“The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal … effectively let[ting] stand a jury’s $675,000 damages award against Joel Tenenbaum, a former Boston University student who admitted to downloading some 30 songs on the unlicensed file-sharing service Kazaa.”
Tag: 05.21.12
Waterstones To Sell Amazon Kindles And E-Books
“Waterstones has announced a surprise tie-up with Amazon that will enable shoppers to pluck ebooks as well as physical books from its shelves.”
Sydney’s Creating Its Own Large-Scale Musicals, But Lacks Theatres To House Them
“No longer middle managers of the syndicated variety, Australian producers are developing and staging significant commercial vehicles of their own: Dr Zhivago last year, Strictly Ballroom next. But where to put them? Sydney’s disgraceful record of pulling down, burning down or neglecting its historic theatres leaves it with a dearth of older-style venues to take these larger shows.”
South Africa’s President Sues Over Satiric Portrait Depicting His ‘Spear’
“A painting [titled The Spear] by a white Cape Town artist, Brett Murray, depicting South African President Jacob Zuma as Soviet leader Lenin – but with his genitals exposed – has caused a storm of controversy. Zuma and the ruling African National Congress have sued the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg to force it to take down the work.”
US Federal Court Finds California Resale Royalty Act Unconstitutional
“You can almost hear the sighs of relief coming from art galleries and auction houses up and down California: Federal Judge Jacqueline Nguyen has declared the California Resale Royalty Act unconstitutional. The highly controversial, widely misunderstood and little enforced state law that took effect in 1977 was designed to provide artists with 5% of their resale prices under certain conditions.”
Star Of UK’s Coronation Street Musical Says It’s ‘Bedlam’
“Paul O’Grady has spoken out for the first time about his experiences working on the ‘postponed’ musical Street of Dreams, labelling it ‘bedlam’ and calling on the show’s producers to pay all of the cast and crew involved immediately.” O’Grady, who plays the narrator of the show based on the long-running soap opera, called the show’s producers “incompetent, inept and unprofessional.”
Can Cable-Style Edgy Drama Series Work On Major Network TV?
For all the high-profile success of shows about urban grit (The Wire, Boardwalk Empire), serial killers (Dexter), and vampires (True Blood), “there is no guarantee the mass audiences that tune into broadcast networks – or their advertisers – will be as enthusiastic.”
Houghton Mifflin Files For Bankruptcy Protection
“Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishers Inc, whose textbooks have been a staple in American schoolhouses for decades” – and which publishes such evergreens as the Curious George series and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy – “filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday after agreeing with creditors to eliminate $3.1 billion of debt.”
Leaky Roof Drain Stops The Show At Miami’s Arsht Center
Shortly after internmission at last night’s performance of The Lion King, the audience was told to evacuate. [B]uckets dotted the lobby’s floor and water dripped from light fixtures.” Flooding on the roof following a 1-2″ rainstorm (common in a Miami summer) caused a drain pipe leak.
What TED Has Devolved Into (A Brief Polemic)
Alex Pareene: “At this point TED is a massive, money-soaked orgy of self-congratulatory futurism, with multiple events worldwide, awards and grants to TED-certified high achievers, and a list of speakers that would cost a fortune if they didn’t agree to do it for free out of public-spiritedness.”