LONDON – In a victory for the concept album, Britain’s High Court on Thursday ordered record company EMI Group Ltd. to stop selling downloads of Pink Floyd tracks individually rather than as part of the band’s original records.
The prog-rock group sued the music label, saying its contract prohibited selling the tracks “unbundled” from their original album setting.
Pink Floyd lawyer Robert Howe said the band was known for producing “seamless” pieces of music on albums like “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Division Bell” and “The Wall,” and wanted to retain artistic control.
EMI claimed the clause in the band’s contract — negotiated a decade ago, before the advent of iTunes and other online retailers — applied only to physical albums, not Internet sales.
Judge Andrew Morritt backed the band, saying the contract protected “the artistic integrity of the albums.”
He ruled that EMI is “not entitled to exploit recordings by online distribution or by any other means other than the complete original album without Pink Floyd’s consent.”
The judge ordered EMI to pay the band’s legal costs and said he would rule later on how much the company must pay in damages.
The judge also ruled on a second issue, the level of royalties paid to the band. That section of the judgment was made in private after EMI argued the information was covered by commercial confidentiality.
A spokesman for EMI said the company was considering its response to the ruling.
The band’s spokesman said Pink Floyd had no comment.
Pink Floyd signed with EMI in 1967 and became one of its most lucrative acts, with its back catalog outsold only by The Beatles.
Online sales make up an increasing portion of music companies’ profits, and are a growing area of dispute.
The surviving members of The Beatles have yet to agree a deal to allow their music to be sold online.
Hard-rock band AC/DC also has withheld its music from iTunes, saying the group is not interested in selling individual tracks.
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Tags: band, Britain, EMI, Floyd, Judge Andrew Morritt, London, members of the beatles, prog rock group, Robert Howe
LONDON – In a victory for the concept album, Britain’s High Court on Thursday ordered record company EMI Group Ltd. to stop selling downloads of Pink Floyd tracks individually rather than as part of the band’s original records.
The prog-rock group sued the music label, saying its contract prohibited selling the tracks “unbundled” from their original album setting.
Pink Floyd lawyer Robert Howe said the band was known for producing “seamless” pieces of music on albums like “Dark Side of the Moon,” “The Division Bell” and “The Wall,” and wanted to retain artistic control.
EMI claimed the clause in the band’s contract — negotiated a decade ago, before the advent of iTunes and other online retailers — applied only to physical albums, not Internet sales.
Judge Andrew Morritt backed the band, saying the contract protected “the artistic integrity of the albums.”
He ruled that EMI is “not entitled to exploit recordings by online distribution or by any other means other than the complete original album without Pink Floyd’s consent.”
The judge ordered EMI to pay the band’s legal costs and said he would rule later on how much the company must pay in damages.
The judge also ruled on a second issue, the level of royalties paid to the band. That section of the judgment was made in private after EMI argued the information was covered by commercial confidentiality.
A spokesman for EMI said the company was considering its response to the ruling.
The band’s spokesman said Pink Floyd had no comment.
Pink Floyd signed with EMI in 1967 and became one of its most lucrative acts, with its back catalog outsold only by The Beatles.
Online sales make up an increasing portion of music companies’ profits, and are a growing area of dispute.
The surviving members of The Beatles have yet to agree a deal to allow their music to be sold online.
Hard-rock band AC/DC also has withheld its music from iTunes, saying the group is not interested in selling individual tracks.
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Tags: band, Britain, EMI, Floyd, Judge Andrew Morritt, London, members of the beatles, prog rock group, Robert Howe
LONDON (Reuters) –
British rock band Pink Floyd on Thursday won a court battle with EMI in a ruling that prevents the record company from selling single downloads on the internet from the group’s concept albums.
The outcome of the other element of the legal tussle in London’s High Court — concerning the level of royalties paid to the band by the label — was unclear, as that part of the judgment was held in secret, the Press Association reported.
The ruling is the latest blow to EMI, the smallest of the four major record companies which is seeking new funds to avoid breaching debt covenants.
Pink Floyd signed with the label over 40 years ago and its back catalog has been outsold only by that of the Beatles.
