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Los Angeles Times Debuts My LATimes RSS News Feed Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 25, 2007 - 12:50pm.

Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Times Media Group on Thursday announced the launch of My LATimes, a free, customizable RSS news feed service. My LATimes will allow readers to subscribe to a personalized feed of stories of their choosing from The Times, as well as from "a select group of online news sites recommended by Times editors -- a key differentiator from other customizable news aggregators," the company said. In connection with the launch, the company has added links that allow users to subscribe to My LATimes from every article page on its website.

tags: RSS | Newspapers | Publishing | L.A. Times | My LATimes |

L.A. Times: Documentary Filmmaker Accuses MPAA of Pirating His Movie

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 26, 2006 - 8:18am.
Park City, Utah - The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has itself been accused of piracy, for making an unauthorized copy of a documentary by director Kirby Dick that explores the MPAA's movie ratings system. "We made a copy of Kirby's movie because it had implications for our employees," Kori Bernards, the MPAA's vice president for corporate communications, told the Times. Bernards alleged that Dick followed members of the MPAA ratings board as they drove their kids to school, and also went through their garbage. "We were concerned about the raters and their families," Bernards said, adding, "The courts recognize that parties are entitled to make a copy of a work for use as evidence in possible future proceedings."
tags: MPAA | Movie | Filmmaker | L.A. Times | Documentary |

L.A. Times: LibriVox Offering Free Public Domain Audiobooks

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 17, 2006 - 2:31am.
Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Times recently reported on a growing number of volunteers who are making recordings of public domain books that be downloaded for free on the Internet. The amateur readers often do not offer the nuanced performances of some publishers' audiobooks, which can cost up to $50. But a group called LibriVox has compiled a library of 15 free amateur audiobooks, of works including "Treasure Island," "Notes From the Underground" and "A Christmas Carol."
tags: Domain | L.A. Times | LibriVox | Audiobooks |

L.A. Times: "Billionaire Plays Her Cards Right in Online 'Gray Market'"

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 28, 2005 - 9:58am.
Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Times recently profiled Ruth Parasol, a 38-year-old mother of two from Marin County, Calif. who has become a self-made billionaire with Internet ventures including the gambling site PartyPoker.com. "Before founding PartyPoker, Parasol spent years bankrolling or advising some con men and shysters, but she has never been accused of a crime or questioned by law enforcement," the Times reports. "Associates describe her as perennially happy and even bubbly, a licensed pilot with an instinct for getting in early and profiting from what one of her legal advisors calls 'gray-market opportunities' before the rules of the game change."
tags: Internet | L.A. Times | Gray Market | Billionaire |

L.A. Times: Schwarzenegger Has Until Friday on Violent Video Game Law

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 5, 2005 - 9:47am.
Los Angeles - The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday reported on the issue of violence and explicit sexual content in video games, and the current efforts of lawmakers in several states and in Congress to impose restrictions on their sale. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until midnight Thursday to sign or veto a bill passed in the state Assembly, which would ban the sale of violent video games to minors, and require California retailers to take steps to more prominently display video game ratings.
tags: Law | Violent Video Game | L.A. Times | Schwarzenegger |

L.A. Times: Sony BMG, Grokster Partner on Mashboxx Song Download Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2004 - 4:25am.
Los Angeles -- The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that, in a major departure from the industry's legal campaign against peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, major record label Sony BMG is cooperating with Grokster -- a file-sharing company it also sued for copyright infringement -- on a new venture called Mashboxx that will offer its songs as paid downloads. Mashboxx is being headed by former Grokster president Wayne Rosso, who resigned last year to head Spanish P2P firm Blubster. While it's unclear if Mashboxx will be a true peer-to-peer service, people familiar with the venture told The Times that it would likely only offers users who search for a Sony BMG track the ability to download an authorized version of the song, such as a free low-quality version that included an offer to buy the CD-quality version. The service will also likely use technology developed by Snocap, a start-up founded by Napster founder Shawn Fanning. The Times reported that impetus for the Mashboxx project came from Sony BMG CEO Andrew Lack, who has urged other labels to support the venture.
tags: Music | Sony BMG | Download | Deal | Grokster | L.A. Times | Mashboxx |

L.A. Times: MIT Music Service Asked to Remove Universal's Songs

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 31, 2003 - 8:58am.
Los Angeles -- A new MIT campus music service, which looked to sidestep added royalty payments by distributing music over the school's analog cable TV network, has had to remove one major label's music, The Los Angeles Times reported. MIT's Library Access to Music Project (LAMP), invented by two students at the university, lets users trade-off playing DJ by choosing songs from 3,500 CDs, provided in digital form by Seattle-based Loudeye Technologies. It was Loudeye which did not have permission to distribute the tracks to MIT, said Universal Music Group, when it asked the school to remove UMG songs from the LAMP service. While MIT said it thought Loudeye had the appropriate licenses, Loudeye said it simply provided MIT with files and the school was then responsible for securing necessary licenses. "It is unfortunate that MIT launched a service in an attempt to avoid paying recording artists, union musicians and record labels. Loudeye recognized that they had no right to deliver Universal's music to the MIT service, and MIT acted responsibly by removing the music," Kelly Mullens, a spokeswoman for Universal Music, told The Times.
tags: L.A. Times | Music Service | MIT | Universal's Songs |

L.A. Times: Apple Interested in Acquiring Universal Music Group

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 11, 2003 - 2:25am.
Los Angeles -- The Los Angeles Times reported on Friday that Apple Computer is in talks with Franco-American media conglomerate Vivendi Universal to purchase its Universal Music Group of record labels for as much as $6 billion. Both Apple and UMG declined to comment on the deal, which would unburden debt-laden Vivendi of a unit that saw its operating profit fall 23 percent to $510 million last year. Apple would gain a record label group responsible for generating 25 percent of the world's CD sales, and plant Apple firmly as the leader in the digital music industry, despite its holding only around 3 percent of the computer market. Sources within Apple have told various publications that the company is working to launch its own digital music distribution service, and has already secured licenses from four of the five major record labels.
tags: Apple | Universal Music | L.A. Times |