Computing blogger banished from YouTube

Angelica Mari, Computing, Friday 26 February 2010 at 14:22:00

User’s entire account deactivated following dispute with social media management firm

A Computing blogger has had several hundred videos wiped from his YouTube account after a dispute over footage he posted of an audience at a stand-up comedy show.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary’s video of an audience waiting for comedian Jimmy Carr to come on stage was considered to be a copyright infringement by Intelligent Conversation, the firm monitoring social media activity about Carr.

Subsequently Kobayashi-Hillary’s entire collection of more than 900 videos was taken offline.

Intelligent Conversation scans YouTube, Blinkx, Vimeo and other sites daily for footage filmed both before and during the comedian’s shows.

“Whilst we are happy to recognise that ‘free is good’, filming shows spoils it for everyone else and also completely nullifies the effect of the jokes: for music fans, songs can be played again and again, but once you’ve heard a joke it totally loses its impact the second time around,” a company representative said in an email to Kobayashi-Hillary.

The representative added that his firm’s action in this case could be seen to be over the top.

“Although I appreciate this might seem overzealous, it’s the only way we can stop footage being spread,” he said.

After numerous attempts by the blogger to contact YouTube’s owner Google, the web giant finally responded with an email earlier today. It states that Kobayashi-Hillary had two other complaints of copyright breach filed against him – both for videos that have since been removed – which has raised the question of whether web site maintains a ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy.

“I use YouTube as a business tool – it is an invaluable component of my corporate work. It is just outrageous that [Google] can arbitrarily remove the entire account based on an erroneous copyright infringement,” Kobayashi-Hillary said.

It is not yet known whether, or when the user’s account will be reactivated and if its previously uploaded content will be restored.

Google UK did not respond to calls for comment.

Pentax X90 launch, price confirmed

The X90 will cost £329.99 and has a intelligent Zoom function, claimed to boost the focal length to ’4225mm’.

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Features included on the 12.1-million-pixel model also include CCD-shift type Shake Reduction, a 2.7in LCD monitor, 1cm Macro mode and an electronic viewfinder (200,000 dot resolution).

The X90 is also capable of delivering HD (1,280,720 pixel) videos, according to Pentax and includes aperture and shutter priority controls.

Link: Amateur Photography

Apple iPad to cost £389 in UK?

It’s just a rumour, so don’t get too excited, but there’s news afoot that the Appple iPad will retail for £389 when it hits the UK shores.

The base 16GB WiFi iPad is set for a £389 bracket, the 32GB WiFi model will be available for £439 and the 64GB WiFi version is aiming for a salty £489.

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Of course, the cynical among you will be unsurprised to note that this is higher than US pricing – the 16GB Wi-Fi model will cost $499 (£326) stateside, 32GB Wi-Fi at $599 (£392), and the 64GB Wi-Fi at $699 (£457).

Via: GeekyGadgets

Apple nets up to £790 million from iTunes Music sales

Apple’s iTunes Music store, could have earned the company anything up to a whopping £790 million, following news that the 10 billionth song had been downloaded this week.

It’s widely thought that the tech giant retains around 10 per cent of the price of every song sold on the store, although Apple itself has never released any official figures.

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If correct, (after publishers, artists, record labels and running costs are paid), Apple would retain a 7.9 pence of the 79p pricetag on each of the 10-billion tracks downloaded. That would mean profits of anything up to £790,000,000 since the iTunes Music Store’s inception in April 2003. That’s over £2 million a week!

Competition from online music sites like Amazon MP3, in recent years, has forced iTunes to move from the rigid 79p pricing structure in recent years, however, with tracks now ranging up to 99p, but most songs remain at the standard level.

A spokesperson for the PRS, the body that regulates payments to artists and publishers for the sale of music, explained the breakdown to T3 in a statement this morning, but wouldn’t be drawn on exactly how much money Apple and its competitors pocketed.

The spokesperson said: "PRS for Music which represents the songwriters, composers and music publishers would receive 8% of gross revenue per track downloaded, with a minima level of 4p. For a typical 79p download when VAT is factored in, this would result in the creator of the song receiving between 6p and 7p for each download. Included into the price of a download is also the royalty received by the record label, the costs of marketing and the technology behind the service and then a small profit margin for the owner of the site itself."

Even if the actual revenue for each track is half of what has been quoted on numerous occasions in the past, it still represents a massive bounty for Apple, and a huge reward for its industry-changing vision.

The 10 billionth song download was a Johnny Cash track called "Guess Things Happen That Way" and earned lucky shopper Louie Sulcer from Georgia, USA, a $10,000 iTunes gift card.

Link: Apple

HTC Incredible handset caught on camera

MWC served-up the HTC Desire and the HTC Legend, but we’re still waiting for the official unveiling of the HTC Incredible. We’ve had unofficial pictures leaked and now the guys over at Phandroid have nabbed a hands-on video.

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Rumoured to be announced this month, the Android 2.1 touting handset will allegedly run HTC’s own Sensu UI, sport a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and 25MB of RAM. From the video it also looks like it’ll have a 3.7-inch touchscreen and a 5-megapixel camera complete with a flash.

No word on whether we’ll even get it here in the UK, but if you fancy taking a closer look check out the HTC Incredible hands-on video below.
 

Link: HTC (via Phandroid)