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Posted by goodman at 12:44 PM

January 9, 2006

Clear Channel Ties Videos, Ads in Web Push

WSJ.com: What's News Technology: Clear Channel is launching a service that allows people to get free music videos streamed from the company's radio-station Web sites after watching a 15-second ad.

Posted by goodman at 3:36 AM

Legitimate music downloading enjoys dream week

CNET News.com: In the final week of 2005, consumers shattered the one-week record for download sales.

Posted by goodman at 3:34 AM

Buying Music From Anywhere and Selling It for Play on the Internet

NYT > Technology: A company called the Orchard is seeking to make money by purchasing music from small independent and foreign labels, and then distributing it to digital music services.

Posted by goodman at 3:32 AM

December 26, 2005

Music Industry Faces Pricing Probe

WSJ.com: What's News US:
Spitzer has subpoenaed at least three of the four global music companies as part of an investigation into collusion on pricing of digitally downloaded music.

Posted by goodman at 1:10 PM

Pricing of Downloaded Songs Prompts Antitrust Subpoenas

NYT > Technology: The New York attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, is investigating whether four record companies have violated antitrust laws in the pricing of songs that are sold by Internet music services.

Posted by goodman at 12:55 PM

December 19, 2005

Music: Home Is Where the Fans Are

NYT > Technology:
Levon Helm, formerly of the Band, invites fans over the Net into his studio for food, drink and the blues.

Posted by goodman at 12:05 PM

December 17, 2005

iTunes lyrics fight ends in apology

CNET News.com:
After threatening copyright letter, music publishing giant admits to missteps in dispute with programmer.

Posted by goodman at 12:14 PM

NY Times : "Pavel invented the device...

NY Times: "Pavel invented the device known today as the Walkman."

Posted by goodman at 12:11 PM

December 15, 2005

HOWTO make a DRM CD

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: Alex Halderman, one of the Princeton researchers who's been doggedly revealing the tricks, nastiness, cheating and lies in the Sony DRM Debacle, has published a detailed HOWTO explaining how to make your own malicious "industrial strength" DRM CD, just like Sony's. The perfect project for your holiday break!

You added the extra track (shown in yellow) when you edited the disc image in step 4. This simple change makes the audio tracks invisible to most music player applications. It’s not clear why this works, but the most likely explanation is that the behavior is a quirk in the way the Windows CD audio driver handles discs with multiple sessions.

For an added layer of protection, the extraneous track you added to the disc is only 31 frames long. (A frame is 1/75 of a second.) The CD standard requires that tracks be at least 150 frames long. This non-compliant track length will cause errors if you attempt to duplicate the disc with many CD drives and copying applications.

Link

Previous installments of the Sony DRM Debacle Roundup: Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV

(Cool Sony CD image courtesy of Collapsibletank)

Posted by goodman at 1:21 PM

RIAA sues 751 file-swappers

CNET News.com:
The recording industry files a new round of lawsuits.

Posted by goodman at 1:20 PM

Google whistles a new tune

CNET News.com:
New feature on search site designed to help people find lyrics, bands and CDs. One thing it's not: a music store.

Posted by goodman at 1:19 PM

December 9, 2005

Music publishers: Jail for lyric-sites

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: Matthew sez, "According to this BBC News story, Warner Chappell's legal threats against the creator of PearLyrics are just a preview of a campaign to be launched in 2006 by the Music Publishers Association. The MPA is seeking to take lyrics and tabs sites offline and-- get this-- 'Mr Keiser said he did not just want to shut websites and impose fines, saying if authorities can 'throw in some jail time I think we'll be a little more effective'.'"

"The Xerox machine was the big usurper of our potential income," he said. "But now the internet is taking more of a bite out of sheet music and printed music sales so we're taking a more proactive stance."

Link (Thanks, Matthew!)

Posted by goodman at 2:44 PM

A Music File by Any Other Name

Wired News:
Which format is best? Get wise to the durability of MP3s, the promise of AAC and the pitfalls of Sony's ATRAC. Last in a three-part series. By Michael Calore.

Posted by goodman at 2:42 PM

December 8, 2005

Music Labels See Satellite Radio Threat

WSJ.com: What's News Technology:
XM and Sirius are offering satellite-radio receivers that can store hours of music, posing a new threat to the recording industry.

Posted by goodman at 12:16 PM

Is lyric search copyright infringement?

CNET News.com:
Also: Games Web site to educate parents.

Posted by goodman at 10:07 AM

Mariah Carey and 2 Others Lead Grammy Nods

NYT > Home Page:
The rapper, producer and songwriter Kanye West and the singer and songwriter John Legend also received eight nominations each.

Posted by goodman at 10:04 AM

December 6, 2005

NBC Adds TV Shows to iTunes Store

WSJ.com: What's News Technology:
NBC added some of its primetime shows, including "Law & Order," to Apple's iTunes store, becoming the latest network to sell TV episodes a la carte.

