Universal Music’s £1.2bn acquisition marks end of the road for EMI

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12 November 2011
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Universal Music has triumphed in the auction of EMI’s recorded music division, home to the Beatles, Coldplay and Tinie Tempah, tabling a knockout offer of £1.2bn ($1.9bn).

The deal is about $500m more than that offered to owner Citigroup by rival Warner Music, which pulled out of the running a week ago, and marks the end of the road for the British company as a music major.

Friday’s sale is the first part of the break up of EMI, with the music publishing division tipped to go to a consortium led by Sony for about $2.2b — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Media self-regulation: the Norway way

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12 November 2011
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The Independent Media Inquiry is in full swing and it’s time for journalists, editors and media owners to become pro-active instead of reactive to suggestions of increased journalistic and media accountability in Australia.

When the media in Norway were faced with threats of media ethics legislation in the 1990s they opted to voluntarily suggest far-reaching reforms to the self-regulation system instead of lobbying against change.

The result was a major revamp of the equivalent to the Australian Press Council (APC), The Norwegian Press Complaints Commission (PFU). After negotiations with all stakeholders the PFU began receiving and handling ethics complaints in all media formats in 1996. In the interest of transparency and accountability the PFU meetings are now available as video on demand online — perhaps a source of inspiration for current and future Australian media regulators — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Bookstores without Borders find life not so bad

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10 November 2011
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It was supposed to be doom and gloom in Australia’s bookstores, but Chris Redfern who owns the Avenue bookstore in prosperous Albert Park has been noticing something unexpected — his sales have been increasing. It is only by 5 per cent since July, but it is something.

With yesterday’s report to the federal government on strategies for the book industry, he agrees with the recommendation to either scrap GST on books sold here or impose it on imports — to make it fair — but realises this might be difficult to do in practice.

He also supported the recommendation to reduce from 30 days to 14 the time for a local publisher to make up its mind it will publish an overseas book before it can be imported by booksellers.

Digital books and online sales are posing challenges for independent sellers like him, but since the collapse of Borders and most of the Angus & Robertson chain, book lovers appear to have rallied around their local stores — via redwolf.newsvine.com

TPG falls foul of ACCC for false ads

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9 November 2011
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National broadband carrier TPG has been busted over an Unlimited ADSL2+ campaign that the Federal Court has decided was misleading.

The Federal Court in Melbourne found advertisements for TPG Internet’s $AU29.99 unlimited broadband service to be false and misleading as the real cost of the service was $AU59.99 because it would only work with a home line rental attracting an additional cost of $AU30 per month — via redwolf.newsvine.com

LJ Hooker franchise ended over lost money

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9 November 2011
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Real estate franchise LJ Hooker has cut ties with the operators of its Surry Hills office after the disappearance of up to $1 million in clients’ money.

A statement from LJ Hooker said the franchise contract had been terminated yesterday due to a fundamental breach of the franchise agreement.

The Department of Fair Trading is now investigating irregularities in the trust accounts operated by CBD Commercial Pty Ltd, which had been trading as LJ Hooker Surry Hills — via redwolf.newsvine.com

NY’s Oldest Bialy Shop Is Saved by Unlikely Owners

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9 November 2011
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The oldest bialys store in the country is still on a roll. The sweet smell of bread will continue to waft down Coney Island Avenue, as a landmark kosher bakery in Brooklyn gets a whole new lease on life.

Coney Island Bialys and Bagels, teetered and fell in September, after Steve Ross, whose grandfather began the company 91 years ago, called it quits. In a twist of history — and, one might say, a twist of bread as well — the store has been saved by two Muslim businessmen who leased the space and started a corporation under almost the identical name. They’ll keep the kosher shop’s offerings the same, preserving its history.

It’s the same bialys… We are using the same recipe, too, said Peerzada Shah, who now co-owns the business with Zafaryab Ali, who worked with Ross at the bialy shop for a decade. We want to keep the place on track, said Shah. And since re-opening in September, customers have regularly told the pair, We appreciate that you’re keeping the store open, according to Shah — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Our Contract With Serco

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9 November 2011
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New Matilda has gained exclusive access to the first publicly available version of the 2009 Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) contract with British multinational Serco.

The contract was obtained through a Freedom of Information request and reveals the most comprehensive information yet about the running of Australian detention centres — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Lake City Domino’s managers charged with torching Papa John’s

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31 October 2011
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Two managers of a Domino’s Pizza restaurant in Lake City have been charged with arson in connection with a fire that gutted a Papa John’s Pizza location.

