• Warner slaps Nokia for Web 2.0 swap site

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    Nokia’s Music Store went live last week – but look in vain for anything by Led Zepp, John Coltrane, or Smokey Robinson. That’s because Warner Music Group (WMG) is refusing to license its catalogues to the phone giant, in protest at its Web 2.0 file swapping site, Mosh. WMG says Mosh is a hotbed of…

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  • Panic in smartphoneland

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    Google is set to give the mobile phone business a body blow today – the second punch in the guts it’s had this year. Apple delivered the first blow, by turning the operators’ subsidy model upside down – as well as making rival manufacturers look like knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. But Google’s arrival may prove to be…

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  • Obama mounts ‘Neutrality’ bandwaggon

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    Politicians long ago gave up on politics. Instead of articulating great ideas, the choice that faces voters today is between identikit managerial bureaucrats who’ve never had a job outside politics. Most of their adult lives have been spent in the hermetic world of wonkdom. So it’s little wonder, then, that they have trouble distinguishing between…

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  • VoIP is Dead. It’s just another feature, now

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    Business-wise, Skype is a basketcase. But that’s just one of the things that makes it one of the most emblematic companies of our time – a real, Ur-Web 2.0 company. Like so many internet companies, Skype has millions and millions of users. Like these internet companies, too, it can’t make very much money off all…

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  • Sadville is great for bubblewrap kids – BBC

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    TV shrink Tanya Byron blamed over-protective parents for keeping “bubble wrap” kids away from real social interaction and tethered to technology such as the internet, we reported yesterday. The government is hiring Byron to tout a “Live Consultation”, soliciting views on how the internet might affect children. That’s your taxes at work, Part One. How…

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  • In The City: Vinyl lives!

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    Manchester’s In The City music conference this year was the first without the presence of co-founder Tony Wilson, who died two months ago. But the local music network – and some parts of the London business – rallied to bring the event back to its roots. Unlike the endless circuit of “Future Of Music” talking…

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