From Yahoo News: "Controversial song-swap company
Napster on Tuesday
said it reached an agreement
with Gracenote Inc.,
a maker of music recognition services, to help it exclude files
from its popular service to comply with a court-ordered injunction...
"(Gracenote subsidiary) CDDB's database consists of
nine million songs and 850,000 albums and is widely used by personal
computer users who convert CDs into MP3 files. The CDDB program
computes the time signature of tracks on a CD and then matches
that pattern to its database, displaying the right name of a song
to a user...
"Napster is using a screening process that matches
file names with artist and title names. Many users
have already figured out new ways to spell file names...thus getting
around the screening mechanism...
"'The great thing is we have every misspelling and
possible variant for every file. For example, we have 50 different
ways to spell 'N Sync because our data base is based on user submissions,'
(Gracenote president David) Hyman said. Variations of the teen
pop band's spelling for example could look like N+Sync or n-sinc."
Read the entire story here.
According to Sarah McMullen, a spokesperson for Audible
Magic, even the use of Gracenote's system
won't be enough for Napster to effectively filter out copyrighted
files. "As the method of identification is based on file
names and not the actual song itself, there are obvious limitations
to the solution," she says.
"A much stronger solution is one that analyzes the
song like Audible Magic's content-based identification or 'fingerprinting,'
technology," McMullen claims.
From Webnoize: "Over the last year, the RIAA
and the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA)
have
negotiated whether labels have to pay publishers and songwriters
mechanical royalties for compositions in on-demand streams and
in downloads that are only playable while a consumer pays a subscription...
"Now that the record labels are entering the business
of online music distribution, they want to extend compulsory mechanical
licensing to the digital realm so they can use compositions without
having to cut individual deals with hundreds of music publishers.
Many publishers aren't represented by the NMPA's licensing wing,
the Harry Fox Agency...
"Concerned that they may be shut out of Internet distribution
revenue, publishers want to be paid full mechanical royalties
in these situations. But the recording
industry wants to treat limited-time and subscription downloads
as rentals, paying publishers and songwriters less.
"The recording industry's desire to extend mechanical
licensing stands in stark contrast to its views on licensing its
own recordings to Internet music services. The industry is opposed
to Congress giving new media businesses a compulsory license that
would allow them to use any sound recordings from the labels'
catalogs and pay them federally-determined rates."
Read this entire story here
(registration required).
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From CNet's News.com: "Internet magazine
Salon.com
said Tuesday that it has trimmed employee salaries
and postponed some audio plans in a continuing effort to brace itself
against the dot-com downturn...
(Spokeswoman Dayna) Macy said the company is still on track
to break even sometime this year. To that end, Salon is implementing
pay cuts in the neighborhood of 15 percent for some employees. It
also has cut at least three people from its yet-to-be-launched radio
show. Several of them were new hires.
"In late January, the company said it would launch a
new weekly radio program in March that would be broadcast on more
than 100 Public Radio International-affiliated stations. At the
time, the company said it would bring its Web content to the airwaves
in a move that 'opens up a valuable new revenue stream.'
"But those plans have since been put on hold, Macy said,
because 'the pilot wasn't up to our standards.' Salon may revive
the show eventually."
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here.
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