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Anonymous strikes again. This time the target of this loose coalition of online hackers is the site of Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI). A DDoS attack hit the site late last night, forcing BMI to take the site offline. As of this posting, it is still not available. This attack is part of what Anonymous calls the "war on copyright".
Some in the music industry may have discovered that it's pointless to beat a dead horse, or in this case, a defunct file sharing service called LimeWire. Mark Gorton, founder of the once immensely popular peer-to-peer file sharing service, settled a copyright infringement suit brought on by more than 30 publishers, including those associated with EMI, Sony, and Vivendi.
The popular streaming music service known as Spotify reached a new milestone today by claiming 1 million paying subscribers. Nearly two years ago, Spotify was celebrating 1 million registered users. That number has since grown to 10 million, and not a single one resides the U.S. as Spotify continues to struggle with making its service available around the globe.
Apple is reportedly trying to get major music labels to give iTunes customers unlimited downloads of music they've already purchased. If successful, iTunes users would be able to access and download purchased music across multiple devices, in essence having a permanent online backup in case the originals are lost or damaged.
Who would have guessed that Apple's main competitor would be Google, not Microsoft? Yet that's the shift that's taking place, odd as that may have seemed just a few short years ago. Gone are the Mac vs PC commercials, perhaps because the battlefield is now on the mobile front where Google's Android platform dukes it out Apple's iOS infrastructure, both on smartphones and now on tablets. Now we hear that Google's taking this knock down, drag-out platform fight to the world of music and plans to launch a new service that will go up against iTunes.
A 26-year-old man from Sweden will only have to pay a court ordered fine of 2000 kronor ($311 in U.S. currency) for sharing 44 songs over the Internet, TorrentFreak.com reports. Compared to Jammie Thomas-Rasset, who in 2010 was ordered to pay $1.5 million in copyright infringement damages for illegally sharing 24 songs (that works out to $62,500 per song), the un-named Swedish man should pay his fine and thank his legal team.
Chevy has something new in store for its 2012 Volt and Equinox models this fall. It's called MyLink, which you can think of as a smartphone on wheels. Building on the safety and security of OnStar, MyLink is a smart interface design that drivers can use to tap into mobile communications technology, all the while keeping their smartphones safely tucked away. Features like Pandora, Sticher SmartRadio, hands-free voice, and touchscreen controls are part of the package.
Go ahead and leave your mix tapes at home before you go test drive a new vehicle, they won't do you any good. According to a report in The New York Times, auto makers have finally moved on and there isn't a single 2011 model car that sports a factory-installed cassette player. The last model that did was a 2010 Lexus. Is time running out on the CD player too?
After Justin Bieber failed to win a Grammy for Best New Artist, with the award instead going to Esperanza Spaldking, fans suffering from Bieber Fever took their virtual torches and pitchforks to Spalding's Wikipedia page and let their feelings be known, MSNBC reports. Hours later, it was filled with insults and death threats, including one entry which read, "Justin Bieber deserved it go die in a hole. Who the heck are you anyway?" We couldn't care less about Justin Bieber or his perceived snub at the Grammys, but perhaps this latest tirade should have Wikipedia rethinking how it does things.
Sony, whose ebook application was blocked from the App Store because it would have sidestepped Apple's system for buying content and deprived the Cupertino company of its cut of revenue, indicated it may pull its artists from iTunes and withhold its games from the iPhone, an Australian news outlet reports. The move would also set up a showdown between iTunes and Sony's upcoming Music Unlimited streaming service, which is set to open in Australia soon.