Posted by goodman at 11:36 AM

December 2, 2005

Grateful Dead "reversal" on fan-recordings is a smokescreen

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: Yesterday, I blogged stories about various Grateful Dead spokespeople and band-alumni making promises to reverse their attack on fan-recordings that are hosted at the the Internet Archive (these recordings were made by dedicated fans with the band's explicit blessing, and have been the core of an decades-old evangelical unpaid promotional campaign by Deadheads that has returned a gigantic fortune for the band).

However, it appears that all the talk about "communications SNAFUs" was a smokescreen for a half-assed compromise that leaves the highest-quality recordings available only as streams, meaning that they can no longer be simply downloaded from the Archive and traded on.

The spin on this is bizarre -- see below:

He said the band consented to making audience recordings available for download again, although live recordings made directly from concert soundboards, which are the legal property of the Grateful Dead, should only be made available for listening from now on.

What, exactly, is the Grateful Dead's "legal property?" The media on which the recordings reside? No, those belong to the fans and/or the Internet Archive. Rather, the thing that the Grateful Dead controls is the copyrights in the performances. But they control the copyright in the non-soundboard recordings every bit as much as they control the soundboard recordings.

So why is this being characterized as the Grateful Dead changing its position? They've reversed on a minor point -- that freespace recordings may be traded -- but they've stuck to the main point: recordings made by fans with the blessing of the Dead and the admonition to share them far and wide are no longer to be shared without the explicit blessing of the band's surviving rightsholders.

It's clear why these rightsholders want this. The Grateful Dead is famous, and lots of people are interested in buying GD recordings, merchandise, and tickets to the successor band, The Dead. The Grateful Dead's fame is the direct consequence of the goodwill they exchanged with their fans when they adopted their liberal policies for recording and sharing of shows.

Now the rightsholders want it both ways: they want to profit from the goodwill that fans retain for the band due to its generosity, but they want to revise that generosity downwards. They want to change the deal so that fans continue to do just as much evangelizing, spend just as much money on shows and shirts, but get less in return.

There's a ripoff here, and it's not coming from the fans. To quote John Perry Barlow, the band's irate former lyricist who wrote an open letter objecting to this move: "How magnificently counter-productive of them. It's as if the goose who laid the golden egg had decided to commit suicide so that he could get more golden eggs." Link

Posted by goodman at 12:15 PM

Eek-A-Mouse jamming with Irish pub musicians

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow:
Here's a six-minute MP3 of reggae hero Eek-A-Mouse jamming with a bunch of traditional Irish pub musicians -- fiddles, pipes, etc -- at his 50th birthday party. The result is great; Eek-A-Mouse's schtick is to sing in a high, Chinese-sounding falsetto, but to groovy reggae beats. Add to that some lively Irish fiddlers and you've really got something.

Link

(Thanks, Matt!)

Posted by goodman at 12:13 PM

Flaws found in RealNetworks media player

CNET News.com:
Two RealPlayer flaws could let attackers commandeer Windows PCs running the software, eEye Digital warns.

Posted by goodman at 11:48 AM

Everyone Is Grateful Again

Wired News:
No one can say the Grateful Dead doesn't listen to its fans. Stung by the backlash when the Dead's concert recordings were no longer available for free downloading, band members act to restore the status quo.

Posted by goodman at 11:48 AM

Pop Goes the Science Song

Wired News:
With the help of the internet, professors and teachers are torturing songs to help with lessons on subjects from physics to cell metabolism. 'Take Me to the Liver,' anyone? By Randy Dotinga.

Posted by goodman at 11:48 AM

Michael Robertson Launches Oboe

MacSlash:
After months of secrets and speculation (albeit nothing on so grand a scale as the rumours preceding a Macworld keynote), Michael Robertson has today launched Oboe, now known as MP3Tunes. What is it? "A personal music locker to store all your music and make it accessible from anywhere on any device." Usable with Mac, Windows and Linux, one of its chief selling points is compatibility with iTunes: install the plugin, and painlessly sync your iTunes library to your digital locker. The service will cost $39.95US/year, offering unlimited bandwidth and access. A free trial is also available.

Posted by goodman at 11:46 AM

Deadheads Outraged Over Web Crackdown

NYT > Technology:
The Grateful Dead's decision to stop a Web site from offering free downloads of its music has fans threatening to boycott the band's recordings.

Posted by goodman at 11:43 AM

A Podcast Package to Make the World Your Stage, or Not

NYT > Technology:
The Podcast Factory kit from M-Audio includes everything a podcaster needs to make professional-sounding productions.

Posted by goodman at 11:43 AM

Plan for an 'iPod Tax' in Japan Unravels

NYT > Technology: A plan to charge an "iPod tax," or royalties on portable digital music players, unraveled after a government committee failed to reach agreement on the measure.

Posted by goodman at 11:40 AM

November 29, 2005

Taste for illegal tunes strong for Europe's youth

CNET News.com:
Illegal downloads are still beating legal online music on the continent, analysts say.

