This blog is moving to ...

... The Rights Marketing blog, which will explore the same issues, but focusing more on Media 2.0, and using WordPress. Metacoms will remain hosted here as an archive until I can figure out how to move it! Any ideas, please let me know, I'd love to hear from you ...

Magnatune a hit with the crits

A music label and website called Magnatune is attracting all sorts of attention in the blogosphere as the most acceptable online model. Their strapline hits the spot, while perhaps coming across as a little shrill: "We're not evil" ... now, who couldd they mean?

Blogs offer taste of war in Iraq

BBC NEWS
"The war in Vietnam is often referred to as the first war on television, and the wars in Afghanistan and now in Iraq will be known as the first wars to be blogged. A new generation of soldier bloggers in the US, known as milbloggers, are both fighting in the field and writing about their experiences. It is opening up a new window on modern warfare and is creating a new genre of war-time writing."

Sony settles 'rootkit' class action lawsuit

CNET News.com
"Customers who exchange their XCP CD can either download three albums from a list of over 200 titles, or claim a cash payment of $7.50 and a free download of one album. To claim this compensation, customers must return their XCP CDs to Sony or provide the company with a receipt showing they returned or exchanged the CD at a retailer after Nov. 14."

Wow ... talk about winning hearts and minds!

RIAA = The Coyote, you = The Roadrunner

p2pnet.net
"How does Organized Music get to victims? Lawyer Ray Beckerman, who's been working with Santangelo since the begining, explains:

A lawsuit is brought against a group of John Does with the corporate headquarters of the ISP as the location of the lawsuit. But, 'All the RIAA knows about the people it is suing is that they are the people who paid for an internet access acount for a particular dynamic IP address,' says Beckerman, going on:

'The 'John Does' may live - and usually do live - hundreds or thousands of miles away, and are not even aware that they have been sued. The case may drag on for months or even years, with the RIAA being the only party that has lawyers in court to talk to the judges and other judicial personnel.

'The RIAA - without notice to the defendants - makes a motion for an 'ex parte' order permitting immediate discovery. ('Ex parte' means that one side has communicated to the Court without the knowledge of the other parties to the suit. It is very rarely permitted, since the American system of justice is premised upon an open system in which, whenever one side wants to communicate with the Court, it has to give prior notice to the other side, so that they too will have an opportunity to be heard.).

'The 'ex parte' order would give the RIAA permission to take 'immediate discovery' - before the defendants have been served or given notice - which authorizes the issuance of subpoenas to the ISP's asking for the names and addresses and other information about their subscribers, which is information that would otherwise be confidential.

'In the United States the courts have been routinely granting these 'ex parte' orders it appears. (Not so in other countries. Both Canada and the Netherlands have found the RIAA's investigation too flimsy to warrant the invasion of subscriber privacy. Indeed the Netherlands court questioned the investigation's legality.).

'Once the ex parte order is granted, the RIAA issues a subpoena to the ISP, and gets the subscriber's name and address.

'The RIAA then discontinues its 'John Doe' 'ex parte' case, and sues the defendant in his own name in the district where he or she lives.

'Thus, at the core of the whole process are:

(1) the mass lawsuit against a large number of 'John Does';
(2) the 'ex parte' order of discovery; and
(3) the subpoenas demanding the names and addresses of the 'John Does'."

John Battelle Talks to Performancing about FM Publishing

Performancing.com
"Over the holidays I had a chance to talk to John Battelle of FM Publishing, a new but much discussed blog ad network that's currently in beta. FM has a whole bunch of high profile bloggers working with it already, and from what I can see it looks near to making a formal debut, so it was good to get some answers from the man himself."

iPod Replaced With Meat

ABC News
"Surprised he was, and so was Cambra. When her son opened the box for the high-tech toy, he discovered the iPod that should have been there wasn't. It had apparently been replaced with some kind of mystery meat."

I name this product the AtkinsPod.

Debunking downloads bollox in FT

p2pnet.net
"p2p news / p2pnet: There's a story in the Financial Times, one of Britain's most reputable and influential newspapers, which gives a completely distorted impression of what's happening in the world of online music.

It could almost have been written by one or other of the Big Four record labels' many and various PR-cum-enforcement units such as the RIAA, IFPI or BPI.

Reading it, one gets the impression there's a successful, busy corporate music downloading sector when in fact, the exact opposite is true."

Women and Men Online

Pew Internet & American Life Project Report
"How Women and Men Use the Internet: Women are catching up to men in most measures of online life. Men like the internet for the experiences it offers, while women like it for the human connections it promotes."

The Net Is a Boon for Indie Labels

New York Times
"Exploiting online message boards, music blogs and social networks, independent music companies are making big advances at the expense of the four global music conglomerates, whose established business model of blockbuster hits promoted through radio airplay now looks increasingly outdated."

How to build a 2.0 music service in just 9 weeks ...

Pandora
"It's hard for me to believe that it's been just 9 weeks since we launched Pandora. In that time you've created over 1 million stations, starting from 70,000 unique songs and artists. I really can't imagine a more gratifying response. Easily the best part of all of this has been interacting with many of you via email and in the blogosphere. Thanks for all the great product and music suggestions. It's been a blast."

Spot the difference.

Over-50s 'driving music growth'

BBC NEWS
"The over-50s are having an increasing impact on the UK music industry, a survey by the record labels' trade body and Age Concern suggests."

Grumpy old farts on both sides of the table then ... :-)

Review of the Year's Best Web 2.0 Explanations

web2.wsj2.com
"I know that many people are still struggling with what Web 2.0 means, are often confused by thinking it's purely a marketing term, or if you're like most folks, you haven't really heard about it yet. To those, I think this list will definitely help. And it's a good refresher for all of us Web 2.0 followers as well."

Undestanding Ajax

adaptive path
"Ajax isn?t a technology. It?s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. "

Music Industry Faces Pricing Probe on Downloads

WSJ.com
"New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has subpoenaed at least three of the four global music companies as part of what one company described as 'an industry-wide investigation' into collusion on pricing of digitally downloaded music."

New tune for digital music in 2006

BBC NEWS
"A format war is looming and illegal downloads still outstripping legal ones by a ratio of three to one, despite a sustained legal onslaught by the music industry.

For the record label, the battle is to persuade people to pay for the music they put on their machines.

For consumers and critics of the way the music industry is handling the transition to digital music, the battle is to convince them to be a whole lot more radical."

The 10 Most Pathetic Media Meltdowns of 2005

Free Press

10 MOST-WATCHED VIDEOS ON ADAGE.COM

AdAge.com
Courtesy of Adrants, oh glorious adbiz ...

Top Ten Thirty Adrants 2005 Sex-In-Advertising Stories

Adrants
"As we endeavored to compile our list of the top ten sex-related advertising stories of 2005, we realized very quickly it would be impossible to limit the list to ten. After all, advertising and sex are so deeply intertwined it would be like coitus interruptus to place any limitations on such a project. So here, in no particular order, are the top sex-related advertising stories of 2005 for your multiple pleasures. We're sure we've missed some as there's only so many times a chap can go 'round."

Is this a great business or what? Erm .... pass. Or, perhaps rather, ass.

RSS everywhere in 2005 - RSS organized in 2006?

Read/WriteWeb