TECH THREE, THEY’RE SMALL

THE KIDS ARE IN TROUBLE AGAIN
Three of Napster’s more popular illegitimate children—MusicCity, Consumer Empowerment BV and Grokster—now find themselves following Napster’s footsteps right into the courthouse. The plaintiffs, who filed a copyright infringement action today in Federal Court, include legendary songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Famous Music, Peer International Corporation and Criterion Music. "This lawsuit seeks to protect the rights of music creators from flagrant piracy," said National Music Publishers' Association President Edward P. Murphy. "As the legitimate market for online music develops, however, it is also about fundamental fairness to the music services that wish to comply with the law by taking licenses. Our legitimate licensees should not be competitively disadvantaged simply because they have chosen to comply with the law." Insiders noted that these three music services were the last three illegitimate online music services on the face of the planet. "Once we’ve sued them out of existence," said an anonymous insider, "the world will finally be safe for legitimate services."

PREVENTION IS THE CURE
BMG Entertainment confirmed that it has set up a hotline for consumers in the U.K. who are having trouble playing Natalie Imbruglia’s new CD, White Lilies Island, CNET News reports. Imbruglia’s White Lilies Island, out just two weeks, is another major label release to be shipped with copy-prevention technology to prevent the contents from being copied digitally to another CD or ripped into MP3 files. Sadly, the "copy-prevention" technology also prevents the CDs from being played on some CD players and DVD players. "We’ll replace discs consumers have trouble playing," said a BMG spokesman, "but only if those troubles are technical, not if they’re having trouble simply listening the content of the CD."

GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY!
ActiveBuddy announced today that Capitol Records has added new content and music to the Radiohead branded GooglyMinotaur as part of the marketing campaign for the band’s new live disc I Might Be Wrong. GooglyMinotaur, an intelligent software application that delivers Radiohead info and services on demand to instant messengers, was launched last June to help promote the band’s Amnesiac release. "GooglyMinotaur has proven to be an ideal marketing tool, as well as something that’s just fun to say. GooglyMinotaur, GooglyMinotaur, GooglyMinotaur!" said Capitol VP of Marketing Rob Gordon. "Radiohead fans have come to rely on GooglyMinotaur for up-to-date band and album information. As a bonus, it also is pretty good at crashing most computers."