Songwriters: Protecting Your Cellphone Against Hackers Could Be Crucial for Song Protection
January 27th, 2012
We frequently hear from songwriters that they’re highly fearful of their music being stolen. If you fall in that category, now there’s another worry. Your smartphone. We all know about being careful about the websites we visit, the emails we open and links we click, but the dangers of losing data to a smartphone hacker is fairly new. The New York times brings it to our attention in a new tech article as follows:
Chuck Bokath would be terrifying if he were not such a nice guy. A jovial senior engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, Mr. Bokath can hack into your cellphone just by dialing the number. He can remotely listen to your calls, read your text messages, snap pictures with your phone’s camera and track your movements around town — not to mention access the password to your online bank account.
As cellphones have gotten smarter, they have become less like phones and more like computers, and thus susceptible to hacking. But unlike desktop or even most laptop computers, cellphones are almost always on hand, and are often loaded with even more personal information. So an undefended or carelessly operated phone can result in a breathtaking invasion of individual privacy as well as the potential for data corruption and outright theft.
Read more via Protecting a Cellphone Against Hackers – NYTimes.com.
Dumb Rules Eliminate Top Artists/Writers From Oscars
January 25th, 2012
It’s unimaginable how the artists people really want to see and hear have been eliminated from the Academy Awards this year. If a major audience is any part of the show’s goals, then this is a major shot in the foot. As the LA Times puts it,
“The consolation for Elton John, Lady Gaga, Mary J. Blige, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Chris Cornell, Zooey Deschanel and other superstar pop, rock and country musicians who got snubbed in the best song Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday is that they’re in pretty stellar company.
With just two songs earning nominations —“Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” and “Real in Rio” from “Rio” — the list of also-rans includes a bounty of heavyweight performers and songwriters.
via Elton John, Lady Gaga among pop stars snubbed in Oscar best song category – latimes.com.
Academy of Country Music to Announce Nominees for the 47th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards Via First-Ever Digital Press Conference
January 24th, 2012
ENCINO, Calif., Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ –
WHAT: The first-ever ACM digital press conference, hosted by the Academy of Country Music, CBS Television and dick clark productions via ACM social media channels, to announce the nominees for the 47th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, Country Music’s Party of the Year® to be broadcast LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 8:00 PM live ET/delayed PT on the CBS Television Network.
WHO: Superstar and Academy of Country Music Awards co-host REBA will participate leading up to the event, with more VIP SURPRISE GUESTS to announce categories via videos posted in real time to fans and media simultaneously. The press conference will culminate with country music FANS announcing the nominees for Entertainer of the Year (see below).
WHEN: Thursday, January 26th, 2012
6:30 AM PST Nominations announced via social media followed by a press release posted on the Academy's newly
www.ACMcountry.com ALL DAY Nominee reaction videos will be posted throughout the day!
Kellie Pickler Releases New Album, ParamountSong X-Writer/Vocalist Has Cut No. One
January 20th, 2012
It’s always nice to see talent move up in this business, and we are pleased to see Don Poythress, who used to co-write and sing on demos for ParamountSong, credited with co-writing one of the songs on Kelly Picklers upcoming album release. It’s like we always say, some of the best up and coming talent in Nashville works to turn out the demos we record for songwriters and lyricists around the world.
These days, Don writes for peermusic (they don’t capitalize it either), one of America’s largest independent music publishers. He co-writes with some of the best on a wide variety of songs including Country and Christian. The artists who’ve recorded his songs could be listed as a who’s who of Country and Christian music. For the Pickler album, he co-wrote a tune called “Where’s Tammy Wynette.” Talk about an idea! How many of us would have thought of that? The song is the first cut on the album.
Release date for the work is January 24. Our congratulations to Don, and may he have many more!
Megaupload Shut Down by U.S. Prosecutors; Kim Dotcom, Three Others Arrested
January 19th, 2012
As the controversy rages over SOPA and PIPA, federal prosecutors have taken down a huge piracy site. After all, folks, stealing music and movies, like stealing anything else, is illegal and should be prosecuted.
Billboard.biz reports that “MegaUpload, one of the worlds largest file-sharing sites, was shut down Thursday, and its founder and several company executives were charged with violating piracy laws, federal prosecutors said.An indictment accuses Megaupload.com of costing copyright holders more than $500 million in lost revenue from pirated films and other content. The indictment was unsealed one day after websites including Wikipedia and Craigslist shut down in protest of two congressional proposals intended to thwart online piracy. The Justice Department said in a statement said that Kim Dotcom, formerly known as Kim Schmitz, and three others were arrested Thursday in New Zealand at the request of U.S. officials. Two other defendants are at large.”
Of course these clods were reachable because their servers are in the U.S. But hundreds of creative content pirates are in other countries, and so the new bills in Congress are needed to get at them.
via Megaupload Shut Down by U.S. Prosecutors; Kim Dotcom, Three Others Arrested | Billboard.biz.