Judge backs case against Kazaa
LOS ANGELES (mp3 news) - A US judge has said he is likely to back a court action brought by the country's biggest media companies against the file-swapping service Kazaa. US District Judge Stephen Wilson heard arguments in a Los Angeles courtroom about the service, which the companies say offers free ...
| Hollywood Tries To Corner Kazaa
LOS ANGELES (Mp3 news) - On Monday, November 24, a federal court in Los Angeles will consider whether entertainment companies may sue Sharman Networks, distributor of the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing software, in U.S. courts. Sharman is incorporated in the island-nation of Vanuatu, operates out of ...
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Universal Music Kicks Off Digital Download Plan
LOS ANGELES (Universal press releases) - Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, on Wednesday announced it would make more than 43,000 song tracks available for download at retail outlets and music Web sites, opening a new front in the marketing of digital music. The initiative is ...
| Pressplay announced an agreement with BMG
NEW YORK (Pressplay Website) - Pressplay, the leading music service, today announced an agreement with BMG that brings that company's prestigious music catalog to the pressplay service. BMG becomes the fourth major music company to add its songs to pressplay's catalog of more than 120,000 songs from ...
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More Than 32 Million Music Fans Tune To The Web
NEW YORK (Nielsen/Net Ratings Website) - Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard in Internet audience measurement and analysis, reports that more than 32 million surfers, or 27 percent of the active online population visited a music site during the month of August 2002. Despite a host of legal challenges ...
| Musicians Sue Vivendi Over MP3.com Service
LOS ANGELES (Leagal Cases News Website) - A Vivendi Universal unit has been sued by musicians Bob Dylan, Billy Joel and James Taylor, who say MP3.com Inc. had no right to transmit more than 700 of their songs over the Internet. The suit targets an online music distribution service that MP3.com launched ...
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File-sharing upgrade taunts record labels
LOS ANGELES (Mp3 News) - Popular file-swapping system Kazaa has released a new version of its core software and announced an important alliance. The swapping network has signed a deal with European net service provider Tiscali which will see both partners promote each other to their respective audiences. ...
| RIAA: Online Sharing Caused 7% Sales Drop
LOS ANGELES (Top40-Charts) - Compact disc music sales decreased 7 percent during the first half of the year, a further indication that online music sharing sites are hurting the recording industry, a trade group said Monday. The decline cost the industry $284 million in lost sales, according to the ...
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China-based Free Downloads Site Blocked
NEW YORK (Top40-Charts) - A group of record companies have asked a New York judge to block access by Americans to a China-based web site that allows free downloads of copyrighted songs. Record labels including Sony Music Entertainment, the Universal Music Group and RCA Records filed the suit Friday ...
| Radio stations appeal Internet royalty decision
WHASINGTON (Broadcasting Network) - Radio stations have asked a federal appeals court to rule that they do not have to pay musicians and recording companies when they play music on the Internet because they do not pay royalties for regular, over-the-air broadcasts. In a motion filed late Monday, a group ...
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'Stop free music' pleads record industry...
BRUSSELS (CNET) - The record industry pleaded Wednesday with consumers to stop downloading and recording music for free because piracy was strangling the multi-billion-dollar industry. Profits have plummeted, especially in Europe. CD sales in Germany last year were 185 million whereas the number of ...
| Record industry 'spoofs' net pirates
NEW YORK (CNET) - The US record industry is employing new methods to counteract the growing phenomenon of unauthorised music files. Many large record labels have resorted to what is known as "spoofing"- hiring companies to distribute "decoy" music files that are empty or do not work, to make the work ...
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Sony, Universal music units to offer cheaper downloads
LOS ANGELES (CNet) - Record company giants Sony Music and Universal Music Wednesday said they planned to soon offer cheaper and easier ways to download music from the Web in the industry's latest effort to stem online piracy. "Times have changed, so the offerings have changed," said Larry Kenswil, ...
| Music piracy rises worldwide
NEW YORK (IFPI) - Global sales of pirated music compact discs rose almost 50% to an all-time high of 950 million units in 2001, according to a report. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) report showed illegal sales of recordable CDs tripled last year to 450 million units. ...
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Finally, they did it!: Europeans Hackers Crack Copy Protection CDs
BERLIN, Germany (Linux News) - Some music fans are trying to fake out CD copy protection technology with the stroke of a felt-tip pen. The tactic is being used in Europe, where Sony is trying out a copy protection method and that model won't be coming to America (the company says). The crack in the ...
| Music industry sues US song-swapping site
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - In its latest attempt to halt music piracy, a contingency of music industry groups, including the labels, songwriters and music publishers, filed a lawsuit against U.S. file-sharing Internet service Audiogalaxy .com. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a ...
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Napster gets a new lease on life....
NEW YORK (Top40 Charts) - Napster gets a new lease on life as Bertlesmann AG has agreed to contribute $8 million toward the payment of Napster's creditors, it was announced late Friday (May 17). The move helped to bring back Napster founder Shawn Fanning and CEO Konrad Hilbers, who both resigned last ...
| The Digital Beat: The myth of the MP3 virus
NEW YORK (Rolling Stone) - I've been getting a lot of emails lately from people concerned about a supposed hole in the popular Winamp software that could let a dastardly virus sneak through. Don't believe the hype. Here's what happened: An earlier version of Winamp (2.75) was found to have a bug that, ...
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Buh Bye Napster... Yet Again
NEW YORK (MP3-News) - Remember Napster, well neither do we, but in the interest of following the story through, CEO Konrad Hilbers has resigned from Napster and they may be facing bankruptcy. Blah, blah, blah. A death rattle is now playing on Napster, the long embattled file-trading service. On a tumultuous ...
| Recording industry collects $1 million fine
LOS ANGELES (Top40 Charts) - Big Brother is listening! That's the message the recording industry hoped to send Tuesday by announcing it had collected $1 million from a company that let employees swap songs on an internal server. Arizona-based Integrated Information Systems Inc., which ran a dedicated ...
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