Britain Code-Names Its Domestic Spying Program ‘Karma Police’

An aerial image of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. GCHQ is one of the three UK Intelligence Agencies and forms a crucial part of the UK’s National Intelligence and Security machinery. The National Security Strategy sets out the challenges of a changing and uncertain world and places cyber attack in the top tier of risks, alongside international terrorism, a major industrial accident or natural disaster, and international military crisis.  GCHQ, in concert with Security Service (also known as MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6) play a key role across all of these areas and more. Their work drives the UK Government’s response to world events and enables strategic goals overseas.

Not only it is code-named ‘Karma Police,’ it also knows exactly how many times you’ve listened to the song.

The spying surveillance infrastructure, shrouded in secrecy for more than seven years, has now amassed an estimated one trillion records involving personal browsing histories, text messages, emails, and raunchy porn videos viewing habits.  According to details disclosed by the Intercept using details spilled by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, those records are then used to generate patterns, and identify potentially ‘suspicious’ activity.<!–/*
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The program, which closely mirrors surveillance activities of the US-based NSA, was shrouded in secrecy within the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (pictured at top).

The post Britain Code-Names Its Domestic Spying Program ‘Karma Police’ appeared first on Digital Music News.


Source: Industry News

Universal Music Stole Streaming Royalties from Lady Gaga, Ex-Manager Says

troy_carter

“We’ve always gotten screwed from record royalties, anyway…”

Last year, Digital Music News published a leaked portion of Lady Gaga’s contract with Universal Music Group sub-division Interscope Records.  The source of the leak wanted to show how artists like Lady Gaga were being systematically underpaid, or not paid at all, on streaming through misleading and deceptive contract language.

Now, Lady Gaga’s ex-manager, Troy Carter, has confirmed that his superstar client was definitely being cheated during her period of peak popularity.  “We’ve always gotten screwed from record royalties, anyway,” Carter bluntly stated at TechCrunch Disrupt.  “So when you look at it, the live business and the merchandise business have always been the bigger piece of the pie.

“And with record labels, I think it’s more of just chickens coming home to roost.”

 

“Well, let’s rephrase that: labels made a significant amount of money off of Spotify that didn’t match up to the artist royalty statements…”

 

Since overseeing Gaga’s career, Carter has expanded his presence as a music and tech investor and entrepreneur.  “Spotify came in and did a presentation for us, maybe about a couple of months ago, and our clients made a significant amount of income from Spotify,” Carter relayed.   “Well, let’s rephrase that: the labels made a significant amount of money off of Spotify that didn’t match up to the artist royalty statements that the artists received.”

“So, Spotify is paying out a lot of money, it’s just not finding its way into the hands of the artists.”

The accusation raises serious questions about one of Apple Music’s top executives, Jimmy Iovine.  During Gaga’s heyday, Iovine was CEO of Interscope, while simultaneously starting Beats and ultimately selling the headphone and streaming music service to Apple for north of $3 billion (Iovine officially departed Interscope in 2014).  As CEO, Iovine undoubtedly had access to Gaga’s financials, and in his current role, is likely structuring deals back with UMG and other major labels.

More as this story develops. 

 

The post Universal Music Stole Streaming Royalties from Lady Gaga, Ex-Manager Says appeared first on Digital Music News.


Source: Industry News

Breaking: Universal Music Group Seizes grooveshark.com

groovesharkDNS_UMG

What’s left after burning the village, raping the women, and killing the first born?  Well, seizing the valuable domain, of course.  According to details now confirmed by public registration records (above), grooveshark.com is now owned by Universal Music Group, who successfully destroyed Grooveshark and its owner, Escape Media, in a multi-year ‘legal jihad’.
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Grooveshark employed a costly legal troupe that included Rosenberg & Giger and McPherson Rane, but was decisively defeated by an alliance that included Universal, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music Entertainment.  After unplugging their entire site in April following a decisive federal court ruling in UMG’s favor, Grooveshark was forced to issue a public apology on grooveshark.com, with insiders additionally pointing to millions in restitution.

