Oprah Windfall’s book club is back – now she is focusing on classics to turn into instant bestsellers: Oprah Winfrey (news) was sitting under an oak tree in California last summer, reading John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” and loving it, when she realized that just telling a few friends about …

Forbes says if you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em: Once seemingly moribund, UHF-giant Paxson Communications has seen its stock nearly triple, from $2.10 in late March to a recent $6.25. Behind the sharp price increase: the Federal Communications Commission’s revamped media ownership rules, says Ronald Young, an analyst with Evergreen …

More copyright nightmares: Fan fiction – fiction created using characters and scenarios from books, TV, film, etc., is flourishing due to the Internet, and the largest body of all centers around Harry Potter. J.K. is tolerant unless the material veers into the “adult” range: As fans await the June 21 …

This is very interesting: My name is Jed Horovitz. I run a very small company that distributes the movie previews you see in your local video store. We have about a half dozen employees. We’ve been doing that for 16 years. In 1998, we started to help retailers like Netflix.com …

Company seeks to thread needle between consumer freedom and people getting paid for online music: In effect, Mediacode is attempting to re-create online what the music industry has in the physical world. There, standards for compact discs enable artists, labels, gear manufacturers, distributors and retailers to offer music and players …

An ode to the Pod: For some time, therefore, I have been eyeing the iPod with a wary desire. It is beautiful and clever, holding thousands of songs in magical digital form within its sleek, pristine loveliness. There is a nifty wheely control and it glows warmly when you touch …

Stars popping up virtually like flowers in the spring, or weeds: The hottest spot for star-gazing these days? Try the cyberspace gaming realm. Virtual versions of stars such as Christina Aguilera, Method Man and Alex Trebek are popping up in video games, and it looks like a lot more digi-stars …

When you pay the Apple Music Store, MusicNet, Pressplay, or Rhapsody your $.99 fora tune, where does the money go? Check out the cool graph at Business 2.0. According to them, 40% goes to the hosting site, 30% to the label, 12% (average) to the artist, 10% to various slug …

Rep. Mary Bono, widow of Sonny Bono, copyright beneficiary, copyright fanatic, may be in line to replace Hilary Rosen as head of the RIAA: Bono, R-Calif., said she hasn’t considered whether she would accept a prospective offer to replace the departing chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America …

Nothing in this libertarian old-time religion sermon from the Cato Institute about the effects of media consolidation as let loose by the last media buying frenzy, nothing about the finite resources PUBLICLY owned and the responsibility for serving the public good, nothing about the disappearance of localism other than to …