That’s how much a major motion picture is likely to be charged by Warner/Chappell Music for using the “Happy Birthday” song, says attorney Mark Rifkin, who is suing the company, claiming the copyright is invalid. That’s right, it’s copyrighted, and Warner/Chappell is the owner. So movies and restaurants go to creative lengths to use other songs. It could be worse; in Tajikistan, a man was fined about $634 for simply celebrating his birthday in public, according to the BBC. Turns out you violate more than a copyright in the Asian republic — public birthday parties are against the law.
That’s the amount twins Durland and Darvin Miller say they’ve been offered for the registered domain Twins.com, as told to Grantland’s Ben Lindbergh. The San Jose, California, men registered the site in 1995, envisioning twin-related news. Fast forward to present. The twins aren’t using the site, and Major League Baseball all but three team sites — one of them Twins.com. The Millers, who really are Twins fans, by the way (their dad is from Minnesota), say they were unsuccessful in contacting the team about a deal. Twins President Dave St. Peter says the team hasn’t reached out because buy a URL is MLB Advanced Media‘s domain, so to speak. If it never works out, that’s OK too. The Millers are happy to keep Twins.com in the family.
That’s GameStop’s second-quarter revenue, released Thursday, and it’s better than analysts expected. But the brick-and-mortar store is struggling to remain relevant in the age of downloadable games, Sally Herships reports. People are still buying games boxes, and one way to increase those sales is stuffing them with collectible goodies — like figurines or accessories for the digital characters themselves. “These are the kinds of things that hardcore fans get all excited about,” says Evan Narcisse, reporter with video game website Kotaku.
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