Technology Nirvana

Filed under: Storage

Today the otherwise preoccupied Senate quickly passed the Webcaster Settlement Act many of you petitioned for, granting Pandora and other net radio services the right to negotiate royalties with the record industry's SoundExchange coalition for the years 2006 to 2015. OK, that's a mouthful—what it means is, they will likely not be driven to bankruptcy due to unreasonable royalty rates.

I say "likely" because they still need to dot i's and cross t's on the royalty deal itself, but here, Congress approved their ability to do that, and just in the nick of time.

Pandora chief Tim Westergren told us today: "We’re just hugely grateful to our listeners and everyone who moved so quickly to mobilize support. This last weekend was just extraordinary." There you go, the world itself may be collapsing, but at least you know our legislators listened to your pleas to keep your favorite web radio broadcasters in business.

DiMA Thanks Congress for Passing Webcaster Settlement Act

Washington, D.C., September 30, 2008 – The U.S. Senate today approved the Webcaster Settlement Act, and sent to the President this bill that authorizes Internet radio services and agents for copyright owners and performers to negotiate new royalty agreements retroactive to 2006, and that could resolve future disputes through 2015.

The House of Representatives passed the bill September 28.

Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association, offered this statement:

“On behalf of DiMA and our Internet radio members, I want to thank Congress for acting quickly to pass the Webcaster Settlement Act. This legislation will enable DiMA and our member companies, and all Internet radio services, to continue negotiating royalty rates with SoundExchange for the years 2006-2015. We are very hopeful of reaching agreement soon, and thereby creating long-term stability that will re-energize the Internet radio business.

"We express great thanks to Senators Wyden and Brownback, and Representatives Inslee and Manzullo for sponsoring the Webcaster Settlement Act and also being great leaders of the Internet Radio Equality Act.

“We are also grateful to Chairman Berman, Chairman Conyers and Chairman Leahy, and Ranking Members Smith and Specter for their leadership on the Webcaster Settlement Act and their ongoing support for Internet radio."

[Digital Media Association]

At probably like the worst time ever for your stock to plummet harder than a meteor on a collision course with Bruce Willis, a glitch knocked $200 off of Google's stock price—that's half—in the span of four minutes as the markets were closing today. $62 billion. Erased. In four minutes. The glitch has been fixed, bringing it back to the correct price of $407, but some trades actually did go through at the bargain basement price. While they'll be repealed, it shows you that it's so crazy out there even computers are going nuts right now. [TechCrunch]

In yet another ridiculous and short-sighted move, “the nation’s top movie companies” have filed suit against RealNetworks due to the release of RealDVD. Oh my god. Every time I think these heads of industry can’t get any more stupid, they do something like this.

What are they going to accomplish here? They’re telling consumers that they can’t back up their own DVDs — because that’s all RealDVD can do. It’s designed to respect DRM and restrict the DVDs’ usage, and whatever your position is on that, there can be no question that the MPAA’s position should have at the very least been one of grudging acquiescence. But these dinosaurs seem hell-bent on dragging the world kicking and screaming into the last century. If it’s any consolation, in a few years they’ll be fossils.

The full press release:

Motion Picture Studios File Lawsuit Against Realnetworks

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The nation’s top movie
companies filed a lawsuit today asking a federal court to stop RealNetworks
Inc. from distributing the company’s RealDVD software which allows movies
to be copied illegally. In their complaint and motion for a temporary
restraining order, the studios said that RealNetworks’ RealDVD violates the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) because its software illegally
bypasses the copyright protection built into DVDs that protect movies
against theft.

“RealNetworks’ RealDVD should be called StealDVD,” explained Greg
Goeckner, Executive Vice President and General Counsel for the Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA). “RealNetworks knows its product
violates the law and undermines the hard-won trust that has been growing
between America’s movie makers and the technology community. The major
motion picture studios have been making major investments in technologies
that allow people to access entertainment in a variety of new and legal
ways. This includes online video-on-demand, download-to-own, as well as
legitimate digital copies for storage and use on computers and portable
devices that are increasingly being made available on or with DVDs. Our
industry will continue on this path because it gives consumers greater
choices than ever. However, we will vigorously defend our right to stop
companies from bringing products to market that mislead consumers and
clearly violate the law.”

