SEPTEMBER 2005

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MUSIC & COPYRIGHT - Illegal downloading big with youth: polls by Terry Pedwell, Canadian Press, September 29, 2005 OTTAWA -- Canadians illegally download 14 music CDs or other files from the Internet for every file they take from the web legally, suggests a new poll. The illegal downloading has cost retail music stores more than half a billion dollars in lost sales since 1999, estimates a study by Pollara for the recording industry. While some observers believe Internet piracy is a widespread phenomenon, most illegal file swapping is done by younger Canadians, says the Pollara report. Canadians between 12 and 24 years of age are responsible for 78 per cent of illegal music downloading, even though they make up just 21 per cent of the population, says the polling agency. The effect of the piracy, however, doesn't stop at just music or movies, suggests a study from another polling firm. Canadians between the ages of 18 and 29 are much more willing than other age groups to make illegal copies of software programs, cheat on exams or even shoplift, suggests an Environics poll. Nearly 27 per cent of younger people surveyed said they would consider cheating on a test or exam, compared with 10 per cent of the general population. Of those asked, six per cent of younger Canadians said they would leave a store without paying for a piece of clothing, compared with two per cent of the population at large. "Not only does music file-swapping harm artists, but it also points to an erosion of respect for intellectual property that threatens Canada's economy and values at the core of our society," said Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which commissioned the polls. "The 'if it's there, it's free' thinking extends far beyond entertainment products and software to ideas themselves," Henderson added, noting a rise in plagiarism in schools and universities. The association launched a national campaign Thursday to protect and promote so-called "products of the mind." The campaign comes in advance of public hearings this fall on new federal copyright legislation, Bill C-60.A number of legal experts have criticized the legislation, warning that it fails to protect the public interest and is primarily geared toward satisfying special-interest groups. The University of Ottawa hosted a summit Thursday on Bill C-60, with representatives of both Industry Canada and Canadian Heritage, the two departments jointly responsible for the legislation. Among the Pollara findings: - 12 to 17 year olds are the most likely to strongly agree that "artists are too rich already so downloading won't hurt them." - 37 per cent of respondents used a CD burner to record music within the last six months, up from 18 per cent in 2001.The Environics findings suggest: - 60 per cent of Canadians aged 18-29 are willing to download music from the Internet without paying for it, compared with 29 per cent of the general population. - Half of young people believe it's all right to illegally download music because others do it too. Pollara's findings are based on a national telephone survey of more than 1,200 Canadians aged 12 and over between June 24 and July 12. The firm says the results are accurate to within plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 out of 20 times. Environics polled just over 1,000 Canadians aged 18 or over by telephone, and another 1,043 Canadians online in May 2005. It says the findings are accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 out of 20 times.

CANADIAN COPYRIGHT BILL The Copyright & New Media Law Newsletter, Vol. 9, No. 5, September 21, 2005, by Lesley Ellen Harris -- On June 20, 2005, the Canadian Government introduced a long-awaited bill to amend the Canadian Copyright Act. The bill addresses short-term copyright reform issues while the policy divisions of the government continue to work on medium- and long-term reform issues. This bill, numbered Bill C-60, continues the on-going reform process in which the last major amendments were made to the Copyright Act in 1997 (ironically in a bill also numbered C-60.) In 1996, two new World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") Treaties were introduced to provide a minimum level of protection of digital-related copyright issues, in countries that adhere to them. In order to comply with these treaties, countries must ensure that their laws meet the minimum standards in the treaties. This was the impetus behind the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("the DMCA"). One of the main purposes for Bill C-60 is to bring Canada's copyright laws up to the minimum standards of the two WIPO treaties. To do this, the bill includes the following amendments: The exclusive communication right of authors are clarified to include control over the making available of their content on the Internet. Sound recording makers and performers are granted the right to control the making available of their sound recordings and performances on the Internet. It is an infringement of copyright to circumvent for infringing purposes, technological measures designed to protect copyright works. It is an infringement to alter or remove rights management information embedded in copyright material, when done to further or conceal infringement. Rights holders are granted control over the first distribution of their content in a tangible form. The duration of protection of photographs is the life of the photographer plus 50 years in all circumstances. Performers enjoy a full reproduction rights in sound recordings. Performers are given moral rights in their fixed and live performances. Internet Service Provider ("ISP") liability is not discussed in the two WIPO treaties and is a matter for each country to determine on its own. Bill C-60 exempt ISPs from copyright liabilityi n relation to their activities when they are acting merely as intermediaries. When an ISP receives notice from a copyright owner that one of its subscribers is allegedly hosting or sharing copyright infringing content, the ISP will be required to forward the notice to the subscriber, and to keep a record of relevant information for a specified time. The bill deals with specific educational and research access issues, while othersuch issues are reserved for further amendments. The government will begin a consultation process on the issue of the educational use of publicly available Internet material, while the following issues are dealt with in the bill:. Students in remote locations will be able to view a lecture using network technology, either in real time or at their own convenience. Content that may be photocopied for students pursuant to a school's blanket license with a collective society, may be delivered to students electronically without additional copyright liability. This will be until a similar blanket license for electronic delivery is available from a collective. Academic articles may be electronically delivered through interlibrary loan. Initial Reactions to the Bill - Like all copyright legislation, Bill C-60 satisfies some but not all in the copyright community. The bill was co-sponsored by Canadian Heritage Minister Liza Frulla who stated, "These amendments strengthen our creators and cultural industries against the unauthorized use of their works on the Internet. This legislation strikes a balance to serve both our artists and users." But not all affected parties agree with the appropriate balance of the bill. The recording industry and ISPs are certainly happy to see their interests protected, though it's too soon to hear their comments on specific wording of the legislation. The library and educational communities, on the other hand, are likely disappointed to see limited provisions in their interest. Copyright Professor Michael Geist also points out some missing elements in the bill: Statutory damages are not addressed (and "are desperately in need of reform"). Moving fair dealing towards fair use is not dealt with. "This was recommended by a government study more than 20 years ago.". "Elimination of crown copyright does not merit a single mention." "Greater transparency for Canada's copyright collectives, which collect hundreds of millions each year, but provide precious little information in how that money is spent or distributed is not addressed. "Background of the Bill - The 1997 amendments to the Canadian copyright statute included section 92 which obligated the government to do a comprehensive review of the Act within five years. In response to this, in October 2002, the report Supporting Culture and Innovation: Report on the Provisions and Operation of the Copyright Act (the section 92 report), was tabled in Parliament. Wide public consultation followed that report, by the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. On May 12, 2004, the Committee released its Interim Report on Copyright Reform, which was re-adopted on November 4, 2004. On March 24, 2005, the Ministers of Industry and Canadian Heritage jointly tabled the Government's response to the Committee, including the Government Statement on Proposals for Copyright Reform. To view various copyright reform documents, see: www.pch.gc.ca

Canadian Entertainment News, Events and Culture in New York (Music events). Greetings from the Upper North Side, the virtual Canadian neighborhood in New York. For the latest updates on events, please visit our Upper North Side web site. The Upper North Side is published by the Canadian Consulate General in New York.

MUSIC - Indie rock edges closer to the mainstream (CMJ Music Marathon). by Jake Coyle, Canadian Press Friday, September 16, 2005 NEW YORK -- As the CMJ Music Marathon - the Sundance of rock 'n' roll - descends on New York this weekend, hundreds of unknown indie bands are getting their shot at fame. Lately, their odds are a little better. With the success of groups like Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse and Bright Eyes, indie rock is seeping into the mainstream - a mixed blessing for a genre that prides itself on being underground. "There's been a real zeitgeist in the last couple years with kids and shy, quiet indie rock bands who are connecting with people en masse," says Death Cab guitarist Chris Walla. Stephen Malkmus, who fronted the quintessential '90s indie band Pavement, is now a solo artist. "I started when it was still college rock," he says. "It seems to have become more institutionalized in big cities . . . I'm glad to be a part of it." "It" is blended into TV shows like The O.C., movie soundtracks like the upcoming Elizabethtown and a healthy amount of commercials. Unlike sellout-conscious Kurt Cobain wannabes, today's indie fans are mostly rooting for the success of the music - and often exasperated at the relative anonymity of their favourite band. Like Natalie Portman says of the Shins in Garden State: "They'll change your life." "The entire independent scene has come to the fore," says Bobby Haber, founder and CEO of CMJ, or College Media Journal. "I think it's a watershed moment." Death Cab's fifth album, Plans, has sold 128,000 copies in two weeks after debuting at No. 4. Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Love Bad News has gone platinum. Last November, singer-songwriter Connor Oberst's band, Bright Eyes, had two songs top the Billboard singles chart - knocking out a duet by Usher and Alicia Keys and sending the indie rock world into a tailspin. "Universe reveals plan to self-destruct," wrote Ryan Schreiber of PitchforkMedia.com, arguably the critical epicentre of indie music. Indie rock, like alternative music in the early '90s, is a vague term meant to characterize progressive, underground rock 'n' roll. "It used to mean, especially in the late '80s, early '90s, that you were on an indie label like Matador or Sub Pop," says Sia Michel, editor-in-chief of Spin magazine. Now, she says, the term defines a specific sound, "this kind of smart, but tuneful and passionate kind of rock music." Unlike alt-rock, which was focused on grunge and anti-corporate anger, indie rock is a much broader sound that can incorporate forms of folk, country and electronica - but is mostly in the tradition of groups like Velvet Underground and Talking Heads.Current indie bands also rarely have the desire for cultural change like alternative acts did. "There is NOTHING about what we're doing that screams cultural revolution," Walla says. There's also more acceptance of the corporate world. Though they still carry the indie flag, Death Cab, Modest Mouse and semi-indies like Franz Ferdinand and the Killers are all signed to major labels. "Ten years ago, an indie rock band wouldn't have been caught dead being signed to a major," says Nic Harcourt, host of the influential radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic on Los Angeles' KCRW. Today, "the sensibility is more of an aesthetic than it is a manifesto." Michel agrees: "It's almost seen as kind of cool to score an iPod commercial." Speaking of which, iTunes and Internet downloads have made it easier for music fans to connect with underground artists. For Postal Service (a collaboration of Death Cab's Ben Gibbard and Dntel's Jimmy Tamborello) Sub Pop received more than four million downloads of Such Great Heights through MySpace.com. The album, Give Up, has now sold over 650,000 copies, the label's biggest seller since Nirvana's Bleach. Then there are TV and movies, which are often being created by young people who like indie bands. The long-haired, reverb-heavy My Morning Jacket are featured in Cameron Crowe's upcoming film Elizabethtown, and Aqueduct's quirky lo-fi can currently be heard behind pictures of plush Jaguars. If there's one band iconic of the scene, it's Arcade Fire. Hailing from Montreal, a bastion of indiedom, their debut, Funeral, blew away critics and has sold over 200,000 discs. "I think they're like the best band, period," says Carl Newman, frontman of the New Pornographers, echoing the feelings of many indie rockers. Some point to Arcade Fire as the obvious candidate to sell like Modest Mouse. "It's not that (indie rock) is strange, it's not that bizarre - it's simply a little ahead of its time," says Haber. "In late 1978, the Police sounded pretty strange . . . but six months later, it was on Top 40 radio with Roxanne." Walla credits Death Cab's switch to Atlantic (from indie Barsuk) in part to the creative contract they were offered. He says some majors are starting to rethink their role, turning away from "producing" bands in favour of simply distributing them. So are majors now trying to sign the next Death Cab? "If all of a sudden, that becomes the flavour of the month and all the labels want to sign a band like Death Cab for Cutie, then we're onto the next cycle of alternative rock and it's dead as soon as they start it," says radio host Harcourt. "So I hope not."A few indie rock bands that will "change your life":-Arcade Fire: Husband and wife team Win Butler and Regine Chassagne lead a troupe of exuberant, talented musicians. Wearing suits the way Wes Anderson might, they sing about adolescent memories with sweeping oooh's and ahhh's. The search continues for someone who doesn't like Arcade Fire. -The Flaming Lips: They've been around for two decades, and their appearance on 90210 helped give Death Cab for Cutie the rationale for doing The O.C. But since their experimental Zaireeka (which is four separate discs meant to be played at once), the Lips have made two classic concept albums: The Soft Bulletin and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Their next album, expected early next year, will test how big a band that sings Happy Birthday at concerts can get. -Yeah Yeah Yeahs: They already had an MTV hit with Maps, which may have laid the groundwork for still greater success. Karen O is also one of the only truly captivating singers today. -Antony and the Johnsons: Antony, who recently won Britain's Mercury Prize, is an androgynous cabaret singer whose siren voice has drawn the attention of collaborators like Lou Reed and Boy George. -Spoon: After trying out a major label with Series of Sneaks, the Austin, Texas band decided their home was in indieland. But frontman Britt Daniel still sees no reason his groove-based piano and guitar band can't be as big as the Kinks. -Sufjan Stevens: Press has been building for this banjo-playing bandleader. After an album devoted to Michigan, he continued his ambitious and ridiculous tour of the 50 states with Illinois. His band fills the stage with horns, strings and backup singers. Everyone, needless to say, is in costume. -John Vanderslice: A singer-songwriter not unlike Connor Oberst of Bright Eyes, but without the bangs or pushy, exaggerated pronunciation. His current disc, Pixel Revolt, is proving that there's life after Death Cab for indie label Barsuk. (Ditto for labelmates Viva Voce! and Aqueduct.)

