Mar 4 - Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft Make Top 10 List; Downloads Might Save Music Industry
Industry Spotlight
MTV & Rhapsody Promo Offers 2 Months' Free Trial
March 1, 2011 - MediaPost
FaceTime for Apple’s iPad 2: Hands-On Video
March 2, 2011 – PC Magazine
Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft Make Up 4 Of The Top 10 Most Admired Companies
March 3, 2011 - TechCrunch
Microsoft Adds Daily Deals Aggregation to Bing Search
March 3, 2011 - Digital Media Wire
Youtube videos earning some a fortune
March 2, 2011 - KSLA – TV
Amazon Kindle 3G to be sold in AT&T stores
March 3, 2011 - High Tech Lounge
Politics & Policy
I. Digital Music
Music Downloads Might Save the Music Industry
Authored by Eric Felten on February 25, 2011- Wall Street Journal
The music business has been wringing its hands over the dramatically decreasing ka-ching of the cash register. There may not be agreement on the exact magnitude of the industry's collapse—cataclysm or mere catastrophe?—but one main cause is clear: the humble "single."
Until digital downloads came along, to get a copy of the one hit tune found on a given album, you had to buy the whole CD, a technology that effectively killed off the old 45 rpm vinyl single. But now, in the age of iTunes, the single is back from the brink of extinction. Instead of making a purchase north of $15, consumers can get the one song they want, unbundled, for a dollar, more or less. Revenues, not surprisingly, are down.
Lady Gaga is likely to sell far more copies of the individual digital track "Born This Way" than she will copies of the CD. And she's hardly the only artist embracing the single, which is quickly becoming the main way people purchase music. And while the switch may be an immediate disaster for the recording industry's bottom line, it just might be the best thing to happen, musically, to a business grown stale and stagnant.
II. Website Domain Name Seizures
Bryan McCarthy: Deer Park Man Arrested for Illegally Livestreaming Sporting Events
Authored by Richard Connelly on March 3, 2011 -Houston Press (blog)
Federal agents today arrested Bryan McCarthy, 32, for running a Web site that illegally livestreamed NFL games, pay-per-view fights and other sporting events.
The operator of channelsurfing.net was arrested at his Deer Park home without incident by officers of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
The feds say he had made more than $90,000 in profits from ads sold on the site since December 2005, and that the site had gotten 1.3 million hits since it was seized by the government on February 1.
III. Network Neutrality
Hearing on Network Neutrality Set for March 9th
Authored by Juliana Gruenwald on March 3, 2011 - National Journal
The House Energy and Commerce Communications and Technology Subcommittee has scheduled a hearing for Wednesday on a resolution aimed at blocking network neutrality rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in February.
The subcommittee postponed a scheduled markup on March 2 after the panel's top Democrats called for a hearing on the resolution of disapproval, introduced by Communications and Technology Subcommittee Chairman Greg Walden, R-Ore. The resolution of disapproval, under the Congressional Review Act, gives lawmakers a limited amount of time to try to overturn federal regulations after they are issued.
It's the second hearing the panel has held this year on net neutrality. All five FCC commissioners appeared before the subcommittee last month to discuss the net neutrality order, which was approved on a party-line 3-2 vote in December.
IV. Online Privacy
Microsoft, Facebook Offer New Approaches to Boost Web Privacy
Authored by Julia Angwin and Geoffrey A. Fowler on February 26, 2011 - Wall Street Journal
Technology giants Microsoft Corp. and Facebook Inc. moved to beef up and clarify their efforts around the thorny issue of online privacy—the latest steps by the Internet firms to call for stronger consumer protections.
On Thursday, Microsoft endorsed the concept of adding a do-not-track tool to its Web browsing software, signaling a shift in support for a system that could let people avoid having their movements monitored online. Microsoft slipped its mention of the tool—specifically, adding a reference to a do-not-track feature in its Internet Explorer browser—into a technical paper it submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium.
On Friday, meanwhile, Facebook unveiled a new draft of its highly watched privacy policy. While the new policy doesn't change the social network's data-handling practices, it contains chunks of information organized around more practical headings such as "your information and how it is used" and "how advertising works."
IAB Members Must Publicly Affirm Privacy Principles
Authored by Wendy Davis on February 28, 2011 -MediaPost
The Interactive Advertising Bureau's leadership has voted to require all members to publicly state that they adhere to the industry's self-regulatory privacy rules governing online behavioral advertising.
IAB members will have up to six months to affirm that they follow the self-regulatory principles, released in 2009 by a cross-industry coalition, including the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers and the Direct Marketing Association. The public promise to adhere to the guidelines is contained in the IAB's new code of conduct, which was approved unanimously by the board of directors on Sunday.
IAB general counsel Mike Zaneis adds that companies that renege on promises to comply with the industry's self-regulatory principles could also face Federal Trade Commission sanctions for engaging in deceptive practices. "The FTC could open an enforcement case if the companies state they are doing one thing, but are not living up to their statement," he says.