Late Friday, police said they were still looking for an ignition device that the men claimed they made but did not use to start the fire. Instead, the possibly still active device may be lying alongside Interstate 75, police said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Blue Coat Acknowledges Syria Used Its Gear for Internet Censorship Amid Arab Spring

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29 October 2011
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A US company that makes Internet-blocking gear acknowledges that Syria has been using at least 13 of its devices to censor Web activity there — an admission that comes as the Syrian government cracks down on its citizens and silences their online activities.

Blue Coat Systems Inc of Sunnyvale, California, says it shipped the Internet filtering devices to Dubai late last year, believing they were destined for a department of the Iraqi government. However, the devices — which can block websites or record when people visit them — made their way to Syria, a country subject to strict US trade embargoes — via redwolf.newsvine.com

US wants to give pharma more power over our medicines policy

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27 October 2011
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Leaked documents from the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement negotiations currently underway in Peru show the US is seeking to use the agreement to increase the monopoly rights of pharmaceutical companies and undermine the effectiveness of pharmaceutical reimbursement programs like Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

The TPP is a proposed regional trade agreement involving Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

The texts, leaked over the weekend, include an annex on ‘transparency and procedural fairness for healthcare technologies’ and extra provisions for an intellectual property rights chapter that was leaked in February this year — via redwolf.newsvine.com

News Ltd Journos On Wrong Side Of Paywall

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26 October 2011
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News Limited staff are unhappy after being required to pay to read their own content behind The Australian’s new paywall. In an email sent to News staff last week, corporate affairs have offered the same three-month trial being marketed to ordinary punters, but with a special staff discount of up to 50 per cent.

One News Limited employee told New Matilda he thought the payment was a bit of a joke … why should we have to pay for something we worked to produce?

Although staff have been aware of the switch to paywalled content for some months, having to sign up to read their own premier masthead was a development sprung on us in the last couple of days — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Adding Up Monsanto’s InterGrain Investment

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24 October 2011
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It’s no secret Monsanto want to increase the 19.9 per cent share it bought in WA’s crop breeding company InterGrain last August. After the announcement, InterGrain’s CEO Brian Whan gleefully said InterGrain was in bed with Monsanto and proud of it.

Monsanto’s Peter O’Keefe said it was part of their business model to look towards increasing their share in InterGrain, citing global competition from other big biotech players as well as strong competition for InterGrain on the varietal front in Australia as reasons to do so — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Mother sues banks over son’s eBay scam

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24 October 2011
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A woman is suing Australia’s big four banks for their alleged role in a $200,000 money laundering scam masterminded by her teenage son.

The woman, from the NSW south coast, has launched an action in the Supreme Court seeking damages and wants an apology from the Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Westpac and NAB for unconscionable conduct after they allegedly handed her son dozens of bank accounts and debit cards without reasonable scrutiny.

In 2007, the then 14-year-old was selling fictitious products on eBay and, at one stage, earning more than $6000 a day — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A Casting Director for Police Lineups

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18 October 2011
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He is one of New York’s busiest casting directors, yet very few know of his work.

Light-skinned Hispanic?

Robert Weston mulled over the possibilities. He knew they would want five people; they always do.

Javier, Javier Jr, Eddie, Ray, he said into a cellphone, and I’ll get another Spanish guy.

Mr Weston, 45, was not casting for an Off Broadway production, and his roster of extras would not need Actors’ Equity cards.

For some 15 years, Mr Weston has been providing the New York Police Department with fillers — the five decoys who accompany the suspect in police lineups — via redwolf.newsvine.com

One of the world’s largest scandium deposits found in Queensland

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10 October 2011
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A north Queensland mining company has discovered one of the world’s largest deposits of the rare earth, scandium.

Scandium is used to make solid oxide fuel cells, which are used generating electricity from natural gas and renewable fuels.

This discovery has been made at a former nickel mine at Greenvale, just out of Townsville — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Young, unpaid and angry: interns go online to campaign for a wage

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9 October 2011
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Famous high street businesses, including Topshop and the recruitment specialist Reed, are being named and shamed by an internet campaign targeting the rise of unpaid and very low paid internships that, it is claimed, is undermining the link between pay and work.

Topshop, the star performer in Sir Philip Green’s £2.7bn Arcadia retail empire, is exposed for paying graduates on month-long work experience secondments just £3.50 a day plus limited travel expenses.