MUSIC - Headphones worsen hearing loss & ringing in the ears (tinnitius) by Martha Irvine, September 19, 2005 Globe and Mail CHICAGO — Researchers fear the growing popularity of portable music players and other items that attach directly to the ears — including cellphones — is contributing to hearing loss in younger people. "It's a different level of use than we've seen in the past," says Robert Novak, director of clinical education in audiology at Purdue University in Indiana. "It's becoming more of a full-day listening experience, as opposed to just when you're jogging." Increasingly, Novak says he's seeing too many young people with "older ears on younger bodies" — a trend that's been building since the portable Walkman made its debut a few decades back. Everywhere she turns, Angella Day sees people carrying portable music players, often with the ear buds stuffed firmly in place. "They're very widespread," says Day, a senior at Chicago's DePaul University who regularly listens to music on her own iPod while studying or working out. "So addicting." To document the trend, Novak and colleagues have been randomly examining students and found a disturbing and growing incidence of what is known as noise-induced hearing loss. Usually, it means they've lost the ability to hear higher frequencies, evidenced at times by mild ear-ringing or trouble following conversations in noisy situations. Hearing specialists say they're also seeing more people in their 30s and 40s — many of them among the first Walkman users — who suffer from more pronounced tinnitus, an internal ringing or even the sound of whooshing or buzzing in the ears. "It may be that we're seeing the tip of the iceberg now," says Dr. John Oghalai, director of The Hearing Center at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, who's treating more of this age group. "I would not be surprised if we start to see even more of this." Noise-induced hearing loss happens any number of ways, from attending noisy concerts and clubs to using firearms or loud power tools and even recreational vehicles (snowmobiles and some motorcycles are among the offenders). Today, doctors say many people also are wearing headphones, not just to enjoy music, but also to block out ambient noise on buses, trains or just the street. And all of it can contribute to hearing loss. "The tricky part is that you don't know early on. It takes multiple exposures and sometimes years to find out," says Dr. Colin Driscoll, an otologist at Minnesota's Mayo Clinic. One telltale sign that you've done damage to your ears is when you leave a loud venue with ringing ears. If you rest your ears, they might recover, at least partially, doctors say. But with repeated exposure comes more damage to the hair cells in the inner ear, which are key to good hearing. With long-lasting rechargeable batteries, people who use portable music players also are listening longer — and not giving their ears a rest, says Deanna Meinke, an audiologist at the University of Northern Colorado who heads the National Hearing Conservation Association's task force on children and hearing. Often, she says, people also turn up the volume to ear-damaging levels. A survey published this summer by Australia's National Acoustic Laboratories found, for instance, that about 25 per cent of people using portable stereos had daily noise exposures high enough to cause hearing damage. And further research by Britain's Royal National Institute for Deaf People determined that young people, ages 18 to 24, were more likely than other adults to exceed safe listening limits. How much is too much? Meinke says a good rule of thumb comes from a study published in December: Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital determined that listening to a portable music player with headphones at 60 per cent of its potential volume for one hour a day is relatively safe. Experts also recommend protecting hearing in other ways — standing away from loud speakers, for instance, and using hearing protection when using machinery at work, home or for recreation. Day, the DePaul student, concedes that she's never thought to carry ear plugs with her, as Driscoll at Mayo Clinic and others suggest. "So what if you gave them out at the door at the concert? Would people wear them more?" Driscoll asks. "I think some would." To that end, professional musicians have formed Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers (HEAR) to promote hearing protection. And Meinke's committee is developing a teacher kit with a meter to show dangerous levels of sound — something educators in Oregon also have demonstrated with a Web-based program called Dangerous Decibels. "In the future," Meinke says, "I hope people will wear ear plugs the same as they wear their bike helmets or wear a seat belt." [visit Mark Vinet website for more info & links regarding hearing loss]

ENTERTAINMENT - The Canadian Subsidy Directory Canadian Publications is offering to the public a revised edition of the Canadian Subsidy Directory, a guide containing more than 3000 direct and indirect financial subsidies,grants and loans offered by government departments and agencies, foundations, associations and organizations. Including: Names/Addresses/Telephones/Program names & descriptions Web site URL's - To obtain more info on the Canadian Subsidy Directory call, Canadian Publications toll free 1-866-322-3376.

MUSIC - Definitions of neighbouring rights on the Web Recently introduced into Canadian law, neighbouring rights protect performers and producers of recordings, and broadcasters' communication signals. They are similar to copyright but can be distinguished because they give additional rights to users of material already protected by copyright. Consequently, performers and producers of sound recordings and broadcasters (as well as copyright holders) can be remunerated for their use of copyright protected works. source: Canadian Heritage

MUSIC & COPYRIGHT - MP3 company rejects copyright charge The Local, 14th September 2005 -- Jens of Sweden, a company which produces mp3 players, is facing legal proceedings for after flatly refusing to pay a controversial 'copying charge' on its products."It's not our problem that the record industry hasn't come up with its own solution," said the company's owner, Jens Nylander.The charge, known as 'cassette compensation', was introduced in Sweden in 1999 and was designed to compensate copyright owners whose music or films were copied to a different format for private use. Last year, 85 million kronor in cassette compensation was collected and redistributed by the copyright organisation Copyswede. The law also applies to mp3 players but Jens Nylander told Svenska Dagbladet that it was outdated and unjust. He said that there are several large companies which do not pay the charge, including Apple with its iPod, but Copyswede is only taking legal action against his company and one other."The system is unreasonable," said Nylander, whose company has refused to pay the charge for the last two years."In my opinion the compensation should be built into the price. To be able to transfer a song to an mp3 player should be included in the purchase of the music."But Hans-Olov Dahlén at Copyswede told Svenska Dagbladet that his organisation wants a good relationship with the industry and that they are not picking on Jens of Sweden."They have clearly stated that they will not consider paying, so we're going to court. We're in discussions with the other companies," he said."As the law stands, people have the right to make copies for private use, so the copyright owners should be fairly compensated."

MUSIC - Judge freezes Suge Knight's assets (Death Row Records). Associated Press, Tuesday, September 13, 2005, LOS ANGELES -- A judge has frozen the assets of rap mogul Marion (Suge) Knight in a ruling that favours an imprisoned drug dealer, who wants half of a $107 million US court award to his wife. Judge Adrienne Grover of the Superior Court in Monterey County, Calif., issued the ruling on Aug. 29, the day after Knight was shot in the leg at an MTV awards pre-party in Miami Beach, Fla. He has been released from a hospital. In March, a Los Angeles judge ordered Knight and his companies to pay $107 million to Lydia Harris, who claimed she helped start Death Row Records and was owed money from the recording label. The judge made the decision after finding that Knight and his lawyers failed to answer questions and provide information in the case, which never reached trial. Michael Harris, who is serving a 28-year sentence at San Quentin State Prison in California, argues that he's entitled to half of his wife's award. Calls to Knight's lawyer, Dermot Givens, and Lydia Harris' lawyer, Richard Brover, weren't immediately returned Monday. Harris has claimed he put up $1.5 million from behind bars in 1991 to help start the record label -- a contention Knight has repeatedly denied. In June, Harris filed for divorce after learning his wife was in settlement negotiations with Knight, said his lawyer, Steven Goldberg. "She was trying to settle separately and cut him off the $107 million award," Goldberg alleged. Harris sought a divorce to block the alleged settlement, Goldberg said. The judge's decision to add Knight as a party to the divorce blocks him from "disposing or transferring his assets away," the lawyer said. Knight, whose label dominated the rap world in the 1990s, has had a series of legal troubles. In 2003, he was ordered to pay $5.5 million to managers who accused him of stealing one of their acts. Knight was released from prison in 2001 after serving time for assault and weapons violations. He recently served an additional 10 months for violating his parole by allegedly striking a Hollywood nightclub valet.

MUSIC & RADIO - Cabinet delays satellite radio decision Canadian Press September 8, 2005 OTTAWA -- The future of legal satellite radio remains in limbo, with the federal cabinet putting off a decision on the fate of three new licences. The CRTC approved the satellite licences in June, but that decision can be overridden by cabinet. The ministers have until next Wednesday to OK the CRTC move, overturn it, or send the matter back to the regulator for further consideration. Opponents of the decision say it doesn't offer enough Canadian content. Supporters say it will mean vast new exposure for Canadian artists on broadcasts across North America. Heritage Minister Liza Frulla says a decision will come by next week's deadline.

MUSIC & RADIO - Artists show support for satellite radio Canadian Press, Wednesday, September 07, 2005 OTTAWA -- Singers, song-writers, music producers, comedians - from legends to the little-known - are urging the federal cabinet to let satellite radio go ahead, saying it will be the salvation of struggling independents. From internationally known tenor John McDermott to the legendary Robbie Robertson, they say pay radio will offer vast opportunities for Canadian talent of all kinds to get air time. In June, the CRTC approved three licences for subscription radio services. Some MPs, though, have complained that the proposed licences require too little Canadian content and have urged Heritage Minister Liza Frulla and the cabinet to overturn the agency's decision. Cabinet has until Sept. 14 to decide to let the decision stand, kill it or send it back to the CRTC for reconsideration. The artists are raising political pressure with a series of news conferences to say that subscription radio will offer far more exposure to Canadian talent than is possible on conventional, mainstream radio.

