Category Archives: Events

The branch of the U.S. government that typically deals with border control—Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE)—began seizing U.S. web domains of sites deemed to be involved in online piracy about a year ago. While the appropriateness of that process has been questioned in Congress and elsewhere, but ICE directors have frequently noted that the sites’ owners are free to challenge the seizure in court—but none have. Now, that’s no longer the case. A Spanish sports-streaming site called Rojadirecta filed papers in a New York District Court on Monday demanding that the government give back the domains rojadirecta.com and rojadirecta.org.

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Why did Keith Olbermann join Current Media rather than try to use his brand to create a conglomerate? Olbermann answered that and much more in a candid lunch conversation at our recent paidContent 2011 conference. Olbermann explained to paidContent Editor Staci D. Kramer, “This is a company with a large footprint. … That’s the reason the decision was so easy to make.” Plus, he gets to say whatever he wants. The tradeoff? “He just has to make his own travel arrangements,” joked Current Media Co-Founder Joel Hyatt.

Olbermann’s reasoning is especially interesting given Glenn Beck’s just-announced decision to launch an original programming subscription service. We couldn’t stream this one live so here’s your chance to watch:

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Nokia (NYSE: NOK) CEO Stephen Elop soundly dismissed recent rumors that the Finnish company is in talks to sell its hardware business to new partner Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). There are “absolutely no talks,” Elop told attendees at All Things D, describing the reports as “baseless.” He also gave a little flash of an Unidentified Mobile Object that some are guessing might be the first Windows device from the company. A note later from a Nokia spokesperson hinted that details about it could be coming out in the next few weeks.

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Alibaba Group CEO Jack Ma wants Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and SoftBank to give up some of their stake in the Chinese internet company. “We want to get back some of the shares to make sure the company is getting healthier,” said Ma, the largest indiviudal shareholder. The three companies most recently have been sparring over the recent Alipay spinoff; Yahoo owns 39 percent of Alibaba.

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It feels like we just saw the coming attraction for an intriguing movie that won’t be released until sometime next year. Windows 8’s slick touch user interface drew oohs and ahs from a crowd not usually known for liking Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) but the closest we got to an ETA from Windows chief Steven Sinofsky during the sneak peek at All Things Digital was ‘not this fall.’ ATD’s Ina Fried has an early look; Microsoft demo video below.

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Last year at All Things Digital, an annual gathering of senior tech and media executives, Steve Jobs gave a camp in how to handle an on-stage interview while Mark Zuckerberg provided the reverse. Last night, Eric Schmidt, a very smart man who can come across as “too smart” at times, earned points from an often exacting crowd for his deft rapport with hosts/interviewers Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg. But what did the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) executive chairman actually say and why does it matter?

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Just how eagerly is Google wooing publishers these days? One indicator: At this year’s BookExpo America, the largest trade book fair in the U.S., Google (NSDQ: GOOG) doesn’t just have a booth presence—it has executives moderating three of the panels during the week.

Publishers, booksellers, bloggers, and librarians from around the world will be crammed into New York City’s Javits Center starting Monday (last year, nearly 22,000 people attended) to discover hot new books, meet authors, and bat around the latest digital strategies. From the latest trend data on the consumption of e-books, to the potential market for enhanced e-books and apps, to the future of Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS)—here are the big themes of the week:

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“One week down, two weeks remaining. And for some people, only one week remaining,” tweeted James Thomson, an iOS developer. That could be referring to Apple’s WWDC, scheduled to start on June 6. But it is, in fact, a reference to something else that has had some biting their nails for the past week:

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Tablets are a killer device when it comes to media consumption today, but is that down to the form factor, or because they are only being used by early adopters?

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For a few hours Wednesday, the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood became an energetic mobile media hub courtesy of paidContent Mobile: Platform Power.

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