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Roughly one month later, Grooveshark co-founder Josh Greenberg was found dead in his apartment at age 28, for reasons that remain unknown (autopsy results remain forthcoming).  Prior to the defeat, Samuel Tarantino, also a founder, publicly admitted to being financially broken.

 

 

The post Breaking: Universal Music Group Seizes grooveshark.com appeared first on Digital Music News.


Source: Industry News

17 Outrageously Fun Facts About the Song ‘Happy Birthday to You’!

happybirthdaymanuscript1

1. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, “Happy Birthday to You” is the most-recognized and popular song in the English language, followed by “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow”.

2. “Happy Birthday to You” is often categorized as a secular folk song, passed down through oral rendition between generations.  But unlike most folk songs, “Happy Birthday to You” has a known origin and is sung into adulthood.
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3. Many scholars argue that “Happy Birthday to You” is the most popular song in the world.  “It’s hard to imagine that there are hard statistics that could prove or disprove the claim made in the title of this article, but if any reader knows of a serious contender for the title of world’s most popular song, I would like to know it,” writes George Washington University Law School professor Robert Brauneis.

4. “Happy Birthday to You” is has been translated into at least 18 different languages, including Arabic, Basque, Catalan, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Mandarin Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Tagalog.

5. Just like in English, there are even “Happy Birthday to You” spoof songs in other languages, like German, which has a popular gibberish variation!

“Happy birthday to you,
Marmelade im Schuh
Aprikose in der Hose
und ein Bratwurst dazu”

(i.e., marmalade in the shoe, apricot in the pants, and with those a bratwurst – total non-sense!)

6. The most famous rendition of “Happy Birthday to You” may have been by Marilyn Monroe, who steamily sung the song to President John F. Kennedy for this forty-fifth birthday in 1962.  It was one of the last public appearances by Monroe before her death.

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7. The song “Happy Birthday to You” dates back to 1893, but was originally called “Good Morning to You” and was written by two sisters living in Kentucky, Mildred and Patti Smith Hill.   The melody to “Good Morning” is the same melody we use today, but its copyright expired in 1949.

happybirthdaymanuscript2

8. On August 31st of this year, a librarian at the University of Louisville’s Dwight Anderson Memorial Music Library discovered the oldest known manuscript of the song.  The “Good Morning to You” sheet music was part of a songbook titled, “Song Stories for the Kindergarten,” donated to the library in the 1950s.  It was discovered by the librarian, James Procell, while digging through a dusty filing cabinet.

9. The first known combination of the melody and lyrics to “Happy Birthday” appeared in 1912, but that combination wasn’t formally registered for copyright until 1935.
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10. That left the lyrics as copyrighted intellectual property, but a federal judge struck down those claims of ownership by Warner/Chappell and placed the entire song into public domain this week.  That means the entire “Happy Birthday” song can be used by whomever, wherever, and with whatever variations without any permission required.

11. Before this point, it was technically illegal to sing “Happy Birthday to You” in public settings with groups of people, including birthday parties, office parties, and restaurant celebrations.

 

campfire

 

12. That was rarely enforced, but in 1996, performance rights licensing group ASCAP (acting on behalf of Warner/Chappell) clamped down on the Girl Scouts of America for singing “Happy Birthday to You” around the campfire without a proper license.  After a public outcry, ASCAP backed down.

13. Before the court ruling, “Happy Birthday to You” was also prohibited for use within movies, television shows, or other productions without paying the claimed copyright owner Warner/Chappell Music.

14. It is estimated that Warner/Chappell drew $2 million in annual earnings from “Happy Birthday to You,” largely from visual productions like films and TV shows and public performances (like concerts).
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15. In fact, “Happy Birthday to You” is frequently listed as one of the most valuable songs in the world, with valuations estimated as $50 million.

16. To evade the licensing costs, a number of restaurants, including Red Lobster and Outback Steakhouse, have developed their own, special versions of “Happy Birthday to You”.

17. Others have also created wacky workaround variations to avoid paying copyrights, including Mr. Rogers, the Three Stooges, and Stephen Colbert.

 

Campfire image by Sam Howzit, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC by 2.0). 

The post 17 Outrageously Fun Facts About the Song ‘Happy Birthday to You’! appeared first on Digital Music News.


Source: Industry News