MUSIC - Rod Stewart to pay $2M for cancelled gig Canadian Press Thursday, September 08, 2005 LAS VEGAS -- A jury decided Wednesday that rock star Rod Stewart should pay a Las Vegas casino $2 million US plus interest for a cancelled show in December 2000. The seven-member federal jury found unanimously that Stewart should not have kept an advance he was paid for the New Year's weekend show at the Rio Hotel Casino which he said he was unable to perform due to throat surgery several months earlier. Stewart, 60, was not in U.S. District Court when the verdict was reached. One of his lawyers, Kerry Garvis Wright, said the rock star will appeal. Steve Morris, a lawyer for the Rio Hotel Casino and its parent company, Harrah's Entertainment, said he was "delighted and relieved" by the verdict. Jury foreman Stevan Jorgensen, 56, said the jury believed the argument boiled down to a misunderstanding of the contract between the rock star and the casino. "We felt it was only fair," he said, "that if Mr. Stewart didn't perform the concert that he should give the money back." Juror Kent Brooks, 62, said jurors felt Stewart would not have been able to perform "up to his standards" following his surgery in May 2000. "The best conclusion that was fair to both parties was that it was a misunderstanding of the contract." Rod Stewart insists voice wasn't ready - Associated Press, Thursday, September 01, 2005 LAS VEGAS -- Singer Rod Stewart told a jury Wednesday that he was in no shape to perform a New Year's concert at the Rio hotel-casino in December 2000 because he had just had throat surgery seven months earlier. "There was nothing there. No strength," Stewart testified in the civil breach-of-contract suit filed against him by casino owner Harrah's Entertainment Inc. "I was petrified. I was scared. This was my livelihood." The 60-year-old British singer had two thyroid tumours removed in May 2000. He said his trademark raspy voice recovered in time to begin a world concert tour in June 2001. Stewart estimated he had performed 150 shows since then and said he would be willing to play up to two makeup concerts at the Rio if Harrah's would agree. The company sued Stewart for the $2 million US advance he was paid for the December 2000 show, plus interest and lawyers' fees. Testimony in the case was expected to continue Thursday. Gary Loveman, Harrah's chief executive, said another performance date wouldn't be as profitable for the casino as the millennium celebration weekend. Harrah's lawyer Stephen Morris asked Stewart about the $25.3 million contract the singer signed in November 2000 committing him to promote Clear Channel Entertainment for 100 shows on the world tour. Stewart said he didn't know if his representatives told the Rio about the contract. Outside court, Morris said Stewart's agents cancelled the Las Vegas show the day after the contract was signed. Under earlier questioning from his own lawyer, Stewart said he didn't read every contract negotiated by his lawyers and managers. "I turn up and sing," he said. Stewart, who last week said he was fighting the case to defend his honour, said outside court that his half-hour on the stand Wednesday was one of the scariest things he had ever done. "The other was throat surgery," he said.

MUSIC - Apple accused of violating Creative’s software patents Financial Express, September 05, 2005 -- Creative Technology Ltd., a maker of portable music players, has accused Apple Computer of violating a newly granted software patent that covers the way users navigate music selections. Creative Technology, which is based in Singapore and has U.S. operations in Milpitas, Calif., said it would consider every option available to defend the patent, including possible legal action. Apple declined to comment on the patent. The patent, which the company refers to as the Zen Patent, covers Creative’s software interface for portable music players, which allows users to select a song, album or track by navigating a succession of menus. The patent office awarded the patent on Aug 9. Creative uses the navigation technology on many of its portable music devices, which account for 3.3% of the market, according to the NPD Group. Apple’s iPod, which in large part owes its popularity to its easy-to-use navigation system, has about 74% of the American market. Craig McHugh, president of Creative’s U.S. perations, said that Apple was the only company that Creative had identified so far that was in violation of the patent, though Creative was investigating others. “We are looking at all our alternatives right now,” he said. “We have always been very vigorous in our defense of our patent portfolio.” McHugh said the company was focusing on hard-drive-based systems, rather than less-expensive flash-memory systems that typically sport a bare-bones navigation system. The latest development comes a few months after the Patent and Trademark Office rejected an Apple application for a patent on some of the user interface concepts of the iPod, on the ground that Microsoft had filed for a similar patent. “Apple is the 500-pound gorilla,” said Mark Goldstein, an intellectual property lawyer with the SoCal IP Law Group, in Westlake Village, Calif. With the patent, he said, Creative is “trying to show they’re in the same league” as Apple. As written, Goldstein said, the patent gives Creative “a lot of opportunity,” including the ability to add features it has not yet developed. Creative executives said the company first shipped music players with the navigation system in September 2000, and filed the patent application in January 2001. Apple announced the iPod in October 2001. Apple has several options, including requesting that the patent office re-examine the patent. If Apple fights the matter in court, the company would need to show the existence of “prior art,” that is, similar technology that existed previous to Creative’s use of the technology. “What would matter then is what was out there in, say, 1999 and 2000,” Goldstein said.

MUSIC & COPYRIGHT - Axl Rose Sued By Former Guns N' Roses members, Slash and Duff McKagan August 29, 2005 Softpedia -- Former Guns N' Roses members, Slash and Duff McKagan have sued former lead singer Axl Rose, claiming that he tried to cheat them out of royalties resulting from the Guns N' Roses song catalogue. The pair, who now play with Velvet Revolver, say that Rose signed a multimillion-dollar publishing deal with the Sanctuary Group in the United Kingdom that included old Guns N' Roses songs. Slash and Duff still own part of these songs. The suit read: "Rose's actions were malicious, fraudulent and oppressive, and undertaken in conscious disregard of ( Slash and Duff's ) property rights." The suit also claims Rose received a US$92,000 royalties cheque in 2005's first quarter. In response to the lawsuit filed against Axl Rose's attorney, Howard Weitzman stated: "This is a classic case of premature accusation. If someone had taken the time to investigate or ask about this situation before rushing to judgment they would have learned that ASCAP (the entity that collects money for songwriters) made a clerical error and failed to appropriately divide and distribute the royalty's owed for the first quarter of 2005 to Axl and the former Guns N' Roses musicians. The amount ASCAP mistakenly sent to Axl's publisher was never received by Axl nor was he ever made aware of the error. The publisher alerted ASCAP to the error, returned the money immediately and asked ASCAP to remedy the situation by distributing the funds appropriately." "Contrary to allegations in the lawsuit, Axl has never denied that others made substantial contributions towards the success of Guns N' Roses, but there is little doubt as to who was the creative catalyst behind the group's success." Guns N' Roses frontman W. Axl Rose has lashed out at his former bandmates, guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagan, after being slapped with a lawsuit by the pair over alleged unpaid royalties. Slash and McKagan sued Rose in federal court last week, charging that the singer had switched the publishing company for Guns N' Roses without their consent and had collected more than his share of the band's royalties as a result. Axl's attorney issued a statement on Monday (August 29th) that called the lawsuit "frivolous" and "premature." It read in part, "If someone had taken the time to investigate or ask about this situation before rushing to judgment they would have learned that ASCAP (the entity that collects money for songwriters) made a clerical error and failed to appropriately divide and distribute the royalties owed for the first quarter of 2005 to Axl and the former Guns N' Roses musicians."Rose's lawyer said that the money mistakenly sent to Rose's publishing company was never received by Rose himself, and that the publisher returned the money to ASCAP and asked it to redistribute the money appropriately. The attorney concluded with a verbal slap at Slash and McKagan, saying, "Rather than pick up the telephone and contact Axl or his representatives...It is clear that Slash and Duff are looking for another opportunity to spread untruths about Axl in an effort to hurt his reputation and to alienate his fans while at the same time creating a profile for themselves."Recording Industry Sues More File SharersReuters, 2 sept 2005 -- The recording industry filed its latest round of copyright infringement lawsuits, targeting 754 people it claims used online file-sharing networks to illegally trade in songs. The lawsuits were filed in federal district courts across the country, including California, Colorado, Georgia, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

MUSIC, FILM, INTERNET, VIDEO GAMES & COPYRIGHT - Accused Internet Thief Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Steal Movies, Music, Games On Line In First-of-its-Kind California Case Music Industry News Network 2 sept 2005 -- The operator of an Internet hub that allegedly facilitated on-line poaching of copyrighted films, television shows, music and games pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grand theft in the first criminal Internet file-sharing case brought in California.Prosecutor Jeff McGrath, supervising deputy district attorney of the High Tech Crimes Unit, said Jed Frederick Kobles, 34, pleaded guilty to the single felony count before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Horwitz. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 20.District Attorney Steve Cooley said that the Southern California High Tech Task Force, which includes the District Attorney's office, was formed to battle this latest crime front because of huge advancement in the use of sophisticated electronics and the Internet by the unscrupulous. "These are difficult cases that require a great deal of expertise to investigate and prosecute," he said.Cooley also noted that various entertainment industry groups including the Motion Pictures Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America have been very supportive of prosecutors' efforts in the relatively new field of Internet crime.McGrath said Kobles ran an Internet file sharing hub that allowed users to trade movies, television shows, music and games with others. To join the group, the user had to have access to a large amount of material they were willing to "share" with others.The hub was joined by an undercover investigator from the High Tech Task Force. The investigator downloaded more than 14 movies, television shows and music videos in January of this year, McGrath said.The undercover investigation led to a search warrant being served on Kolbes's residence in Los Angeles on Feb. 25. As they served the warrant, McGrath said, Kobles was in the process of downloading the XBOX game, "Leisure Suit Larry."McGrath said Kobles now lives in Las Vegas. He remains free on his own recognizance. His sentence, which will be determined by the court, could range from probation to a maximum of three years in state prison.Kobles (dob 1-4-1971) pleaded the same day he was charged. Case No. BA288999 charged the defendant with one count of conspiracy to commit grand theft between Nov. 21, 2004, and Feb. 25, 2005. In the overt acts listed in the complaint, it was alleged that Kobles, under the screen name Raging8, operated an Internet file-sharing hub called UTB Smokinghouse.The complaint alleged that over four days in January 2005, Kobles and unnamed co-conspirators made films, music videos and television shows available for sharing. Films including "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," "National Treasure," and "A Beautiful Mind." The music videos were all by Madonna and the television show was one from the series "The Simpsons."Pirates hit Stones albumLondon Evening Standard, 2 September 2005 -- The Rolling Stones first album in eight years has been illegally posted on the internet a week before its original release. Music fans have now been able to download most of the album - A Bigger Bang - from several websites. Although it is officially released on Monday, the illegal posting could cost the band millions in record sales. Mick Jagger and the band are the latest in a line of artists, including U2, Eminem and Oasis, to fall prey to internet pirates. A spokesperson for EMI, the Stones' record company, said: "The first low-quality files of new Rolling Stones music were found on Monday. It is actually a major achievement to keep an album secure until this close to the commercial release date."

MUSIC & COPYRIGHT - HMV jumps into music download market by Cassandra Vinograd, Associated Press, September 1, 2005 LONDON -- British music retail giant HMV said Thursday its new digital music downloading service, which will compete with Apple iTunes and the new Virgin Megastore service, will have a library of 1.3 million songs. HMV Digital, created in partnership with Microsoft, will initially be available only to customers in Britain when it launches Monday. Music will be available for as low as $1.06 US per song, but HMV will also have a subscription service at $27 per month allowing unlimited downloads. However, songs downloaded under that plan are wiped out if the subscription isn't renewed. The majority of tracks will be set at $1.42, the same as iTunes, with albums available at $14.40. "We've taken our time to enter this new and exciting market. Our intention is to deliver a quality service that will... rival the best," said Steve Knott, managing director of HMV for the United Kingdom and Ireland. Both HMV Digital and Virgin's new services are aimed at a market dominated by Apple's ITunes, but whose heyday they see drawing to a close. Apple says iTunes offers more than 1.2 million songs. HMV's system -- compatible with the Windows Media Audio standard -- works with several digital music players allowing wider download possibilities and accessibility. Like the Virgin service, which launches Friday, it is not compatible with Apple's iPod. As the iTunes software works only with the iPod, HMV believes consumers will want to broaden their horizons. "How many customers know that in buying an iPod, they're effectively locking oneself into a walled garden?" said John Taylor, HMV's director of e-commerce. Artists ranging from Mozart to Madonna will be featured in the online store, with a library featuring rock, jazz, classical and a wide range of world music and folk to please more than just chart-focused listeners. The program features search and download capabilities, music transferring from a portable device onto the program, CD burning, streaming radio stations, and HMV playlists. HMV plans to add video capabilities in the near future.

