By 'Child Protection Expert'

TechDirt  2 days ago

Not too long ago, we wrote about a bizarre situation where a UK newspaper was caught flat out making up a story that was completely wrong.

Australian Trademark Tribunal Tells Apple That It Can't Stop Other Products From Using The Letter 'i'

TechDirt  2 days ago

Late last year we noticed that Apple seemed to be getting needlessly (and at times ridiculously) aggressive over its trademarks in Australia.



Most read today »

Most read this week »

What's New on TechNews.AM