Posted by goodman at 1:06 PM

November 28, 2005

RIAA targets mashups

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: MashupTown, a site that hosts and distributes mashups (two or more songs ingeniously mixed together to make a third) has taken down all of its files after complaints from the RIAA to its hosting partner.

Mashups are a really dumb target for the RIAA. There's just no universe in which someone who downloads a mashup of Prince's 1999 and the Benny Goodman orchestra performing "In the Mood" thinks, Well, now I've heard that, I have no need to buy the CDs those songs originated on.

In other words, if the RIAA genuinely only goes after its customers because it wants to keep from losing sales, attacking mashups won't and can't accomplish that. This action amounts to the RIAA saying, "This art is illegal because it displeases us." Link (Thanks, Karl!)

Posted by goodman at 1:16 PM

Jane Siberry opens best artist's digital music store EVAR

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: Canadian chanteuse Jane Siberry has created an online music store that's a model of how artists can capitalize on the goodwill of their fans to line their pocketbooks and disseminate their music. Her store sells non-DRMed MP3s and encourages fans to spread the word.

EFF's Fred von Lohmann has a sterling review of Siberry's store:

Her new download store, recently unveiled at her site, is a model of what the music downloading world could be. All of her songs are available as plain MP3s, which means they will play on your iPod and are not loaded with DRM restrictions (much less evil rootkits).

And you pay whatever you like for them. Yes, you set whatever price you like. Options include:

* free ("gift from Jane");
* a standard price (CAN$0.99);
* self-determined price - pay now; or
* self-determined price - pay later (to facilitate try-before-you-buy).

When you purchase the song, moreover, you can select up to 5 people to whom you can email a link to the song.

I just saw her perform in concert here in SF, and she summed it up this way: "I want to treat people the way I'd like to be treated. I don't like being treated like a child, so I won't be doing that to other people."

Siberry doesn't have rights in all jurisdictions -- in some parts of the world, she can't sell this stuff. But rather than tying your location to your credit-card billing address (I live in London, am presently in Uganda, pay taxes in Canada and have several cards billed in San Francisco), Jane lets her fans simply state where they reside. This is really stupendous -- the gold standard for a digital artist's business. Link

Posted by goodman at 11:06 AM

Hard-disk jockey turns electricity into music

CNET News.com:
In the early morning hours at a crowded dance club, a high-tech DJ creates a one-man symphony on his computer.

Posted by goodman at 11:01 AM

IPods Top Jukeboxes, DJs

Wired News:
So many people can bring their iPods to a bar and share favorites with the crowd, jukeboxes are gathering dust and DJs may become superfluous.

Posted by goodman at 10:57 AM

Tags Sort Out Music Mess

Wired News:
The need to organize thousands of MP3s on my hard drive turns me from a music lover into an unwilling librarian. Thankfully, tagging software can help out. Commentary by Dan Goodin.

Posted by goodman at 10:56 AM

November 27, 2005

Greedy Grateful Dead widow burns down online show-library

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: A reader writes,

Archive.org has been forced to take down over 1000 soundboard recordings of the Grateful Dead by Jerry's wife and a few (perhaps one) remaining member of the band.

"For years, Archive.org has served as the repository for the Grateful Deads copious electronic recordings. Now, the site will be limited to streaming "audience-recorded" shows.

"The reaction from the very large global Deadhead community has been very interesting, sociologically. People are confused, angry, depressed, grateful for the time they had, and more."

This is pretty disappointing. Deadheads made the Grateful Dead some pretty substantial fortunes over the years by acting as unpaid, volunteer evangelists for their commercial offerings. This is a genuine betrayal of the audience from a couple of greedy people who would line their pockets at the expense of the memory of the generous, mutually beneficial relationship between the band and its supporters. Link

Posted by goodman at 7:22 PM

Time to allow hard drives pre loaded with Music....and change Harry Fox

Blog Maverick... read the full article:

its the simplest of ideas.  Take any MP3 player, Ipod, PSP, whatever and pre load it with songs. With 30, 60 and 100gbs capacities, the potential is amazing. How simple it would be if the user could sample and choose.

No more having to go to illegal sites to sample music to decide if you want to buy it or steal it (them , not me :).. Its all right there.

Posted by goodman at 11:51 AM

November 25, 2005

A Torrent or a Trickle?

Wired News:
The MPAA's deal with BitTorrent will do little to change the landscape for file swapping -- but it could create the best chance yet for a meaningful and legal P2P media-distribution system. News analysis by Xeni Jardin.

Posted by goodman at 4:52 PM

November 22, 2005

Hollywood, BitTorrent creator strike deal

CNET News.com:
File-swapping technology's creator says he won't help users find pirated film downloads with his search engine.

Posted by goodman at 4:42 PM

Sony BMG Sued Over CD's With Anti-Piracy Software

NYT > Technology:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Texas attorney general filed lawsuits against Sony BMG for violating consumers' rights and trading in malicious software.

