Tuesday, May 04, 2004

Recording companies agree to pay $50M to artists Major recording companies have agreed to return nearly $50 million in unclaimed royalties to Sean Combs, Gloria Estefan, Dolly Parton and thousands of lesser known musicians under a settlement announced Tuesday. A two-year investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office found that many artists were not being paid royalties because record companies lost contact with the performers and had stopped making required payments.  . . . Spitzer had no explanation when asked how companies could lose contact with such big-name artists. [Salon.com/AP] I dunno . . . greed? 9:35:05 PM    comment []

Hollywood Star's Wartime Secret Becomes a Screenplay. The Hedy Lamarr story: does it sound like the plot of a movie? The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which typically supports science and technology projects, thinks so. By Kenneth Chang. [New York Times: Science] 5:05:23 PM    comment []

World Briefing: Europe. IRAN: Court Reissues Death Sentence On Lecturer;. By The New York Times. [New York Times: International] 7:27:31 AM    comment []

Open Net Initiative : The IBB's Anonymizer Service in Iran. Keyword blacklists, holes in privacy protection services ... you know the drill. [Infothought] 7:27:26 AM    comment []

Ars Electronica prizes awarded (thanks, Cory (who thanks Jose)!) 7:22:46 AM    comment []

Mashup Artists Face the Music. Mashups -- a style of music remix -- are getting more attention, thanks to David Bowie. The publicity is forcing artists to think about the form's legal nuances. By Daniel Terdiman. [Wired News] 7:21:28 AM    comment []

Four years ago in my blogging: a look back thirty years -- now thirty-four -- when soldiers of the Ohio National Guard opened fire at Kent State University, killing not only nonviolent protesters, but also students on their way to class or lunch. National Day of Prayer VBS/LoveLetter a VBScript worm that propagates by e-mail, especially relying on Microsoft Outlook Phil Greenspun answered questions about his plans for a tuition-free program in computer science that's intended to provide the equivalent of four years' worth of CompSci in a single, 6-day-a-week, 12-hour-a-day year Wyoming has become the first state to provide every one of its public schools with Internet access the disadvantages of isolation have been neutralized. This is a significant accomplishment considering that of Wyoming's 234 elementary schools, 19 have less than 10 students. Carly Fiorna: The fact is that diversity is not a hiring practice or a hiring priority in many Silicon Valley companies . . .As a result, this industry has far too much conformity. Worcester Polytechnic Institute's online music library Online Grad Student Says Unmotivated Teachers Are a Problem in Distance Education. In the Village Voice, DOWN BY LAW BY JEFF HOWE is about Eric (2600)Corley's deCSS lawsuit. An interesting Alex Cockburn piece about the left and the right 25 years after Viet Nam. 7:18:04 AM    comment []

Milberg Weiss Becomes 2 Firms. By Bloomberg News. By Bloomberg News. [New York Times: Business] 7:10:42 AM    comment []