— File hosting site RapidShare won a court victory against a California-based adult entertainment company. The court ruled RapidShare cannot be accused of copyright infringement, on its users can be charged with infringement. This follows a similar outcome in a German appeals court earlier this month in which RapidShare was deemed not liable for the actions of its users. The company does not publish an index or provide a search function of files that have been uploaded. (Press release)
— A fun result from last week’s Music Hack Day in San Francisco is The Swinger, an application that takes a song and changes the time between beats in a song to create a loping, swinging version of the original. (Music Machinery)
— Rafat Ali, the founder of the popular PaidContent digital media blog, is leaving the company, according to a report from AllThingsD. The report says he will depart in July. No details on where he’s off to next, or who will replace him. The move comes two years after he sold PaidContent’s parent company, ContentNext, to the Guardian Media group in London. (AllThingsD)
— BlueBeat is back. The company that drew the ire of EMI and the rest of the music industry for offering Beatles and other music as digital downloads for 25 cents now has an iPhone app. The app offers the same free streaming music users can find on its website for the smartphone. And again, it’s relying on its’ “psychoacoustic” to justify including licensed music in that offering, which according to a tester from Music Ally included Beatles music again, along with AC/DC, Bob Dylan and a number of other artists.
— Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin Megastore chain was a casualty of last decade’s digital disruption, has given physical record stores about another ten years to live. “I think that record stores are pretty well going to disappear,” he said in a Radio 2 documentary, Last Orders at the Spinning Disc: What’s Happened to Record Shops? “Sadly the music store is something in the past. There may be one or two specialist stores that will survive for a few more years. But if you turn the clock forward ten years from now, I’d be surprised if there are any more music stores left in the world.” Of course, Branson ignores the vinyl-only stores that are opening up in many cities, and the show’s host points to London’s Rough Trade as proof that the specialist store has a future. (BeeHiveCity)
