Labels Agree to File Sharing

Imeem, a social networking site has settled its lawsuit with Warner Music by promising to give Warner a cut of advertising revenues from the site. Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that it's signed similar deals with all four major labels, meaning that Imeem is now the first website whose users have the music industry's blessing to share music for free. The significant difference between Napster and Imeem is that Imeem only allows you to play music on its website, whereas Napster allowed you to download songs to your hard drive. The Imeem website doesn't provide a "download" button, but there's no DRM involved, and it's quite easy to download music files from Imeem using third-party tools. And because Imeem's site doesn't use DRM, Imeem downloading tools are probably legal under the DMCA.

Source: Tech Dirt > http://techdirt.com/articles/20071210/125633.shtml

Penguin UK Launches Community Site with Book Focus for Teens

Spinebreakers is the name of the new project, which the Penguin blog describes as "a hugely interactive site - teenagers everywhere are encouraged to send in audio, video, writing, alternative covers and basically just get involved." Blog postSpinebreakers site

Google Gives Few Hints About Social Network Plan

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google said “People don’t appreciate how many page views on the Internet are in social networks,” at a two-day gathering of an eclectic mix of Google partners, competitors, social activists and politicians. Social networks, he said, account for an “enormous proportion” of Internet usage, he added. “It is very real. It’s a very real phenomenon.”

Mr. Schmidt did say that over the next year, Google is planning to use information it has about the connections between its users, something techies call the “social graph,” to improve searches and other Google services. He said the company would like to sell advertising for Facebook, a position currently enjoyed by Microsoft. And he highlighted the Google’s existing social network service, Orkut, and its deal to sell ads on behalf of MySpace, the largest social networking site.

Mr. Schmidt’s comments came amid intense debate in the tech world about the value of Facebook, which has reportedly discussed taking an investment from Yahoo, Google, and despite Mr. Ballmer’s qualms Microsoft. There have also been reports that Google will not only use its social graph information for its own services but it will create an system for other companies to use the same data, in other words, to “out-open Facebook.” Mr. Schmidt was closed mouthed about that. Article

Project Playlist Raises $3 Million for Social Music Sharing

Project Playlist, a service that lets users share music playlists on blogs and social network profiles, has raised $3 million in its first round of funding, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. No investor information was disclosed. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Project Playlist's technology allows users to add their music playlists to blogs and profiles on social networks including MySpace, Facebook, Friendster and Gaia Online. Article

Related Links:
http://www.pehub.com/article/articledetail.php?articlepostid=7821
http://www.projectplaylist.com/

Fraternal Group Launches Book Club

The Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men’s fraternal and service organization, has launched an online book club for its 1.5 million members. Dubbed “The Supreme Knight’s Book Club,” it was the brainchild of the organization’s top official, himself an avid reader.“The idea of the book club is to introduce our members, their families and all Catholics to books that will help them grow in their faith,” said Supreme Knight Carl A. Anderson. “The books chosen are designed to help readers build both their interior spiritual life and the practice of putting that faith into action.” Article

MySpace Begins Targeting Ads Based on Members' Profile Data

News Corp.'s MySpace online social network has begun using information its 110 million active members post to their online profiles to target them for ads, the company said yesterday. MySpace's "interest-based targeting" system uses algorithms to comb MySpace profiles and members' blogs, and place users in groups according to their primary interest; categories include sports, fashion, finance, video games, cars and health. Each group, which contains more than 3 million members, can then be further divided into hundreds of subcategories. Article

MTV Launches "Think Community" Youth Activism Social Network

Viacom's MTV on Thursday announced the beta release of a new social network, Think Community, with big-name philanthropist backers and a goal of promoting youth activism.Partners include the Case Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Goldhirsh Foundation and MCJ Amelior Foundation. The company cited a new study it conducted that found 80% of young people say taking action to help their community and others is important and the right thing to do, yet only 19% describe themselves as "very involved." The Think Community site will feature educational materials on various issues, uploaded both by members and MTV News, and help members organize themselves into groups according to issues that are important to them. Think.MTV.com members who contribute content to the site, as well as participate in real-world events, will be rewarded with "Action Badges." The project will also award grants totaling $500,000 to young people under 25 with ideas on how digital journalism can strengthen community ties. Article

File-Sharing Search Engine TorrentSpy Bans U.S. Users

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Judge Rules "Making Available" of songs is Copyright Infringement

A judge has ruled that the "making available" of copyrighted content on a file-sharing network can constitute copyright infringement, in the second such known ruling by a judge hearing a major label's case against an individual file-swapper, according to a post on the Recording Industry vs. The People blog. "It is no defense that a Kazaa user did not directly oversee the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material," the ruling states. The judge awarded $40,500 in damages to Warner Music Group's Atlantic Records. Article

3.5% of U.S. Consumers Visit Social Networks via Mobiles

According to a report by M:Metrics, 3.5% of U.S. consumers accessed a social networking site or blog via their mobile phones during June. Below are some statistics on mobile access to social networks:

• 12.3 million consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe combined accessed social networks
• U.S. led with 7.5 million consumers, followed by Italy (1.3 million, or 2.8% of consumers); the U.K. (1.1 million; 2.5%); Spain (751,000; 2.3%); Germany (1.9%) and France (1.7%)
• Among social networks, MySpace and Facebook were the most popular among mobile users in the U.S. and U.K.
• MySpace attracted 3.7 million U.S. mobile users and 440,000 U.K. mobile users
• Facebook counted 2 million in the U.S. and 307,000 in the U.K.
• YouTube attracted 901,000 U.S. mobile users in June
• Bebo drew 288,000 in the U.K.

Article

Bolt.com Closes Doors

Following the collapse of a planned merger with fellow video-sharing site GoFish, New York-based Bolt, Inc. The note directs creditor-related questions to San Francisco-based Development Specialists, Inc., and provides an e-mail address for anyone "interested in acquiring this site or other assets of Bolt or Net Revolution." Bolt's $30 million acquisition by GoFish was torpedoed by a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against the company by Universal Music Group, which Bolt paid a reported $10 million to settle. Article

Disney buys kids social network

New York Times
Racing to solidify its dominant position in children’s entertainment on the Internet, the Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that it had acquired a subscription Web site aimed at preteenagers, Club Penguin, in a deal that could total $700 million. Disney said it would pay $350 million for Club Penguin, a virtual community that has soared in popularity since its founding in late 2005. More than 700,000 users now pay $5.95 a month to customize penguin characters and then chat and play games with other “penguins.” And Disney has agreed to pay the founders, three fathers based in Kelowna, British Columbia, up to $350 million more by the end of 2009 if the site meets growth targets. “They could earn all of it or none of it,” said Thomas O. Staggs, Disney’s chief financial officer. “The growth they have to achieve is attractive enough that we would be pleased to pay.”

Article