How much value is there in the concept of long tail economics?

[a]n agreement in the stalled Doha round of World Trade Organization talks may be near, Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , and the European Commission said on Wednesday.  Negotiations have stalled over demands by developing countries for an end to agricultural subsidies in rich nations. For their part, the rich nations want greater access for their services and industries in developing nations. Brazil is considered crucial to ending the impasse because it is a leader of the Group of 20 developing nations.”

According to BusinessWeek, “[r]eports that Apple is discussing an ‘all-you-can-eat’ subscription music service with major record labels are overblown, say people in a position to know.  […]  According to a story in the Financial Times, Apple (AAPL) would charge enough for iPod and iPhone devices to cover the cost of licensing entire music collections. It would use that premium to create a pool of revenue, a portion of which would be divided among the major music labels, the newspaper said.  […]  Trouble is, no such talks are under way, according to people familiar with Apple’s plans. An Apple spokesperson declined to comment. Insiders at major music labels were similarly dismissive. One person familiar with the matter said the idea of subscription plan has been ‘kicked around’ for about a year, but said there have been ‘no meaningful discussions’ on the subject.”

The New York Times writes that “[a]fter reading about how Internet companies like Google, Microsoft and Yahoo collect information about people online and use it for targeted advertising, one New York assemblyman said there ought to be a law.  So he drafted a bill, now gathering support in Albany, that would make it a crime — punishable by a fine to be determined — for certain Web companies to use personal information about consumers for advertising without their consent.  And because it would be extraordinarily difficult for the companies that collect such data to adhere to stricter rules for people in New York alone, these companies would probably have to adjust their rules everywhere, effectively turning the New York legislation into national law.”

Internetnews.com reports that “Broadcom said a U.S. appeals court let stand a lower court order barring wireless chip maker Qualcomm from selling chips that infringe on three of its patents.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. rejected a bid by Qualcomm to lift a California trial court’s injunction that stopped it from selling chips found by a California jury in 2007 to infringe on the Broadcom patents.  Qualcomm wanted to continue selling the third-generation, or 3G, WCDMA chips while it appealed that verdict.”