In fact he could not have stopped Mr Scherf even if he had wanted to.

ECONOMIST: Germany

And Kurt Scherf, an analyst at Parks Associates, used the example of an animated TV series about a futuristic family to explain why it hasn't taken off.

CNN: When refrigerators tweet and washing machines text

"During the early days of CDDB, developers had access to our database and service for free, and their participation was key to our success, " said Steve Scherf, co-founder of Gracenote.

ENGADGET: Gracenote unleashes its vast musical know-how to developers