Disney, Microsoft, Others Take a Copyright Stance
A consortium of media and Internet companies announced a set of guidelines to protect copyrights online on October 19. Among the group, which has been negotiating for nine months, were Walt Disney Co.; Microsoft; NBC Universal; Viacom, Inc.; CBS Corp.; News Corp.'s MySpace and Fox constituents; Veoh Networks, Inc.; and Dailymotion S.A. Noticeable for its absence was Google, including YouTube, which has recently been sued for $1 billion for infringement by Viacom.
Dispatch from Saratov: Dire Results of Russian Economy, Politics
Editor's Note: This item is an excerpt from an e-mail received from Russia late last week. It's noteworthy that the US Congress has spent hundreds of days and more than $50 million investigating the President's adolescent shenanigans, while elsewhere in the world serious trouble is afoot. Leonid Korostyshevski is a computer consultant and audiophile in the university town of Saratov, on the Volga river 600 miles east of Moscow. His previous">http://www.stereophile.com/news/10131/">previous dispatch appeared here in March.----BW
Dispatch from the Russian Heartland
Editor's note: For months now, we've been reporting about the the problems and dilemmas created by audio formats such as MP3, which are often used to pirate and illegally distribute music over the Internet. Correspondent Leonid">mailto:sazanka@yahoo.com">Leonid Korostyshevski offers a decidedly unique Russian spin on the situation. His previous stories are herehttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10131/">here; and herehttp://www.stereophile.com/news/10331/">here;. Photos were taken last week by Leonid Korostyshevski
Distribution Changes
Note: this article has been updated at the bottom on July 5, 2005 with a statement from Nagra CEO Gérard Beuchat.
DMX and Lycos Sign Global Music Distribution Agreement
Streaming multiple channels of music has proven a big hit with satellite customers, so it seems natural that DMX---a">http://www.dmxmusic.com">DMX---a subsidiary of TCI Music (soon to be renamed Liberty Digital), and the company responsible for bringing audio to 2.6 million dish owners---would move to the Internet. Last week, DMX announced a multi-year, multi-phase global distribution agreement under which the DMX music service will be transmitted on Lycos'">http://www.lycos.com">Lycos' network of websites.
Doc Watson, 1923–2012
Arthel "Doc" Watson, one of America's greatest musical treasures, has died in Winston-Salem, North Carolina at the age of 89. A seven-time Grammy Award winner, Watson was known for his rich, unaffected singing voice, his apparently limitless repertoire of Appalachian folk songs, and a flatpicking guitar style that influenced a great many of his peers and inspired countless others to take up the instrument.
Doing a Daring Deal With the Devil?
Citing the desire to take advantage of the power of sharing audio files over the Internet, one of the larger independent record labels, TVT">http://www.tvtrecords.com/">TVT Records, announced last week that it has withdrawn its copyright claims against the file-sharing company Napsterhttp://www.napster.com/">Napster;. TVT said that the basis for its decision to end the lawsuit and provide its support to Napster is "the new service Napster is evolving under the strategic alliance it recently announced with Bertelsmann AG." TVT points out that, since Bertelsmann is still technically a party to litigation with Napster, it becomes the first record label to fully settle with the beleagured Web company.
Doing the Format Shuffle
Depending on who you talk to, so far in the US, DualDisc has either been a success (according to the record labels) or a stumble (according to the press and manufacturers). Now Europe gets a chance to see what the fuss is all about.
Dolby Joins Hall of Fame
It's safe to say that few audio engineers are more famous than Ray Dolby. On May 1, the founder and chairman of Dolby">www.dolby.com">Dolby Laboratories was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio, joining such luminaries as Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, and Thomas Edison, inventor of the light bulb and the phonograph.
Dolby TrueHD Ready for Primetime
Recently we received an SOS from fearless leader John Atkinson. Dolby is staging a press event on an evening I have a schedule conflict, he wrote. Could you attend in my stead? As obligations go, attending an industry dinner is not exactly the most onerous task going—alcohol is frequently served (the best way to guarantee the press shows up) and you get to hang out with your fellow A/V journalists, an admittedly mixed blessing. What is not assured is that there will actually be news.