The Content Scramble System (CSS) built into DVDs prevents the
unauthorized reproduction and distribution of copyrighted material released
in DVD format. The RealDVD software illegally circumvents this copyright
protection system. Among other things, the RealDVD software enables users
to engage in an illegal practice known as “rent, rip and return,” whereby a
person rents a DVD from a legitimate business like Blockbuster or Netflix,
uses the RealDVD software to make multiple permanent illegal copies of the
movie, and returns the DVD, only to rent another popular title and make
permanent copies of it, repeating the cycle of theft over and over again
without ever making a purchase. On its own Web site, RealNetworks
acknowledges that this behavior is illegal and that its software could be
used in that manner.

Motion pictures and television programs require substantial investments
of money, time, effort and creativity by hundreds or often thousands of
people, which must be recouped through many individual exhibitions, sales
and broadcasts of the works. DVD sales are a major source of revenues that
enable the studios to invest in and develop the wide range of entertainment
options available to consumers. The RealDVD software would enable massive
theft of creative content that would have a direct, negative impact on the
delivery of movies, television shows and other entertainment to consumers
through the home entertainment and digital distribution markets.

The lawsuit, filed today in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles asks for
damages and injunctive relief against RealNetworks Inc. for violations of
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) circumvention provisions. The
DMCA prohibits the manufacturing or trafficking of any technology or
product, service or device that is designed for the purpose of
circumventing measures that effectively protect copyrighted titles. In
manufacturing and selling RealDVD, RealNetworks Inc., a CSS licensee, has
attempted to leverage its license improperly by making a product that
permits users to circumvent the protections of CSS. Such a product was
never intended to be authorized by the CSS license.

The worldwide motion picture industry, including foreign and domestic
producers, distributors, theaters, video stores and pay-per-view operators
lose more than $18 billion annually as a result of movie theft. More than
$7 billion in losses are attributed to illegal Internet distributions,
while $11 billion is the result of illegal copying and bootlegging.

Filed under: Gaming

As should be clear by now, any talk of a successor to a still relatively new game console should be taken with a hefty grain of salt but, if word from Japan's Impress is to be believed, it looks like we could possibly be getting a clearer indication of what might be under the PlayStation 4's non-existent hood. Apparently, unlike the massive shift from the PS2 to PS3, the eventually PS4 will be a decidedly smaller leap, with it relying on a slightly speedier (and, likely, 45nm) Cell processor but not a completely new architecture. That would let Sony keep the cost down considerably while also easing development for the console since, by then, developers should finally have a handle on the PS3's hardware. To further cut costs, Sony is also said to be considering a switch from the speedy Rambus XDR memory to more traditional DDR3 memory, which could apparently be tied directly to the processor to cut down on latency. Or the PS4 could be powered by a pink slime that feeds on negative energy, you never know.

[Via Electronista]

Sorry Kim. I’m sure you’re a nice lady and all, but after being forced to sit through umpteen seasons of Sex and the City and the 3 hours of bonus drivel provided by the movie, I don’t think I could handle it. If anybody hopped in my car with your new voice pack installed on a TomTom, I would smash said TomTom with a brick.

If you think you can bear your way through such classics as “This is the city, darling. Anything goes.” and “Don’t touch my manolos!”, you can grab the new pack here for $12.95. These celebrity voice packs are suddenly like the GPS unit version of ringtones; Expect shady late night commercials and crazy babbling frogs soon.

AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4550 and 4350 graphics cards are a wet dream for gamers on a budget by delivering DirectX 10.1 graphics and an HDMI port with 7.1 channel audio while keeping the price low. The $55 HD 4550 is equipped with 512MB of DDR3 memory with a 96 GFLOPS of power. The smaller but still potent HD 4350 packs 256MB of memory for $39. ATI claims that this type of power has previously not been available at this price point and I think they are right. These are a heck of a deal when they launch sometime in October ‘08.

PR

Holy crap. Parts of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are being shot in IMAX, meaning you'll get to see literally five-story Transformers getting smashed, exploded and all of the usual Michael Bay craziness in the only screen size truly worthy of Michael Bay. Like The Dark Knight, non-IMAX scenes will be letterboxed, and it'll blow back up to full screen size for IMAX sequences. Man, if there was ever a movie that needed to be in IMAX, this is it.

