GEMA, the organisation responsible for collecting mechanical copyright fees on behalf of some 65,000 artists in Germany, have announced a price hike which could spell the end for some of Berlin's most revered clubs. If the changes go unchallenged, the legendary Berghain - facing a fee hike of 1,400% - will shut after its NYE party this year; the similarly monolithic Watergate is likely to go the same way, claiming its mechanical copyright fees will be increased from €10,000 per year to €200,000.

Der Spiegel calculates that, "for an average Berlin club with 410 square meters of space, charging €8 entrance and running two events per week from 10 p.m. until 5. a.m, the price paid to GEMA will rise from the current €14,500 to some €95,000 - an increase of 560%”.

High profile artists including Alec Empire, Blawan, The Black Dog, Mike Paradinas and Steffi have spoken out against GEMA's plans.

In 2009 they revised their fees for hosting music on YouTube, asking for a rate 50 times that of the PRS; as a result, the music of many major artists still can't be accessed on the site by those inside Germany.

A woman who wanted to transfer her photos to a newly-purchased iPhone says a Best Buy employee didn't make the transfer, but made a CD of the shots and invited her to his house to get it.

"I felt sick," she said in a video made with the help of her attorney. She said she felt "violated" and "embarrassed."

"I'm a woman. I love to model. I'm not a model, but I love to model. I have some pretty racy photos of myself, for me," she said in her video.

Still, as she says herself: "I trusted Best Buy. I trusted George." She believed she should have been protected by both.

Streaming music now accounts for 89% of digital music sales in Sweden, according to figures released by GLF, the local arm of music industry body the IFPI.

Mark Dennis, CEO of Sony Music Sweden, makes the same point: “One of the most gratifying consequences of this is that it gives us the opportunity to sign more artists, and record more new Swedish music than ever. In fact, for most of our artists, streaming music now represents the majority of the revenue.”

“Our studios are constantly partnering and innovating new ways for audiences to watch the movies and TV shows they love: Hulu, HBO Go, Vudu, Crackle, UltraViolet, Epix, MUBI – and that just barely scratches the surface,” said Kate Bedingfield, a spokeswoman at the MPAA. “There are more legitimate avenues available today to watch movies and TV shows online than ever before, and our studios are continuing to innovate every day to bring audiences even more options.”

“At the end of the day, stealing shows and movies out of convenience still harms the people who work hard to make them,” Bedingfield added.

Wales told reporters Thursday that he had trouble accessing the latest season of the HBO series “Game of Thrones” at home in London even though he was willing to pay for it.

The program was a joint effort of the National Security Agency, the CIA and Israel’s military, which also produced the Stuxnet worm that is believed to have sabotaged centrifuges used for Iran’s uranium enrichment program in 2009 and 2010.

Flame was developed at least five years ago as part of a classified program code-named Olympic Games, the same program that produced Stuxnet.

Ray Bradbury, the American author of Fahrenheit 451 and Something Wicked This Way Comes, died today. He was 91 years old.

Bradbury published more than 500 stories, and many of his works, including Fahrenheit 451, became part of school curriculums in many American schools. As an expert writer of short stories, Bradbury received several major awards, such as the O. Henry Memorial Award, the Benjamin Franklin Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, and many others.

Today it was announced by DC Comics that the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, is re-emerging as a gay man.

It's not as if he's the first ever gay superhero, after all. In the DC Comics world, Batwoman, aka Kate Kane, is a red-headed lesbian, and the world seems to have survived that just fine.

Naturally, there has been a little moral saber-rattling at the news. The One Million Momsorganization -- which may or may not enjoy the pleasure of a million moms -- fulminated foamingly.

The company's stock today is trading down to $29.44, shedding $2.46, or about 8 percent, of its market-opening price. The decline comes the same day trading on Facebook was opened to the options market.

At its current price, Facebook shares are down more than 23 percent since the IPO.

With no end to the drop in sight, investors and regulators are looking for someone to blame.

As a result of the swoon in Facebook's stock, early investor Sean Parker is likely to lose out on $380 million in cash he had expected; Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz: $285 million.

At issue is what's called the "over allotment" of shares -- known in Wall Street lingo as the greenshoe.

With the bankers under attack and the stock hovering around $31 a share -- roughly 18 percent below the offering price -- it's unlikely the underwriters can exercise the over allotment, unless the stock takes a surprising turn and starts to rally.

Hollywood and the federal government have partnered to create updated and even more annoying anti-piracy warnings that will be included in new home-release DVDs and Blu-ray discs beginning this week, the government said Tuesday.

Added alongside the FBI’s logo in the new version, however, is a Homeland Security Investigations “special agent” badge.

That screen, like the others, presumably will be made unskippable during viewing.