michael

Michael Jackson's company denies Beatles coming to iTunes

The company that owns the rights to a vast majority of The Beatles music catalog has questioned reports that the Fab Four have cut a deal with Steve Jobs.

Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the joint venture owned by Sony and singer Michael Jackson, has thrown cold water on newspaper stories out of London that The Beatles catalog would soon be available on iTunes. A spokeswoman for Sony/ATV Music Publishing told CNET News.com that the reports are "untrue."

Sony/ATV is a pretty good source. While EMI Group owns the recording rights to The Beatles catalog, Sony … Read more

Bill Gates, on Yahoo's trail, says China's online restrictions won't succeed

Microsoft is not a beacon of free expression in the face of China's government restrictions on online speech. But in a talk at Stanford, he said no one can control free expression on the web.

"I don't see any risk in the world at large that someone will restrict free content flow on the Internet," Gates said, according to IDC news service. "You cannot control the Internet."

As the article notes, Microsoft has been complicit in Chinese censorship. In the most high-profile case, the company shut down a blog by Michael Anti, a blogger … Read more

Thriller turns 25

Just when you though it was safe to walk around the graveyard at night, Michael Jackson's Thriller is back to remind us that's not such a good idea. It's about time we reflect on MJ's music (not his personal life) and celebrate the 25th anniversary of the biggest selling album of all time. Legacy Recordings just reissued the CD with shiny new packaging, a bonus DVD, and previously unreleased tracks, such as remixes by and/or with Kanye West, Will.i.am, Fergie, and Akon.

And to add to the big event, Michaeljackson.com is presenting &… Read more

Where Randall promises he won't walk out this episode

EPISODE 34

Today, we rant about how J.R.R Tolkien's estate took home a whopping $62,000 from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. $62,000--that's like your dad's salary for a movie trilogy that grossed over $8 billion worldwide. Plus, we talk Fight Club reborn on Broadway, and Thriller's 25th anniversary netting some awful bonus tracks.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

The real 'High Fidelity': The little record store that could

UPDATE: I just heard the sad news that Future Legend will be closing its doors later this month. I have personally bought more than 200 CDs over the years from that little shop, but now I'll have to go elsewhere for my weekly fix. If you're in NYC drop by and pick up bargains, starting today, 2/6/08, Future Legend will begin selling all merchandise at 50% off the sticker price.

I want to tell you about my favorite record store, Future Legend. I drop in every week to see what's new, and talk about music … Read more

Founder of MP3.com starts business-info wiki

Serial entrepreneur Michael Robertson has started a new business-information site called Dealipedia.

Robertson, founder of such companies as MP3.com and Linspire, is relying on the wisdom of crowds to supply information on IPOs, mergers, acquisitions, closings, bankruptcies, and investments. He said that Wikipedia has proven that allowing the masses to provide and edit information works.

Dealipedia is a "combination (of) news, reference and perhaps a bit of gossip for business deals," Robertson said in an e-mail to CNET News.com.

At Dealipedia.com, I clicked on the site's "Who Made the Money" section to … Read more

The Rolling Stone cover story Michael Moore never wrote

Moore was asked by Rolling Stone to interview the top three democratic candidates for a cover story. As he explains in a recent letter on the eve of today's Iowa caucus at MichaelMoore.com, the story never ran.

Moore opens his letter with a New Year's salutation and goes on to express his indignation at President Bush. He then notes "That the Democratic front-runners are a less-than-stellar group of candidates, and that none of them are the 'slam dunk' we wish they were."

Two months ago Moore set out to interview the big three Democratic contenders (Clinton, Obama, and Edwards) for Rolling Stone. While both Senator Edwards and Senator Obama agreed to sit down and chat, Senator Clinton refused and the cover story was killed pursuant to Moore's agreement with the magazine to interview all three.

It's not clear from the letter whether Moore was still able to interview Obama and Edwards. Most of the post is spent lambasting Clinton for her voting record on the war; he also criticizes her for taking more contributions from the health care industry than any other candidate.

… Read more

The enduring allure of Stonebraker's ideas

Michael Stonebraker may have already secured his place in database history, but that doesn't mean he's used up all his ideas. The man behind the Postgres database, database specialist Ingres, and more is puttering away at not one, but two start-ups: StreamBase Systems, founded in 2003, and more so Vertica Systems, which is younger still. And he's reportedly brainstorming about his next concept. Venture capitalists and Wall Street CIOs alike are keen to hear what he has to say.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe: "Software pioneer is 'Johnny Appleseed' of start-ups"

Blognation to be put up for auction

The founder of Blognation is stepping down and putting the blogger network on the auction block six months after launching the site.

"I have announced internally that I am stepping down from blognation and that the company will be put up for auction, like edgeio, to ensure that the idea and vision can go forward and that ALL the (cr)editors are rewarded for their loyalty and hardwork," writes founder Sam Sethi.

Sethi was fired from Michael Arrington's TechCrunch a year ago and blames him for not being able to get funding for Blognation.

Jason Lee Miller … Read more