MUSIC - Toby Keith launches own label, Show Dog Associated Press, Thursday, September 01, 2005 -- NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Country artist Toby Keith said Wednesday he's forming his own label, Show Dog Nashville Records, to gain more control over his work. He's betting he can sell his music at least as well as others have in racking up sales of more than 25 million albums, with 10 going platinum, and 21 No. 1 singles. Show Dog will record and distribute Keith's future work. Keith, whose hits include How Do You Like Me Now, Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American) and I Love This Bar, split with Universal Music Group and its subsidiary DreamWorks Nashville earlier this summer. "It's a pretty big undertaking with every business lesson I've ever learned in hand," Keith told The Associated Press. Keith's tremendous popularity is expected to drive the label. "I made sure the first artist I signed was Toby Keith," said the 6-foot-4 singer, who's a former oilfield worker, rodeo hand and semipro football player. Keith is starting Show Dog with former DreamWorks Nashville record executive Scott Borchetta, who also will operate his own label, Big Machine Records. "Probably 75 per cent of the people in this town think I'll fail, and the other 25 per cent hope I fail," said Keith, who has had high-profile clashes with the Dixie Chicks and the late ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings. But Keith is optimistic other artists will want to join his label after their contracts with others are up. "I think we'll be able to sit back and watch people jump over the wall into my nuthouse," he said. Keith said he likes the freedom of his own record label. "We can literally make a decision at noon and get started by 1 p.m.," he said. "I get to do things exactly my way." Keith left Mercury Records in 1999 because he was upset with the way his music was being handled. He went to DreamWorks Nashville and became a superstar. The label was acquired last year by Universal Music Group, which has Mercury under its umbrella.

MUSIC - In Hip-Hop, Making Name-Dropping Pay by Krissah Williams, Washington Post, September 1, 2005 -- From a generic brick office building at the end of a road in Lanham, Tony Rome is creating a niche in an artless side of hip-hop that some people would rather not discuss. Rome hooks up rap stars, R&B singers and urban comedians with major corporations that want to reach their fans. The ideal relationship, says Rome, who founded Maven Strategies in 1996, would have an artist write a brand name into a song, feature the brand in a music video and partner with the brand in other promotions, getting paid by the brand's owner along the way. He began a recent Monday morning meeting at his six-person marketing firm with a bit of genial how-was-your-weekend banter. One company rep had gone to Dream night club in Northeast Washington; another played basketball with her boyfriend at ESPN Zone, and beat him. A company vice president celebrated his young son's birthday. The conversation circled back around the small conference room to Rome, and on to business. "So what's the status on the Seagram's Gin Live tour," asked Rome, a cool 37-year-old with a closely cropped afro. Maven said he is promoting a concert tour for Seagram's Gin, and that he recently arranged a meeting between the liquor brand and singing hip-hop darling Lil' Mo at B. Smith's restaurant. The deal is done, Maven said, and contracts are signed. Seagram's will pay for the concert, the singer will headline the tour, and the posters promoting the concerts will prominently feature the gin. Everything from gin to luxury cars is on the table, eagerly awaiting placement in a rapper's song or on the banner above a comedian's tour. For a price. On to the next matter. Has the company that paid to have its product placed in scenes of up-and-coming Houston rapper Slim Thug's new music video approved the final cut? Thug is the latest rapper in hip-hop's dirty south genre, with its big beats and yell-along choruses. Rome declined to name the company that paid for the placement. "We have the still pictures, but we're waiting for the video," said Lamar Lee-Kane Sr., Maven's vice president of branded entertainment. The way Rome sees it, "no other media outlet gives away anything for free." "We are trying to bridge that gap" between hip-hop artists and corporate America, he said. With that philosophy as a guide, he has built Maven into a player in urban branding and product placement in hip-hop music and videos, advertising industry watchers say."In the past, [product placements] were negotiated in a somewhat informal way; what Maven Strategies has done is to really codify the relationship and create a structure for how much people get paid," said Lucian James, president of Agenda Inc., a San Francisco-based brand research firm. "That's one of the holy grails for product placement: to really work out what it is worth." Rome began showing celebrities the money when he founded his company as an independent sports agency nine years ago, representing NFL players Kevin Hardy and Brian Mitchell. But as America's idols changed, so did Maven. As Michael Jordan grew older, kids no longer wanted "to be like Mike" but like Brooklyn rapper Jay-Z. Soon Rome was no longer inking deals for football players. A deal in 2000 promoting the national Kings of Comedy tour, headlined by African American funnymen Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer and Bernie Mac, led to a focus on urban entertainment and eventually hip-hop music. Rome got the HBO cable network, Crown Royal Whisky and other sponsors to back the tour with $1 million. "What we are really about is helping our clients connect with their customers in unique creative ways," Rome said. He also works on product placements in urban films and finding corporate sponsorships for events targeted at African Americans, such as a program to stop childhood obesity. Maven's prices vary depending on the branding a company is after, but Rome made news last Spring when Advertising Age, the ad world's publication-to-read, splashed a story across its Web site about a deal Maven stuck with McDonald's. According to the story, McDonald's confirmed that if rappers would include "Big Mac" in their lyrics, the fast food giant would pay them between $1 and $5 each time their song was played on the radio. Rome won't discuss the deal with McDonald's in further detail and guards his client list closely. Most brands that hire Maven for product placement would rather not draw attention to the money exchanging hands between companies and the rappers. Corporations want consumers to assume that rappers name-dropping hamburgers, cell phones or cars wrote the brands into their lyrics because they love them not because they were paid, said William Chipps, senior editor with IEG Sponsorship Report. "It has to be organic," Chipps said. "It can't be blatant." "Organic" is subjective. Robert "T-Mo" Barnett, a member of the once widely popular Atlanta rap group Goodie Mob, is working with Maven on a deal to promote a brand. Maven gave him the name of the product, and he wrote it into the lyrics of the single he is planning to release this year. T-Mo's contract with the company has not yet been signed, and Maven would not identify the brand. How much the company pays him for mentioning the brand depends on the radio popularity of the single. T-Mo was in the studio recently and laid down the song, which he is calling "What's Happening." "I was vibing," the rapper said. "It just came natural. I heard a good beat, and I just flowed with it. It was nothing I had to really force. "I am helping them brand their company and at the same time they are helping me," he said. "I got a brand new baby boy, and I'm trying to feed him right now. I want to be smart about every move I make so I can maximize my earnings." Larry Khan, senior vice president of R&B promotion and marketing for Jive Records, said this process for making music is "pretty much accepted." "I guess in days gone by it would have looked like the artist was selling out, but now it has become a part of American culture. It doesn't hurt your street cred," he said. Hip-hop artists, who often rhyme about their lives, fantasies and aspirations, have been touting their favorite brands in songs for years and subconsciously enticing their fans to buy them. Hip-hop originally functioned as a sort of "black CNN," as rapper Chuck D of Public Enemy dubbed the music in the late 1980s. And the transition to mainstream pop culture, and thus branding, began innocently -- and unpaid. In 1986, popular Brooklyn rap group Run-DMC released "My Adidas" -- an ode to the sneaker company and their personal style. The song topped the charts and boosted the company's sales. Later, Adidas offered the rappers a paid sponsorship deal, and the relationship between the business and the art was formed. In the past decade, the link between rappers and brands has evolved along with the music's promotion of bling and living the luxurious life. According to Agenda, brands were mentioned almost 1,000 times in the top 20 singles last year on the Billboard charts. The top brands were: Cadillac (70 mentions), Hennessy (69), Mercedes-Benz (63), Rolls Royce (62), and Gucci (49). In the popular song "Overnight Celebrity" Grammy-nominated rapper Twista mentioned nine brands, including these: I can get you on CDs and DVDs - Take you to BeBe and BCBG, . . .Y'all take a look at her, she got such an astonishing bodyI can see you in some Gucci or Roberto CavalliRome said 90 percent of those radio plugs were free product placements and would cost the companies upwards of a billion dollars if they were paid advertisements. "Hip-hop is really the only music genre that embraces brands in their songs and because they are doing it, I think the hip-hop artists should be paid for it," Rome said. At least one of those artists was not only paid but says so in his song. A version of Maven client Petey Pablo's song "Freek-a-Leek," which was one of the most played last year, included this line: Now I got to give a shout out to Seagram's Gin/Cause I'm drinkin' it and they payin' me for it.

MUSIC - Pepsi Heads West (And East, North And South) With Kanye Brandweek, September 1, 2005, NEW YORK -- Pepsi said Friday it would break a spot on Sunday, Aug. 28, during the MTV Video Music Awards starring hip-hop artist Kanye West.The 30-second spot, "Timeline," was directed by Spike Lee and created by Spike DDB, New York. The commercial follows Kanye as he walks by iconic backdrops of various cities, including Paris, Cairo, Tokyo, and Chicago, via state-of-the-art computer graphics and special effects. It is set to the song "Heard 'Em Say" (featuring Adam Levine of Maroon 5) Kanye's new album Late Registration.Kanye will appear during the show as a performer and nominee.The effort is a part of Kanye's new partnership with Pepsi. He headlined an exclusive Pepsi Smash concert in Miami on Aug. 13, and performance footage of Kanye from the concert is currently featured on Pepsi's music microsite on Yahoo! Mega, Inc., Las Vegas, Pepsi's music marketing agency, facilitated the partnership with Kanye.

BOOKS - Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists - by Andrea Baillie Canadian Press, September 28, 2005 TORONTO -- Since its inception, the Giller has become an eagerly awaited fall ritual in the publishing community, catapulting little known writers into the national spotlight and boosting pre-Christmas book sales. Libraries across the country now hold "guess the Giller" contests. This year, Scotiabank has signed on as an award co-sponsor, boosting the Giller prize money from $25,000 to a whopping $50,000. Of that, $40,000 will go to the winner and $2,500 will go to each of the four finalists. The jury read 94 books in order to select the final five; the winner will be announced at a gala dinner to be held Nov. 8. MORE: http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca/ BOOKS - Canadian Entertainment News, Events and Culture in New York (Book events). Greetings from the Upper North Side, the virtual Canadian neighborhood in New York. For the latest updates on events, please visit our Upper North Side web site. The Upper North Side is published by the Canadian Consulate General in New York.