Urban Outfitters, the American clothier with stores in a dozen cities around the UK, has been attacked for advertising a nine-month unpaid internship in their merchandising department for people who are hardworking, organised [and] able to multi-task.

And Reed, one of the country’s largest job agencies, has been nicknamed Greedy Reed for having advertised 46 unpaid internships within its company, variously described as intern receptionist, intern executive assistant and secretarial admin internship. The adverts were recently taken down after the company was reminded by the campaign of the obligations of the national minimum wage legislation introduced in 1999. There is no legal definition of an “intern”, and the law says that anybody who qualifies as a worker must be paid at least £6.08 an hour if aged 21 — via redwolf.newsvine.com

There are upsides to reporting cybercrime, authorities say

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8 October 2011
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Not only might companies have ethical, civic and legal obligations to alert authorities to cyberthreats, businesses may find that the authorities can be helpful, law enforcement agents and prosecutors said on Friday.

Aravind Swaminathan, assistant US attorney in the Western District of Washington, took pains to describe the lengths to which his office goes to be sensitive to the needs of companies that report crimes. He spoke during a cybercrime conference at the University of Washington School of Law on Friday.

Everybody’s worried that their trade secret will end up on the front page of the paper, he said. Trade-secret cases are hard, but work with us. We aren’t obtuse. We know that’s the stock and trade of your business — via redwolf.newsvine.com

A Visit to the DMC Embroidery Floss Factory in France / Alicia Rosello

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6 October 2011
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Alicia Rosello, a blogger for DMC Spain, posted about her visit to the DMC embroidery floss factory in eastern France. The pictures and information are fascinating. I have to admit, my heart started to race just looking through them. I now officially have a new item added to my Bucket List: Must visit the DMC Embroidery Floss Factory! The post is in Spanish, but is easily translated with a quick visit to Google Translate. Enjoy! — via CRAFT

Dressing for a new start

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5 October 2011
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Wear for Success was established by a small, well-connected group of Melbourne women including Nicholls, Helen Shingler and arts philanthropist Bettie Kornhauser.

Kornhauser, particularly, is a renowned persuader, known for coaxing some of Melbourne’s better-dressed women to empty out their cupboards, as she puts it.

Consequently, the charity’s regular fund-raising sales of excess clothing — including one this weekend — are also renowned for their peppering of silks, cashmeres and designer brands.

Wear for Success is affiliated with New York-based charity Dress for Success, established in 1996 to help disadvantaged women by styling them with good career-worthy clothes, but it is rare for also assisting men — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Bolt’s columns did not deserve to see the light of day. End of story

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1 October 2011
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When I was editor of The Age, I thought about hiring Andrew Bolt as a columnist. Indeed, I think I even met with him to see whether he had any interest in coming back to the Age. (Bolt was on the Age staff when I joined the paper in the early 80s.) I thought Bolt might add … how should put it … a certainly unpredictability to The Age oped page. As it was, I don’t think Bolt had any interest in joining the red rag I edited and looking back, I’m glad it never happened. That’s because inevitably, sooner or later, Bolt would write a column that I would refuse to publish. And then I’d have a martyr to free speech on my hands.

I would not have published the two columns for which Bolt was found to have contravened the Racial Discrimination Act. I would not have published them firstly because (I hope) in the editing process, there would have been questions raised — by me, by the oped page editor, by our lawyers perhaps — about the facts on which Bolt built his pieces which basically argued that some people had chosen to identify themselves as Aborigines to reap material rewards of one kind or another. I would not have published them even if the columns were factually accurate because I thought the tone of the columns was nasty and demeaned the people he was writing about.

There’s a lot of nonsense talked about free speech, especially by people who are in a position — and who do so daily if not hourly — to make decisions on what is acceptable speech and what isn’t in the public sphere. Editors, news directors, executive producers of current affairs and news programs, even the esteemed editor of The Drum, decide the limits of free speech all the time and they do so, not merely on the basis of what is legally safe. Often they make this decision on gut feeling, on their understanding of their readership or their audience, of the traditions and history of the organization that they are fortunate enough to run for a period of time.

Of course, I am not talking about the blogosphere here, where mad people and sane people, people consumed with hatred and bile and people who want only to serve the public good — and all those in between — feel like they have a licence to say anything and damn the consequences. Still, while the media revolution may be upon us and the old media gatekeepers of what is acceptable speech and what isn’t might be, Canute like, holding back an irresistible tide, at the moment, the old media still delivers mass audiences and for that mass audience, public speech is not free and never has been — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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