Editor’s Note: Welcome to On the Margins, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week, the RCR Wireless News staff considers events in the wider business world and how they could affect the wireless industry.
–Peer-to-peer network enabler BitTorrent appointed a new CEO and shifted its current CEO and founder to the role of chief scientist. Douglas Walker, previously CEO of software company Alias Systems, will take over as CEO of BitTorrent. Current CEO Bram Cohen will work as chief scientist, and the company’s president, Ashwin Navin, will retain his role. The move could indicate BitTorrent’s intent to move the technology into the mainstream, an effort that could ultimately result in a consideration of the mobile medium.
–Apple Inc. has lowered the prices of its digital rights management-free song downloads from $1.29 to $0.99, the Associated Press reported. The price adjustment began last Tuesday and puts Apple’s pricing in line with competitors such as Amazon.com, which has been selling music online without copy-protection for between $0.89 and $0.99 per song. The move comes as Apple gears up for a major push for its iPhone device, an offering that, in many ways, competes directly with the mobile music services from a number of wireless carriers. How Apple will ultimately play its music strategy in mobile remains to be seen.
–Consumer electronics retailer Best Buy has stopped selling analog televisions in preparation for the death of analog broadcasts of television signals. The Associated Press reported that Best Buy ordered its stores to stop selling analog sets and pull them from the shelves at the beginning of the month, replacing them with flat panel and high-definition TVs. The move frees up spectrum for a wireless industry ravenous for bandwidth.
–Social network site MySpace.com made its first music licensing agreement with Sony BMG. The deal will give U.S.-based MySpace users access to audio and music videos from Sony BMG artists, and the two companies will share in sponsorship and ad revenues generated from the video and audio on MySpace pages. The deal again highlights the importance of content-licensing deals.
–YouTube.com has announced a system of copyright protection that “goes well above and beyond our legal responsibilities,” according to the site. Media companies have criticized-and in the case of Viacom, sued-the Google-owned site for violations of copyright. YouTube said that its YouTube Video Identification technology “can recognize videos based on a variety of factors” and that “early tests with content companies have shown very promising results.” The technology may well have significant implications for the mobile industry, which is currently investing heavily in the video space.