The band, whose albums include “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “The Wall,” was challenging EMI’s ability to “unbundle” their albums and sell individual tracks online.
Judge Andrew Morritt accepted arguments by the group that EMI was bound by a contract forbidding it to sell its records other than as complete albums without written consent.
The judge said the purpose of a clause in the contract was to “preserve the artistic integrity of the albums.”
Pink Floyd alleged that EMI had allowed online downloads from the albums and parts of tracks to be used as ringtones.
The record company had argued that the contract related only to physical records and not to online distribution.
EMI successfully applied to the court for the royalties aspect of the case to be kept secret for reasons of “commercial confidentiality.”
Lawyers said it was the first time a royalties dispute between artists and their record companies had been held in private, excluding the media and public.
The judge ordered EMI to pay Pink Floyd’s costs in the case, estimated at 60,000 pounds ($90,000), and refused the company permission to appeal.
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)
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Tags: debt covenants, EMI, Floyd, Judge Andrew Morritt, legal tussle, London, Mike Collett-, Paul Casciato, Pink
LOS ANGELES – Michael “Big Mike” Lynche made Kara DioGuardi cry and turned the rest of the “American Idol” judges giddy with a moving performance of “This Woman’s Work.”
Lynche, a mountain of a guy who lives up to his nickname, performed last among the eight male semifinalists Wednesday and emerged as the star of the Fox TV show.
“You come out with an incredibly difficult song to sing, and you 100 percent nailed it,” said Simon Cowell. “Not just the best performance of the night, it was the best performance of all these live shows so far.”
The eight female semifinalists performed Tuesday, with the top six vote-getters from the men’s and women’s groups to be announced Thursday.
Lynche, 26, of Astoria, N.Y., moved impressively from a quiet falsetto start to a booming finale, but it was as much the story behind the song as his range that touched DioGuardi. Lynche’s wife had a baby girl while he was in Los Angeles making the cut for “Idol.”
“It’s amazing. You were amazing,” DioGuardi said. “It’s your life right now, it’s your respect for your wife, what you’ve gone through. … It brought me to tears.”
The other contestants, who may have been glad they didn’t have to follow Lynche, picked up a mixture of praise and criticism.
Andrew Garcia, 24, Moreno Valley, Calif., had the roughest night, with his performance of “Genie in a Bottle” deemed pitchy by Jackson and dismissed by Cowell as “a little bit desperate.”
Casey James, 27, of Fort Worth, Texas, did better with “You’ll Think of Me,” which Ellen DeGeneres and Cowell said sounded “great” but struck Jackson as a safe choice.
Tim Urban scored with his version of “Hallelujah,” which is becoming an “American Idol” standard.
DeGeneres, noting she has been critical of the 20-year-old from Duncanville, Texas, jumped on the stage to give him a congratulatory hug and called his rendition “fantastic.”
“Todrick’s back!” was Jackson’s response to Todrick Hall’s performance of “Somebody to Love,” while Cowell said it was a mixed performance but may have saved Hall, 24, of Arlington, Texas, from elimination.
Alex Lambert’s version of “Trouble” drew mostly favorable critiques, including a highly creative offering from DeGeneres.
“You’re becoming a mushy banana. You’re ripening so fast,” she said. Translation: The 19-year-old from North Richland Hills, Texas, is getting better and better.
Aaron Kelley, with “I’m Already There,” showed he has the “makings of a great,” Jackson said, and Cowell lauded his emotional delivery — while dismissing DioGuardi’s contention the song about a man away from his family was too old for the 16-year-old from Sonestown, Pa.
Lee Dewyze, 23, of Mount Prospect, Ill., showed “there’s a star bubbling there” with his version of “Fireflies,” said DioGuardi, while Cowell said he was better than the performance but had a “great chance” of making the top 12.
If not, DeGeneres could set him up on a date as a consolation prize: She’s heard from several people with crushes on him, she said.
___
Fox is a unit of News Corp.
___
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CONWAY TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Last week, Sarah Killen had three Twitter followers.
This week, she has 20,000 — as well as a new iMac computer and offers to help pay for a dress and drinks for her wedding.
The unsuspecting rural Michigan woman has one out-of-work late-night talk show host to thank for her newfound online popularity — Conan O’Brien.