LOS ANGELES, CA, September 30, 2008 – IMAX Corporation (NASDAQ: IMAX; TSX: IMX), DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures today announced that director Michael Bay will shoot key sequences of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with IMAX® cameras. Bay will integrate the IMAX footage with state of the art CGI to create an unprecedented look and feel for the highly anticipated sequel to last year’s box office hit, Transformers. As previously announced, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen will be released to IMAX® theatres simultaneously with the movie’s wide release on June 26, 2009.

The movie sequences shot in traditional 35mm will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® with IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The IMAX DMR scenes will appear in the traditional “letterbox” shape, while scenes shot with IMAX’s cameras will expand vertically to fill the entire IMAX screen.

“The extraordinary level of detail and intensity captured by the IMAX camera creates many exciting possibilities for us with this film,” said Michael Bay, the film’s director. “IMAX’s all-encompassing format will take this story to a new level, and I am once again very excited to share The IMAX Experience with Transformers fans around the world.”

“The addition of another amazing title from DreamWorks and Paramount, combined with more groundbreaking use of IMAX technology by Hollywood’s top filmmakers, are examples of how far we have come as a company and a distribution platform over the past several years,” said IMAX Co-Chairmen and Co-CEOs Richard L. Gelfond and Bradley J. Wechsler. “The growth of the IMAX theatre network, fueled by the economical benefits of the new IMAX digital system, is driving interest from virtually all of the top studios, which is resulting in more IMAX movies for audiences to enjoy.”

“Michael Bay’s innovative use of IMAX cameras will create a spectacular cinematic adventure for moviegoers next summer,” added Greg Foster, Chairman and President of IMAX Filmed Entertainment. “We’re very excited to be integrated as a core part of the Transformers production, and with the skilled marketing and distribution teams at DreamWorks and Paramount, the timing is ideal given our expanding global audience and network footprint.”

[Aintitcool]

Now that Congress has failed to bail out Wall Street, the country (and world, to a lesser extent) has begun bracing itself for nuclear winter. The technology sector is no exception, even if the Silicon Valley tends to fancy itself as immune to broader economic turmoil.

As Fred Wilson points out, startups fortunate enough to enjoy venture capital will fare the best during these hard times. So we compiled a list of all the technology startups that have raised at least $25 million over the past two years, according to CrunchBase. The ~160 startups to stockpile that much capital recently are listed below.

Facebook tops the list with $455 million raised over the last two years (the bulk of its total $496M). Clean tech comes in highly as well with Nanosolar having raised $300 million, eSolar $140 million, and SulfurCell $134 million.

Of course, to know truly how well-prepared these startups are for the next few years, we’d have to see other figures like burn rates, revenue and head counts, not all of which are publicly known. Nevertheless, their recent funding rounds provide a good guideline.

Have we missed any relevant companies or funding rounds? Submit them to CrunchBase and we’ll update this list.

