| Music company will pay $4.25 million after probe into anti-privacy software | | Posted Wednesday, December 27, 2006 3:11:21 PM by Blog57 Team | | LOS ANGELES - Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $4.25 million as part of a settlement with Oregon and 38 other states to resolve investigations into problems caused by music CDs loaded with hidden anti-piracy software.Under terms of Thursday's agreement, which also applies to the District of Columbia, the record company will reimburse consumers whose computers were damaged while trying to uninstall the anti-piracy software.Sony BMG also said it will no longer distribute any compact discs loaded with copy-protection software that hinders computer users from easily locating it or removing it from their PCs.The office of Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly took the lead in brokering the multistate agreement, which was expected to be filed Thursday in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston.“If companies want to use technology to protect their interests, they need to be up front with consumers, and give consumers the opportunity to make informed choices about buying and using these products," Reilly said in a prepared statement.Thirteen states that started the settlement process with Sony BMG will each receive $316,538, while the rest will get $5,000, Reilly's office said.... | |
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| | | Music producer Universal gets a cut of Microsoft's Zune | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 3:42:20 AM by Blog57 Team | | Setting an industry first, Microsoft Corp. agreed to give Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group a cut of sales from the software maker's Zune digital media player to gain the music company's backing for its bid to take market share from Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod. Without the deal signed Wednesday, Microsoft would have been forced to begin selling Zune on Nov. 14 without songs from the world's largest music company. Similar offers have been made to other major and independent labels that are providing music, Microsoft Marketing General Manager Chris Stephenson said in an interview. Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, described the accord as a move to gain an edge over iPod, which has 75 percent of the U.S. market for digital music players, by showing Zune's commitment to the industry.... | |
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| | | Rock or Bach: Create Your Own Masterpiece with PROTÉGÉ | | Posted Friday, November 10, 2006 1:31:58 PM by Blog57 Team | | Just in time for the holiday season, NOTION Music, Inc., the creators of music composition and performance software, introduce PROTÉGÉ, a new program that is easy enough for beginners and yet robust enough for seasoned musicians. PROTÉGÉ allows musicians of all skill levels to write, rehearse and perform their compositions as if they were working with a full ensemble of musicians. By including more than 100,000 sounds recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road Studios, and offering add-ons that include rock and rhythm section sounds, PROTÉGÉ gives users the freedom to explore their imaginations while composing music. Available for $99 through the NOTION website, www.notionmusic.com, PROTÉGÉ has been designed to: improve sense of pitch and tonality; allow musicians to edit, save and practice songs based on their own interpretations; accompany primary instruments or small ensembles; create playback directly from notation; compose, explore and manipulate in-depth scores; and upgrade to more complex programs to match skill-level as needed.... | |
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| | | Brooks sells software unit for $125M | | Posted Monday, November 06, 2006 7:31:45 PM by Blog57 Team | | Chelmsford-based Brooks Automation Inc. reports signing an agreement to sell its software division, Brooks Software, to California's Applied Materials Inc. for $125 million. Completion of the transaction is subject to applicable regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions, company officials said. .... | |
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| | | Nokia, Rotana music deal | | Posted Thursday, November 02, 2006 11:32:09 AM by Blog57 Team | | Users of select Nokia phones will have access to a vast library of Arabic music, following a deal between the mobile phone maker and Rotana, Emirates Today reports. The Rotana application will be embedded in new Nokia N3250 and N91 phones. The software can also be downloaded from the Rotana website. The service will be expanded to other models in the future. .... | |
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| | | Bits&Bytes: South Side's Silver Tree readying 3-D software | | Posted Saturday, October 28, 2006 11:28:51 AM by Blog57 Team | | The local gaming industry -- not casinos, but video games -- has been getting its fair share of attention. Amid all of the hullabaloo, South Side-based family operation SilverTree Media has been lying low -- readying its 3-D simulation software for the market. The first of Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center's student gaming spinouts, SilverTree was founded in August 2004 by a family of adopted Pittsburghers. Former financial executive-turned-Chief Executive Officer Nate Smith and his brothers, Ben and Tom, hail from Princeton, N.J. Nate Smith's wife, Jennifer Smith, who is also SilverTree's director of business development, is from Montreal. "We wanted to get our story together before we had anything to say," Mrs. Smith said. A grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development got the quartet started working with UPMC critical care physician Mike DeVita to use 3-D technology to train medical teams to respond to hospital emergencies.... | |
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| | | Thomas Dolby: The Silence is Over, the Science is Back | | Posted Tuesday, October 24, 2006 3:12:48 AM by Blog57 Team | | If you're wondering what Thomas Dolby has done in the two decades since he cunningly fused pop and electronic music, the answer is in the palm of your hand. Twelve years ago Dolby left music and proceeded to develop the Beatnik software technology used in two-thirds of the world's cell phones. Unlike many performers who return to the stage, he doesn't need to do it for the money. Pumped up by new technologies and changing business models in the music industry, and re-invigorated by reaction to his initial tour dates earlier this year, Dolby is writing his first album of new music since the early '90s. But before we partake of the new, Dolby will take us on a guided tour of the old with a fall U.S. tour (co-billed with fellow electronic pioneer BT) and a live retrospective CD and DVD.... | |
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| | | Software provides 2 backup and restore options. | | Posted Thursday, October 19, 2006 11:08:10 PM by Blog57 Team | | True Image Home v10 provides imaging of entire system or file-based backup of individual files and folders. Disk imaging backup creates image of hard disk drive data including OS, applications, and user settings, while application-based file backup recovers specific music, photo, video, and email files. Enabling users to create backup rules and policies, software also provides password security for laptops and remote devices. .... | |
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| | | FreeHand Systems Closes Acquisition of Electronic Courseware ... | | Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 1:11:42 PM by Blog57 Team | | LOS ALTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FreeHand Systems, Inc., subsidiary of FreeHand Systems International, Inc. (OTC:FSYI) announced today that it has completed the previously announced acquisition of Illinois-based Electronic Courseware Systems, Inc. (ECS), a privately held computer software developer and publisher of music and music education products. The acquisition continues to expand FreeHand's mission of reinventing how musicians read and perform music. "With the acquisition of Electronic Courseware Systems, we now have additional software and product knowledge to assist in furthering the MusicPad Pro® as a music education tool. We look forward to working with David Peters' and his team to more aggressively market their products and to incorporate them in the MusicPad," says Kim Lorz, CEO of Freehand Systems.... | |
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| | | Students back regulations for personal music players | | Posted Sunday, October 15, 2006 11:10:56 PM by Blog57 Team | | A group of Montague High School students will join numerous physicians, audiologists and educators in making presentations this week at a national conference focused on noise-induced hearing loss in children. The seven freshmen, who completed a school project last year on youth hearing loss stemming from personal music players, will make a presentation to the entire conference group and staff an information booth during the two-day conference Thursday and Friday in Cincinnati. The students will present the results of their research on decibel levels generated by portable music players, which includes testimony from experts on hearing loss. The presentation, "Can You Hear Me Now?" earned a superior rating at a state competition at the Capitol building in Lansing.... | |
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