licensing deal

Bill Gates on iTunes in 2003: “Jobs Has Us Flat-Footed Again”

John Paczkowski in News on February 11, 2010 at 8:06 am PT

The Comes vs. Microsoft antitrust case is proving to be a gold mine for embarrassing company communiques. First there was former Windows chief Jim Allchin’s 2004 “I would buy a Mac today if I was not working at Microsoft” email exchange with CEO Steve Ballmer. Now comes news of another exchange from 2003 in which Allchin, Bill Gates and a handful of other Microsoft execs react to the the debut of Apple’s iTunes music store.

Microsoft to Newspaper Publishers: Seriously. We’re Not Bailing You Out.

Peter Kafka in Media on December 2, 2009 at 2:56 pm PT

Just in case newspaper publishers are still fantasizing about cashing big Bill Gates checks in exchange for bailing on Google, Microsoft wants to be clear: Don’t count on us. And today’s message was on the record.

Another Music Start-Up Sued: EMI Takes Grooveshark to Court

Peter Kafka in Media on June 17, 2009 at 5:59 pm PT

Digital music start-ups seem to come in two flavors these days: Those being sued by the major music labels and those with expensive licensing deals they can’t afford. But for some reason, plucky Grooveshark, which runs a very nice, free streaming music service, has stayed out of both of those buckets until now. I’ve confirmed that EMI Music Group is suing the site–whose motto is “Play any song in the world, for free!”–for copyright violation.