Today’s links of interest:
- BBC – Torchwood – Official Torchwood Children Of Earth site
It’s coming back! It’s coming back! - Does LimeWire owe the RIAA $1.5 trillion?
This is obscene. And wrong. And, of course, completely uncollectable. - 6-story Jesus statue in Ohio struck by lightning
Noted without comment. - Facebook envy? Amazon.com patents social networking system
Or, Amazon patents social networking. Sigh. - Officially our best-ever cease and desist
Ah, the poor unicorn. Never gets the nutritional respect it deserves. - TV business kisses HDMI goodbye
Our short love-hate relationship with HDMI is about to come to an end. What’s surprising is that it’s being killed off by standard Cat5 networking cable. - Prince: The Internet’s completely over
And he’s proving it by releasing his next album on CD only. That’ll show them. - Lindsay Lohan "Being Cooperative" in Jail So Far
Just in case you thought that going to jail was going to be the end of the 24/7 coverage. - E-book sales: Amazon.com says it’s selling 80% more downloaded books than hardcovers
Two words: tipping point. - Microsoft may face tough patch job with Windows shortcut bug
Meanwhile, over at Microsoft, same as it ever was. - Sixth purported Mel Gibson tape surfaces
Remember how NASA’s original plan for the Space Shuttle was to have missions so often that they ceased to become news? Well, NASA’s failure is RadarOnline’s success. - Physicists Tame Time Travel by Forbidding You to Kill Your Grandfather
But doesn’t that take all of the fun out of it? - Apple, Research in Motion, and the rest of the cell phone industry don’t want you to know how often your phone drops calls
Well, of course they don’t. - Music royalty talks consider cell phone mandate
Somehow cell phone manufacturers, an unrelated party, are now being dragged into the issue. The big plan? To force all new cell phones to carry an FM radio chip. Huh? - BBC lawyers fight to keep Top Gear’s The Stig secret
Yes, this is the kind of important news that we focus on. - Free That Tenor Sax
Newly discovered classic jazz recordings remind us that copyright law remains a hot mess o’disaster. - Music in the Download Era: L.A.’s string of indie labels succeeds with a jack-of-all-trades approach
A look at indie labels and how the playing field has leveled: “The people who invented the paradigm and were trusted to run it let it run afoul. We have to fix it.” - Kindle — xkcd Cartoon
You know you can’t resist… - Facebook Lawsuit Throws the -book at Social Networking Site for Teachers
Sigh. - Album Sales Hit Record Lows. Again.
Oh, and music execs are blaming piracy. Again. Wonder if the quality of music they release is ever considered as a factor? Sure would explain why single track sales rise as album sales decline. - Microsoft Co-Founder Paul Allen Sues Apple, AOL, Google, Facebook, Others
Ah yes, another patent lawsuit. And timely too, what with some of these companies having used these technologies for a decade or so. - Breaking down why Calvin College canceled New Pornographers concert: Can a band’s name be more offensive than its music?
Yes, this is the world we live in. - Blockbuster Declares Bankruptcy — Now See What Big Company Will Drop Next
Though not unexpected, this is not good news. - UN to appoint Earth contact for aliens
Needless to say, this announcement was long overdue. - Federal appeals court tosses out method for calculating music streaming royalties
Nearly missed this one. Appeals court sides with Yahoo (and, essentially, other music streaming services), indicating the formulae used to determine royalties was not proper. - Time Warner CEO not a fan of 99-cent TV rentals, either
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. - Amazon Launches Facebook e-Commerce Store
This is bigger news than it seems. - No more skipping ads? Networks will look to video-on-demand to replace DVRs
Count us in as those who will happily pay $10 a month to avoid commercials. And, unanswered in this article, are we talking about free VOD or paid VOD? ‘Cause if we’re paying for it, we don’t want to be forced to watch commercials. - Disney Cuts Keith Richards From Pirates of the Caribbean 4 After Shocking Admission That He’s Done Drugs
This is why we get up in the morning. - Author Slams eBook Piracy, Son Outs Her As a Music Pirate
Yes, piracy costs money, but when you’re complaining about how it impacts you, don’t get caught with your pants down.