MySpace will launch MySpace Music

MySpace is a very popular social networking site with the tens of active million users making it a very important portal overall. One of the popular features that keeps a lot of users on the site is the music feature. This has always annoyed the music labels, and finally they are getting a solution that is making them happy.

The social networking heavyweight announced Thursday that it has deals with Sony/BMG, Universal and Warner music labels to transform its current music offerings into a full-fledged jukebox of streaming and downloadable music. As the new features are rolled out in the coming months, MySpace Music will evolve into "what we think is going to be a transformative music experience for the user," says MySpace cofounder Chris DeWolfe.
Under the new agreement, De Wolfe says that labels plan to offer artists' entire catalogs for free listening and for-pay downloads. "We are considering a subscription model as well if it makes sense," he says. In an earlier interview, DeWolfe did not announce a pricing scheme nor would he say whether downloads would be MP3s or another format, or whether they would contain digital rights management. "Not all the music companies have embraced full non-DRM downloads," he said. "I personally think that is where the market is going but that will be a decision all the music companies will have to make."

From initial trends, it seems that the deal is something that record labels are happy with, and that will translate into terms that a lot of users may not end up liking. One has to wait and see how this will turn out.

MySpace information causes arrest of sex offenders

A few weeks back, MySpace was issued subpoenas by various state attorney generals to provide information on sex offenders. At first, MySpace resisted giving this data to the attorney-generals, but soon capitulated and agreed to provide this information.
The attorney generals were looking for sex offenders who were maybe preying on children on MySpace, an objective which made it difficult for MySpace to oppose them. And now it looks like states are starting to act on the information supplied by MySpace.

Seven convicted sex offenders with profiles on MySpace.com have been arrested in what Texas officials said was the country's first large-scale crackdown of registered offenders who use the social networking Web site.
They were picked up after MySpace.com released the names of offenders with online profiles to the state Attorney General's Office, which had issued a subpoena for the site's subscriber information.

There are some privacy implications to supplying this information, but overall, it is incumbent on the state authorities and service providers to prevent their facilities from being used to exploit defenceless children. In that sense, this is a pretty good happening, and if it discourages more sex offenders from using the anonymity of the web for exploitation, even better.

Google bows before EU data privacy requests

How these mighty corporations tumble before government pressures. Google has done that in the past, with creating a censored version of search for China (http://www.google.cn/), bowing down to pressures from governments about the level of details displayed for Government and military structures in Google Earth, and so on. Well, here is one more.
Google saves search data (that could be used to identify actual people after some research) and uses that for commercial purposes, to better target advertising. Earlier, it used to save this data indefinitely, then changed that to 24 months after some pressure from privacy advocates.
Then in May, Google got another blast on this topic. It got told by the European Union data watchdog (representing 27 EU countries) that the 24 month period was unacceptable under privacy concerns, and asked Google to reply by mid-June about how these concerns could be addressed. Well, now Google seems to have buckled under pressure and is now reducing the time that this data will be stored to 18 months (from the earlier 24 months). Refer this article:

The European Union's top security official lauded Google Inc's. decision to scale back how long it keeps personally identifiable data accumulated from its Web users as a step towards addressing privacy concerns.
The world's top provider of Web search services said this week it was ready to curtail the time it stored user data to a year and a half, seeking to mollify an EU watchdog that has questioned its privacy policies.
Each time a Google user searches the Web, the company gathers information about that customer's tastes, interests and beliefs that could potentially be used by third parties such as advertisers. Google shares general user statistics but is adamant it never shares personal data outside the company.

However, this is still right now only Google that has made the concession. To some extent this is justified since Google controls 60% of the search market, but a lot of other searches such as MSN, Yahoo, etc and other companies such as Microsoft, Apple, MySpace, AOL, eBay, Amazon, also have not disclosed as to how long they retain customer data. It would be their turn eventually; it just requires an accidental release of data from any of these places, and they will face the same amount of pressure as Google.

MySpace turns around fast - will now provide data about sex offenders

8 attorney generals from different states sent a letter to MySpace requesting for information from MySpace about its users who are registered sex offenders, so as to determine whether such people were using MySpace to lure children into actual physical encounters. MySpace took the high path, grandly declaring that they are legally required not to provide this information, claiming that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 prohibited them from doing so without a subpeona.
This response was not exactly appreciated by the attorney generals, and now it seems that even after this initial refusal, there were negotiations being carried out. An accord has now been signed for tranferring this data, refer this link:

MySpace initially asserted that it was legally unable to comply with the requests set forth in a letter sent earlier this month from the attorneys general of eight states--Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The letter asking that the social-networking site provide the data, cited concerns "that sexual predators are using MySpace to lure children into face-to-face encounters and other dangerous activities."
But MySpace responded that it couldn't turn the information over due to the terms of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, which technically prohibits such information from being shared without a subpoena, as well as some state privacy laws.
It appears, however, that an accord was struck late last week. Through MySpace's newly announced partnership with the attorneys general, Angus and Nigam said, the company will be able to address the federal and state laws. Company representatives emphasized that the social network had always planned to share the Sentinel Safe data with the attorneys, who could then pass the information on to law enforcement officials in their states.
MySpace.com unveiled a plan Monday for cooperating with requests from state attorneys general for data pertaining to registered sex offenders. According to a statement from the company, MySpace will provide the Multi-State Attorney General Executive Committee with data from Sentinel Safe, the database of information on registered sex offenders that the company has compiled through its partnership with identity verification firm Sentinel Tech Holding. Sentinel Safe, which contains data aggregated from state registries, has been in the works since late last year and was officially deployed May 2.
"Up until now, the predators have felt like they can have a free ride (on social-networking sites), and that day is over," Angus said.

It seems like the intial refusal by MySpace and the harsh reaction from the attorney generals prompted this change in tactics by MySpace. Aware that they were on a weak pitch in terms of apparently refusing to cooperate against people carrying out crimes against children, MySpace did a quick about-turn, using previous lack of technology as an excuse. Otherwise, what prompted a 180 degree about turn within the space of a few days ?