O’Brien decided last week to pick Killen as the only person he would follow on Twitter, turning the 19-year-old’s life upside down.
The deposed “Tonight Show” star whose exit deal with NBC barred him from TV appearances for several months, has taken to Twitter to reach the masses during his exile and has amassed more than a half-million followers.
But up until Friday, O’Brien had steadily increased his number of Twitter devotees without following the feeds of anybody else.
Enter Killen, who is finishing up her high school requirements, preparing to make the jump to college and getting married in September.
“I’ve decided to follow someone at random,” O’Brien’s posting read at 3:55 p.m. on Friday. “She likes peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs. Sarah Killen, your life is about to change.”
Boy, did it ever.
Immediately after O’Brien started following her, Killen — whose Twitter handle is “LovelyButton” — picked up followers at a rate of 150 per minute.
Then came the calls: Family, friends (actual and long-lost) and interview requests from Web sites, TV shows and radio stations.
She sleeps a few hours each night, has fallen woefully behind on her schoolwork and day-to-day activities such as laundry and rarely leaves the house.
“It’s totally nuts,” she said.
Until O’Brien plucked Killen from obscurity and turned her into an overnight Web celeb, she and fiance John Slowik Jr. lived a normal life, residing in the basement of a house in Conway Township, more than an hour’s drive west from Detroit.
It’s hard to say exactly what O’Brien’s motivation was — O’Brien spokesman Beau Benton had no comment on Wednesday — but it’s had a profound effect on Killen and her 21-year-old fiance.
The exposure has resulted in a brand-new iMac, which was bought for them by a Florida businessman.
A New York designer is donating a wedding dress, and someone else is sending wine for the nuptials.
Not bad for a couple who saved $30 for the wedding, hadn’t reserved a location and faced the prospect of not being able to afford a wedding dress.
“People are saying that I’m asking for gifts and stuff, and I’m not,” Killen said.
What she is asking of her newfound army of Twitter followers is to contribute to charity, including the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
Still, Slowik says he’d love one more thing from the man who used to make them laugh nightly during his abbreviated “Tonight Show” run.
Slowik wants O’Brien to be his best man at the wedding.
Will he do it?
“I would hope so,” Killen said.
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LOS ANGELES – Michael “Big Mike” Lynche made Kara DioGuardi cry and turned the rest of the “American Idol” judges giddy with a moving performance of “This Woman’s Work.”
Lynche, a mountain of a guy who lives up to his nickname, performed last among the eight male semifinalists Wednesday and emerged as the star of the Fox TV show.
“You come out with an incredibly difficult song to sing, and you 100 percent nailed it,” said Simon Cowell. “Not just the best performance of the night, it was the best performance of all these live shows so far.”
The eight female semifinalists performed Tuesday, with the top six vote-getters from the men’s and women’s groups to be announced Thursday.
Lynche, 26, of Astoria, N.Y., moved impressively from a quiet falsetto start to a booming finale, but it was as much the story behind the song as his range that touched DioGuardi. Lynche’s wife had a baby girl while he was in Los Angeles making the cut for “Idol.”
“It’s amazing. You were amazing,” DioGuardi said. “It’s your life right now, it’s your respect for your wife, what you’ve gone through. … It brought me to tears.”
The other contestants, who may have been glad they didn’t have to follow Lynche, picked up a mixture of praise and criticism.
Andrew Garcia, 24, Moreno Valley, Calif., had the roughest night, with his performance of “Genie in a Bottle” deemed pitchy by Jackson and dismissed by Cowell as “a little bit desperate.”
Casey James, 27, of Fort Worth, Texas, did better with “You’ll Think of Me,” which Ellen DeGeneres and Cowell said sounded “great” but struck Jackson as a safe choice.
Tim Urban scored with his version of “Hallelujah,” which is becoming an “American Idol” standard.
DeGeneres, noting she has been critical of the 20-year-old from Duncanville, Texas, jumped on the stage to give him a congratulatory hug and called his rendition “fantastic.”
“Todrick’s back!” was Jackson’s response to Todrick Hall’s performance of “Somebody to Love,” while Cowell said it was a mixed performance but may have saved Hall, 24, of Arlington, Texas, from elimination.
