uFamily Of Late Nursery School Teacher Claims ‘Big Bang Theory’ Ripped Off “Soft Kitty” Lullabyr

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  If you’re a fan of The Big Bang Theory, you’re no doubt familiar with the method employed by other characters to soothe uptight scientist Sheldon when he gets upset: a lullaby about a soft, nice kitty that helps him settle down to sleep when he’s having trouble. That “Soft Kitty” song has also turned into big merchandising bucks, money the show doesn’t deserve according to a new lawsuit that claims the lyrics are a ripoff.

  The family of a late New Hampshire nursery school teacher named Edith Newlin, who passed away in 2004, filed a federal complaint [PDF] claiming that the “Soft Kitty” song that’s proven so popular for CBS’ show about wacky scientists and their neighbor who works at a Cheesecake Factory was taken without credit from a poem she wrote in 1933 called “Warm Kitty.”

  Newlin’s daughter said she had never watched the show and didn’t know about it using “Soft Kitty” until she was researching an article about her mother in August 2014. She and her sister say there’s only a “minor change in word order” between the song that’s performed on the show and their mother’s original poem, which goes: “Warm kitty, soft kitty,/ Little ball of fur, / Sleepy kitty, happy kitty, / Purr! Purr! Purr!”

  

  In comparison, the song sung on Big Bang Theory goes, “Soft kitty, warm kitty/ Little ball of fur/ Happy kitty, sleepy kitty/ Purr purr purr.”

  Willis Music published the poem in a collection called “Songs for the Nursery School,” whose registration was last renewed in 1964, according to the lawsuit. The show runners worked out a deal with Willis Music for that song privately, the lawsuit claims, but never asked Newlin’s heirs for permission. Even worse, the sitcom cites co-producer and Chuck Lorre Productions principal Bill Prady with the lyrics for the song, the complaint says.

  Besides just appearing on a TV show, the lawsuit says, the song has raked in merchandising money that takes the ripoff to another level.

  “The Soft Kitty lyrics have been displayed in their entirety on t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, pajamas, mouse pads, mobile phone covers, wallets, air fresheners, refrigerator magnets, singing plush toys, and other products,” the complaint states. “With the exception of the singing plush toys, these merchandise items display the complete and verbatim Soft Kitty lyrics without any musical accompaniment.”

  To that end, watching a clip of “Soft Kitty” on the official YouTube page for the show, multiple ads pop up on the video with links to “Soft Kitty tees” and a “Soft Kitty hoodie.”

  The daughters are seeking damages and an injunction for copyright infringement.

  Check out the song as seen on Big Bang Theory below:

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uIcahn Reportedly Wins Pep Boys Bidding Battle For $1B; Bridgestone Leaves Racer

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  And just like that, it appears the auto parts retailer love triangle has ended: Bridgestone, the one-time preferred suitor of Pep Boy, reportedly bowed out of the months-long bidding war with Icahn Enterprises. 

  The Chicago Tribune reports that Bridgestone, which Pep Boys originally agreed to sell itself to for $835 million in October, won’t counter Icahn’s latest $1 billion for Manny, Moe, and Jack.

  If Bridgestone follows through with its decision to drop its love for Pep Boys, the company likely won’t go away empty-handed. When Pep Boys agreed last week to a new $17 a share (about $950 million) deal with the Japanese company, it included a $39.5 million break-up fee if Pep Boys ultimately sold to a different company.

  While we weren’t really anticipating a bidding war when Pep Boys announced a deal in October to sell its 800 retail locations to Bridgestone — which operates 2,200 tire and car service centers in the U.S. under the Firestone Complete Auto Care, Tires Plus, Hibdon Tires Plus and Wheel Works brands — that is exactly what happened.

  In early December, Icahn, the operator of Auto Plus, offered to pay $837 million ($15.50/share) for Manny, Moe, and Jack.

  From there, Bridgestone upped its offer to about $950 million, a deal that Pep Boys also agreed to.

  On Monday, Icahn upped its bid one more time to the tune of $1 billion, or $18.50 per share.

  Icahn appears to win $1 billion Pep Boys bidding war; Bridgestone bows out [Chicago Tribune]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uT-Mobile Denies “Throttling” YouTube, Says Video Is “Mobile Optimized”r

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• Right before Christmas, YouTube publicly called out T-Mobile’s Binge On streaming program for allegedly slowing down all video content, potentially in violation of new federal “net neutrality” rules. Now T-Mobile counters YouTube’s argument by claiming that it’s just trying to provide users with speeds that are appropriate for use on mobile networks.

  To back up a couple months, T-Mo introduced Binge On back in November, with the headlining idea being that users’ data plans would not be charged for accessing certain participating video streaming services.

  What wasn’t screamed out in that announcement was that Binge On video doesn’t stream at full resolution. Furthermore, it isn’t just the videos from Binge On participants — like Netflix, HBO Go, Hulu, and Sling — that gets this treatment. T-Mobile is also capping resolution on services that don’t participate in Binge On, like YouTube.

  “Reducing data charges can be good for users, but it doesn’t justify throttling all video services, especially without explicit user consent,” a YouTube rep said last month.

  You may not have noticed, but the YouTube rep’s use of the term “throttling” is incredibly problematic for T-Mobile.

  See, the recently enacted neutrality rules explicitly prohibit broadband providers — including wireless companies — from throttling access to “particular classes of content, applications, or services.”

  It’s perfectly fine for the content company to push lower-resolution video to mobile devices, or to give customers that option of receiving streams that aren’t full-quality, but if a broadband provider is monkeying around to deliberately slow down that stream, a line may be crossed.

