Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement

Google announces free iTunes Match rival, Warner now on board Google Play has announced a free scan-and-match feature for its music locker service after acquiring the license for Warner Music Group’s catalogue. The Google offering is competes with the likes of Apple and Amazon, whose services already boast the scan-and-match features with 20,000 songs and a 256kbps MP3s upgrade element - they do, however, carry a $25 annual charge. A Google blog post announcing the matching service read: “[We’re] launching our new matching feature to streamline the process of uploading your personal music to Google Play. “We’ll scan your music collection and any song we match against the Google Play catalogue will be automatically added to your online library without needing to upload it, saving you time.” The Google download store and music locker service will be introduced into Europe on November 13, in the UK, France, Italy, Germany and Spain with the US roll out to follow “soon after”. "People need to access their existing collections.

Woops! Study Accidentally Finds Chemotherapy Makes Cancer Far Worse A team of researchers looking into why cancer cells are so resilient accidentally stumbled upon a far more important discovery. While conducting their research, the team discovered that chemotherapy actually heavily damages healthy cells and subsequently triggers them to release a protein that sustains and fuels tumor growth . Beyond that, it even makes the tumor highly resistant to future treatment . Reporting their findings in the journal Nature Medicine , the scientists report that the findings were ‘completely unexpected’. Finding evidence of significant DNA damage when examining the effects of chemotherapy on tissue derived from men with prostate cancer, the writings are a big slap in the face to mainstream medical organizations who have been pushing chemotherapy as the only option to cancer patients for years.

The state of music piracy: in-depth data from new global report Rihanna's Talk That Talk was the most-pirated album in the world in the first half of 2012, according to new data which you can read in-depth here. Musicmetric's inaugural Digital Music Index studies the extent of illegal file-sharing across the UK and the rest of the world in the six months to end of Jun 2012. The research covers music file-sharing patterns via BitTorrent over the six month period. finding that illegal-filesharing topped 33 million albums and 10 million singles in the UK. Mitt Romney's Bailout Bonanza (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) This investigation was supported by the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute and by the Puffin Foundation. Elements of it appear in Palast’s new book, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps (Seven Stories). Research assistance by Zach D.

Piracy is NOT Theft: Problems of a Nonsense Metaphor When talking about piracy the entertainment industry and politicians often use the term "theft." This is a huge problem according to the Swedish sociologist of law Stefan Larsson. In his thesis "Metaphors and Norms – Understanding Copyright Law in a Digital Society," he explains that these metaphors are in part keeping the wide gap between people's norms and the law intact. A few years ago best-selling author Paulo Coelho made a Russian translation of The Alchemist available without permission from his publisher.

Genetically Engineered Food Alters Our Digestive Systems GE organisms actually become part of the bacteria in our digestive tracts and reproduce continuously inside us. But the USDA now wants to to remove all controls from GE corn and cotton! There are no human clinical trials of genetically engineered foods. Illegal music downloads topped 43m in UK H1 2012 - report Illegal-filesharing topped 33 million albums and 10 million singles in H1 2012 in the UK, according to a new report. Musicmetric has released a study that suggests that more than twice as many albums were downloaded illegally over the six-month period as were legitimately bought through digital outlets. Conclusions have been drawn from the data suggesting that the illegal download activity equates to £500m in lost revenue at retail, although that assumes that all illegal downloaders would have bought a particular album had piracy not been an option.

Election Infographic Shows Most Educated States Voted For Obama >> Click the link to see the info graphicElection Infographic Shows Most Educated States Voted For Obama | Happy Place. Welcome to all my new readers. Please feel free to follow this blog on Facebook or on Twitter. I also have two other Facebook pages if you are interested in the topics. - Restore the Glass-Steagall Act!

The record industry fights its corner in the download age Record labels have been on the receiving end of much criticism lately. They've been criticised for heavily lobbying those involved in passing the digital economy bill, accused of greediness, of being dinosaurs, of being unwilling to embrace the internet, of treating artists unfairly – even of being obsolete. Now they're fighting back in an attempt to justify their existence. A report published this week by IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), claims that record companies invest $5bn (£3.3bn) a year worldwide in artists, and that the "ripple effect" of this investment helps generate a broader music sector, including live music, radio and publishing, worth around $160bn annually. The report also estimates that more than two million people are employed globally in the broader music economy. As much as the anti-label crusaders paint a very black-and-white picture, unfortunately, so does this IFPI report.

Ethanol Rises to One-Week High as Use Increases and Stocks Fall Ethanol rose to the highest price in a week after the Energy Department said refiners used more of the fuel last week, easing a supply glut. Prices gained after the Energy Department said stockpiles fell 5.6 percent to 18.1 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 2, the steepest drop since August 2010. Ethanol-blended gasoline made up 92 percent of total U.S. gasoline consumption, up from 91 percent the previous week. The Problem with music by Steve Albini by Steve Albini This is an article from Maximum Rock n' Roll #133 written by Steve Albini, and it details the problems encountered when dealing with a major label. Reprinted without permission. Whenever I talk to a band who are about to sign with a major label, I always end up thinking of them in a particular context.

Savita Halappanavar's medically unnecessary death A pro-choice rally in London in 2008 campaigning for the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. Photograph: Graeme Robertson "This is a Catholic country," was what Irish doctors told Savita Halappanavar after she learned she was miscarrying her pregnancy and asked for an abortion to avoid further complications. Open Music Model The Open Music Model is an economic and technological framework for the recording industry based on research conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It predicts that the playback of prerecorded music will be regarded as a service rather than individually sold products, and that the only system for the digital distribution of music that will be viable against piracy is a subscription-based system supporting file sharing and free of digital rights management. The research also suggests a price of US$5 per month for unlimited downloads as the market clearing point. Since its publication, a number of its principles have been adopted throughout the recording industry. Overview[edit]