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Revenue-sharing model allows artists to set music prices for direct sale on MySpace

(NEWSER) - MySpace will host and sell videos of exclusive musical performances on its MySpace Music site, reports the New York Times. Artists will record a series of exclusive videos for the site, and will be able to set their own prices, unlike Apple's iTunes flat-rate prices. The system, called Transmissions, won't require users to leave MySpace, as an earlier, failed system did. More»

Music website Vevo.com could get control

(NEWSER) - Struggling MySpace could soon be handed over to music website Vevo.com, Bloomberg reports. News Corp. is in talks to give control of MySpace to Vevo in exchange for a stake in a new venture, sources say. However, the talks are preliminary and several other parties are also looking at MySpace. Vevo, the No. 5 Web video destination in the US, is partially owned by the world's major record labels. More»

Tim Berners-Lee blasts those chipping away at its 'egalitarian principles'

(NEWSER) - Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the British engineer credited with inventing the World Wide Web, has a message for us: Social networking sites, app developers, and other entities, if left unchecked, will ruin his creation—which now belongs to all of us. "The web evolved into a powerful, ubiquitous tool because it was built on egalitarian principles," he writes in Scientific American , but "some of its most successful inhabitants have begun to chip away at its principles." His complaints:

• Social networking sites: They are "walling off information posted by their users from the rest of the Web," making each site "a closed silo of content, and one that does not give you full control over your information in it."
• Smartphone apps: "It is better to build a Web app that will also run on smartphone browsers," rather than a "closed" smartphone app, he writes, adding that he is especially wary of the iTunes store, which is not an "open marketplace."

Targets Palin fans; 'tell her to stop lying'

(NEWSER) - A pro-health reform group is hitting Sarah Palin where she lives, the Plum Line reports—Facebook. Americans United for Change is running ads on the social networking site, where “death panels” got their start. The missives, targeted specifically at Palin followers of every stripe, ask users to “send Sarah Palin a message” and “tell her to stop lying about ‘death panels.’” More»

(NEWSER) - The surge in Internet traffic yesterday as Michael Jackson fans searched for information about his death had a deep impact on the Web, Ars Technica reports. Sites as diverse as Twitter and the iTunes Store slowed to a crawl, but perhaps the most profound effect was on Google. The search engine interpreted the high volume as a cyberattack and went into so-called “self-protection mode.” More»