Culturite

In the name of “defin[ing] clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt” the Associated Press is now selling “quotation licenses” that allow bloggers, journallers, and people who forward quotations from articles to co-workers to quote their articles. The licenses start at $12.50 for quotations of 5-25 words. The licensing system exhorts you to snitch on people who publish without paying the blood-money, offering up to $1 million in reward money (they also think that “fair use” — the right to copy without permission — means “Contact the owner of the work to be sure you are covered under fair use.”).

Welcome to a world in which you won’t be able to effectively criticize the press, because you’ll be required to pay to quote as few as five words from what they publish.

Metallica’s new album will be titled “Death Magnetic” and is expected in September. The news was revealed over the weekend via the band’s Web site ( www.metallica.com ).

No new material has been played live at the band’s handful of recent shows, but British journalists have heard rough mixes of six untitled songs, several of which cross the seven-minute mark.

” target=”_blank”Death Magnetic” (Warner Bros.) was produced by Rick Rubin and is the follow-up to 2003’s “St. Anger,” which has sold 1.76 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Special effects and makeup guru Stan Winston passed away on Sunday, June 15th in Los Angeles, California. Winston was best known for his work for the “Terminator,” “Jurassic Park” and “Predator” series, and Edward Scissorhands. The 4-time Oscar winner most recently worked on Iron Man and was special effects supervisor on the upcoming Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins.

Jurors in the R Kelly. trial explained their not-guilty verdict after acquitting the R&B star of all 14 counts of child pornography on Friday (June 13).

Several members of the jury said they believed it was Kelly on the tape that was at the centre of the trial, however they were unsure of the identity of the female who appeared in the video.

“I thought it was R Kelly. on the tape, I just wasn’t 100 percent on the girl,” said juror #9.

“The key problem was the identity of the female. Her absence was a major lack,” said juror #23.

Broadcom co-founder Henry T. Nicholas III pleaded not guilty Monday to federal drug and securities fraud charges.

The 48-year-old billionaire entered the pleas to 21 counts contained in two indictments unsealed June 5.

One indictment details what authorities claim was one of the largest stock-option backdating cases in U.S. history while Nicholas led the giant computer chip company.

The other accuses him of drugging his business cohorts, hiring prostitutes and maintaining a drug warehouse.

Former Broadcom CFO William J. Ruehle pleaded not guilty to 21 securities fraud charges at the Monday hearing.

A trial date was set for July 29. Both men remained free on bond.

Crews are trying to clean up a spill of sweet crude oil from a pipeline that runs under the Red Deer River near Sundre, 130 kilometres northwest of Calgary.

Between 75 and 125 barrels of oil leaked from the pipeline licensed to Pembina Pipelines, said the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board on Monday. The leak was discovered Sunday night.

The agency said an aerial search of the river detected an oil sheen on Gleniffer Lake, about 33 kilometres downstream from the leak. Crews are using booms to try to capture the oil on the lake.

The leak has been isolated and the flow stopped from the pipeline, said the ERCB in a news release.