Alex Lambert’s version of “Trouble” drew mostly favorable critiques, including a highly creative offering from DeGeneres.
“You’re becoming a mushy banana. You’re ripening so fast,” she said. Translation: The 19-year-old from North Richland Hills, Texas, is getting better and better.
Aaron Kelley, with “I’m Already There,” showed he has the “makings of a great,” Jackson said, and Cowell lauded his emotional delivery — while dismissing DioGuardi’s contention the song about a man away from his family was too old for the 16-year-old from Sonestown, Pa.
Lee Dewyze, 23, of Mount Prospect, Ill., showed “there’s a star bubbling there” with his version of “Fireflies,” said DioGuardi, while Cowell said he was better than the performance but had a “great chance” of making the top 12.
If not, DeGeneres could set him up on a date as a consolation prize: She’s heard from several people with crushes on him, she said.
___
Fox is a unit of News Corp.
___
On the Net:
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WASHINGTON – Actress Reese Witherspoon says her “Legally Blonde” character Elle Woods has been ousted as the most stylish woman to come to the nation’s capital by first lady Michelle Obama.
Speaking Wednesday at a ceremony where Mrs. Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton presented the annual International Women of Courage awards, Witherspoon jokingly complained that Woods, the bubbly blonde from Los Angeles who discovers her inner strength at Harvard Law School and then takes on Washington politics, no longer held that title.
“As an actress, I have always sought out roles that portrayed women as strong and powerful, such as Elle Woods, who was in the ‘Legally Blonde’ movies,” she said to laughter from the audience in an ornate State Department reception room.
Woods, she said, “happened to be the biggest fashionista who ever came to Washington until Michelle Obama. Thanks a lot.”
Clinton then introduced Mrs. Obama as “stylish,” and the first lady returned the compliment to the entire crowd, saying: “You all look fabulous.”
Witherspoon was at the ceremony as a global ambassador for the Avon Foundation, which supports breast cancer research, anti-domestic violence programs and women’s empowerment projects. On Wednesday the group announced a $500,000 contribution to the State Department’s Fund for Global Women’s Leadership.
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ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (Hollywood Reporter) –
In the slasher-thriller “Slice,” a cop-turned-convict tracks down a serial killer by delving into his own troubled childhood memories.
Genre buffs in particular will be aroused by the high camp quotient of the gender-bending twists in Wisit Sasanatieng’s (“The Unseeable“) baroque story idea, which is a cut above mainstream Thai horror. Direction by Kongkiat Khomsiri (“Art of the Devil 2“) backs this up with sharp visuals, stylized grotesquerie and a touch of delicacy in depicting teenage angst and gay sexual awakening.
Mainstream audiences may be unnerved by the gore and sexual obscenities, but “Slice” will rip its way through fantasy fests and midnight screenings, as well as being a hot item for Asian-specialist DVD distribution.
“Slice” gets off to a blood-curdling start with effectively jolting scenes of murder and mutilation in a range of styles. Tai (Arak Amornsupasiri) is a detective put in jail to do the bidding of his corrupt boss, Papa Chin (Chatchai Plengpanich). He is haunted by nightmares involving a suitcase. When suitcases turn up all over Bangkok with castrated corpses inside and DV footage of a mysterious killer in a red cape-like raincoat, criminal psychologists deduct that Tai may know the suspect.
Tai is given 15 days to find the murderer while his wife, Noi (Jessica Pasaphan), is kept under Chin’s surveillance as bail. As Tai revisits his hometown, flashbacks reveal his childhood friendship with Nut (Sikarin Polyong), which unfolds like a sweet puppy love referencing the teen gay romance “Love of Siam.” This turns out to be a deceptive lull as the villagers are soon revealed as gay-bashers or sick perverts. The atmosphere oozes Lynchian evil. The pulse quickens in the last act with an outbreak of violence and emotional hysteria.
Plotwise, the pieces do fall into place, culminating in an audacious twist. The radical changing of tonal registers and gore that borders on burlesque — such as a fight between Noi and Chin on a rubbish heap that is literally jaw-dropping — results in a distancing effect.
