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On the last day of the recent Reuters Media and Marketing Summit in New York, Warner Music Group CEO admitted that he was "fairly certain" that one or more of his seven children had downloaded music without the permission of the copyright owner, which Reuters referred to as stealing.

Despite the alleged infringers’ proximity to the major label head and his direct awareness of it without the use of ISP subpoenas, somehow no lawsuits were deemed necessary, although Bronfman said that his kids had "suffered the consequences":

"I explained to them what I believe is right, that the principle is that stealing music is stealing music. Frankly, right is right and wrong is wrong, particularly when a parent is talking to a child. A bright line around moral responsibility is very important. I can assure you they no longer do that."

via wired.

HONG KONG — Mariah Carey’s weekend concert was canceled Thursday because of poor ticket sales and what promoters said were the pop star’s "unreasonable demands."

Carey was to perform Saturday at an outdoor space near Hong Kong’s Central financial district. Promoter Concerts Asia said it had only sold 4,000 tickets, despite a "substantial" advertising campaign.

"We have decided to cancel the event effective immediately due to both the poor response of public ticket sales and also due to specific last-minute demands which we find wholly unreasonable and not with the best interests of Hong Kong, us and also the fans," said a statement posted Thursday on the promoter’s Web site.

Concerts Asia declined further comment, and contact information for Carey wasn’t immediately available.

Hits by the 36-year-old Grammy-winning singer include "We Belong Together."

© 2006 The Associated Press.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes, his company said on Tuesday.

Jon Lech Johansen, a 22-year-old Norway native who lives in San Francisco, cracked Apple’s FairPlay copy-protection technology, said Monique Farantzos, managing director at DoubleTwist, the company that plans to license the code to businesses.

"What he did was basically reverse-engineer FairPlay," she said. "This allows other companies to offer content for the iPod."

At the moment, Apple aims to keep music bought from its iTunes online music store only available for Apple products, while songs bought from other online stores typically do not work on iPods.
 

But Johansen’s technology could help rivals sell competing products that play music from iTunes and offer songs for download that work on iPods as they seek to take a bite out of Apple’s dominance of digital music.

ITunes commands an 88 percent share of legal song downloads in the United States, while the iPod dominates digital music player sales with more than 60 percent of the market.

Cupertino, California-based Apple, whose profits have soared in recent years on the strength of the iPod, declined to comment.

Johansen, known as DVD Jon, gained fame when at the age of 15 he wrote and distributed a program that cracked the encryption codes on DVDs. This allowed DVDs to be copied and played back on any device.

His latest feat could help companies such as Microsoft Corp., Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which have all announced plans over the past few months for music download services combined with new devices to challenge Apple.

© Reuters 2006.

IRVINE, CALIF. — Prosecutors are considering charges against Snoop Dogg after authorities discovered a 21-inch collapsible baton in his bags as he boarded a New York-bound flight, authorities said Monday.

The rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, had the baton in his laptop case as he went through a security checkpoint at John Wayne International Airport on Sept. 27, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Snoop Dogg, 35, told sheriff’s deputies that the baton was a prop for a movie he was filming in New York, Amormino said.

"He had a collapsible baton and it is classified as a dangerous weapon," Amormino said, adding that the stick collapsed to eight inches.

District attorney spokeswoman Susan Kang Schroeder said her office received the sheriff’s report on Monday. She said prosecutors had not yet decided whether to charge Snoop Dogg, who was not arrested.

It wasn’t the first time the rapper has had a problem at an airport.

In May, he accepted responsibility for using "threatening words or behavior" in an April brawl at Heathrow Airport in London. Snoop Dogg and five other men were arrested on charges of violent disorder and starting a brawl after some members of the rapper’s party were denied entry to British Airways’ first-class lounge.

Seven officers received minor injuries — mainly cuts and bruises — and one suffered a fracture to the hand.

British Airways has banned Snoop Dogg from future travel on the airline, it said last month.

Snoop Dogg was convicted in 1990 of cocaine possession and was charged with gun possession after a 1993 traffic stop. Facing a possible three years in prison, he pleaded guilty in exchange for three years’ probation and his promise to make anti-violence public service announcements.

He also was acquitted of murder in 1996 following the death of an alleged street gang member killed by gunfire from the vehicle Snoop Dogg was traveling in.

Snoop Dogg’s 1993 album "Doggystyle" sold 5 million copies.

© 2006 The Associated Press.

Universal Music, home to artists such as U2, The Killers and Audioslave, will make its catalog of recordings and music videos available for free on an ad-supported Web site launching later this year, the site’s operator said Tuesday.

The two-year deal calls for New York-based SpiralFrog.com to split advertising revenue with the recording company, said Lance Ford, chief marketing and sales officer for SpiralFrog.

Users can download an unlimited number of songs or music videos if they register at the site.

The tracks cannot be burned to a CD, but users will be able to transfer music to portable media players equipped with Microsoft Windows digital rights management software, Ford said.

However, the service will not work with Apple Computer Inc.’s Macintosh computers or its market-leading iPod music players.

Offering music and video for free on ad-supported Web sites is not new, but such services have generally been restricted to streaming, in which music and video files are not stored on a user’s computer, limiting playback to when there is an Internet connection. SpiralFrog will offer downloads, permitting playback offline and on portable devices.

SpiralFrog will require users to return to the site and renew registration at least once a month or the tracks cease to play.

The company is in talks with other major recording companies on similar deals, Ford said.

"They understand and support this ad model," he said.

Ford declined to disclose the value of the deal but said it included advance payments to Universal Music. The label declined to comment.

SpiralFrog hopes to appeal to music fans who now flock to online file-sharing services to download music and videos that are often pirated.

A beta version of the site is expected to go live in December. Initially, only computer users in the United States and Canada will be able to download content.

In May, online music service Napster Inc. began allowing visitors to Napster.com to listen to tracks five times for free on an ad-supported site it launched to lure users to its paid subscriptions.

© 2006 The Associated Press.