An art storage company in the UK has been court ordered to pay £350,000 in damages for accidentally throwing out an artwork by Turner Prize winner Anish Kapoor. The ruling was a compromise between two widely differing value assessments of the destroyed work.
Tag: 03.16.07
Google/Viacom – Which Side Should You Root For?
“Yes, YouTube was a hip and clever little startup that did good for its global village of users, but now it’s a byproduct of a corporate giant, much like Viacom. Is there anything less sexy than a bloody battle for cash between two Goliaths? As many experts are noting, this lawsuit is a negotiating tool.”
Your New Personalized Radio
“Users who log on to Slacker can begin listening to music from more than 10,000 stations that are built around specific artists and preprogrammed genres. Users also can create their own stations by indicating what types of songs they want and letting the Slacker “DJ” — a mostly automated system based on complicated algorithms — fill out the station program with more content.”
A Thriving Music Business (Just Not Big Labels)
“Shrinking CD sales and major-label downsizing only tell one side of the story. The other side is that a lot of independent labels, touring acts and their attendant hangers-on seem to be doing very well on a scale smaller than that to which the business might be accustomed, but with a reach extending further than previously thought possible.”
Mark Twain’s Passion For Money
“A new book about the ‘father of American literature’ contends that his greater interest lay in the speculation, invention and money-making schemes that took him and his fortunes on a roller-coaster ride throughout his life.”
Hard Times For Iraq’s Music Business
“Approximately 1.8 million Iraqis have fled the country in nearly four years of violence since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Amid the chaos, Shiite and Sunni Muslim extremists have grown bolder in enforcing religious strictures — forcing stores selling CDs and DVDs to shut down. Sometimes, employees of those shops have been killed.”
CBS To Provide Clips To YouTube
While Viacom sues Youtube for $1 billion, CBS makes a deal to provide clips of shows to the online sharing service. Which strategy is the future?
Re: Viacom’s $1 Billion Lawsuit
“What the courts may settle is this: Is copyright ownership enduring and inviolate, as old media companies believe? Or is it a more transitory function that technology is overrunning anyway, even as its weakening will ultimately be good for everyone? And doesn’t our mash-up era, in which compelling new works of art are created by combining perhaps less compelling old ones, prove the point that you can’t really own an intellectual idea, even if copyright law thinks you can?”
Judge Orders Company To Pay For Destroying Kapoor Sculpture
A judge has ordered a company that mistakenly destroyed an Anish Kapoor sculpture by putting it in the trash to pay the owner £350,000. “The judge ruled that the 1984 sculpture, Hole and Vessel II, was put in a skip during building works in 2004 and later destroyed at a waste plant.”
John Cage Trust Moves To Bard
The John Cage Trust is moving to Bard College. “The Trust, which oversees Cage’s works and performances, is to be called the John Cage Trust at Bard College effective as of its move in the spring. Previously, the Cage Trust had been housed in the Archive Building in the West Village in Manhattan; after 9/11 Kuhn and the Trust moved to Phoenix, Arizona.”