1. Facebook - $455M
2. ZeniMax - $310M
3. Nanosolar - $300M
4. OverSee - $210M
5. OANDA - $200M
6. Kayak - $196M
7. GridPoint - $167M
8. Plastic Logic - $150M
9. eSolar - $140M
10. Demand Media - $135M
11. SulfurCell - $134M
12. Modu - $120M
13. United Mobile - $115M
14. Zhaopin - $110M
15. Ning - $104M
16. Glam Media - $104M
17. hulu - $100M
18. 9You - $100M
19. SpinVox - $100M
20. Specificmedia - $100M
21. Rearden Commerce - $100M
22. Ausra - $97.8M
23. CDNetworks - $96.5M
24. Move Networks - $91.3M
25. Spot Runner - $91M
26. Tesla Motors - $85M
27. Big Fish Games - $83.3M
28. Realtime Worlds - $81M
29. Adconion Media Group - $80M
30. The Active Network - $80M
31. HelioVolt - $77M
32. Youku - $77M
33. Datapipe - $75M
34. Trion World Network - $70M
35. A123Systems - $70M
36. Vantage Media - $70M
37. Arcadian Networks - $70M
38. Boston Power - $68.6M
39. Infinia - $66.5M
40. LinkedIn - $65.8M
41. Fisker - $65M
42. Brightcove - $64.4M
43. SilkRoad technology - $64M
44. Coremetrics - $60M
45. ReachLocal - $55.2M
46. Veoh - $55M
47. Federated Media - $54.5M
48. Slacker - $53.5M
49. RockYou - $52.5M
50. 51.com - $51M
51. Slide - $50M
52. Blowtorch - $50M
53. HealthCentral - $50M
54. GarageGames - $50M
55. ChannelAdvisor - $50M
56. Revolution Money - $50M
57. obopay - $49M
58. Strands - $49M
59. JumpTap - $48M
60. ice - $47M
61. Greenplum - $46M
62. Internet Mall - $45M
63. Clear - $44.4M
64. Jingle Networks - $43M
65. freebase - $42.5M
66. Avail Media - $42M
67. Amobee - $42M
68. BitTorrent - $42M
69. Metaweb Technologies - $42M
70. Teneros - $40M
71. Undertone Networks - $40M
72. Enforta - $40M
73. SiBEAM - $40M
74. Trilliant - $40M
75. Turbine - $40M
76. Pure Digital Technologies - $40M
77. SearchMe - $39.6M
78. fabrik - $39.2M
79. Zynga - $39M
80. Turn - $38.5M
81. LifeLock - $37.9M
82. Digg - $37.2M
83. GreatCall - $36.6M
84. Yodlee - $35M
85. Bestofmedia Group - $35M
86. Segway - $35M
87. Angie’s List - $35M
88. hi5 - $35M
89. Lehigh Technologies - $34.5M
90. Sermo - $34.5M
91. ooma - $34M
92. Dailymotion - $34M
93. meebo - $34M
94. Clearspring - $33.5M
95. XunLight - $33M
96. Seatwave - $33M
97. Cuil - $33M
98. Dilithium Networks - $33M
99. Waterfront Media - $33M
100. Mzinga - $32.5M
101. PicScout - $32M
102. Vuze - $32M
103. Vanu - $32M
104. Pando - $31.9M
105. Etsy - $31.3M
106. BuzzNet - $31M
107. Global Roaming - $30.5M
108. NebuAd - $30.2M
109. MFG - $30M
110. Eyeblaster - $30M
111. Zazzle - $30M
112. Leapfrog on-line - $30M
113. GodTube - $30M
114. Batanga - $30M
115. VideoJug - $30M
116. Zillow - $30M
117. IGA Worldwide - $30M
118. Viagogo - $30M
119. 56.com - $30M
120. MobiTV - $30M
121. Metacafe - $30M
122. badoo - $30M
123. MOLI - $29.6M
124. Automattic - $29.5M
125. Genius - $29M
126. Intacct - $29M
127. LiveOps - $28M
128. RadioFrame - $28M
129. PGP Corporation - $27.3M
130. Milestone Systems - $27M
131. Tideway - $27M
132. Palo Alto Networks - $27M
133. BlackArrow - $26.8M
134. ChoiceStream - $26.5M
135. Solarflare - $26M
136. Ruckus - $26M
137. ContextWeb - $26M
138. Quantcast - $25.7M
139. Become - $25.5M
140. DeviceVM - $25M
141. Verimatrix - $25M
142. Optaros - $25M
143. Zecco - $25M
144. SpringSource - $25M
145. Splunk - $25M
146. InMage Systems - $25M
147. Meraki - $25M
148. Yelp - $25M
149. Nimbuzz - $25M
150. Dash - $25M
151. Trulia - $25M
152. Gemini - $25M
153. Firefly Energy - $25M
154. PharmaNation - $25M
155. Visible World - $25M
156. Reunion - $25M
157. Retail Convergence - $25M
158. Mimeo - $25M
159. Koolanoo Group - $25M
160. Aurora Biofuels - $25M

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

There isn’t another website out there that serves up more modern day myths than YouTube and so MythBusters is reaching out to the YouTube community for their ideas. Adam and Jamie are asking that ideas are submitted either by replying to the video above or posting it in the MythBusters forum. I vote for the cell phone popcorn thing. My mom stopped using her cell phone ’cause of that video. Me? I love popcorn.