Posted by goodman at 2:11 PM

Warner Music Settles With Spitzer on Radio Payoffs

NYT > Home Page:
The country's No. 3 record company agreed today to cease using pricey gifts and promotional giveaways to buy radio airtime for its artists.

Posted by goodman at 2:10 PM

November 21, 2005

Patch issued for Sony CD uninstaller

CNET News.com:
SunnComm Technologies issues a patch for a serious security flaw in its uninstallation program.

Posted by goodman at 5:50 PM

iTunes outsells traditional music stores

CNET News.com: Apple's download business now among top 10 music retailers, research company says, beating out both Tower and Borders.

Posted by goodman at 1:52 PM

Putting the Napster genie back in the bottle

CNET News.com: Shawn Fanning, who pioneered free online music sharing, is still shy about his legal peer-to-peer venture, Snocap.

Posted by goodman at 1:51 PM

Economists' studies on P2P and music sales compared

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: Cambridge PhD Economics researcher Rufus Pollock has published an excellent summary of all the recent quantitative studies on the impact of file-sharing on music sales -- the range of conclusions is pretty amazing.

In particular, the point estimates imply that the median 'new' artist, whose weekly sales are 2,163 albums, would see a decrease in weekly sales of 101 albums per week were files shared to be reduced by 10%. A similar calculation can be made for an artist of maximum popularity. At the median level of sales for these artist, the estimate implies an increase in sales of 490 albums per week if file sharing were to be reduced by 10%. This stark contrast between the magnitudes of the effects for artists of varying levels of popularity highlights the importance of this heterogeneity in estimating the aggregate effects of file sharing.

A similar calculation can be made for estimating the total effect of file sharing on sales. To estimate the aggregate effect of a 30% reduction in file sharing across the board,33 I simply subtract out the effect of the deleted files from the second stage estimation in Table 4 and then aggregate up to market level numbers using the appropriate weights. The estimated effect of such an across-the- board reduction in file sharing is to increase aggregate sales by 15%. Again, while these calculations were useful for placing the analysis inside the framework of the previous literature, they do not take into account competition effects across albums, and so the effects of file sharing will be overstated in these estimates.

Link

Posted by goodman at 11:38 AM

XM integrates Napster for radio downloads

CNET News.com:
Companies launch joint music offering to let XM subscribers download what they hear on subscription satellite radio.

Posted by goodman at 11:26 AM

Texas sues Sony BMG over alleged spyware

CNET News.com:
A civil lawsuit is filed against Sony for alleged spyware in its media player.

Posted by goodman at 11:25 AM

November 20, 2005

Tainted Sony CDs Used Open Source

Wired News:
Another haymaker lands on Sony BMG execs, with the revelation that its controversial CDs relied heavily on an existing open-source project to get off the ground.

Posted by goodman at 2:36 PM

Madonna in chart double success

BBC News:
Madonna adds to her singles chart success by also seeing her Confessions On A Dance floor top the album chart.

Posted by goodman at 2:36 PM

What's Online: The Rootkit of All Evil

NYT > Technology:
Sony BMG can learn two lessons from its recent attempt to fend off piracy: One, bloggers will catch you. And two, it's not the screw-up, it's the cover-up.

Posted by goodman at 2:34 PM

Putting the Napster Genie Back in the Bottle

NYT > Technology:
The spotlight is back on Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster, this time as a symbol of how big business and the disruptive force of the Internet just might find a way to get along.

Posted by goodman at 2:33 PM

November 18, 2005

UCLA to MPAA shill: ARRRRRRR!

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow: The MPAA's Dan Glickman went to UCLA to "educate" them about how bad piracy is. He got met with hard questions about his industry's campaign against its customers, then he was catcalled by students, including one who showed up wearing a pirate eyepatch (!).

"Arrrrrrr!" shouted a group of students in the front row, prompting a chorus of pirate-like catcalls in the vein of Johnny Depp...

Several of the students said the government should be focusing on eliminating poverty and improving education instead of jailing kids who download movies, music and software. One young man wore a patch over one eye, pirate-style.

Link

Posted by goodman at 7:15 PM

New Sony CD risk identified

CNET News.com:
Label says it will work with Princeton researchers on fix for copy-protection software uninstaller.

Posted by goodman at 7:08 PM

Sony offers new CDs, MP3s for recalled discs

CNET News.com:
Customers can exchange a copy-protected CD for authorized MP3 downloads and a new, unprotected CD.

Posted by goodman at 2:34 PM

Madonna opens charity telethon

BBC News:
Madonna and other stars are taking part in BBC Children in Need, with more than £7m raised so far.

Posted by goodman at 2:32 PM

News: Apple denies EMI claims of copy-protected song support on iPod

MacCentral:
Apple Computer has denied statements made by music-giant EMI Group that Apple is nearly finished working on copy-protected CD support for the company's popular iPod music player. EMI made the claims in a statement outlining its position on copy protection.