Tai’s feelings of revulsion, pity and guilt in response to Nut’s devotion are the stuff of emotionally charged and psychologically complex exploration of homophobia as a form of peer pressure. The theme of constancy versus betrayal is heartbreakingly expressed, but finally drowned in the sensational and voyeuristic tone used to portray Nut’s suffering for being gay.
Thanachart Boonla’s riotous camerawork accentuates the contrast between the filth and sleaziness of the big city and the countryside, shot in bright compositions of blue skies and daffodil-strewn meadows. Editing is spunky. The music is so exaggerated that the violins sometimes go into convulsions.
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Tags: Art, art of the devil 2, Bangkok, deceptive lull, Hollywood, Jessica Pasaphan, Netherlands, ROTTERDAM, Slice, Tai
BOCA RATON, Florida (Reuters) –
If start-up Media Derivatives and broker dealer Cantor Fitzgerald have their way, investors may soon be able to place bets on the box office showing of summer blockbuster “Iron Man 2.”
Media Derivatives, a division of Veriana Networks, and Cantor are racing to set up the first U.S. exchanges to offer futures on movie box office receipts.
Though the concept has been kicked around for a decade, both say they are closing in on their goal of offering hedging — and speculation — instruments to investors and movie studios wary of audience fickleness and box office volatility.
“It’s the right place and right time to build an exchange,” said Veriana CEO Robert Swagger. While other futures exchange start-ups have largely tried to wrest market share from existing exchanges, he said, Trend Exchange has a better chance of succeeding because it is an entirely new market.
The rush to offer futures could allow Hollywood studios to lessen the pain from a box office flop. The latest plans come as global box office rose to nearly $30 billion last year.
Hollywood studios often bring in partners to invest in their movies and minimize their risk. A futures market could give producers another measure of protection.
Media Derivatives’ Trend Exchange, based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is slated to get the green light from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on March 24, and plans to begin trading by midyear, Swagger said in an interview on Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual Futures Industry Association conference in Boca Raton, Florida.
Veriana plans to target institutional investors.
Cantor Fitzgerald has regulatory leave to start funding accounts on March 15, and plans to begin trading seven days a week on April 20, Cantor Exchange president Rich Jaycobs said on the sidelines of the same conference.
As an example of how it would work, if the expected box office revenue of a film is $170 million, an investor could buy a futures contract for $170 and, if the movie does better than expected, could sell at a higher price, Cantor said.
EAGER “INVESTORS”
The idea of creating a Hollywood futures market has been around at least a decade. In 1996, a website called The Hollywood Stock Exchange was started where participants could invest fake dollars on box office outcomes. A division of Cantor Fitzgerald bought the site in 2001.
At the time, a source said Cantor was working on launching movie futures. In late 2008, the company announced it planned to list box office receipt contracts on its Cantor Exchange in the first quarter of 2009 — but those plans were delayed.
That was partly because getting U.S. government regulatory approval for a box office futures market has been a challenge.
The U.S. and Canada box office crossed the $10 billion mark for the first time in 2009. News Corp studio Twentieth Century Fox’s 3-D movie “Avatar” made a record-shattering $2.6 billion worldwide. The Walt Disney Co’s “Alice in Wonderland,” also in 3-D, beat “Avatar’s” opening numbers by making $116 million from Friday through Sunday.
But as DVD sales — a sector that had previously sustained the industry — declined 13 percent, Hollywood studios released 12 percent fewer movies in 2009 than in 2008.
At least some of the drop in U.S. film production is due to the constriction in credit after the financial crisis. The availability of futures contracts to hedge risk could encourage financiers to reverse that trend, Swagger said.
TrendEx will clear through Minneapolis Grain Exchange using a traditional futures-exchange structure, he said. Cantor will self-clear, using prefunded accounts.
While the film industry is small by commodity futures markets standards, having two exchanges in such a small space could benefit both, as traders try to profit on any price differences between the two markets, Jaycobs said.
Trend Exchange didn’t provide any details on the contracts it plans to offer. Cantor plans to offer contracts valued at one-millionth of a film’s cumulative four-week box office take, making it much more accessible to a retail trader than a typical futures contract.
(Editing by Edwin Chan and Gary Hill)
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