BOOKS - Literature buffs meet and share online by Jocelyn Gecker Canadian Press, September 20, 2005 -- PARIS -- When Eric Jouannest left his book on a bridge behind Notre Dame cathedral, he didn't expect it would wind up in a remote Russian republic. But such is the globalized nature of a club that started in the United States a few years ago and has spread across the Atlantic and far beyond. The founders of BookCrossing.com compare their online book club to a virus, one that has reached far-flung places carried by members who heed the philosophy: if you love a book, set it free. One selling point is that it costs nothing to join. Members include literature buffs determined to share their passion or thin out their shelves and travellers who simply love a good book - although here the books do most of the travelling. The concept is based on what the club calls its 3R's: Read, Register and Release. Participants label a book's inside cover with a tracking number and the website's address www.bookcrossing.com, then stash it somewhere and post instructions online explaining where. Once a book's pickup is logged online, an e-mail is automatically sent to whoever dropped it off. Part of the thrill is seeing how far afield a book can land, said Jouannest, 45, a Parisian sound technician who left a French mystery novel on the Pont de l'Archeveche, a stone bridge behind Notre Dame, one spring day in 2004. "I got word of it two months later. Someone found it in Ulan Bator - in Mongolia! - and he took it with him to Buryatia," said a wide-eyed Jouannest, noting that he was familiar with the Russian republic of Buryatia from Michael Strogoff, Jules Verne's 1876 tale of adventures in the Russian Empire. Word keeps spreading and membership rising as people leave books in cafes, parks or anyplace else so strangers can find them and partake in a novel attempt to turn the world into one big library - with no late fees. Sometimes the system works, sometimes it doesn't. About 25 per cent of books are found, according to Ron Hornbaker, an American software developer who founded the site in 2001. The club now boasts 400,000 members in 120 countries. "I knew it was the type of thing that could catch on and grow sort of in a viral nature," Hornbaker, 39, said by telephone from his office in Kansas City, Mo. "But I had no idea it would grow as fast as it did and as broadly geographically as it has." Overseas members now account for the majority. The number of American BookCrossers has dipped to 46 per cent, with those in Britain, Canada, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and elsewhere accounting for most of the rest. Paris members hold gatherings once a month in the basement of a Right Bank cafe, where people sit around a table scattered with books up for grabs and glasses of beer. They speak a language of their own: books are freed or released, at which point they are "wild books." Once logged online, a book has been "caught." The act of handing off a book or mailing it to someone in another city or country is a "controlled release," which many do willingly and ask for nothing in return. Members can chat online about books they're searching for. Sharing a good book is part of the draw for 28-year-old Parisian Elisabeth Lavarde, one of about 7,000 French members. "I like the gesture of sending a book. And you know someone somewhere will send you one back," said Lavarde, who has mailed books to members in Portugal and Switzerland. "It really gives me pleasure to know that someone will get to read a book I loved." Angelo Rinaldi, literary editor of Le Figaro newspaper, said that when he takes a train he often leaves a book behind. "But I've been doing that for ages," he said. "I didn't know I was a pioneer."

BOOKS - Stephen King character won at auction by Garance Burke, Associated Press, September 19, 2005 -- SAN FRANCISCO -- Stephen King's new horror story focuses on a set of rampaging zombies controlled by cell phones. One may now bear the last name Huizenga. King fans around the world spent much of last week on eBay, outbidding each other in an online auction organized by authors selling the rights to name characters in their new novels. Initially conceived as a creative fundraiser for the First Amendment Project, a nonprofit that defends the free speech rights of writers and artists, the auction quickly became the website's most watched item. As the online auction's first round closed Sunday night, Pam Alexander of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., won the right to name a character in King's novel, CELL, with a $25,100 US bid. "I thought it would be a great gift to give to my brother to have his name in the book," said Alexander, whose brother, Ray Huizenga, is a longtime King fan. "It's definitely extravagant but it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing, and he's worth it." Alexander beat out Paul Stegman, of Papillion, Neb., who was poised to take out a credit line on his house to buy a way into King's head. "How many times do you have the opportunity to purchase immortality?" said Stegman, who owns 300 King books. On Sept. 1, eBay Giving Works, the site's dedicated program for charity listings, went live with the electronic auction. The auction already has fetched well over the nonprofit's fundraising goal of $50,000 US. "We can safely say we're not going to close now," said David Greene, executive director of the Oakland-based First Amendment Project. "I'm thrilled." The auction's second phase, which will allow bidders to vie for the chance to name a character in books by John Grisham, Dave Eggers, Neil Gaiman and others, continues through Sept. 26. The benefit was the brainchild of Gaiman, who approached Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon with the idea when he heard the group was running out of money. It has become the single largest fundraising event for the First Amendment Project, whose lawyers are currently defending a publisher who produces a magazine distributed in prisons and a former sailor seeking information from the U.S. Army.

BOOKS - Authors auction naming rights for charity Associated Press, August 15, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO -- It can take years of late-night brainstorming for a novelist to choose the name of a character, says Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon. Or it could come as quickly as an auction on eBay, and in the process, keep a non-profit dedicated to freedom of speech from closing its doors. Stephen King, John Grisham, Andrew Sean Greer and several other best-selling authors are joining Chabon next month in selling the right to name characters in their new novels. The profits will go toward a campaign to defend the free-speech rights of activists, writers and artists called the First Amendment Project. "It feels a little scary for most writers because when you're writing you're completely in charge. You can say this book is all mine, it's my world," said Chabon, who sits on the project's board. "Whether giving some of that over has any monetary value or not, we'll see." King says his highest bidder will get to name a character in a new zombie novel he describes as being like "cheap whiskey... very nasty and extremely satisfying." John Grisham, on the other hand, is promising to portray his top bidder's chosen name "in a good light." But bidders beware: Most of the authors are clearly retaining creative control to use the names as they see fit. Andrew Sean Greer promises his winner may choose the name of a "coffee shop, bar, corset company or other business in another scene," but only "should it suit the author." The auction begins Sept. 1 on eBay Giving Works, the site's dedicated program for charity listings, and runs for 25 days.

When is it plagiarism? by Fadzilah Amin, Star Publications, 15 september 2005 -- I was recently accused of plagiarism when trying to produce articles based on information found on the web. My employer seemed rather strict and rigid in his thinking that plagiarism is applicable on a word-by-word basis. I looked up the word in the dictionary and found it to mean “to copy another person’s idea, words or work and pretend that they are your own”. In light of is, I would like to know if I am committing plagiarism when I use: 1. quotes and cliches; 2. excerpts from other scientific sources when writing a scientific paper; 3. definitions committed to memory in exams and tests. How will I know when the threshold of plagiarism has been surpassed? – S.Y. Lee 1. When you quote from a piece of writing, you should always indicate that it is a quotation by using quotation marks around the quotation or an indented paragraph, and acknowledge the source of your quotation, including the name of the author(s) if available. If you are quoting from an Internet source, you should give the url of the website you are quoting from. You are committing plagiarism if you quote even a phrase or a sentence that someone else has written without acknowledgement and without making clear that it is a quotation. Some universities consider using three consecutive words from another source without acknowledgement as plagiarism. However, a cliche, by its very nature, is not original, and using a cliche does not, I think, constitute plagiarism. Neither does it constitute good style. 2. The rules for (1) apply to excerpts from scientific sources. It is especially important not to plagiarise when writing a scholarly paper, which should be original. 3. If you can commit the definitions to memory, surely you can also remember whose definitions you are using. Each university, publication and publisher usually has its own definition of plagiarism. Some insist on an acknowledgement of the source even when you are using someone else’s ideas in your own words. So, the threshold is different for different organisations. Plagiarism violates intellectual property rights and in some cases can result in court action.

BOOKS - Godfather sequels to keep on coming (book franchise). Associated Press, Tuesday, September 13, 2005, NEW YORK -- Welcome back, Corleones. Mark Winegardner, who wrote the 2004 best seller, The Godfather Returns, which was authorized by the late Mario Puzo's estate, is now working on a novel that works in the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy. G.P. Putnam's Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group USA, expects to publish The Godfather's Revenge next year. "It's staggering to contemplate the legacy of The Godfather films and novels," Putnam executive editor Dan Conaway said Tuesday in a statement. "It's fitting, then, that The Godfather's Revenge overlays the resonant mythology of the Corleone family onto the most vexing real-life mystery of our age, with a story line that explores the role organized crime may have had in the assassination of a charismatic young president." Winegardner, whose other books include Crooked River Burning and The Veracruz Blues, joined the Corleone franchise by winning a U.S.-wide contest co-sponsored by Random House, Inc., and Puzo's estate for a new Godfather writer.

BOOKS - 'Chick lit' just a marketing device by Erin Henderson, Canadian Press, September 09, 2005, TORONTO -- Emily Giffin is the author of two bestselling novels, but the petite 33-year-old American is humble over her talents and downplays her success. "My life is very unglamorous," Giffin insisted before being whisked away for a book signing for about 80 fans. "I have twin sons, they're 20 months old, they run me into the ground. I write in my sweats. It's a very simple life. There'd be no reason for me to be a diva. That's funny." Giffin's books, Something Borrowed and this summer's followup Something Blue (H.B. Fenn), were instant hits, topping the must-read "chick lit" lists. Something Borrowed, published in 2004, is a modern-day fairy tale about two lifelong friends. It's written from the perspective of Rachel, who has always paled against her best friend Darcy's beauty, charm and sex appeal. Rachel falls in love with Darcy's fiance, Dex, and begins an affair. "I enjoy taking a protagonist and putting her in a situation that women initially make judgements about and then re-examine," says Giffin, who's based in Atlanta. That novel sold more than 50,000 copies in Canada and has been published in at least 12 countries and seven languages. "I think the issue of female friendship really resonates well with women," Giffin said. "So many women have a friend like Darcy or can relate to the feeling of being second-fiddle to a friend." Giffin says she often receives e-mail from fans admitting their own affairs with friends' partners, or having been cheated on themselves and using her books to help them get through the ordeal. "One of the things that has been the most fulfilling about this whole experience is connecting with readers." As for the chick-lit label, it doesn't bother Giffin at all. "I think there's some women who feel that the label sort of degrades women because it trivializes women's issues," she says. "But at the same time, I don't take any offence to it. I think that it's just a marketing device.... It's served me well. I think there's good chick lit and there's bad chick lit." In September 2001 Giffin left a promising career as a New York lawyer for London, where she gave herself a year to make it as a writer. She finished her first manuscript and sold it in a two-book deal in January 2003. Right now she's working on her third novel -- sans Rachel, Dex and Darcy. Baby Proof tells the story of a couple who marry with the mutual agreement they don't want kids. But years down the road, the husband decides he does want children, but the wife still does not. It's due out next June.

BOOKS - Jackson juror wants out of book deal by Associated Press, September 9, 2005 Santa Maria, California -- A juror in the Michael Jackson case who said last month that he believed the pop star was guilty of molesting his 15-year-old accuser has filed a lawsuit to get out of a book publishing contract. Ray Hultman said as he began publicizing his book deal that he regretted finding Jackson not guilty in the June verdict. He and juror Eleanor Cook said on the American television station MSNBC that they went along with the other panelists because the jury foreman threatened to have them removed. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in a court in Santa Maria, Calif., Hultman and his wife, Darlene, claim that they were suckered into signing a book deal with publisher Larry Garrison, owner of SilverCreek Entertainment in Lake Sherwood, Calif. Hultman, 62, wants out of his contract and is seeking unspecified damages for mental and emotional stress. Also named in the suit is his agent, Bill Gladstone, and author Stacy Brown, the Santa Maria Times reported. Hultman in his lawsuit claims he was shocked by media reports last month that his book proposal contained material that was plagiarized from a Vanity Fair magazine article. Hultman alleges that Brown plagiarized the documents, which he claims damaged his reputation and the book deal. "(Hultman) was caused to expend substantial time in writing portions of a book proposal which turned out to be valueless given the aforementioned plagiary," the lawsuit claims. Brown said Thursday that the lawsuit was "laughable." He said he never agreed to co-author Hultman's book and denied the plagiarism allegations. Garrison declined to comment for this story, saying he had not reviewed the lawsuit. Gladstone was travelling out of the United States and did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment. Hultman and his lawyer declined to comment.

