As we mentioned yesterday, the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C. was considering a motion to increase the royalty rate paid by Apple to music publishers and the record labels from 9 cents to 15 cents.

That caused Apple to threaten to shut iTunes down should they be forced to pay this increased rate.

However, on Thursday the Copyright Royalty Board rejected the raise in royalty payouts.

It didn't, however, back up Apple's suggestion of lowering rates.

So, as of now, publishers will continue to get their 9 out of the 99 cents iTunes charges for songs.

Eddy Cue, iTunes vice president said that if the royalties were raised to 15 cents, then it would cause song sales to go down and Apple to probably operate at a loss.

Cue said, "Apple has repeatedly made clear it is in the business to make money and most likely would not continue to operate iTunes store if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."

So basically Apple wants to pay artists less for them to make more.

It happens to a lot of big companies. When they make it really big, they forget about the little people and only worry about their pocketbooks!

[Image via AP Images.]

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Apple is not pleased.

The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C. is considering a motion to increase the royalty rate paid by Apple to music publishers and the record labels from 9 cents to 15 cents.

The big tech company has threatened to shut iTunes down as early as today, Thursday, should they be forced to pay this increased rate.

Apple said the increase could force it to raise its song price of 99 cents, something they've refused to do even after crazy pressure from the record companies.

iTunes' Vice President Eddy Cue has also said that Apple could shut iTunes rather than raise its prices or absorb the higher royalty costs, "If the [iTunes music store] was forced to absorb any increase in the … royalty rate, the result would be to significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss — which is no alternative at all. Apple has repeatedly made it clear that it is in this business to make money, and most likely would not continue to operate [the iTunes music store] if it were no longer possible to do so profitably."

Eww. Sounds a little greedy to us!

The president of the National Music Publishers Association, the group pushing for the increase said, "I think we established a case for an increase in the royalties. Apple may want to sell songs cheaply to sell iPods. We don't make a penny on the sale of an iPod."

Interesting point!

We think Apple's full of it, though. Let's see if they'd really shut iTunes down!

Someone else will eventually emerge and take its place, right?

We hear MySpace Music a-calling!

[Image via AP Photo.]

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The Chinese government is monitoring private chat conversations on the Internets.

Not cool!

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The director of the film 300 and the upcoming Watchmen movie has signed a deal to help develop video games for Electronic Artists.

Zack Snyder will be the creative leader of an EA game-making team in Los Angeles that will help the company develop three new video games.

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Will a cyber Tyra Banks be just as scary and crazy as the real thing?

It better!!!!

An America's Next Top Model video game for Nintendo DS will hit the shelves in November.

You'll guide your very own model in her quest for the top model crown.

There'll be challenges and photo shoots just like the show!

Hope the programmers have gifted y'all with a 'secret world' where your model can throw down and catfight with TyTy!

That would be so fun!

[Image via WENN.]

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Bill O'Reilly clowned hackers involved with the Sarah Palin hack job so…. they set their sights on the ire-rising Fox News anchor.

Last week, hackers broke into BillOreilly.com, stole personal details including passwords of the site's members and made them public via various internet forums.

The hacking of Bill O's site was allegedly a response to the Fox host's 'scurrilous attacks' of Wikileaks (a website that published Sarah Palin's hacked information), other members of the press, and 'Hacktivists'. It was their way of 'thumbing their noses at the pundit'.

Bill O. and his people are working with authorities to get to the bottom of the hack job.

The following statement was posted on the O'Reilly site:

“The FBI and Secret Service are close to indicting some of the perpetrators and we will keep you posted when the arrests are made. All premium members receive the full backing of our legal team and if anyone is hassled in the least, please inform us immediately. In the latest case, no proprietary information was obtained by hackers and we have safeguards in place to protect everyone who does business with us.

Rest assured that we are on this. Our defense of Sarah Palin has led some criminals to attempt to disrupt our enterprise. At this moment federal authorites and our attorneys are compling information against these people. Again, if any person is bothered in any way - please let us know. We stand behind our products but, most importantly, we stand behind you. We’ll get the bad guys. Count on it.

It was also mentioned that 'hacktivists' aren't done terrorizing the Fox pundit and are planning another attack.

Watch out!

[Image via Getty Images.]

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The all-new Google phone!

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According to industry reports, the new MacBooks are expected to arrive next month.

Finally!!!

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Looks like Google wants to add another trophy to their collection.

Nothing will stop them from global domination!

Wired magazine reports that the big G has launched a service called Knol - short for 'knowledge' - which is basically a different flavored Wikipedia.

Watch out Wiki, Google wants your crown!

The biggest difference between the two knowledge sharing services is the 'ownership' of posts.

As y'all know, on Wikipedia a person can't really 'own' a post. What you see on Wiki is basically everyone's 2 cents about a topic.

Google's Knol gives you the opportunity to 'own' a post about a subject without 'rejecting the wisdom of the crowd'. And, unlike Wikipedia, your 'identity' must be verified (via a credit card or phone number) before your posts go live. Once an author creates a 'knol', the general public can improve it. People can suggest corrections, edits and amendments to the content. Readers can also leave comments alongside the content.

However, the author is the arbiter of the item itself. She/he can reject suggestions BUT can't delete the comments. There's no limit on how many people can write 'knols' on the same subjects, but the guys at Google expect 'the inferior ones' to take a back seat in search results while searchers encounter the best ones immediately.

Here's the big kicker to us, though. There's money involved in the Google option!

If authors OK it, Google will compensate them with revenue from advertisements served by the company's AdSense program.

Google has said Knol's not all about the money. It's about getting the best info out there to those who need it!

$ure. What ever they say!

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales spoke out about Google's foray into the space that's been dominated by Wikipedia: "What is the added value? People already can put up web pages somewhere on the internet, put some ads on it if they want to get revenue or not put ads if they don't want the revenue."

There's nothing wrong with a little competition, right?

[Image via WENN.]

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