The city of Minneapolis is to go wireless. The city will be covered with a wireless internet connection available to anyone. “Consumers would be able to buy broadband access of 1 million to 3 million bits per second for $18 to $24 a month — a bit slower than wired cable modem service but about half the price. The network also is expected to create an economic incentive for businesses to locate in Minneapolis. If someone gets off a plane at the airport and signs up for Minneapolis Internet service, they can sign on with one password anywhere in the city.”
Tag: 04.12.05
CBC Axes PR Staff
Trying to save money, the CBC has laid off much of its public relations staff. The corporation says it will outsource much of the publicity for both radio and TV to independent public-relations firms.
Staking Out The Creative Process
“The new Calgary-based Institute for the Creative Process — or ICP@ACAD, for short — is being built on the belief that artists and designers should be making meaningful contributions to the real world beyond the design of a new Coca-Cola bottle or simple manufacture of product. The ICP will be working with businesses and various community groups to apply creative design solutions to everyday social and organizational problems. In addition to developing partnerships and thinking up new graduate-degree possibilities for the college, the ICP will be responsible for cultivating dialogue and research activities that directly address the nature and application of the creative process.”
Who Owns The Copyright? (A Tale Of Orphans)
A big problem with the current copyright laws is that it’s difficult or impossible to trace the owners of the vast majority of older works protected by copyright. “Even if the risk of a copyright infringement claim is low, creators who build on another’s work do not want to take the risk of getting sued. Copyright owners can ask for up to $150,000 damages per work infringed.” Now the US copyright office is trying to address the problem, and asking for help.
How Download Will Change The Top 40
UK Singles charts will soon begin counting legal downloads alongside cd sales, and the songs that make the Top 40 are sure to change. “In the first three months of 2005, 4.5 million songs were downloaded legally in the UK – compared with 5.8 million bought over the counter. Many of the fans who stopped buying singles are now keen on downloading – and while single-buying is largely left to teenage girls, downloaders are overwhelmingly male and more mature.
So their return to the chart returns could have a big impact on the Top 40.”
Another La Scala Resignation
The president of the orchestra of La Scala has resigned, a week after Riccardo Muti quit the company. Fedele Confalonieri, “who is also president of Mediaset, a broadcaster controlled by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, gave no explanation for his departure in a brief statement released by his company.”
Music In Progress leaked To Internet
More and more, musicians are finding recordings of music they’re still working on leaked on the internet. “Because of internet leaks, artists don’t have control of their own music anymore. There is a lot of material to be honed and worked on — and some of it is very, very bad. There is a reason why artists don’t want people to hear it.”
Chicago Art Institute To Expand
The Art Institute of Chicago is acquiring land next to its current building so it can build a 230,000 square foot addition. “Art Institute officials last year placed the cost of the addition at $198 million, more than half of which they had already raised. They also planned to raise another $87 million for an endowment for the addition, which according to district documents will house modern, contemporary, Asian, Islamic and architectural collections. About 65,000 square feet would be dedicated to gallery space and another 15,300 square feet will be dedicated to educational programs.”
ReganBooks To LA
Judith Regan says she’s moving her publishing and media group from Manhattan and relocating to Los Angeles. “In doing so, ReganBooks, which is part of HarperCollins, which is in turn owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, would be one of the few major book imprints to be based outside Manhattan and one of the first to leave New York for the West Coast. The move could shake up an industry that has long operated in a parochial, Manhattan-centric fashion, even as technology has made the location of a company less important.”
Sony BMG Restructures Classical Recording Business
Sony BMG says it is restructuring its classical music business under the name Sony BMG Masterworks. “It is intended not only to evoke past glories – Masterworks was CBS’s flagship classical line long before Sony bought the company from CBS in 1989 – but also to signal a renewed commitment to the core classical repertory.”