Technology

YouTube has rolled out its music streaming service to a bunch more international markets, adding 12 new countries today, and also launching the premiummusic video version of the service across the full 17 markets.

In February CEOYouTubechief executive Susan Wojcicki discussed the companyambitious expansion plans for the service, saying it was intending to expand to as many as 100 countries.

The first markets for YouTube Music were the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and South Korea.The additional markets being added today are:Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

YouTube launched the streamlining revamp of its subscription service offerings in May, routing a streaming music service, called YouTube Music, in pay monthly and ad-supported flavors (the latter with pared back features), to replace Google Play Music; and also announcing YouTube Premium (formerly called YouTube Red) — for music with video streaming.

It also announced new apps and web player in tandem with the service restructuring — which includes features such as dynamic custom recommendations; expansive search options (search by lyrics or generic description); and &thousands& of playlists across genre, mood and activity.

The audio only YouTube Music offering — which in the US is priced at $9.99 monthly (or $14.99 for a family plan) — is intended to compete with the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. While YouTube Premium includes a full video service, albeit for $2 more ($11.99) per month than the YouTube Red service it replaced. (Or $17.99 per month for a Family Plan.) Though itcurrently running a promotion offering the premium service free for the first three months.

As well as offering ad-free music streaming, YouTube Premium includesbackground listening/playing and downloads across all the platform. Members also get access to allYouTube Originalsshows and movies.

The company says current members ofYouTube Red and Google Play Music members (including family plans) in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico will automatically receive access to YouTube Premium at their current price.

While Google Play Music subscribers in all other countries will automatically receive access to YouTube Music Premium at their current price as it becomes available in their markets. It also claims nothing ischanging for subscribers of Google Play Music — saying users will still be able to access all their purchased music, uploads and playlists.

Just how big are drones According to Gartner, industry revenue topped $6 billion last year and is on-track to hit $11.2 by 2020. Unmanned aerial vehicles are a huge industry with a broad swath of applications, from hobbyists to agriculture to the military.

At Disrupt SF in September, we&ll be bringing together executives from some of the biggest names in the industry, including enterprise drone software maker 3D Robotics, startup Skydio and the industry leader in commercial and consumer drones, DJI.

Chris Anderson is the CEO of 3DR, the creator of drone analytics enterprise software platform Site Scan. Prior to cofounding the company as a resource for drone hobbyists, Anderson was the long-time editor-in-chief of Wired. 3DR was an early entrant into the consumer drone space but recently left the market and started building software for commercial drone use.

Adam Bry is the found and CEO of Skydio, a Bay Area-based startup that has generated considerable excitement — and funding — with a drone that sports impressive motional tracking for action shots. Bry is a graduate of MITCSAIL program, who previous worked on GoogleProject Wing fixed-wing drone program.

Arnaud Thiercelin is the head of US R-D for DJI. DJI overwhelming dominates making and selling drones and Thiercelin leads teams tasked with implementing technology for developers and enterprise.

We&re excited to have these industry leaders speak at Disrupt. There are countless opportunities in the drone space right now and these leaders are best positioned to discuss to the challenges facing founders entering the market.

Disrupt is September 5-7 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Get your tickets today.

I&ve been wanting to write about Cocky-gate for some time now but the story & a row between self-published authors that degenerated into ridiculousness & seems finally over and perhaps we can all get some perspective. The whole thing started in May when a self-published romance author, Faleena Hopkins, began attempting to enforce her copyright on books that contained &cocky& in the title. This included, but was not limited to, Cocky Cowboy, Cocky Biker, and Cocky Roomie, all titles in Hopkins oeuvre.

Hopkins filed a trademark for the use of the word Cocky in romance titles and began attacking other others who used the word cocky, including Jamila Jasper who wrote a book called Cocky Cowboy and received an email from Hopkins.

After taking up the cause on Twitter and creating a solid example of Streisand Effect, Jasper changed the title of her book to The Cockiest Cowboy To Have Ever Cocked. But other authors were hit by cease and desist letters and even Amazon stepped in briefly as well and took down multiple titles for a short time.

From the Guardian:

Pajiba reported on Monday that the author Nana Malone had been asked to change the title of her novel Mr Cocky, while TL Smith and Melissa JaneCocky Fiancé has been renamed Arrogant Fiancé. Other writers claimed that Hopkins had reported them to Amazon, resulting in their books being taken down from the site.

This went on for a number of weeks with the back and forth verging on the comical…

to the serious.

Hopkins went to court to defend her trademark and then bumped up against the powerful AuthorGuild who supported three defendants including a publicist who was incorrectly named as the publisher of one of the offending titles, The Cocktales Anthology.

&Beyond the obvious issues with the merits, it is evident from the face of the complaint that Plaintiffs failed to conduct a reasonable pre-filing investigation before racing to the courthouse. Indeed, the number and extent of defects alone call into question whether the filing was made in good faith. Plaintiffs& lack of due diligence failed to uncover the stark difference between a publisher and a publicist, i.e., non-party best-selling author Penny Reid is the former, while Defendant Jennifer Watson is the latter (Ms. Watsonwebsite even states that she provides &publicist and marketing services& and nowhere indicates that she writes or publishes books),& wrote Judge Alvin Hellerstein of the Southern District of New York. &In sum, there is nothing meritorious about Plaintiffs& situation, let alone urgent or irreparable. Defendant Watson cannot offer Plaintiffs the relief they seek as she bears no responsibility for The Cocktales Anthology they wish to enjoin from further publication. Defendant Crescent first allegedly infringing book was published over nine months ago. Plaintiffs have admitted that her use of &cocky& in titles would not likely cause confusion as to source or affiliation; moreover, she has publicly stated that she has not suffered lost sales.&

Online communities are wonderful but precarious things. One or two attacks by bad & or even well-meaning & actors can tip them over the edge and ruin them for everyone. In fact, Cocky-gate has encouraged other authors to try this tactics. One writer, Michael-Scott Earle, has attempted to register the words &Dragon Slayer& in a book title and there is now a Twitter bot that hunts for USPTO applications for words in titles.

Now that the cocky has been freed, however, it looks like the romance writers of the world are taking advantage of the opportunity to share their own cocky stories.