Posted by goodman at 2:31 PM

November 17, 2005

iPods to support copy-protected CDs

CNET News.com:
Apple's music devices and software will play copy-protected music from new CDs issued by EMI, easing complaints of iPod incompatibility.

Posted by goodman at 5:57 PM

5000 music cylinders digitized and posted

Boing Boing:
Cory Doctorow:
Jon sez, "The Department of Special Collections at the University of California at San Barbara Library just placed online 5000 cylinder recordings from the 1890s to the 1920s. They are freely accessible, and even the original (raw) transfers are available for those who want to restore them. Note the sidebar at the web site talking about many cylinders still covered under State copyright law restrictions until 2067!"

Link

(Thanks, Jon!)

Posted by goodman at 12:03 PM

Real Story of the Rogue Rootkit

Wired News:
Antivirus software makers are nowhere to be found when Sony's CD Trojan horse comes knocking. Mere incompetence can't explain that. Commentary by Bruce Schneier.

Posted by goodman at 11:48 AM

Sony Folds Tent, Recalls CDs

Wired News:
Pummeled into submission by angry consumers and the media, Sony BMG agrees to pull all CDs containing copy-protected software and provide fixes for computers affected by the technology -- and hopes the whole mess just goes away.

Posted by goodman at 11:46 AM

November 16, 2005

Attack targets Sony 'rootkit' fix

CNET News.com:
Security firm reports Web sites designed to exploit a flaw in a Sony program designed to remedy security problems in copy-protected CDs.

Posted by goodman at 4:21 PM

Women Warm the Podcast Bench

Wired News:
The podcast industry skews heavily toward male performers and listeners, data shows. Pundits blame insularity, the geek factor and internet creeps. By Steve Friess. Plus: A Podcast Star Is Born.

Posted by goodman at 12:16 PM

A Podcast Star Is Born

Wired News:
Richard Bluestein, aka Madge Weinstein, has traded his tech support career for a turn as a foul-mouthed lesbian in Adam Curry's PodShow circus. Steve Friess reports from Ontario, California.

Posted by goodman at 12:14 PM

Sony Numbers Add Up to Trouble

Wired News:
How widespread is the damage from Sony's XCP rootkit software? New statistical evidence says 568,200 networks, including military and government targets, likely contain at least one infected machine. By Quinn Norton.

Posted by goodman at 12:14 PM

Another File-Sharing Service Shuts Down

WSJ.com:
A file-sharing network that allowed college students to download music and movies has shut down. I2hub is the latest to disappear amid pressure from Hollywood.

Posted by goodman at 11:53 AM

Apple May Raise Some iTunes Prices

WSJ.com, News.com:
Apple may alter its iTunes prices, charging more than 99 cents for popular songs and cutting those by unknown acts, said the head of EMI Music.

Posted by goodman at 11:51 AM

November 15, 2005

Print piracy costs much more than music piracy...but its an opportunity

Blog Maverick:
The RIAA and to a lesser extent the MPAA would like us to believe that every song or movie illegally downloaded equates to a lost sale for that product. Of course that is not true....

Posted by goodman at 4:47 PM

Sony recalls risky 'rootkit' CDs

CNET News.com:
Sony BMG recalls millions of copy-protected CDs, but more security risks are spotted in what the uninstaller has left behind.

Posted by goodman at 4:41 PM

MTV gets its game on

CNET News.com:
Cable channel will heavy up on game-related programming in move designed to coincide with release of the Xbox 360.

Don't these guys do music anymore?

Posted by goodman at 1:09 PM

The iPod Blog: Podcasting: The profit of passion

MacCentral:
Is podcasting a fast track to big bucks? Not according to keynote speakers at the recent Portable Media Expo. Forget the money, show me the passion.

Posted by goodman at 1:03 PM

Northern Tunes

Northern Tunes: "Since I don’t commute, I’m not really in the target market for podcasting. In fact, I only listen to one consistently: CBC Radio 3. It’s an hour a week of Canadian pop music from people I’ve usually never heard of, and most of it’s really good, and hey, it’s my tax dollars paying for this; but that’s OK, the rest of the world can listen too."
(Via ongoing.)

Posted by goodman at 11:59 AM

Madonna to return to debut club

Madonna to return to debut club: "Madonna is set to play live back at the London club where she first wowed British fans 22 years ago."

Posted by goodman at 10:24 AM

Big music on the attack - new countries hit

Big music on the attack - new countries hit: "Record labels launch 2,100 new legal actions against file-sharers in Europe, Asia and South America."

Posted by goodman at 10:23 AM

Feature: Music lovers

Feature: Music lovers: "Some people don’t just listen to music, they live it. So here are some ideas just in case you have to buy a gift for one of those types.
"

Posted by goodman at 10:22 AM

Music industry's new piracy crackdown

Music industry's new piracy crackdown: "Legal action now extends to online file sharers in South America and additional countries in Europe and Asia."

