So you got Spotify as soon as it came to the States. You’ve been jamming on those free tunes like it’s your job. Free Spotify has become a vital part of your everyday sanity-preservation strategy. Well you better get ready because there’s an end. You may not have been aware — I know I wasn’t — but “free unlimited Spotify” never really existed. What you experience as free unlimited Spotify is actually an automatic  6-month trial of Spotify Unlimited, except with ads. The real kicker? Spotify’s 6 month anniversary in the U.S. is rolling around next week. So this is a good time for a reminder. Your 6-Month Trial of Free Spotify May Be Ending Soon |...

  A hearing concerning proposed amendments to the widely-feared SOPA bill is going on right now. It’s being streamed on Keep The Web Open and you should take a listen; it’s almost as heartening as it isinfuriating. As you might expect, there’s a lot of back and forth, and it goes a little something like this: Representative1: SOPA is actually counterproductive, will encourage piracy, and severely hamper free speech. Representative2: Well I’m not a nerd, but I disagree. It’s kind of staggering how often the discussion turns to who the “nerds” are, whether or not they understand what they’re talking about. It’s also kind of staggering how often the representatives who assert that they aren’t nerds use this fact as a way to support their statement, backhandedly suggesting that the nerds are nerds and don’t really know how real things work. Like the Internet for instance. The Internet. And yes, they are literally saying “nerd.” A lot. The SOPA Hearing is Infuriating and You Should Listen |...

If you’ve ever sent a friend a video clip of your favorite show only to discover that “this video has been taken down due to a claim by MegaMedia Corp.”, you can thank the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a law that treats backing up your DVDs to your hard drive like you’re worse than a kid-toucher. But it turns out that the very people who got this law enacted, namely the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), now really, really hate it. Even The RIAA Hates The...

ACTA is one more offensive against the sharing of culture on the Internet. ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) is an agreement secretly negotiated by a small “club” of like-minded countries (39 countries, including the 27 of the European Union, the United States, Japan, etc). Negotiated instead of being democratically debated, ACTA bypasses parliaments and international organizations to dictate a repressive logic dictated by the entertainment industries. ACTA would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is thus a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. In the name of trademarks and patents, it would also hamper access to generic medicines in poor countries. Learn...

 The Internet movie-rental company said it was abandoning a plan to split its DVD-by-mail service into a separate business named Qwikster, originally hatched so it could focus on its online video-streaming service. Customers had howled about that plan, which promised to heap inconvenience on top of a previously announced 60% price increase. Between the two moves, subscribers were livid, and a customer exodus was driving down Netflix shares. Netflix Abandons Qwikster Plans –...

  It’s official, Verizon is teaming up with Microsoft to provide live TV on the Xbox, a first for the console. The rumors were accurate. It appears that the service will work like this: Verizon FIOS TV and Internet subscribers who have Xbox Live will be able to download a Verizon app designed specifically for the Xbox. Yes, it has Kinect functionality. The app will provide users with as-yet-ill-defined “collection” of content in HD right through their Xboxes. Verizon Partnering With Microsoft, Live TV on the Xbox 360 | Geekosystem. If this works like the ESPN3 setup (only needing a Verizon internet service provider) this is all kinds of win. If you still need FIOS Internet AND TV, it’s just another box to route things through. Time will...