  Speaking to DSLreports.com, a rep for T-Mobile contends that the company is not doing anything wrong with YouTube content.

  “Using the term ‘throttle’ is misleading,” explains the T-Mo rep. “We aren’t slowing down YouTube or any other site. In fact, because video is optimized for mobile devices, streaming from these sites should be just as fast, if not faster than before. A better phrase is ‘mobile optimized’ or a less flattering ‘downgraded’ is also accurate.”

  This is where things get interesting. T-Mobile argues that it’s not throttling because the videos stream “just as fast, if not faster.”

  If you were talking about website loading times, then there’s really no problem with that argument, but when talking about streaming video, it’s often not simply a question of how quickly something streams. The FCC may eventually have to settle the question of whether it’s okay for wireless providers to downgrade video for optimal network performance, or whether that practice counts as throttling.

  
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by Chris Morran via Consumerist

uRaiders Of The Lost Walmart Still Playing Game That Shut Down In July 2014r

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• Eventually, all things end, and that includes multiplayer online games. The game Vanguard: Saga of Heroes shut down in July of 2014, but Walmart is trying to keep its legacy alive by continuing to sell useless game discs in the discount bin for fifteen bucks.

  

  The Raiders of the Lost Walmart are the brave explorers and retail archaeologists who find retail antiquities in the world’s big box stores, bringing them back to share with Consumerist and with the world. New raider Alex found this fine specimen of an extinct game in the discount bin of a Walmart in Florida.

  “Sure enough, this $15 purchase gets you access to a game that went free to play in 2012 and went completely offline on July 31st of 2014,” he wrote in his field notes. “I was half tempted to purchase it anyway, but my better judgement prevailed.”

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uHealth Insurer Apologizes For Robocalling Senior Citizens In The Wee Hours Of The Morningr

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  There’s perhaps nothing more annoying than rushing to answer a ringing phone than to find a robot on the other end. But when that robocall is coming in at three in the morning? That’s an annoyance 10,000 senior citizens went through when a Massachusetts health insurer said it accidentally robocalled customers between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. this week.

  Tufts Health Plan in Quincy, MA accidentally sent out the automated call early in the morning on Tuesday, reminding patients to get their flu shots, reports The Patriot Ledger. The call — targeted to those over 65 enrolled in a certain insurance plan — was supposed to go live from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., which means someone probably didn’t check the right box.

  Customers called up Tufts to ask why in the world they were being woken up at such an ungodly hour, and the provider says it’s going to try to reach out to all who were affected.

  “It’s unfortunate that it happened and I would just want to issue a complete apology to all those who received a phone call,” a spokeswoman told the paper. “I’m sure it was jarring to be woken up like that and it certainly was not our intent.”

  The phone reminder systems is something Tufts uses “very sparingly,” she added, and another version of the call went off without a hitch last week.

  “The intent is good, you know, to remind folks to get their flu shots this time of the year. It was just a human error this time,” she said.

  A former Patriot Ledger editor who received the call at 4:45 a.m. called up the provider and talked to someone about what had happened. He had a bright idea that would resolve the situation.

  “She asked if I wanted to leave my number so that someone could call me back,” he said. “I told her, no, but can you give me the number of the president so I can give him a call tomorrow morning?”

  10,000 receive Tufts Health flu robocall between 3 and 5 a.m. [The Patriot Ledger]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uUPS Changed Shipping Deadlines To Ensure On-Time Deliveryr

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  How do you make sure that packages shipped using three-day delivery service make it to their destinations on time during the week before Christmas? Retailers probably didn’t like the solution that UPS used this year, but it worked to prevent a last-minute rush of packages. They simply added a day to the shipping time during the runup to Christmas.

  Without a last-minute rush of packages using three-day or two-day shipping on the 21st and 22nd respectively, UPS didn’t have a sudden glut of packages going through the system, rushing to their destinations without the benefit of a magic sleigh to get them where they needed to be.

  This worked: the Wall Street Journal reports that the busiest delivery day for UPS was December 21, instead of later in the week and closer to a crucial gift-giving deadline. It was better for the company to shift the shipping deadline and maybe miss some last-minute shoppers’ business than to deal with a last-minute shipping rush, paying overtime or not delivering packages at all.

  A company spokesman said that most packages didn’t need extra time, but it was better to build it in than to deliver packages late if bad weather or other unexpected crises cropped up.

  UPS Adds a Day to Deliver on Time [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

u14 More Tiny Urban Target Stores Will Open In 2016-2017r

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  Yes, Target is a chain of big-box stores, but the company sees its future in considerably smaller boxes. Instead of suburban stores of more than 100,000 square feet in the suburbs, all but one of the stores that Target has planned in 2016 and 2017 are small-format stores in urban areas across the country.

  Target’s mini-stores began a few years ago with separate branding. Small stores of maybe 80,000 square feet were called “Target Express,” and then came even smaller stores of around 20,000 square feet called “CityTarget.” Earlier this year, the company decided that all of these sub-brands were confusing, and decided to simply call all of their stores of all sizes Target.

  Planned stores in 2016 will be in Long Beach (CA), Philadelphia (two of ’em!), New York City (Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens), Brookline (MA), Cupertino, (CA) and Chicago. Mini stores slated to open in 2017 will be in Cambridge (MA), two in Los Angeles, and another in Philadelphia. The one full-size big box will open in 2016 in Allentown, PA.

  2016 store openings [Target] (via Racked)

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist