Royalty fee 'to damage net radio'
Hundreds of US net radio stations face potential closure from Monday when they will be expected to comply with a new royalties ruling for playing music. Smaller stations face a payment increase of 1,200% while larger station could owe up to 300% more, lobby group SaveNetRadio has said. On Wednesday, an appeal court declined to grant a petition by stations to delay the introduction of the new fees. SaveNetRadio say the fees could cost webcasters $1bn. Earlier this year the US Copyright Royalty Board ruled that royalties should rise from .08 cents per track to .19 cents by 2010 for net radio stations. The new fees, will charge a flat fee per-song, per-user in addition to a $500 fee for every channel owned by a station. Fees will increase every year until 2010. Previously, stations paid an annual fee, plus 12% of their profits. The fees will be collected retrospectively for 2006 and webcasters will be allowed to calculate retrospective payments by averaging listening hours. On Wednesday, the US District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said the opponents of the new charges had not "satisfied the stringent standards required for a stay pending court review". Tim Westergren, who runs net radio station Pandora, wrote to his listeners, warning: "Disaster looms." He said: "The new ruinous royalty rates will be going into effect on Monday threatening the future of all internet radio." In a statement, Jake Ward, a spokesperson for the SaveNetRadio coalition, said: "We are disappointed that the Court failed to acknowledge the irreparable and quite frankly, devastating effect these new royalties will have on the Internet radio industry. "An invoice of more than $1bn must be paid in four days, which is unfathomable for an industry that grossed less than $200m last year." The coalition has now urged supporters of its campaign to lobby congressmen to back a new bill, the Internet Radio Equality Act, which would bring net fees in line with satellite radio stations.

Motorola's Zander on the way out?
Shares of Motorola rose almost three per cent yesterday on speculation that chief executive Ed Zander could be about to resign, amid a new campaign by an activist investor to oust the executive. Zander, whose management of the number two mobile phone maker came under heavy criticism from billionaire investor Carl Icahn earlier this year, now faces fresh pressure from activist shareholder Eric Jackson, who published a statement online entitled "Motorola Plan B" this week. Jackson became the figurehead for widespread shareholder dissatisfaction at Yahoo! after standing up at the company's annual meeting in June and asking then-chief executive Terry Semel to apologise to shareholders. A week later, Semel stepped down. Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder said: "There are rumours Zander may be resigning. This would increase confidence that a serious restructuring is afoot." Motorola shares rose 34 cents to $17.96 at mid-afternoon on the New York Stock Exchange as investors, who have been disappointed by weakening handset sales at the company, reacted to rumours about Zander.

U.S. VCs Wary of Global Moves
U.S. venture capitalists are dipping their toes into foreign markets, but remain wary of taking the plunge, a survey released Wednesday concludes. The 2007 Global Venture Capital Survey found that 46% of U.S. VCs polled reported making offshore investments versus 64% of non-U.S. respondents who said they invested outside their home countries. The study also found that U.S. VCs avoided putting all their eggs in an offshore basket. Two-thirds of U.S. VCs who have invested abroad said that less than 5% of their capital under management is in foreign markets and almost 80% of VCs pegged the total at less than 10 percent. In a conference call in advance of the survey’s release, Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, said that though a “significant minority” of VCs are looking to new markets, a mass exodus of U.S. venture capital is not occurring. “We’re not seeing this huge upswing” in the industry overall, Mr. Heesen said, though “premier” VC firms continue to invest abroad. “The larger firms have very adequate deal flow in this country, but for strategic reasons feel they have to look outside the country,” said Mark Jensen, partner and national director, venture capital services, at Deloitte & Touche. The survey, sponsored by Deloitte & Touche LLP in cooperation with the NVCA and other VC groups around the world, found that China, India, Israel, and Canada are the favorite investing venues for U.S. VCs. Questioned about where they planned to expand globally, 34% said China, 24% said India, and 11% Canada. Mr. Heesen also noted increased competition from VCs in the home countries of foreign start-ups. Whereas in the past, U.S.

Index ranks IT industries by nation
A recent information technology industry competitiveness index has found that the United Kingdom has the fourth most competitive IT industry. The United States grabbed the top spot, with Japan coming second and South Korea third, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit of The Economist Group, publisher of the eponymous magazine. More than 60 countries were scored on a scale of 1 to 100 for factors such as a country's business environment, IT infrastructure, and efforts in research and development. There is a strong link between the presence of these so-called "competitiveness enablers" in countries and the strength of their IT sector. All but 4 out of the top 22 countries in the competitiveness index are also among the world's top countries in terms of IT labor productivity. Governments and industry leaders must pay close attention to these enablers if they wish to boost the global competitiveness of their IT industries. Countries must also balance open competition in IT and protection for intellectual-property rights. All in all, there remains a large gap between the gold standard of countries with the most effective legal regimes, such as the U.S. and U.K., and the approach of many emerging economies.

Top 10 countries in IT industry competitiveness index* (score out of 100)

1. US (77.4)
2. Japan (72.7)
3. South Korea (67.2)
4. UK (67.1)
5. Australia (66.5)
6. Taiwan (65.8)
7. Sweden (65.4)
8. Denmark (64.9)
9. Canada (64.6)
10. Switzerland (63.6)

Broadband video to rake in billions
Demand for paid and ad-supported broadband video will grow strongly to create a multi-billion dollar industry over the next few years, experts predict. A new study from ABI Research suggests that the growing reach of new distribution models will expand the base of internet video consumers from roughly 300 million today to nearly one billion by 2012. Who pays for video online will largely be determined by who foots the bill through existing models. For broadcast television, including prime-time content, we anticipate that ad support will be the primary engine of monetisation as this content moves online. Movie content new to the home video window will be largely consumer pay-supported. User-generated content will be ad-supported, as sites such as YouTube and social networking sites make increasing use of content produced by their own users as a way to drastically increase their inventory of premium advertising opportunities. The expanding reach of new syndication networks and video " super-portals" such as Joost, alongside established sites like MySpace, will rapidly enlarge the total user base for ad-supported video.

Pirated Music Helps Radio Develop Playlists
The music industry has long blamed illegal file sharing for the slump in music sales. But now, a key part of the industry is trying to harness file sharing to boost its own bottom line. Earlier this year, Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s Premiere Radio Networks unit began marketing data on the most popular downloads from illegal file-sharing networks to help radio stations shape their playlists. The theory is that the songs attracting the most downloads online will also win the most listeners on the radio, helping stations sell more advertising. In turn, the service may even help the record labels, because radio airplay is still the biggest factor influencing record sales. The service has already had an impact. The Huey song "Pop, Lock and Drop It" was in light rotation in April at Power 106, hip-hop station in Los Angeles, and listeners weren't requesting it much. The station's own research on the best music mix to play indicated the song wasn't catching on with listeners. But data from BigChampagne showed the song was hot on file-sharing networks, including in Los Angeles. The station's music director, decided to stick with it. Now, three months later, "Pop, Lock and Drop It" is prominent on the station's playlist. Using data on stolen music to help mold playlists may strike some as ironic. File sharing has likely contributed to the continuing decline in the music business. U.S. music sales were down 7% last year after a 3% drop the year before, according to the London-based music trade group IFPI. But BigChampagne's clients say ignoring file sharing wouldn't make sense. Filesharers tend to be bigger music fans than radio listeners and generally warm to new songs faster. But basing a playlist exclusively on downloaders' tastes could end up alienating more passive listeners. It also isn't easy to tell which medium influences the other more.

HD DVD outselling Blu-ray in Europe
HD DVD video players have outsold rival standard Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year, according to a lobby group. The European HD DVD Promotional Group claimed it had 74% market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for stand-alone players, citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK. GfK said it has not published research commissioned from the trade group. The HD DVD group, led by Toshiba Corp. and backed by Microsoft Corp. and film studios including Warner Bros., declined to give figures for how many players it had shipped to retail outlets in Europe. The figures were for stand-alone players only and did not include sales of games consoles such as Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3, which contains a Blu-ray player. The Sony-led Blu-ray lobby group includes Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Apple Inc. and Dell Inc. Its discs, which are outselling HD DVD discs, can store more information and special features but the technology is more expensive. Toshiba cut prices for its HD-E1 HD DVD player to $549 in Europe and $299 in the United States last month. Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray player costs $499 in the United States, and its BDP-S1E European version has recently gone on sale, with prices starting at around 900 euros. Other Blu-ray players have been on sale in Europe for longer.

Islamic school sanctions online Muslim weddings
An influential and conservative Islamic theological school in India said on Thursday marriages of Muslim couples using Internet Web cameras were acceptable and legal. The decision was taken by the "fatwa" (decree) department of Darul Uloom Deoband in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and came after two rare cases of Muslims marrying through the Internet in Lucknow, the state capital, since 2005. One case was brought to the Deoband school for approval. "The Internet assumes the role of a lawyer in such cases and is, therefore, competent to formally supervise the "Ijaab" (offer of marriage) and "Qabool" (acceptance) made by the bride and bridegroom," top Deoband cleric Khalid Safiullah Rehmani said. "The concept was widely discussed and debated over the past two years since the first online nikah took place in Lucknow in 2005." Nikah is a legal Islamic marriage contract. Muslim marriages should have a "vakil" or lawyer who deals with the marriage contract. Rehmani said both the bride and bridegroom in an Internet marriage -- like regular Muslim marriages -- must have two witnesses under Islamic law. In the 2005 marriage, 26-year-old Shabnam sat before a Web camera in Lucknow and told her groom Abdul Kalam sitting in Mecca "Qabool hai" (I accept) three times as stipulated in Islamic law, her brother Hazrat Ali said. At least 40 of her relatives crowded the Internet cafe owned by a Hindu to witness the wedding, followed by a small celebration and a feast at home. In Mecca, Kalam had friends to witness the online marriage. "The marriage was arranged by us, and my sister and Kalam had never met before," said Ali. The other online marriage was solemnized at the office of a local body of Muslim clerics in Lucknow. The Deoband school, which has a powerful influence among Muslims in South Asia, is known for its hard-line views on gender issues. Earlier this month, it issued a decree saying Muslim girls should not go to co-educational schools and colleges. In 2005, it said a woman allegedly raped by her father-in-law could not stay with her husband, sparking an outcry from women's groups.

Doctor warns against using iPods in a lightning storm
Listen to an iPod during a storm and you may get more than electrifying tunes. A Canadian jogger suffered wishbone-shaped chest and neck burns, ruptured eardrums, and a broken jaw when lightning traveled through his music player's wires. Last summer, a Colorado teen was hurt when lightning struck nearby as he was listening to his iPod while mowing the lawn. Emergency physicians report treating other patients with burns from freak accidents while using personal electronic devices such as beepers, Walkman players, and laptop computers outdoors during storms. Michael Utley, a former stockbroker from West Yarmouth, Mass., who survived being struck by lightning while golfing, has tracked 13 cases since 2004 of people hit while talking on cell phones. The Canadian jogger suffered worse injuries, a report in this week's The New England Journal of Medicine said. The man, a 39-year-old dentist from the Vancouver area, was listening to an iPod while jogging in a thunderstorm when lightning hit a nearby tree and jumped to his body. The strike threw the man about 8 feet and caused second-degree burns on his chest and left leg.

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