Category: today’s top story

The RIAA sued a woman for illegally sharing copies of recordings. The judge levied $220,000 in damages against her. “The jury ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay the six record companies that sued her $9,250 for each of 24 songs they focused on in the case. They had alleged she shared 1,702 songs in all.”

Testimony has wrapped up in the first trial of an alleged file-sharing music thief in Duluth, Minnesota, and a verdict is possible as early as today. The defendant, who called no witnesses in her defense, is counting on a jury made up of people who described themselves as not computer-savvy to believe her contention that, despite circumstantial evidence linking her to the downloads, she was not the user who downloaded 1,700 songs without paying.

The glittering new addition to Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum apparently has a bit of a structural problem. “Water penetrated the north end of the long window of the C5 restaurant, and puddles have appeared near windows on the third and fourth floors.” The leaks have been patched, “but it’s clear, four months into the Crystal’s life, the new spaces pose huge challenges, and leaks are the least of them.”

“The bloggers and reading groups often claim that they would rather get recommendations from someone they know, someone with similar tastes. One problem with this is that the public are relying on a reviewing system that confirms and assuages their prejudices rather than challenges them. An able and experienced critic, with sufficient authority, could once persuade readers to give unfamiliar work a second chance, to see things they did not see at first glance. In that respect, critics can be the harbingers of the new. Can we rely on the bloggers to bring vital if alienating art to a wide audience?”

“The results of (Radiohead’s online, pay-what-you-wish) experiment will be hard to judge unless the band reveals how many albums it sells and what people paid. It should share that information because it could be vital to the health of the music industry. There’s a wide gap between the demand for music and the public’s willingness to pay for it, yet the most popular legal outlet for music online — Apple’s iTunes store — gives artists and labels little pricing flexibility.”

“The gamble of free admissions at Baltimore’s two largest art museums seems to be paying off. Admissions are soaring, and both the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Walters Art Museum report that they are attracting a more diverse crowd than ever before. Museum memberships have decreased, as was expected, but total donations are up,” and “administrators are triumphantly declaring their bold free-for-all experiment a success.”

“Deteriorating Smithsonian facilities have damaged historic airplanes, threatened collections and resulted in the leakage of tens of millions of gallons of water at National Zoo enclosures, while cuts in security staff have exposed artifacts in the institution’s 18 museums to vandalism and theft.”

“The established entertainment industries have become cynical and complacent in their years of creative superiority. But while the TV and movie-types have been air-kissing, computer games makers have been developing a business which has outperformed Hollywood’s annual box office takings for several years. Halo 3 alone is expected to pip Spiderman 3 by taking more in one night than the summer blockbuster took on its opening weekend. Should the traditional media feel threatened? You’d better believe it.”

“Thirty-five years after Pong, fans and critics still debate whether video games can legitimately be called art. Certainly, whatever artistic potential that games have, few, if any, have fulfilled it. Halo 3 hasn’t changed that. Games boast ever richer and more realistic graphics, but this has actually inhibited their artistic growth. The ability to convincingly render any scene or environment has seduced game designers into thinking of visual features as the essence of the gaming experience.”

“In the question of whether Hollywood can sell its antiwar agenda, perhaps the issue isn’t liberal versus conservative, but earnest versus escapist. … But Hollywood may not be the most reliable of institutions to serve as a national conscience. Movies are a business first, a harbinger second.” And whether there’s a substantial audience willing to fork over cash to see the new anti-war films is an open question.