BOOKS - Short list named for Man Booker Prize Associated Press, Thursday, September 08, 2005 LONDON -- Officials announced the shortlist Thursday for Britain's most prestigious literary award, the Man Booker Prize. The six books in the running for the $91,800 US prize are: :: The Sea, by John Banville :: Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes :: A Long Long Way, by Sebastian Barry :: Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro :: The Accidental, by Ali Smith :: On Beauty, by Zadie Smith. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on Oct. 10. The Man Booker Prize is open to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth. John Sutherland, chair of the judges, said the quality of the 17 books in this year's long list had been particularly strong and judges had faced a difficult decision in culling 11 entries for the short list. The strength of the year's competition can be measured by the fact that three good books by previous Man Booker winners were finally not selected," he said. Books by previous winners Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and J. M. Coetzee made the long list but failed to be selected for this year's short list. "This short list, we believe, witnesses to the remarkable quality of the current state of fiction. We look forward to the final round," Sutherland said. Alan Hollinghurst won the prize last year for The Line of Beauty. The Man Booker Prize Financed by Booker McConnell, a multinational conglomerate company, and awarded annually for the best full length novel in the British Commonwealth of Nations.

BOOKS - Libraries sound out downloadable books Canadian Press Wednesday, September 07, 2005 -- Heard any good books lately? The audio book isn't new. Recording works of literature is a concept that's been around about as long as recording technology, although book-length material would have required a truckload of wax cylinders or 78 r.p.m. records. Audiotape changed all that and made books much more accessible. Now there's a new e-wrinkle that has caught on big time with libraries in the United States -- offering audio downloads of books to patrons. Many Canadian libraries are also looking at the idea. Companies such as OverDrive Inc. and NetLibrary license books from publishers, then provide them to libraries using the Windows Media format. Library members can then download copies from home using their computers. Depending on the product, a disc can be burned or the book can be downloaded into an MP3 player. There are no late fees, but there are copyright protections that make audio books unusable after a set period. It's great for busy people who want to listen to a book while driving or jogging and for those whose eyes are no longer all that print-friendly. So far, few Canadian libraries have made the move, although perhaps 1,200 in the United States currently offer downloads from OverDrive and NetLibrary alone, with other companies entering the market. But Barbara Clubb, president of the Canadian Library Association and Ottawa city librarian, says there is a lot of interest north of the border. She did a quick survey of the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, which represents the larger libraries in Canada, and a majority are investigating the concept. Some have already booked presentations from OverDrive and NetLibrary. Clubb predicts her library will be offering audio downloads within the year. Like many libraries, right now they're trying to look at all the factors involved in receiving and providing downloads. "We're looking at the technical issues of security and all that," she says. One of those in Canada leading the way is the Fraser Valley Regional Library in Abbotsford, B.C. Librarian Saul Amdursky says they bought the Recorded Books product offered by NetLibrary in May and are pleased so far, although there are a few drawbacks. He says there are too many "classic" titles among the 900 or so books on offer. Those are books on which no copyright fee must be paid. But he says the service is a winner and e-audio now represents about five per cent of their audio book volume."I suspect demand will grow as we intensify marketing efforts." Amdursky says one of the best catalogues of recorded books is offered by a company that really doesn't work that well for libraries yet, Audible Inc. Its products are geared more to individual users than institutions. But he predicts demand will improve what companies are offering. "Once authors and publishers see it's profitable, we'll see more new stuff." There is one big fly in this ointment, which Amdursky and others are quick to point out. The most popular technology for listening to downloads of any type -- the iPod -- isn't Windows friendly. The downloadable books are portable only on a device that reads MP3 files, which rules out the iPod.It's something Canadian librarians are concerned about, although it hasn't stopped them from preparing to dip their toes in the download water. "You need to look at the product very carefully to make sure it will work with the technology you have and the technology the public has," says Betty Parry of the Winnipeg Public Library. "There are a lot of technical issues the companies have been working on and sorting out, so that may be one reason to wait rather than go through all the growing pains with them." She says it could be two years before the Winnipeg library offers audio downloads, although it already offers streaming audio books for younger readers, so they can listen while connected to the Internet. What does this mean for the traditional book? Not much, say many librarians, who have watched technology add to demand but not reduce the interest in printed works. "Predictions 10 years ago were the online and computers were going to overtake books," says Parry. "The book publishing industry is still going very strong. The market is very strong. The circulation of library books is very strong, and all the electronic stuff is just growing." Amdursky says much of the growth potential for downloading lies in the audio-visual offerings of libraries, especially music. But that means getting the attention of the recording industry, which has been aggressively fighting free downloaders. "The real trick is going to be when we get to music."

BOOKS - Penguin inks record deal for Chinese book by Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press, Tuesday, September 06, 2005, SHANGHAI, China -- The Penguin Group has purchased the English-language rights to China's bestselling novel, The Wolf Totem, for a record $100,000. Jiang Rong's 2004 Chinese-language novel about the struggle for life on the Mongolian grasslands will be published in English in 2007, An Boshun, Jiang's agent with Changjiang Literary Art Press, told The Associated Press Monday. "This is the biggest overseas book deal in mainland China," An said. He said Penguin also agreed to a 10 per cent royalty on each book sold, almost double what is standard in China. "We talked with a lot of big international publishers, but Penguin offered a very good price and a concrete and satisfying plan to publish the book's English version globally." Jo Lusby, Penguin's representative in Beijing, said interest from several publishing houses had pushed up the price for The Wolf Totem, which has sold more than one million copies and topped bestseller lists for months. "It's a very unusual book. It's a book we believe in and are very excited about," Lusby said. The meticulously researched, semi-autobiographical tale is built around the lives of wolves told through the eyes of a student sent to work on the Inner Mongolian grasslands. It is set during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when Mao Zedong emptied the cities of educated youths to have them work alongside peasants and herders. Critics and readers have praised its exploration of the relationship between man and animal, accurate detail and spiritualistic questioning. Ironically, it has also been embraced by Chinese businessmen, who see in its accounts of the wolf pack's hunting, stalking and killing a metaphor for survival and success in China's rough and tumble corporate world. Despite his success, first-time author Jiang, 58, has largely avoided the media. A Beijing university professor who, like his protagonist, lived for several years in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution, Jiang spent more than 30 years researching and writing the book. The sale marks a breakthrough in foreign interest in modern Chinese literature, which has lagged behind mainland art and film. Most foreign translations of mainland books focus on culture studies, history, food or traditional arts and crafts, although there has been some interest abroad in the sensationalistic novels of a few young female writers. Communist Party censorship of politically and socially sensitive topics has prompted many of China's best writers to work abroad, including 2000 Nobel literature prize winner Gao Xingjian. With interest in China growing along with its booming economy, Penguin will publish four to six translations of Chinese works a year, Lusby said. For Wolf's Totem, the publisher is evaluating three different English translators. There will be no rush to market, she said. "We made a serious investment in the rights; we'll make a serious investment in the translation," Lusby said.

BOOKS - Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA) Author biography: Janette Oke (pronounced "oak") was born in Champion, Alberta, to a Canadian prairie farmer and his wife during the depression years. She graduated from Mountain View Bible College in Didsbury, Alberta where she met her husband Edward. The two were married in May of 1957 and together went to Pastor churches in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada, and in Indiana. Edward later became president of Mountain View Bible College. They have three sons (including twins) and a daughter. Devoted to her family, she has said, "there is no higher honor or greater task given to any woman than being a homemaker. That is my number one priority." Janette Oke published her first book in 1979, Love Comes Softly. When Bethany House Publishers published this book, fiction was an unknown genre in the Christian publishing marketplace. The book was so successful that she has since published thirty-six romance novels. With their focus on the lives of early prairie settlers, her books have sold over 14 million copies. In 1992 she received the President's Award from the ECPA. To write her books, Oke retreats to her family's condo in the Canadian mountains. She produces her first draft in a week. Her books portray her definition of romance, "deeply committed love." Some of the trials of life can develop the closeness important in marriage. Oke has a large reading audience of teenagers, housewives, working women, a few men and now young children. She writes her books to reach an audience of young women betwen the ages of sixteen and twenty-four since there are not many books available in the Christian market for that age group. Her readers so loved Love Comes Softly that she continued to story in a now complete series of eight books. Other series include Canadian West, Seasons of the Heart, and Women of the West. In 1997, Bethany House Publishers released her new book, The Tender Years which is the first title in a new Prairie Legacy series. She has also written Return to the Heart (1997) which sold over 200,000 copies. Contact Janette Oke through her publishers. Bethany House Publishers, 11300 Hampshire Avenue, S., Minneapolis, MN 55438. Phone: (612) 829-2512

BOOKS - Challenges to library books rose in 2004 by Hillel Italie, Associated Press, September 1, 2005 NY -- Attempts to have library books removed from shelves increased in the United States by more than 20 per cent in 2004 over the previous year, according to a new survey by the American Library Association. Three books with gay themes, including Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, were among the works most criticized. "It all stems from a fearfulness of well-meaning people," says Michael Gorman, president of the library association. "We believe in parental responsibility, and that you should take care of what your children are reading. But it's not your responsibility to tell a whole class of kids what they should read." The number of books challenged last year jumped to 547, compared to 458 in 2003, with the library association estimating four to five unreported cases for each one documented. According to the ALA, a challenge is "a formal, written complaint, filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness." National organizations such as the American Family Association have been involved with library challenges, but far more complaints come from individual parents and patrons, according to the ALA. The ALA study was to be released Friday in anticipation of the 25th annual Banned Books Week, which runs Sept. 24 to Oct. 1 and is co-sponsored by the ALA, the American Booksellers Association and others. Gorman acknowledged that few books are actually banned, adding that Banned Books Week is a "catchy name." Albert Cormier's classic The Chocolate War topped the 2004 list of challenged books, cited for sexual content, violence and language. It was followed by Walter Myers's Fallen Angels, a young adult novel set in Harlem and Vietnam and criticized for racism, language and violence. No. 3, Michael Bellesiles's Arming America, has been widely disputed, even by its original publisher. First released in 2000, the book challenges the idea that the United States has always been a gun-oriented culture and was awarded the Bancroft Prize for history. But questions about Bellesiles's scholarship led publisher Alfred A. Knopf to drop the book and Bancroft officials to withdraw the prize. "If you're a freedom-to-read person, pulling a book like that one is not that different from any book that might have fake scholarship," Gorman says. "No matter how wrong a book might be, people should have access to it. It's a slippery slope once you start removing books like that." Also high on the ALA list were Angelou's memoir and two other books with gay content, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, and King & King, by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland. The numbers for 2004 were the highest since 2000, but still well below the peak from a decade ago, when more than 700 books were challenged. "A lot of people were worried that challenges would go up under President Bush, but the highest numbers were during the Clinton administration," Gorman says. "I think that came from resentment among conservatives that Bill Clinton was president." Gorman said the majority of challenges happen at school libraries, although a recent incident involved the general public branches in Denver. Prompted by complaints of pornographic and violent content, the Denver system cancelled its subscription to four Spanish-language adult comic books. "It's a perpetual problem, and it attacks fundamental American liberties -- the attempt to impose one's own positions on society as a whole," Gorman says.

BOOKS - R.R. Bowker (Books In Print) -- As the U.S. ISBN Agency, and the most authoritative source for title and publisher information, Bowker's mission is to enable and promote the flow of goods and information through the publishing supply chain with tools and services that benefit every member of the international book industry: publishers, distributors, booksellers, libraries, academic institutions, and research facilities.

