Media News - Friday, July 31, 2009

Media under threat from online news piracy

Global media outlets are increasingly coming under threat from pirate news sites that use original news content without permission, a panel of Russian and U.S. analysts and media representatives said on Wednesday. Speaking during a Moscow-Washington video linkup hosted by RIA Novosti, U.S. media law expert David Marburger said copying news, which is less expensive than producing original material, could "kill" the producers of original news, and result in mass redundancies among journalists. Alexei Goreslavsky, head of online projects at the Russian news agency Interfax, said: "There are a number of websites that pay for re-publishing stories from news agencies and compensate for this, but this is nothing like the money that agencies spend on producing the news." Daniel Marburger, professor of economics at Arkansas State University, said news pirate sites have very low prices for advertising on their websites, which causes further revenue losses for media that produce original news. RIA Novosti Deputy Director General Valery Levchenko said agencies experience "financial and non-financial losses" from the activities of media pirates when news items are copied without a reference to the original sources. The chairman of the .RU internet domain coordination center, Mikhail Yakushev, said that both international and national intellectual property laws fail to protect news copyrights. Yelena Voinikanis, secretary of Russia's parliamentary commission on information policy, technology and communications, said that an amendment should be made to the law on media, to include the notion of "online periodical media." Their inclusion would allow them to "fall under the statues of the law, which demands an obligatory reference to the original source of information." (Ria Novosti)

Dutch court bans Pirate Bay in the Netherlands

A Dutch court on Thursday ordered Swedish file sharing website The Pirate Bay be banned from operating in the Netherlands. A judge ordered three owners of the site to "cease infringing the copyright of the members" of Stichting Brein, a trade association which represents the Dutch recording industry. The group had brought an urgent application for the ban at the district court in Amsterdam. For every day the ruling is ignored, the owners will be fined EUR 30,000 up to a maximum of EUR 3m, said a judgment published by the court. The interdict would remain valid for two months, by which time Stichting Brein must have filed an application for a permanent ruling, or it will lapse. The judge ordered Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde to immediately make their website inaccessible to users in the Netherlands. Founded in 2003, The Pirate Bay makes it possible to skirt copyright fees and share music, film and computer game files for free using bit torrent technology, or peer-to-peer links offered on the site. None of the material can be found on the server of The Pirate Bay, which claims to have more than 20 million users worldwide. (The Local)

‘NYT’ video obits are growing - including one by a former President - but remain secretive

Two years ago, The New York Times posted its first video obituary known as 'The Last Word.' The subject, humorist and columnist Art Buchwald, had recorded an interview to be used at the time of his death. "Hi, I'm Art Buchwald and I just died," the online presentation began. It went on to offer Buchwald's last views on his life, and death, in a groundbreaking online approach. Since then, the newspaper has posted three other videos after their subjects passed on. They included longtime Times photographer Dith Pran, legendary musician Odetta, and philanthropist Stewart Mott. Web producers have also stockpiled dozens more and have many in the process of being produced. "We have about 30 done and 10 in production," says David Rummel, the Times senior producer for news and documentary. "There is editing and production and interviewing, and it takes time. You have to do a lot of research, get archival footage, acquire rights to things and go through our own video library." In each case, the newspaper has agreed to complete confidentiality for the video obit subjects, promising not to reveal their involvement until the time of death. All Rummel would say is the completed group includes one former president, a Nobel Prize winner, and a playwright. Rummel admits the project is only for those who can handle thinking about death and want to have a say after they die about their life. "You have to really be in touch with your mortality," he says. "But the attraction is you can have the last word." (Editor and Publisher)

Reed Elsevier selling publications

Reed Elsevier, the Dutch-English publishing company that owns a large number of media and entertainment business titles, plans to sell a number of its publications, including Multichannel News, Broadcasting & Cable and Publishers Weekly. It will retain such titles as flagship publication Variety, the Hollywood trade paper, and entertainment directory LA411. The partial sales plan follows a failed attempt last year to sell the whole business-to-business publishing arm, Reed Business Information. Reed was unable to find a buyer willing to meet its price, which at one point reportedly was as high as USD 1.8bn. The company reported its latest financials Thursday, which included a small revenue gain of 3 percent for the first half of the year. Still, it said the ad market remained difficult in the business-to-business arena. (Reuters)

Photo competition invites ‘fresh’ perspectives on Europe

European young journalists -- between 18 and 30 years old -- are encouraged to submit photos that give fresh viewpoints on European issues to the photo competition Snapshot: Europe! Deadline: August 15. Categories include: Europe on the move. Migration, integration, stereotypes. European identity? Values, diversity and cultural dialogue. Europe tomorrow. Sustainable development, ecology, environment. Winners will have their photos on display at an international art-exhibition in Brussels from September 17 to October 15. The competition is supported by the Assembly of European Regions (AER). For more information, go to http://www.aer.eu/photo_competition_ (International Journalists Network)

Afternoon rush hour ‘free’ daily to launch in Toronto

Toronto, home to two free commuter dailies in the morning, will get a free evening rush hour daily starting Sept. 8. The paper, which will be called t.o.night, is being launched by FreshDaily, a Toronto company that hosts three city Web sites across Canada: blogTO in Toronto, Beyond Robson in Vancouver, and Midnight Poutine in Montreal. BlogTO announced the daily, which will be published on weekdays and have an initial distribution of 100,000 copies. The blog said the paper will be distributed between 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. near mass transit stops downtown. "As far as local content, t.o.night will put more emphasis on event information, restaurant reviews and other happenings that will allow readers to plan their evenings as they look to unwind after a long day at the office," the blog said. T.o.night would be the first evening daily in Toronto since the Toronto Telegram folded in 1971. (Editor and Publisher)

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