Media Maverick

Grandma endures wrongful ISP piracy suspension

Update 9:30 a.m. PT To include e-mail exchanges between Qwest employees and Cathi Paradiso.

All Cathi "Cat" Paradiso knew for sure, as she learned that her Web access was being shut off, was that she was losing her struggle to stay calm.

To Paradiso, the customer-service representative from Qwest Communications on the phone with her could have been speaking Slovenian for all the sense it made. Her Internet service was suspended... Hollywood studios accused her of copyright violations... she illegally downloaded 18 films and TV shows..."Zombieland," "Harry Potter," "South Park..."

South Park? What would a 53-year-old grandmother more

WSJ: Amazon may again be mulling Netflix buy

As Netflix continues to build one of the most formidable online movie services, investors continue to send the company's stock price soaring.

For that reason, Amazon.com may be considering an acquisition of the Web's No. 1 movie rental service, according to a report Thursday in The Wall Street Journal.

Rumors that Netflix is an acquisition target are nothing new and the Journal story is definitely long on speculation. But the author makes a good case for why an acquisition makes sense. For the past couple years, Netflix has been one of the tech sector's most compelling more

New York examines Web marketing 'scam'

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has launched an investigation into the marketing practices of 22 online retailers, including Staples, 1-800-Flowers.com, and Orbitz.

Cuomo's office said Wednesday it issued subpoenas to the merchants and requested information about the retailers' relationships with three marketing companies, Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue. These firms have allegedly misled consumers for years into joining membership programs and paying monthly fees.

Webloyalty and the other companies are so-called post-transaction marketers that have compiled a long history of consumer complaints and class-action lawsuits. Typically, the three firms present pop-up ads to online shoppers when they're more

Jammie Thomas rejects RIAA's $25,000 settlement offer

Update 12:01 p.m. PT: To include quotes from Joe Sibley, one of Jammie Thomas-Rasset's attorneys.

The four top recording companies on Wednesday made a settlement offer to Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the Minnesota woman who was found liable last summer of willful copyright infringement and ordered by a jury to pay $1.92 million in damages.

And wasting little time, Thomas-Rasset's attorneys rejected the settlement offer almost immediately.

Days after a federal court judge reduced the damage amount to $54,000, the Recording Industry Association of America forwarded settlement terms to her more

Is music part of Apple's tablet hoopla?

At this point, it looks fairly certain that an Apple tablet computer, expected to debut on Wednesday, will offer digital books, newspapers, and video.

But what about music? Conspicuously missing from much of the speculation surrounding Apple's tablet is any word about what music features it offers. Music is the content that Apple used to forge the iTunes and iPod dynasties, and music has been an integral part of the iPhone as well.

Could music be left out of all the tablet ballyhoo?

CNET reported last week that Apple spoke to the labels recently about offering iTunes users the more

RIAA in pickle over Jammie Thomas ruling

The music industry will have to make some very tough choices within the next week about file sharer Jammie Thomas-Rasset.

The Recording Industry Association of America wants to put the Thomas-Rasset affair behind it. The Brainerd, Minn., mother--who refused to settle with the RIAA for $5,000 over copyright infringement allegations, instead fighting it out in court--has been found liable of willful copyright infringement by two different juries and was ordered to pay damages of $222,000 in her first trial (a decision later thrown out) and $1.9 million last June in her retrial.

On Friday, Michael Davis, chief more

Judge lowers Jammie Thomas' piracy penalty

Updated at 2:03 p.m. PST to include quotes from RIAA, music industry sources, and Jammie Thomas-Rasset's attorney.

A U.S. district court has dramatically slashed the amount of money a Minnesota woman must pay in damages for illegally sharing music online.

Last June, a federal jury in Minnesota found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable for willful copyright infringement and ordered her to pay nearly $2 million. Michael Davis, chief judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, chopped the amount to $54,000, or $2,250 per song.

"The need for deterrence cannot justify a $more

More on Verizon and its antipiracy efforts

CNET published a story Wednesday morning headlined "Verizon ends service of alleged illegal downloaders." In it, Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson was quoted saying the company has "cut some people off" after they were accused multiple times of illegal file sharing.

That evening, Henson said David Carnoy, a CNET executive editor, misquoted her multiple times. "Your notes are wrong," Henson wrote in an e-mail to Carnoy. Other media outlets have since reported that Henson continues to say she was misquoted.

CNET stands behind Carnoy's story, and we thought we should tell our readers why.

In short, Verizon says it has more

Apple, labels talk music in the cloud

Apple executives have spoken to the top four recording companies about plans to offer a streaming music service free of charge to consumers, multiple music industry sources told CNET.

Apple's managers haven't revealed many details about their plans but did discuss offering iTunes users a means to store copies of their music libraries on Apple's servers. The benefits to an iTunes user would include the ability to back up music and access songs off the Web from any Internet-connected device and conceivably from anywhere in the world.

Apple's song downloads apparently aren't affected. Apple has more

EMI licenses songs to new ad-supported site

EMI Music has licensed music to ad-supported music service FreeAllMusic.com, becoming the second major label to partner with the start-up.

FreeAllMusic.com, which made the announcement Tuesday, is the latest company to support the offering of free songs to the public with ad sales. Most of the companies that have attempted this have failed, including SpiralFrog, Imeem, and Ruckus.

It must be noted that Pandora, an ad-supported music company, has recently logged a profitable quarter.

That said, FreeAllMusic is no Pandora. The company's business model more closely resembles SpiralFrog's, which also gave away downloads. SpiralFrog's songs, more