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Music biz sues Robertson again

EMI goes after Sideload

Published Monday 12th November 2007 16:23 GMT

MP3.com founder Michael Robertson is on the receiving end of another lawsuit – from EMI – this time against his MP3tunes.com and Sideload.com services.

Robertson told Reuters it was retaliation for a suit his Sideload.com service had filed against EMI in September.

MP3Tunes is a service that enables the user to back up their music collection and access it anywhere. Multiple concurrent access is prohibited – so it’s hard to imagine how it could be construed as infringing copyright. In fact, it’s just the sort of service recording sound owners should be offering as a value-add to physical offerings.

The legality of Sideload.com is more dubious. This additional service the music stored in MP3Tunes’ “lockers” and allows subscribers to grab a copy and drop them into their own locker. Sideload ducks the copyright issue.

“It’s possible some of the tracks may be unauthorised,” Robertson told a local paper when the service launched. “But the difference between Sideload and [the original] Napster is that we’re simply a search engine; we’re no different than Google.”

As with any technology, what’s “illegal” today could simply be viewed as “not licensed… yet”.

It’s seven years since Robertson’s MP3.com paid over $200m in damages for operating a similar service. A judge ruled that MyMP3.com breached mechanical copyright by allowing users to upload legitimately-acquired CDs and stream them over the internet. Robertson later sold MP3.com to Universal Music for over $370m.

But with almost half of all BitTorrent transfers now encrypted, and impossible to track – you might think the music business would see services such as Sideload.com as a revenue opportunity.

After all, you can’t count something you can’t see. ®

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/12/emi_sues_sideload/

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Gene Simmons blames college kids for ruining music biz

To Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails: Get off my lawn!

Published Friday 16th November 2007 19:25 GMT

Music pirates have made a powerfully bitter enemy of Gene Simmons, bass guitarist for the 1970s band Kiss.

In a recent interview with Billboard, Simmons curmudgeonly blames “college kids” for the “mess” the record industry is in, and blasted artists like Radiohead and Trent Reznor for seeking a different businesses model to vend their music.

“The record industry doesn’t have a f—ing clue how to make money,” Simmons told Billboard.

“Every little college kid, every freshly-scrubbed little kid’s face should have been sued off the face of the earth. They should have taken their houses and cars and nipped it right there in the beginning.”

[Ah, the lucrative college kid housing market. Excellent point, tongue man. – Ed.]

The dream of suing a person completely off the face of the earth has yet to be realized. The RIAA has thus far only been successful in being awarded damages from an individual equal to 2 per cent of the gross national product of South Pacific island of Tokelau.

On the subject of Radiohead and Trent Reznor’s unusual business models:

“I open a store and say ‘Come on in and pay whatever you want.’ Are you on f—ing crack? Do you really believe that’s a business model that works?”

Simmons said that he doesn’t plan on making a new KISS album because he doesn’t know how he’ll get paid for it if people can just get it for free.

Still, Simmons continues that the most important part of the business is the music.

“Without that, why would you care?”

Simmons is currently filming the third season of his A&E reality show “Gene Simmons Family Jewels,” working on an animated show on kids’ network Nickelodeon called “My Dad the Rock Star,” and writing his third book, “Ladies of the Night,” an expose on prostitution. He’s also developing his own publishing company which will open this spring and owns Simmons Comics, which makes three comic series based on characters he created.

So, you know, he’s really hurting for cash.

“No one — and that includes the Beatles and Elvis — can touch our merchandising and licensing. Nobody. Outside of the music world, it’s only Disney and Lucas. But in the music world, they can’t shine our shoes.” ®

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/16/gene_simmons_blames_college_kids/

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Akiko Yada Has a Son

Akiko yada, gave birth on the 18th of november to a son weighing in at approximately 3.2kilo’s (7lbs)

Manabu Oshio and akiko married on the 13th November 2006, Akiko has been absent from showbusiness and is devoting herself to being an attentive mother and housewife,

Though she has hinted at a possible return when her son is older

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Miki Yoshimura has been named the next girl to advertise asashi beer

Miki Yoshimura a 23 year old model, Advertisement that Miki has done will start showing in 2008

Previous girls include Tomoko Yamaguchi, Norika Fujiwara, Misaki Ito, and Haruka Igawa

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