Rumblefish, the music’licencing company─not the S. E. Hinton classic─has made a major iOS announcement for Friendly Music, the application that allows you to add music, legally, to your YouTube, Facebook, and/or Vimeo videos.

Friendly Music

Friendly Music is the consumer-side of Rumble Fish’s licencing business. The service essentially allows the consumer to create what is called a “mash” or “mashup,” which basically combines data and functionality from more than one source to create a new service. Friendly Music has a catalogue of over 750,000 copyright-cleared song titles from which to choose.

In a world that increasingly views data and information as free-flowing, with heavy emphasis on ‘free’, the Friendly Music and Rumble Fish model is indeed a novel one for the average consumer─but one that surely will catch steam as copyright issues are again pushed to the forefront.

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Besides the usual fare of music and film at this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival under way at the Texas capital in Austin, there is the talk of technology, from Ray Kurzweil’s latest tech theories to the app market—and one of the applications getting a lot of attention is the Highlight app, by Math Camp Inc.

Math Camp Inc. is one of the emerging app companies providing what is being referred to as “social discovery” apps or “so-mo” (social-mobile). The possibilities of this new type of technology are just starting to emerge, and for anyone a little shy when it comes to social networking, they are advised to simply close their eyes and ears and run the other way.

The Highlights on the Highlight app

SXSW has in the past help launch applications like Twitter and Foursquare. The people behind the Highlight app hope the Austin festival will have the same effect on their so-mo app.

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SOPA and PIPA Votes Delayed in the US Senate and House

Whoever said that you can’t fight city hall – or its bigger governmental cousins – was obviously wrong.  Online protests, huge public outcries, and unrelenting pressure from the technology community seem to be doing the trick.  The votes on the controversial twin bills SOPA (stop online piracy act) and PIPA(protect IP act), scheduled to take place January 24^th in both the US Senate and the House of Congress, have been officially delayed.

Majority leader Harry Reid and Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith have said that, while the issues of piracy and copyright infringement on the Internet must be addressed, they will not be voting on the proposed acts “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

This is a significant victory for the masses who have been vocally and actively opposing both bills since their proposal.  Critics claim that both SOPA and PIPA are exceptionally harsh, would be prone to abuse, and would change the very nature of the Internet.

SOPA Tide Turning

Congress seems to be getting the message – and SOPA, the controversial proposed “Stop Online Piracy Act” might be on its last legs.

Wednesday’s online protests and coordinated website blackouts by several members of a SOPA opposition group billing itself as The NetCoalition may have created the additional momentum needed to turn the congressional tide against SOPA.  Public awareness and opposition have been growing since mid-December.  Now, however – with the hearings only a few days away – members of Congress have begun to pull support as they rethink their positions on the issue.

Several Congressional representatives have taken to Twitter and Facebook, assuring the public that they will not back the bill.  Some are going so far as to predict that SOPA is a dead issue.

This turning tide is the result of massive public protest, industry protest, and substantial efforts on the part of the tech community to educate lawmakers who, by their own admission, lack a fundamental understanding of how the Internet works and how the average user would be affected by such sweeping legislation.

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“No SOPA” Add-on From Chrome Helps You Boycott SOPA Supporters

If you’re among the many still furious about the proposed SOPA legislation, Google Chrome is giving you a new way to protest.  You can download a “No SOPA” add-on for the browser, which will alert you every time you visit a website owned by a parent company that supports the legislation.  The add-on won’t block the site – it simply flashes a red banner at the top of the screen alerting you to the fact that the company is a SOPA supporter.  What you do after that is up to you – but, chances are, if you are opinionated enough regarding SOPA to download the Chrome add-on, you won’t want to frequent sites that support the legislation.

SOPA Brings Out the Angry Mob

This is the latest form of protest against the infamous Stop Online Piracy Act.  In late-December, opponents of the bill organized an official “Dump Go Daddy Day,” in reaction to Go Daddy’s initial support of SOPA.  Go Daddy reversed their position – apparently in time to save their own skins – because the dumping effect was barely noticeable.  Although the domain name registrar lost close to 40 thousand domains over the course of the controversy, they gained slightly more.

Time will tell if Chrome’s “No Sopa” add-on is any more effective.

“Dump Go Daddy Day” Numbers Not Known Yet

December 29th was marked as the official “Dump Go Daddy Day,” a protest born of the backlash against the Internet giant’s initial support of the controversial SOPA legislation.  A grass-roots movement enouraged customers to show their displeasure by taking their business elsewhere — and it would appear that many did just that.  But how many?  On the day following the protest, that’s the question everyone is asking.

Go Daddy Issues a Statement

Go Daddy’s CEO, Warren Adelman, issued a statement late Thursday, in which he said, “We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to Go Daddy’s prior support for SOPA, which was reversed.”  Adelman declined to reveal the actual number of transfers, however, so protesters will have to wait to see how large an effect their actions had.  It could be a significant figure — it is estimated that, prior to Christmas, the company had already lost more than 37000 domains as a result of the controversy.

If you’re a member of the angry mob wanting to punish Go Daddy for their initial support of the controversial SOPA legislation — today is the day to act! December 29th has been declared “Dump Go Daddy Day.” There have been many people too incensed to wait for the official protest — Go Daddy lost some 37000 domains in the days leading up to Christmas. It will be interesting to see how many more losses they suffer today.
This backlash — no matter now large it gets — is unlikely to take down the Internet giant. But there’s no doubt that the publicity fiasco has hurt them. Go Daddy has been attempting to reverse the damage caused by this blunder for days now. They initially countered by withdrawing their official support of SOPA and waffling on their position regarding the proposed act. And yesterday, in a blatant attempt to win the argument by changing the subject, the company ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, featuring a nearly-naked Danica Patrick. Perhaps they were hoping to initiate a new, more manageable controversy. When the numbers come in following “Dump Go Daddy Day,” we’ll know whether or not they were successful.