Morning Xtra: Rapidshare's Filesharing Fail, ExxonMobil's Green Car
Rapidshare Loses File Sharing Suit, Fined $34 Million
First it was Pirate Bay, now it's Rapidshare. Mashable is reporting that a German court has ordered the file-hosting site to pay $34 million to German performance rights group Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte (GEMA). Like the Pirate Bay case, the judgment is dubious since Rapidshare merely hosts files; it doesn't discriminate the types of files it hosts or what users are doing with them. If you follow the German court's logic (which claims that Rapidshare makes illegal file-sharing easy), then copyright owners should be suing Google for making content available through its Web search engine. Expect to see this judgment, and Pirate Bay's, appealed in the European courts. [From: Mashable]
ExxonMobil's Electric Car Unveiling Next Week
We know it sounds strange, but oil giant ExxonMobil will be unveiling its first electric car, the Maya 300, next week. Developed and built by Electrovaya, the $25,000 Maya 300 charges from a standard wall outlet and gets up to 60 miles with each 8- to 10-hour charge. The car is part of a vehicle-sharing program called AltCar, which will allow consumers to rent the car by the hour. If you find yourself in Maryland in the next few months, swing by the Maryland Science Center, plunk down a couple bucks, and cruise around Baltimore in the most ironic vehicle ever built. [From: Autoblog Green]
New York Times May Move to Paid Mobile Content
Times are tough for the Gray Lady. According to Bloomberg, the New York Times's ad revenue fell by 27-percent in the first quarter of 2009. In response to the drop, the Times's head of digital operations said the paper is apparently considering charging for mobile content (It's currently free on the iPhone.). Nothing's final yet, and there's still no word on a date for the charges to begin. [From: Bloomberg]
Showbiz Blog Sells for $10 Million
Our colleagues over at Daily Finance are reporting that showbiz blog Deadline Hollywood Daily has been bought out by Mail.com Media Corp. to the tune of around $10 million. The work of former New York Post reporter Nikki Finke, Deadline Hollywood Daily soared in popularity with its in-depth coverage of the 2007 Hollywood writer's strike. Finke ran the site herself from when it started in 2006, which makes her big payday all the more sweet. [From: Daily Finance]
Microsoft Electricity Monitoring with 'Hohm'
Earlier this year, we reported that Google was working on a smart-grid metering application for measuring electricity use in homes. Just a few months later, Microsoft is now announcing the exact same thing. The name of the newest tech game appears to be smart energy, and Microsoft is tossing its hat into the ring along with Google and Intel (also working on a consumer grid-monitoring platform). Dubbed 'Microsoft Hohm,' the online application uses data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy to make suggestions about saving electricity. [From: Venturebeat]
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