Posted by goodman at 10:09 AM

November 14, 2005

Boycott Sony

Boycott Sony:
Putting software on CDs that secretly infects computers with a major security vulnerability is no way to defend copyrights. It's time consumers struck back. Commentary by Dan Goodin.

Posted by goodman at 2:15 PM

Sony rootkit prompts office clampdown on CD use

Sony rootkit prompts office clampdown on CD use:
IT departments are reacting to a new threat: users bringing CDs to work that can introduce rootkit-like software to their systems.

Posted by goodman at 2:13 PM

Sony's CD scheme backfires

Sony's CD scheme backfires: "Do employees who play music CDs with Sony's antipiracy rootkit pose a security risk?"

Posted by goodman at 2:08 PM

November 13, 2005

Copyrighting Wrongs

Copyrighting Wrongs: "The Justice Department proposes harsher legislation for media piracy. Also: Hybrid taxis in New York a sign of the times…. Microsoft reaches settlement with South Korea's Daum…. and more."

Posted by goodman at 6:11 PM

Snocap signs deal with Warner Music

Snocap signs deal with Warner Music:
The digital media company run by Napster founder Shawn Fanning says it reached a deal authorizing distribution of Warner's music.

Posted by goodman at 5:55 PM

November 7, 2005

EMI: We don't use rootkits

News.com: The EMI Group, one of the world's largest recording companies, has distanced itself from the controversy surrounding digital rights management (DRM) software used by Sony BMG by stating that it does not use rootkits on its own products.

Posted by goodman at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)

November 4, 2005

Digital music's move back to the Web

News.com: For several years, most companies selling music online have had an overriding strategy: Follow Apple Computer's iTunes in as many respects as possible.

Posted by goodman at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

November 2, 2005

Sony to patch copy-protected CD

News.com: Sony BMG Music Entertainment and a technology partner are working with antivirus companies on a fix for a potential security problem in some copy-protected CDs.

Posted by goodman at 12:42 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2005

Sprint dials into music

News.com: Sprint Nextel has launched a music download service that lets customers store up to 1,000 songs on their cell phones, pitting it against Apple Computer's popular iTunes service.

Posted by goodman at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2005

Divvying Up the Download Payload

Wired News:But behind the scenes of Cool Britannia, British musicians and labels are fighting bitterly over money as sales of online music change the economics of the industry.

Posted by goodman at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2005

Microsoft backs off music player squeeze

News.com: Microsoft has pulled back from a plan to exclude rival media players from portable music devices using its software.

Posted by goodman at 4:43 PM | Comments (0)

October 6, 2005

Here's a surefire way to stifle innovation

News.com: During the Grokster debate, we frequently heard those opposed to the content industry's position chant, "Don't stifle innovation!"

Posted by goodman at 1:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 4, 2005

RIAA Takes Shotgun to Traders

Wired News: Hundreds of people are being wrongly sued by the Recording Industry Association of America for illegally trading music online, legal experts say.

Posted by goodman at 8:17 AM | Comments (0)

Microsoft ends music license talks

News.com, Wall Street Journal: Microsoft has broken off licensing talks with the four global music companies, raising questions about the software giant's plans to start a subscription-based music service, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

Posted by goodman at 8:16 AM | Comments (0)

October 3, 2005

Oregon RIAA Victim Fights Back

Recording Industry vs The People: Oregon RIAA Victim Fights Back; Sues RIAA for Electronic Trespass, Violations of Computer Fraud & Abuse, Invasion of Privacy, RICO, Fraud

Posted by goodman at 4:18 PM | Comments (0)

Digital music sales surge amid broader decline

News.com: The music industry cheered a tripling of digital music sales in the first half of 2005 that was spurred by mobile phone ring tones and online services and offset persistent declines in overall sales.

Posted by goodman at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2005

U.K. online music hobbled by high prices

News.com: High prices and digital rights management incompatibility are slowing the take-up of online music services in the United Kingdom, according to analyst firm IDC.

Posted by goodman at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2005

Congress to legislate file swapping?

News.com: A California senator has suggested that because file-sharing networks continue to house illegal files, they should be shut down.

Posted by goodman at 3:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2005

Music sites caving to pressure from labels?

News.com: Popular file-sharing site WinMX.com ceased operating and the New York office of another, eDonkey.com, appeared to be closed, in the continuing legal fallout among underworld peer-to-peer music services, industry sources and users said Wednesday.

Posted by goodman at 9:53 AM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2005

Dell launches new music player

News.com: Dell, the world's biggest personal computer maker, announced six new products on Tuesday, including two printers and a digital music player aimed at the iPod Shuffle.

Posted by goodman at 11:23 AM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2005

Jobs: Record labels 'getting greedy'

News.com: Apple Computer boss Steve Jobs, the man behind the popular iPod digital music player, called the music industry greedy for considering a hike in the price of digital downloads, warning that such a move would drive users back to piracy.