BOOKS - Sudoku puzzles a publishing phenomenon by Kim Curtis, Associated Press, September 02, 2005 -- SAN FRANCISCO -- Sudoku are deceptively simple-looking puzzles that require no math, spelling or language skills. Unlike crosswords, they don't require an extensive knowledge of trivia. They're logic, pure and simple. They're also addictive. Sudoku books - pages and pages of grids with nothing more than numbers in boxes - are selling so well that they're quickly filling lists of best sellers. "I can't think of a puzzle book that has sold like this," said Ethan Friedman, who edits The New York Times crossword puzzle books for St. Martin's/Griffin Press, including two volumes of sudoku with introductions by Times crossword guru Will Shortz. "This is a publishing phenomenon," said Friedman. In all, nine sudoku books are planned. Three weeks ago, no sudoku books were on USA Today's top 150 list. Now, there are six. "I'm not surprised that people like the puzzle -- I thought that was almost certain," said Wayne Gould, a retired judge from New Zealand who wrote a computer program that has helped popularize the puzzles. "I am surprised at how people have gotten into a frenzy about it." In sudoku, the game is laid out in adjoining grids. Players must figure out which numbers to put in nine rows of nine boxes so that the numbers one through nine appear just once in each column, row and three-by-three square. The phenomenon originated in 1979, when one of the grids, titled "number place," was published in an American puzzle magazine, according to Shortz, who was curious enough to research its history. The puzzle did not catch on in the United States then, but puzzle enthusiasts in Japan loved the idea. By the early 1980s, the puzzles -- renamed sudoku, which means "single number" -- filled the pages of Japanese magazines. Enter Gould, a 60-year-old puzzle enthusiast who in 1997 found himself "killing time" in a Japanese bookstore. "I don't read or write or speak Japanese so there wasn't much that I recognized," he said from his vacation home in Phuket, Thailand. "I picked up a sudoku book and bought it." He was soon hooked. "I'd say, 'When I finish this puzzle, I must go mow the lawn.' Then I would finish the puzzle and go on to another one," he said. "I started thinking, 'What happens when I solve all these puzzles?'.... I thought I'd write a computer program so that I'd never run out of puzzles for the rest of my life." Gould, who had taken up computer programming as a hobby, wrote software that randomly generates the logic puzzles. The grids have only some of the numbers filled in -- players must do the rest. He also wanted to share sudoku with the world -- and perhaps make a bit of money. So one day last November, he marched into The Times of London without an appointment, carrying a copy of that day's newspaper with a square cut out and a sudoku puzzle in its place. Once Gould persuaded the features editor to come down to the lobby, getting him to publish the puzzles was easy -- he offered to provide them daily for free as long as the paper printed the address of his Web site, where for $14.95 he sells the software needed to generate a lifetime of sudoku -- "endless puzzles made up on the spot, all fresh and original." The Brits went bonkers. Other newspapers, including papers in Canada, quickly realized that they, too, had to provide sudoku to stay competitive. And that computer program is about to make him a millionaire, says Gould, who now provides free puzzles to 120 newspapers in 36 countries. Other syndicates provide their own sudoku -- Kansas City-based Universal Press and others supply dozens of U.S. newspapers with a daily dose. The Los Angeles Times started running the puzzles on June 20. The response was immediate, says Sherry Stern, deputy features editor. "It's just something that's captured people," she said. "I can't explain it." American book publishers saw what was happening in England earlier this year and sensed a big business opportunity. "There were books on the best seller list there. That was unheard of, to have a puzzle book up on the best seller list," said John Mark Boling, a spokesman for Woodstock, N.Y.-based Overlook Press, which quickly obtained the rights to publish some British sudoku books in the United States. "We beat everyone to the punch, basically." In July, the first printing of The Book of Sudoku, by Michael Mepham, sold out in two weeks. Three more sudoku books quickly followed, selling a combined 400,000 copies. "Our orders go up hourly," Boling said. "We've really been at a rush to keep up with the demand." At least three more U.S. publishers quickly put out their own sudoku books. "It could flame out, but based on everything I've been able to discern so far, sudoku is a keeper," said Esther Margolis, president of Barnes and Noble bookstore. "It's the kind of puzzle that seems to be so intriguing and satisfies such a wide age range." Shortz, who has been addicted to sudoku since April, says their appeal is simple. "Most problems we face in everyday life don't have perfect solutions. It's satisfying to take a problem through to the end all by yourself," he said. The instructions are short, just one sentence, which Shortz said is "very rare in puzzles."

TV - CTV gears up to launch MTV in Canada by John McKay Canadian Press, September 28, 2005 TORONTO -- The music and lifestyle network MTV is returning to Canada under a new strategic alliance announced Wednesday by CTV. The broadcast venture sees CTV becoming partners with the U.S.-based MTV Networks, one of the biggest television brands in the world, to bring two MTV channels back to the Canadian airwaves. CTV's plan is to rebrand its Talk TV analogue specialty channel as a Canadian MTV channel -- as yet unnamed -- as well as to apply to the CRTC for a new digital-tier music television channel. Tentative plans call for the new services to be up and running in early 2006. However, CTV may face resistance from fellow broadcaster CHUM Television, which enjoyed a longstanding relationship of its own with MTV. Brad Schwartz, a Canadian who is an MTV Networks International executive returning home to lead the new venture, envisages no problem with federal regulators. "I read the licence. We are not going to change it one bit. We are going to be 100 per cent compliant with exactly the way the licence is." But CHUM has indicated it will not take this development lying down. "We'll be intrigued to see how Talk TV can be morphed into an MTV brand and still remain a talk channel as licensed," said Jay Switzer, president and CEO of CHUM Limited in a Wednesday afternoon statement. "We will be actively encouraging the CRTC to enforce both the spirit and letter of all Talk TV's conditions of licence." Switzer also said that CHUM would at the same time be seeking regulatory flexibility to allow its MuchMusic channel to competitively respond. Schwartz insisted, however, that the new service would be very complementary to CHUM's youth-music services. "I grew up with MuchMusic. I like what they do and they present music. We are a lifestyle brand and we will be doing much different things." The cross-border deal also means creating original Canadian programming for both systems and giving CTV exclusive access to MTV's array of digital media assets, including online, wireless and Video on Demand. In addition there will be an MTV program block on the main CTV network, although no details are yet available. "It's really going to be a multi-platform, entertainment, lifestyle destination," Schwartz said, promising a much bolder initiative than the MTV Canada service launched in 2001 by Alberta-based Craig Media. "The MTV experience is to be enjoyed in a 360-degree capacity... it really goes so far beyond that." MTV first came to Canada four years ago when Craig, in a surprise move, acquired the Canadian rights and launched both MTV Canada and MTV2, even though CHUM had a relationship with MTV. However, when Craig's television assets collapsed, the channels fell into the hands of CHUM last December, which recently rebranded them as PunchMuch and Razer. Under MTV's deal with Craig, if the Canadian partner was sold, MTV had the right to seek another partner. CHUM paid $10 million to MTV Networks International as part of the cost of terminating the Craig-MTV contract and acquiring ownership of the specialty channels. Barring any CRTC objections, this latest arrangement will leave CHUM's MuchMusic suite of music channels without its former rights to air MTV programming such as the MTV Music Video Awards, effective immediately. When asked about MTV's migration to the hip-hop market south of the border while Canada is seen as more of a rock environment, Schwartz indicated that difference would be reflected in the new service. "We are going to reflect Canadian culture," he said. "We are going to take that MTV exuberance, MTV DNA and MTV personality and create a very clear Canadian interpretation of that. And to do that you have to follow the audience's lead." Schwartz said he was unable to divulge any financial details at this time about the new partnership. "Canada is a very important market to MTV," Bill Roedy, president of MTV Networks International, said in a statement. "As a source of dynamic debate, diversity and culture, MTV in Canada will reflect a uniquely Canadian perspective to enrich our global operation." Schwartz said licence conditions require the new MTV service to be 68 per cent Canadian content. He added that the Canadian music scene has been amazing and that CTV has been pre-eminent in fuelling that. "Whether it's with the Junos, Canadian Idol, or Live 8, they have a passion for this scene in Canada."

FILM & TV - Alan Rosenberg elected SAG president (Screen Actors Guild) Canadian Press, September 24, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- Alan Rosenberg was elected president of the Screen Actors Guild on Friday, replacing former "Little House on the Prairie" star Melissa Gilbert, who decided not to run for a third two-year term. Rosenberg will lead a famously fractious union of 100,000 actors that has been split in recent years on such issues as merging with the other major actors union and taking an aggressive stance in negotiations with producers. He beat out fellow candidates Morgan Fairchild and Robert Conrad. Rosenberg received 40 per cent of the total 27,053 votes cast, according to the guild. Fairchild received 35 per cent and Conrad 25 per cent. "I am honoured that the members of this great union have placed their confidence in me," Rosenberg said in a statement. "I ran a campaign that offered a simple and straightforward promise - I will fight like hell to get actors their fair share." The 54-year-old actor has appeared on such television shows as "ER," "L.A. Law" and "The Guardian" as well as in TV movies. He is married to actress Marg Helgenberger. Connie Stevens was elected the new secretary-treasurer, replacing James Cromwell, who did not seek re-election. She received 68 per cent of the votes over challenger Lee Garlington's 32 per cent. Voter turnout was about 27 per cent for both elections, the guild said. Rosenberg and Stevens will begin serving their terms on Sunday. Rosenberg's win is a victory for the "Membership First" faction of the union which opposed Gilbert in the last two elections. The group has advocated a more aggressive approach in negotiations with producers and opposed the merger with the other major entertainment union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. "We have become weak as a union, giving in to a series of rollbacks and buy-outs at a time when the entertainment industry is recording record profits; profits that will continue to grow with new technology," Rosenberg, 54, said on his campaign Web site. "If we truly expect to earn our livings as actors, we need to stand up and fight for a fair and livable wage." Gilbert supported a controversial plan to merge SAG with AFTRA to increase union clout when dealing with large media conglomerates. That plan was narrowly defeated in 2003. Gilbert also backed a new three-year contract with producers earlier this year that won increases in pay and benefits, but did nothing to change a 20-year-old formula for compensating actors for DVD sales. Increasing residual payments from DVD sales had been a major goal of the negotiations, but actors said they backed down in order to avoid a potentially lengthy and damaging strike. Gilbert won't run for 3rd SAG term - July 22, 2005 by Jesse Hiestand -- SAG president Melissa Gilbert said Thursday that she will not run for a third term, opening the field to a host of contenders including board member Morgan Fairchild and Alan Rosenberg. Gilbert said the union's political infighting was a factor in her decision. "The past four years have been remarkable -- at times frustrating -- but incredibly rewarding," Gilbert said in a statement released on the last day for candidates to declare their candidacy. "It is no big secret that there are problems within the leadership of SAG. There are rifts that may very well be irreparable. All of that aside, I still believe that Screen Actors Guild was, is and will always be the most powerful performers union in the world, and I want the future leaders of my beloved union to know that I will be watching them -- like a hawk." Gilbert is a leader of the Restore Respect camp, which has been locked in battle with the rival MembershipFirst group for years. The latter group defeated several initiatives sponsored by Gilbert and former national executive director Bob Pisano, including consolidation with AFTRA and a proposed dues increase. It also is believed that Robert Conrad plans to run as an independent, though the union will not certify an official candidates list for at least a week. It was for that reason that Rosenberg, who is representing MembershipFirst, declined to say he was running on his group's slate. Sources also said that Restore Respect might not field a full slate because several candidates are fatigued by the constant fighting. Fairchild, who has run on Restore Respect slates and also is close to people in MembershipFirst, is ditching both affiliations to run as a unifier on a new, as-yet-unnamed slate that will include secretary-treasurer candidate Lee Garlington and several prospective board members. "Like many of the people who have served on the board in the past couple of years, I've become appalled at what has gone on in there -- the factionalism and mean-spiritedness," Fairchild said. "I've had so many members come to me and ask that I give it one more shot, so I will try to bring some civility and graciousness back into the boardroom." Fairchild said she hopes to end the bickering and repair the union's reputation. "I think we frankly need to start working on some consensus by starting over with a few new people, pulling together and let the residual anger go," Fairchild said. "If we keep going like this, there will be no union left to fight over." Rosenberg, a board member for the past two years, also said he was motivated by the divisiveness in the boardroom. "I just feel it's impossible to get things accomplished on behalf of the members, and I'd like to end that," Rosenberg said. "The only way to get the members behind the union is to be strong and stand up for what we deserve in the way of residuals for DVDs and other goals the current leadership has failed to achieve on behalf of the members." MembershipFirst continues to believe that the union did not press hard enough for a hike in DVD residuals during last year's TV-theatrical deal. They likewise were angered that the union was unable to achieve a system of residual payments in contract talks with video game companies. MembershipFirst swept last year's board election, nearly giving them the majority needed to make policy and oust their foe, Pisano. "If we do as well this time, that will pretty much be a mandate from the membership that they want us to fight for their rights," Rosenberg said. Gilbert was elected to a first term in November 2001 and, in her statement Thursday, took credit for achieving significant gains in a commercial contract and again in last year's negotiations over the TV-theatrical deal. Gilbert also said she moved to strengthen the guild's ties with the labor movement on a national level, lobbied for federal production incentives and drove California and New York to enact strong child-labor laws. Gilbert will continue to serve on the executive council of the AFL-CIO, as vp of the California State Federation of Labor and on the California Film Commission. Screen Actors Guild Awards

