Culture and Society

This is exactly what it will take to push U.S. broadband usage into the South Korean range: Verizon Communications, the largest U.S. local phone company, on Tuesday launched a service that will provide customers with wireless Internet access on high-speed networks throughout New York City. Verizon, which is based in …

Universal Music Group sues Bertelsmann over Napster backing: The world’s largest record label is suing Bertelsmann AG, saying the German media conglomerate’s investment in Napster enabled music piracy on a massive and unprecedented scale — and it should pay for the thievery. Universal Music Group’s suit, filed Monday in U.S. …

MSN launched its Radio Plus service Monday night: Radio Plus marks a significant departure for MSN in that it is the first entertainment content to get a paid version. That’s an indication of things to come, according to Microsoft. “We look at it as a first step in a much …

Internet news services in South Korea are quickly working into the mainstream: The firm hold the mainstream press has enjoyed for half a century over the flow of information is being pried open. The changes have been so widespread that some political observers partly attribute the recent election of left-wing …

New devices to record any radio program, convert it into a digital format for listening or upload onto a PC: Like TiVo, the audio recorders will let customers fast-forward over commercials — although this isn’t a feature the industry is actively promoting. “What you do with it is your own …

One of the single most important individuals in the establishment of tbomedia.co.uk, John Scalzi, has some very exciting news: Today is the official release date for The Rough Guide to the Universe. That’s in the US, mind you; in the UK, it’s already been out for a month, and I’m …

The RIAA mistakenly harassed Penn State’s department of astronomy and astrophysics about a nonexistent MP3 file on their computer – then – apologized for it: Last Thursday, the RIAA sent a stiff copyright warning to Penn State’s department of astronomy and astrophysics. Department officials at first were puzzled, because the …

I still don’t see Apple’s Music Store as anything revolutionary, it’s just a refinement of what has been going on for some time. But if a lot of other people see it as a revolution, that’s okay with me – the perception is as important as the reality and a …

Jamees Russell linked here yesterday to a story about Google seeking to adjust or even filter out blogs from its search results. This is certainly a concern, although I am not sure we will be classified as a blog under their valuation system – we are more of an online …

English band Hell Is For Heroes having success with interactive music video: [EMI] home to the likes of Robbie Williams, Coldplay, Blur and Radiohead, has already produced the world’s first fully interactive video and is so pleased with the results that it plans to repeat the trick with several of …