Posted by goodman at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2005

Mashboxx to scoop up Grokster?

News.com: File-sharing service Grokster is in talks to be acquired by Mashboxx, which is attempting to establish a legal peer-to-peer music company, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Posted by goodman at 10:04 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2005

RIAA Lawsuit Transcript

RIAAlawsuits: I love this.... It's a transcript from one f the lawsuits that the RIAA has filed against a user of a filesharing service called Kazaa. And it looks like the judge isn't too happy with the lawyer that is representing the RIAA. Definately worth the read... :o)!

Posted by goodman at 5:11 PM | Comments (0)

Record labels send more letters to P2P services

ZDNet: The Recording Industry Association of America has sent letters to seven peer-to-peer companies, asking them to halt what the RIAA alleges is their practice of encouraging users to illegally distribute copyrighted material.

Posted by goodman at 1:10 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2005

Politicos call for music copyright reform

News.com: Legal music-download services won't be able to compete fully with their free- and illegal-download counterparts until copyright law changes, a Virginia congressman said Tuesday.

Posted by goodman at 2:07 PM

Getting Bad with Apple

News.com: Michael Robertson's reputation rests on the string of companies he's started, from MP3.com to Linspire.

Posted by goodman at 2:01 PM

August 27, 2005

Digital music's angel, gets record industry scorn

News.com:Two and a half years after the music business lined up behind the chief executive of Apple, Steven Jobs, and hailed him and his iTunes music service for breathing life into music sales, the industry's allegiance to Jobs has eroded sharply.

Posted by goodman at 12:09 PM

Royalty fight clouds music subscriptions

News.com: Digital-music companies and music publishers have reached an impasse in royalty negotiations, clouding the future of online subscription services such as those from Yahoo, RealNetworks and Napster.

Posted by goodman at 12:01 PM

July 26, 2005

XM, Starbucks burn new CDs

News.com: XM Satellite Radio and Starbucks' Hear Music division announced on Tuesday a new series of CDs. The debut compilation features tracks from established and emerging singers. It will be available at Starbucks stores, starting Aug. 3, for $14.95.

Posted by goodman at 12:21 PM

July 25, 2005

Sony BMG settles New York radio probe

News.com: Sony BMG will pay $10 million to settle a New York State probe into the way the music company influenced which songs were played on the radio, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Monday.

Posted by goodman at 12:34 PM

July 21, 2005

Legal music downloads triple worldwide

News.com: Legal digital song downloads around the world have tripled in the past year, while the growth of music piracy on peer-to-peer networks appears to have slowed, according to record labels.

Posted by goodman at 1:23 PM

July 19, 2005

In Canada: Cache a page, go to jail?

News.com: A bill before Canada's Parliament could make it illegal for search engines to cache Web pages, critics say, opening the door to unwarranted lawsuits and potentially hindering public access to information.

Posted by goodman at 11:47 AM

July 18, 2005

Singer launches career on eBay

BBC NEWS: A young Indian singer has managed to raise enough money to release his debut album by selling shares in his future royalties on the internet site eBay.

Posted by goodman at 12:28 PM

July 12, 2005

Dutch judge protects privacy of file swappers

News.com: A Dutch judge ruled on Tuesday that Internet service providers would not have to hand over names or addresses of customers who may be illegally swapping films, music and other copyright-protected files.

Posted by goodman at 4:18 PM

July 11, 2005

Downloading trouble at the BBC

Independent Online: The BBC has been lambasted by classical music labels for making all nine of Beethoven's symphonies available for free download over the Internet.

Posted by goodman at 12:04 PM

July 9, 2005

Europe Goes Gently on P2P Piracy

Wired News: EU members enact a number of laws to ban online trading of pirated content. But privacy protections and a reluctance to prosecute peer-to-peer users make Europe a comparatively friendly place to swap files.

Posted by goodman at 11:28 PM

July 8, 2005

Yahoo to push Clear Channel concerts

News.com: Clear Channel Music Group will use Yahoo to promote its summer concert series, the entertainment company said Friday.

Posted by goodman at 8:20 AM

June 24, 2005

Rethinking the File-Swap Morass

Wired News: Four years after it shuttered the original Napster with a legal assault, the recording industry is taking a different approach to online file-swapping: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Posted by goodman at 2:19 PM

June 20, 2005

'BadApple' podcasts first in iTunes

News.com: A new company called BadFruit has anticipated Apple Computer's plans to add podcasting support to iTunes with a software plug-in called "BadApple" that does the trick itself.

Posted by goodman at 4:38 PM

Justices to rule on fate of file swapping

News.com: Perhaps as soon as this week, the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the future of file swapping, in one of the most closely watched legal battles of the year.

