May 02, 2003
A couple of rich guys
Gotta like the fan's sign at tonight's Blazers-Mavs game in Portland, with Paul Allen and Mark Cuban in attendance:
Our billionaire can beat your billionaire.
TiVo for radio
Jim Griffin (guest blogger at BoingBoing.net) mentioned this to me in a phone conversation yesterday, and Steve Outing has an item about it today in E-Media Tidbits (whose perma-links continue to elude me):
Oooh! Oooh! I've been waiting for this: A portable device that does for radio what TiVo does for television. PoGo! Products has introduced the Radio YourWay portable digital AM/FM radio recorder. With it, you can record radio programming (manually, or by setting a timer) for later playback -- and the ability to fast-forward past commercials or obnoxious disc-jockey chatter. I knew this device would come eventually. It's another in a long line of new technologies that give the consumer control over various forms of media. If history holds true, then the radio industry will now try to thwart it -- a pointless strategy, yet sadly inevitable.
Soft money ban struck down
Breaking news: A federal court today struck down most of the McCain-Feingold campaign reform law, the Associated Press reports.
While I'm a fervent supporter of the First Amendment, we've got to find a way to level the playing field -- and convince the courts that special interests buying influence in Washington poses a grave threat to our democracy.
How to become a Google star
SearchEngineWatch has a column offering 10 tips on how to get found in Google.
jose said:
more concrete steps are in "google hacks," which seems to be the source for most of these ideas.
Sorkin splits from 'West Wing'
Executive producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme are leaving "The West Wing" after this season.
Digital multicasting: TV's next frontier
Mermigas On Media: Consultant and former ABC exec Fred Silverman says: "You will probably see more change in the next 10 years than at any point in the history of television." Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.
NY Times reporter resigns
Associated Press via Yahoo!: Reporter Jayson Blair resigned after he was accused of appropriating material from a story in the San Antonio Express-News about a Texas woman whose son was killed in combat in Iraq. Thanks to IWantMedia for the pointer.
The perils of media concentration
Larry Lessig has taken up the challenge of publicizing the dangers we face as a society if media concentration continues unabated. This is coming to a head because the FCC is expected to release new rules one month from today that will relax media ownership rules. From his blog:
On June 2, the FCC is scheduled to release new rules governing media ownership. The expectation is that the revised rules will remove limits on media concentration. The consequence of that change will be an extraordinary increase concentration, in an already concentrated industry.These issues are hard. Big is not necessarily bad. Change in media structure is not necessarily corruption of media content. But the more I have read about creators worried about this increase in concentration, the more I have looked at this issue.
Surprisingly or not, the issue of media concentration is not being covered adequately by the media ó that same media that will be affected by the changes in these rules. So that makes this ripe for the media in this space.
Iíve got a bunch of stories and statistics to report, and will. But this is something we need many many voices to report. Where else will the news not fit to print get printed ó except in weblog space?
Other pointers on this subject:
• Future of Music Coalition letter to FCC chairman Michael Powell.
• Copyfight: Media Concentration: Out from Under the Wire.
• Reason Online: The Myth of Media Deregulation: What the Senators Won't Ask Clear Channel.
• AlterNet: Showdown at the FCC.
• Columbia Journalism Review: The Gathering Storm Over Media Ownership.
• AlterNet: Clear Channel's Big, Stinking Deregulation Mess.
• AlterNet: The Death of Local News.
• NOW: Bill Moyers interviews Barry Diller, in which Moyers asks, Moyersí asks, Doesnít the explosion in the number of channels mean we have more diversity?
Diller: ìNo. Because what we have is an absolute fact that five companies control 90 percent of all of it. It has been reconstituted. Instead of it being three channels that were controlled by a few people, there are now 500 controlled by a few people.î
• Guardian UK: Diller says media need 'more regulation, not less.'
Buzz over iTunes Store
Wired News: Apple's new online music store is a home run with customers: Opening-day downloads rival six months' worth of legal downloads from all the competing services. But it's still in its early days with holes in its catalog and limitations on song sharing.
Dear Mr. President
Also in the Merc: Dear Mr. President -- An Open Letter from Silicon Valley. "We're in a world of hurt, and we could use some help."
rusty said:
I think it's totally cool how that Merc link above doesn't work unless you navigate to it from the front page. RealCities rules! I hope all newspapers use a similar system someday. Most web sites just work so smoothly, it's really fun when a site goes the extra mile to make it a challenging puzzle to get to their stories.
Students settle file swapping suit
From today's San Jose Merc:
The recording industry has settled lawsuits against four students it accused of creating and operating Napster-like file-trading networks on campus.The Recording Industry Association of America agreed Thursday to settlements of $12,000 to $17,500 apiece to be paid over four years, saying the case was intended to discourage unauthorized music downloading on campus -- not financially devastate the individual students. The suits initially sought penalties of up to $150,000 per pirated song.
Noah Pshaw said:
If I were a student I would be devastated by $12,000 over 4 years. Heck, I would be devastaed now!
JD said:
But I suppose it beats the billion dollars in damages the RIAA originally sued for.