FILM - English Canadian film fund a bust by Dean Beeby Canadian Press, September 21, 2005 OTTAWA -- After five years and almost half a billion dollars, the federal government's vaunted program to boost Canadian feature films appears to be a bust in English Canada, a new study suggests. Almost no one is showing up in theatres to see the films, despite loads of tax dollars for scripts, production and marketing. Ottawa has been supporting domestic feature films for decades but in 2000 overhauled its policy, setting itself the goal of boosting Canada's box-office share to at least five per cent nationally. An independent review of that policy five years later has found that the goal has nearly been reached - 4.6 per cent - but only because French Canadians are flocking to Quebec theatres in droves. In English Canada, where most of the development money is being spent, the market share was a paltry 1.6 per cent for 2004. "We've come a very, very long way . . . (but) the figure is still embarrassingly low for the English market," Susanne Vaas, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, said in an interview. The just-completed study was commissioned by Canadian Heritage from Nordicity Group Ltd. and was obtained under the Access to Information Act. Since the new policy was announced, about $463 million has been spent to back Canadian feature films, the lion's share through Telefilm Canada to directly support production. Some $8 million, for example, was spent to generate 366 scripts, 249 of them in English Canada. "In English Canada, however, there is evidence to suggest that producers have generally not used the scripts," the Nordicity report notes. The new policy, dubbed From Script to Screen, also attempted to boost average production budgets for Canadian feature films to $5 million and average marketing budgets to $500,000. Latest numbers suggest the production funding target was reached, for an average of $6.1 million per film. But it cautioned that the number is skewed by a small number of big-budget films. The marketing target fell short, at $385,000 for the average film in the last figures available from 2004. But the report also found there was little relation anyway in English Canada between the budgets and the number of Canadians who could be lured into theatres to see the subsidized films. The evaluation was also critical of the Genie awards show, the annual televised celebration of Canadian film. Canadian Heritage currently provides $450,000 annually to support the telecast, even though it draws only about 550,000 viewers. That's about half the audience for French-language equivalent, the Jutras, which receive just $100,000 in federal support. "The national English-language televised awards show (the Genies) is not very effective and does not draw well," the report concludes. Paul Gratton, chairman of the board for the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, defended the show, noting the audience had increased from 350,000 two years ago. Gratton, whose academy sponsors the awards, also said the ratings simply reflect the lack of interest shown by English Canadians in home-grown films. "The great challenge is English Canadians' indifference to English Canadian movies, and the Genies are a very noble attempt to crack that every year," he said from Toronto. The evaluation makes clear that Canada's film policy works well in Quebec, where box-office share has risen to a respectable 21 per cent. The French-language market is more cohesive and integrated, and less subject to competition from Hollywood. But in English Canada, bombarded by big-budget American films, the millions of tax dollars poured into feature films did not make much headway. Box-office share was 1.4 per cent in 2000, the year the policy was begun, and fell below this threshold in the following three years. Only in 2004 was it higher, at 1.6 per cent. The Nordicity report noted that the 2004 number rose thanks to a few international co-productions, such as 2004's Being Julia which starred American Annette Bening. Being Julia took in just under $1 million at the box office in Canada. Other supported films -- such as Ginger Snaps, Lost and Delirious, Maelstrom -- were far less successful. The evaluation makes a series of recommendations, chief of which are to retain box-office share as a key measure of success, but to set differing targets for the French and English markets. Canadian Heritage says it is reviewing the program and will proposes changes next year. Senate and Commons committees are also examining cultural policy, including support for feature films. Marc Séguin, senior policy director for the Canadian Film and Television Production Association, applauded the report's call for different approaches to the English and French markets. The association represents about 400 production companies in Canada. "A national policy can be asymmetrical and still be national," he said. "You need to recognize that the two markets are different. "The hill in English Canada is way steeper and way more slippery."

FILM - Hollywood studios to tackle movie piracy Associated Press Monday, September 19, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- The six major Hollywood studios have formed a joint venture to research and create technologies to prevent movie piracy, industry officials said Monday. The nonprofit group will be called Motion Picture Laboratories Inc. and will have a budget of more than $30 million US for its first two years. Numerous private companies are working on methods to jam camcorders used to illegally tape movies in theatres or prevent consumers from sending copies of DVDs across the Internet. The new organization will help develop those ideas more quickly to cut the billions of dollars the motion picture industry estimates is lost each year from unauthorized copying. "Researching and developing these technologies now will help save the major studios and other motion pictures producers and distributors money in the future,'' Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a prepared statement.

COPYRIGHT - Jail time for peddler of Cameron Diaz pictures (Libel case) Canadian Press September 16, 2005 -- LOS ANGELES -- A photographer who took topless photos of Cameron Diaz and tried to sell them back to her for $3.5 million US after she became a movie star was sentenced Thursday to three years and eight months in prison. John Rutter, convicted in July of forgery, attempted grand theft and perjury, continued to insist in court that he did nothing wrong. Rutter told Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor that the case was a "misunderstanding" and he "never intended to do any harm." The judge rejected his request for probation. Diaz did not attend the sentencing. Diaz was a 19-year-old aspiring model when the pictures were taken in 1992. She posed in leather boots and fishnet stockings in a warehouse. At one point she held a chain attached to a male model's neck. Rutter testified during his two-week trial that he gave Diaz two days to pay him $3.5 million for the photos before he shopped them to prospective buyers for a campaign timed to coincide with the 2003 release of her film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. But he said he was only offering her the right of first refusal, not trying to blackmail her. Diaz testified that Rutter told her the buyers were "going to use this against you" by portraying her as a "bad angel" in a huge magazine spread and bus and billboard ad campaign. When he wouldn't identify the purported buyers, she contacted authorities. The topless photos have never been published, and a judge has prohibited Rutter from releasing either them or a video of the shoot. Rutter also acknowledged Diaz's signature appeared to be forged on a model release form he showed the actress, but he insisted he wasn't the one who committed the forgery. Cameron Diaz Settles Libel Case by THIN LEI WIN, Associated Press Writer LONDON -- Actress Cameron Diaz accepted "substantial" damages Friday from a British tabloid that reported she had an affair with a married man, her lawyer said. The actress' lawyer, Simon Smith, did not say how much Diaz received in the out-of-court settlement after suing News Group Newspapers, publishers of The Sun, over an article that appeared in the paper in May 2005. Diaz, star of "Charlie's Angels," "Shrek" and "The Mask," has been dating singer Justin Timberlake since 2003. Smith, managing partner of the media law firm Schillings, said publication of the allegations had damaged Diaz's personal and professional reputation and "caused distress" to all those concerned. The Sun has now accepted that "the incident involved no more than Ms. Diaz giving a friend a goodbye hug and any suggestion of a romantic involvement is entirely untrue and without any substance whatsoever," said to a statement read out in court by Smith. The publisher's lawyer, Benjamin Beabey, told judge David Eady that they were accepting that the allegations "are without foundation and ought never to have been published." News Group Newspapers has also agreed to publish an apology and retraction in its newspaper and reimburse Diaz's full legal costs. Smith told the Court that "in those circumstances, and in light of this vindication, my client is prepared not to proceed any further." The settlement does not include another defendant, American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer. According to Beabey, The Sun's article was based on an earlier report by the Enquirer. The action against American Media will continue, Smith told The Associated Press. This is the second legal victory in a week for Diaz. Earlier this week, a photographer who tried to sell topless photos of the star in 2003 was found guilty of forgery, attempted grand theft and perjury by a Los Angeles court. Photographer convicted in Diaz topless case by Danny Pollock, Associated Press Monday, July 25, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- A photographer who took topless pictures of Cameron Diaz before she became a star was convicted of forgery, attempted grand theft and perjury Monday for a scheme to sell the images back to the actress 11 years later for millions of dollars. Photographer John Rutter, 42, faces up to six years in prison. Sentencing was set for Sept. 15. Diaz was a 19-year-old aspiring model when the pictures were taken in 1992. She posed in leather boots and fishnet stockings in a warehouse for the shoot and at one point held a chain attached to a male model's neck. During the nearly two-week trial, Rutter told jurors he thought Diaz had signed a release form giving him ownership of the photos. He said he didn't realize the signature was forged when he offered to sell the photos to Diaz for $3.5 million US shortly before the 2003 release of Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Rutter told the jury he was simply giving Diaz "right of first refusal" before offering the photos to prospective buyers worldwide. Diaz testified that Rutter told her the buyers were "going to use this against you" by portraying her as a "bad angel" in magazine, bus and billboard ads. When he wouldn't identify the purported buyers, she suspected blackmail and contacted authorities. Rutter's attempted theft charge was for the alleged blackmail scheme, forgery for the signature on the form and perjury for declaring in a separate civil case that the signature was authentic. That civil case is pending. Judge Michael E. Pastor revoked the photographer's bail and ordered him taken into custody, agreeing with prosecutors that Rutter was a flight risk. He also told the lawyers to discuss restitution for Diaz. Defence attorney Mark Werksman said his client was devastated and was in no position to pay restitution. "It was an epic battle between a rich and famous celebrity and a hardworking photographer," Werksman said. He maintained that Rutter tried to do the right thing by offering the photos to Diaz first. Defence rests in Diaz topless photo trial Associated Press July 22, 2005 LOS ANGELES -- The defence rested Thursday in the trial of a photographer charged with forging Cameron Diaz's signature in a bid to sell topless photos taken 11 years ago when she was a struggling model. John Rutter, 42, ended two days on the stand, assuring jurors he believed Diaz's signature on a release form was real when he tried to sell her the photos for $3.5 million US shortly before the opening of her film, Charlie's Angel: Full Throttle. "I believed it was real. I assumed it was real," he said. Rutter is charged with grand theft, forgery and perjury. Closing arguments in the case were expected Friday. Rutter testified Wednesday under cross-examination that someone had likely faked Diaz's signature on the release but said he didn't do it. He also testified that he was simply giving the Shrek and There's Something About Mary star "right of first refusal" before he sold the photos to someone else. If convicted, Rutter faces up to six years in prison. An extortion charge was dropped b