Angry Birds maker doesn't sweat piracy
While Hollywood pushes to have Washington D.C. take over the internet in the name of fighting piracy, some of the most successful purveyors of digital content are heading in the opposite direction.
Take for instance Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds.
Android pays off...for Microsoft
After building the world's largest, most popular and most profitable search, Google's second greatest achievement may be building one of the world's most popular mobile operating systems, Android.
With the mobile web booming, Android could one day prove to be a very profitable initiative for Google, but ironically it's already producing a profit for one of Google's greatest competitors, Microsoft.
Picture theft and a shameful licensing shakedown: the hideous double standards of UK newspapers
Last month we were contacted by the Newspaper Licensing Agency, which is owned by the UK’s national newspapers. It wanted to sell us a ‘newspaper copyright licence’. The licence would ensure that we become “copyright protected”.
Apparently we need a licence if we share press cuttings internally. It also applies to links shared that include “text extracts to explain what the link is”.
A licence is also required for photocopying newspaper content, scanning and email cuttings, printing from a newspaper’s website, cutting and emailing text from a newspaper website, and putting any cuttings on our website.
Much of this doesn’t apply to our organisation, but we want to make sure that we’re operating in an ethical manner and are keen to abide by the rules.
The issue is that the rules are:
a) flaky
b) self-defeating, and...
c) being set by people who aren’t really in any position to set them.
Let me explain.
Mandatory licensing for ad professionals: worst idea ever?
Have you been asked by a local business to develop an ad strategy, manage a company's paid search campaign or create promotional flyers for a nightclub?
If some in the ad industry have their way, you'd need a license to do all of those things.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda: the movie studios and their Netflix stock
Last month, beleaguered video rental chain Blockbuster filed for
bankruptcy. While the company's demise can be blamed on a number of
factors, it's hard to ignore one: the rise of Netflix.
Netflix, which is now an $8bn corporation trading at just over
$153 per share, looks poised to capture a big part of the nascent streaming
business.
Foursquare looks to ink search deals, but is it smart business for the search engines?
Is Foursquare about to go 'mainstream' like Twitter before it? The Telegraph thinks so.
In terms of size, Foursquare is still just a baby. Its growth is impressive and it just surpassed 2m registered users, but in the overall scheme of things, that's still a relatively small number. But soon, Foursquare and Twitter may share a potentially important business accomplishment: deals with major search engines.
Should the AP pay Woot $17.50 for a quote?
The founder of Woot, Matt Rutledge, may be a wealthier man following
Amazon.com's acquisition of his company, but that isn't stopping him from
sending a clear message to the Associated Press: you owe me $17.50. Why
does the AP owe Rutledge? According to Rutledge, AP violated his
copyright when they included a quote from Rutledge's email to Woot
employees in their story about the acquisition.
The quote: "For Woot, our vision remains the same: somehow earning a living on snarky commentary and junk."
Flickr partners with Getty Images for user-licensed photos
Snap the perfect photo that you're uploading to Flickr? Find the perfect photo on Flickr for an article you're writing? Thanks to an expanded relationship between Flickr and Getty Images, licensing that perfect Flickr photo is now a lot easier.
Based on the apparent success of the Flickr Collection on Getty Images, the companies have launched a new 'Request to License' program that could significantly expand the pool of Flickr photos that are available for licensing.
Equity for tech licenses? No thanks
An interesting fact about personal finance startup Mint.com, which recently sold to Intuit for $170m: the account aggregation technology that powers Mint.com is licensed from a company called Yodlee.
Yodlee, which was founded in 1999, has raised over $100m in funding. While it operates its own consumer-facing personal finance website, its core business is in licensing its technology to others. Its licensees include startups similar in nature to Mint.com as well as major financial institutions like Bank of America.
Dumb move of the year: NLA to charge for newspaper web links
Newspapers are in trouble. Few dispute that. The question on the minds of industry participants and observers is simply: "How do we save them?"
In an effort to desperately find a new source of revenue for its members, the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) is making a bone-headed move: charging PR agencies for links to newspaper websites that they send to clients.
It is nothing short of preposterous.
