By Thomas Adamson
PARIS (AP) --French composer Francis Lai, who won an Oscar for the iconic "Love Story" soundtrack, has died, France's Culture Ministry said Thursday. He was 86.
Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi, who led nationwide tributes to Lai, who died on Wednesday, said he hopes to name "an emblematic place of our city" after the self-taught music legend who was born in the city in 1932.
Lai started as an accordionist, but quickly rose through the ranks as a composer, writing songs for singers including Edith Piaf and Yves Montand.
It was after his meeting with French New Wave director Claude Lelouch in the 1960s that Lai turned to the silver screen and produced his most famous work.
"He was the man of my life, an angel disguised as an accordionist," Lelouch said in interview with RTL radio.
"We made 35 films together and we had a love story that lasted 50 years," he added.
Lai wrote "A Man and a Woman" for 1966's Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. It featured the well-known musical jingle "dabadabada."
Lai's success culminated with his 1970 Academy Award for the score of "Love Story ," one of the most enduring romantic movies of all time. Its main song "Where Do I Begin?" boasts household recognition even among those unfamiliar with the movie, thanks to popular vocal renditions by Andy Williams and Shirley Bassey.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More