internet

As we reported earlier this week, many Webcasting services kept streaming without incident after feared new music royalty fees took effect, as talks with the record industry about alternative arrangements seemed to be proceeding on a favorable track.

How quickly things can change.

Now a new spat appears to be brewing between the Digital Media Association (DiMA), a lobby group representing large Webcasters like Pandora, Yahoo, RealNetworks and AOL, and SoundExchange, the group that collects and lobbied for the new payments on behalf of musicians and record labels.

The issue? Whether Webcasters should be required to cloak their streams in … Read more

Today, Mozilla patched nine vulnerabilities including the Firefox portion of the Internet Explorer-Firefox flaw identified last week. That flaw occurs when IE passes malformed URLs from IE to another application such as another browser. Mozilla wrote, "this fix only prevents Firefox and Thunderbird from accepting bad data." And it stated in boldface, "this patch does not fix the vulnerability in Internet Explorer."

This security update also addresses known issues involving browser crashes, privilege escalation, and cross-site scripting vulnerability. Current users of Firefox 2.0.0.4 or earlier will be automatically prompted to install the new … Read more

Maybe Ted Stevens was onto something--tubes are alive and well, Internet or not. How else can we explain the popularity of tubed gadgets such as the "Nano Head"? And they're not restricted to Lilliputian dimensions either.

The latest comes from China-based Shanling in the form of the "MC-30 Music Center," which Audio Junkies describes as "hi-fi CD player, tuner, iPod dock and tube power amplifier all in one." The price is $995, but that's a bargain compared with Shanling's $3,000 CD player. Both are available at various sites on the … Read more

GROVELAND, Calif.--This is a very old town. It is just about the last piece of civilization before the western entrance to Yosemite National Park, and the town is studded with 19th century Wild West saloons and wooden buildings with wraparound porches.

Ah, but it isn't the 19th century anymore, is it?

Today, this venerable town, which millions of people surely pass through each year on their way to Half Dome and Yosemite Falls and such, is doing its best to keep up with the times.

And the most visceral symbol of that?

It's surely the fact that … Read more

Small donors are having a significant impact on the amount of money that the Republican and Democratic candidates for president are raising. The Internet, providing the tools for grassroots activists to self-organize and conduct "p-commerce" by giving political money online, has clearly contributed to this.

The interesting story after six months of presidential fund-raising is that some candidates, notably Barack Obama, are doing much better at reaching small donors than others.

In a July 3 CNET post on what the Internet has done for presidential campaign fund-raising, I wrote, "the story technophiles should celebrate and fear how … Read more

Claims of Internet and video game addiction aren't getting any sympathy from bloggers. And if the so-called Internet addicted can't get understanding from people who spend much of their day on a computer, it's doubtful anyone else will buy it.

The Associated Press this week reports on a Reno, Nev., couple accused of criminal neglect of their two young children. A neighbor phoned police to report a child's incessant wailing, and when police arrived, they found garbage piled up, the couple playing video games and plenty of food and baby formula in the fridge. The children … Read more

July 15, the start date for new and retroactive royalty payments by Internet radio DJs, has come and gone without any apparent catastrophe, thanks in part to last-minute signs that Webcasters may be edging closer to harmony with the music industry.

The consensus among the small and larger Webcasters I've been surveying Monday seems to be that nothing much has changed in their operations--for now, at least. Further unscientific checking of Internet radio streams available at individual Web sites and through Apple's iTunes drove me to a similar conclusion: from NorCal hip-hop to office-friendly Top 40 to Christian … Read more

The latest on the Internet radio saga bears some positive news for people who like to stream music from public radio's online presence.

Recall that starting on Sunday, new federal rules requiring higher royalty payments to the music industry from Webcasters--commercial and non-commercial alike--are scheduled to take effect. In recent days, Internet radio outlets have been stepping up negotiations with SoundExchange, the nonprofit entity charged with collecting the fees, over compromises aimed at blunting the increases' impact.

Now public radio says it has reached at least a temporary agreement with the record industry.

Thanks to a "productive" … Read more

This Sunday may not be doomsday after all for the smaller Internet radio stations that feared the onset of new royalty fees would kill off their operations.

But contrary to some published reports traversing the blogosphere on Thursday and Friday, SoundExchange, the nonprofit group charged with collecting the payments, has not made any sort of blanket pledge to delay enforcing the contentious new Webcaster payments established earlier this year by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board, according to spokesman Richard Ades.

"There is a misunderstanding, and SoundExchange is making it very clear that everybody is expected to comply with the law," Ades told CNET News.com Friday.

The CRB ruling at issue requires Internet radio operators to pay additional fees to SoundExchange, which passes them on to artists and record labels, retroactive to 2006 and through 2010. Webcasters opposed to the new rules say the changes could drive up their mandatory payments by as much as 300 percent for larger entities and 1,200 percent for smaller ones, arguing such increases could put them out of business.

Here's where it gets complicated.

… Read more