Posted by goodman at 4:33 PM

June 16, 2005

Lawmaker Revs Up Fair-Use Crusade

Wired News: Rep. Rick Boucher is a rarity in Congress when it comes to digital media. He's taken the side of consumers -- not Hollywood and the music industry -- in the sundry controversies surrounding digital entertainment.

Posted by goodman at 11:51 AM

May 31, 2005

Music industry tailed Sharman boss

News.com: The Australian music industry's piracy investigations unit conducted extensive surveillance of the Sydney north shore house owned by the chief executive officer of peer-to-peer provider Sharman Networks, the unit's former boss told a court hearing last week.

Posted by goodman at 11:41 AM

May 23, 2005

Volez ce MP3!

Wired News: Record labels and movie studios are counting on the courts to help wage their war against global online piracy. But in France, some courts are refusing to go along.

Posted by goodman at 12:16 PM

May 20, 2005

Canadian court deals setback to record labels

News.com: A Canadian appeals court has rebuffed an attempt by the recording industry to unmask 29 people accused of unlawfully sharing thousands of music files.

Posted by goodman at 1:08 PM

May 9, 2005

BMI Launches New Songwriter/Artist Podcast

BusinessWire: BMI announced today that the company is launching a podcast series to bring promising new songwriter/artists to the attention of key industry executives including record company A&R staffers and creative executives at music publishing companies.

Posted by goodman at 2:36 PM

May 6, 2005

Court yanks down FCC's broadcast flag

News.com: In a stunning victory for hardware makers and television buffs, a federal appeals court has tossed out government rules that would have outlawed many digital TV receivers and tuner cards starting July 1.

Posted by goodman at 11:47 AM

April 29, 2005

European Digital Library Is Proposed

Yahoo! News: Six European leaders jointly proposed Thursday that works contained in European libraries be made accessible online, in what they called a "European digital library."

Posted by goodman at 10:59 AM

Dutch plans for iPod tax could kill MP3 industry

The Register: A Netherlands proposed tax on MP3 players could devastate sales of hard disk players, and set up international waves over copyright legislation.

Posted by goodman at 10:58 AM

April 27, 2005

Bush signs law targeting P2P pirates

News.com: File-swappers who distribute a single copy of a prerelease movie on the Internet can be imprisoned for up to three years, according to a bill that President Bush signed into law on Wednesday.

Posted by goodman at 4:00 PM

April 25, 2005

White Stripes Go Plastic

washingtonpost.com, Washington Area Entertainment Blog: The White Stripes will release their fifth album, "Get Behind Me Satan," on June 7th. However, instead of sending review CDs to publications, the band is only going to send vinyl records....

Posted by goodman at 11:19 AM

Girls' Night Logged On

WashingtonPost.com: Ditto, Anyone? Women Over 40 Are the Biggest Players of Games Online.

Posted by goodman at 11:06 AM

April 22, 2005

Singer breaking from Net to mainstream

News.com: Singer-songwriter Geoff Byrd may be the first artist to break into the mainstream music world from the Internet, but he's learning that there's still no free ride.

Posted by goodman at 1:13 PM

April 18, 2005

Adobe Systems Buys Macromedia In Stock Deal

WSJ.com, Wired: Adobe Systems Inc. announced the acquisition of Macromedia Inc. for $3.4 billion in stock in a deal that will bring together the software of two companies with broad resources to distribute documents, video and other media to personal computers, cellphones and hand-held devices.

Posted by goodman at 10:55 AM | TrackBack

April 12, 2005

Copyright Reform to Free Orphans?

Wired News: The authors of many great films, photos and music are long dead, but their works can't be seen or heard for fear of copyright violations. Now at last, the Copyright Office is researching how to return "orphan works" to the public domain.

Posted by goodman at 8:12 AM | TrackBack

April 10, 2005

File-Sharing Is the Latest Battleground in the Clash of Technology and Copyright

The New York Times: Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster, a case that has important implications for the future of online innovation.

Posted by goodman at 11:40 AM | TrackBack

April 9, 2005

Signal/Noise 2k5

Practical Guide to Fair Use, written for non-lawyer consumption, by Christina Olson, a Harvard Law School student

Posted by goodman at 2:41 PM | TrackBack

March 29, 2005

Supreme Court takes hard look at P2P

News.com: Supreme Court justices cast a critical eye Tuesday on entertainment industry proposals for quashing file-swapping, while making clear they had little sympathy for ongoing piracy on peer-to-peer networks.

Posted by goodman at 12:45 PM | TrackBack

A Few Notes from the Grokster Argument

Timothy K. Armstrong : Along with what seemed like about two-thirds all the lawyers in Washington, I attended today’s Supreme Court argument in MGM v. Grokster, the case on the legality of decentralized peer-to-peer file sharing....

Posted by goodman at 12:40 PM | TrackBack

File Sharing Has Supreme Moment

Wired News: The file-sharing fight reached the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, and the burning question among the justices was how to protect copyrights without restraining future tech.

Posted by goodman at 12:25 PM | TrackBack