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Videos Discounts         | Recent Searches: Free ringtonesASCAP Wants Royalties On Ringtones [Copyright] [8 hrs][Suez]  Not content to let the RIAA get all the recent publicity for stupid lawsuits, ASCAP has sued AT&T over sales of ringtones, saying each time a ringtone plays it's a public performance and royalties should be paid. Luckily (?) for consumers, ASCAP wants AT&T, not individuals, to pay—although we wonder what they'll say when you take a track from your own library and make a ringtone out of it. More ...Verizon to pay $1.5M settlement over 'free' ringtones [Jun. 24th 2009] Verizon Wireless will pay the state of Florida $1.5 million as part of a settlement reached with the Florida attorney general for third-party charges that appeared on consumers' bills. The customers were charged for ringtones, wallpapers and other mobile content that had been marketed as free or that they didn't realize would result in a monthly charge. The content wound up costing customers up to $19.99 per month. The charges appeared on the subscriber's wireless bill as company's names, including OpenMarket, M-Qube and M-Blox. As part of the settlement Verizon agreed to adopt "best practices" standards to protect customers from the charges. An investigation found that thousands of Florida customers had been affected by the charges. "Consumers deserve to get their money back when a company misrepresents something as free that isn't," Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum said in a statement. "I commend Verizon Wireless for providing full restitution to their Florida customers and changing the business model to better protect consumers nationwide." In late February, AT&T Mobility agreed to refund thousands of Florida consumers for the same problem. AT&T agreed to pay Florida $2.5 million and contribute $500,000 toward consumer education on safe Internet use. The carrier also agreed to the same kind of safeguards that Verizon will adopt. More ...m-Wise partners with Malaco for ringtones [Jun. 10th 2009] Mobile content technology vendor m-Wise announced it will partner with venerable R&B, blues and gospel label Malaco Music Group to offer premium ringtones promoted via the record company's website, blog and Twitter feed--in addition, most new Malaco CD releases will include a coupon code for a free ringtone download. m-Wise will power the ringtone effort via MOMA, its proprietary "one-stop shop" software promising mobile operators, content providers and media producers the tools to manage and deliver premium mobile content services including music, games and videos while adding real-time end-user capabilities like voting, mobile marketing, advertising and access to live data. MOMA also supports transactional billing, customer care and marketing capabilities. More ... |
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