JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia (Reuters) – A handwritten sign at the entrance to a tiny shop in southern Malaysia’s busiest city sums up the music industry’s colossal problems in Asia. “1 CD for 7 ringgit,” it beams in bright blue ink. This sum is equivalent to $1.80. As two policemen direct traffic just yards away, the [...]

A Norwegian who defeated Hollywood on piracy charges pleaded not guilty on Tuesday in a landmark appeal hearing that the movie industry is anxious to win to protect its lucrative DVD business. Prosecutors, on behalf of major U.S. film studios, will try to prove that 20-year-old Jon Johansen broke Norwegian law when he developed and [...]

The decision, which was released late last Wednesday, transfers a closely watched legal battle over the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) dragnet for online music traders to courts in the nation’s capital, where the industry group has already had success. “We are pleased with the California court’s decision to transfer the suit filed by [...]

Available here What’s new? This application provides an unlimited search horizon and can reach any node more quickly than ever before. This release offers the first scalable platform for distributed content distribution with a virtually unlimited search horizon, using vastly reduced internet overhead, returning results extremly fast. Because of the unique indexing technology, for the [...]

A REPORT from CTV says that a group representing Canada’s songwriters will ask the Supreme Court to rule that Internet Service Providers also pay them royalties in regard to music file downloads, regardless of whether the ISP is transmitting legally or illegally downloaded music. This is on top of a levy on blank recording media [...]

Every major label is drooling over the money-making prospects of having its own iTunes or Musicmatch. But they are all, in the immortal words of Johnny Cash, “born to lose, and destined to fail.” Why? The music industry’s problem is fundamental: the implicit contract between music companies and listeners is no longer viable. The music [...]

KYOTO — Two people who used the file-sharing software “Winny” to offer movies and video game software to an unspecified number of people over the Internet have been arrested, police said. Katsuhiko Kimoto, a 41-year-old self-employed businessman from Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, and an unemployed 19-year-old from Matsuyama were arrested on suspicion of violating copyright laws. [...]

The software that sits between the operating system and a PC’s hardware hasn’t changed much in decades. Now, Phoenix Technologies wants to introduce greater security, usability and copy protection. Phoenix, one of the biggest makers of BIOS (basic input/output system) software, has released the first entry in a line of next-generation products that it promises [...]

eMule is a new filesharing client which is based on the eDonkey2000 network, but offers more features than the standard eDonkey client, because it’s opensource but under the restrictions of the GPL License. Missing language-dlls are now downloaded and installed automatically by emule Changed auto-versioncheck to a DNS-based method which is more effective. Also the [...]

The communications industry is ready for an infusion of data, such as digital video, to drive it to recovery, but music, video, and other digital-content owners continue to keep a tight rein on their growing mass of IP (intellectual property) while waiting for a secure DRM (digital-rights-management) scheme to materialize. The complexity of DRM, however, [...]

A CD protected with a digital watermark is being marketed via the Internet in Belgium – the high-tech watermark will prevent CDs being copied illegally. The first CD to carry the watermark will be one by Belgian singer SoulBob, which will be downloadable from the Internet. While the download is underway, personal information including the [...]

Ares is a peer to peer file sharing program that enables users to share any digital file including images, audio, video, software, documents, etc. You may now easily publish your files through the Ares Network. As a member of the Ares network, you can also search and download just about any digital media file. With [...]

What’s new?This application provides an unlimited search horizon and can reach any node more quickly than ever before. This release offers the first scalable platform for distributed content distribution with a virtually unlimited search horizon, using vastly reduced internet overhead, returning results extremly fast.    Because of the unique indexing technology, for the first time extremly [...]

By LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press WriterNEW YORK – A lawyer for the Motion Picture Association of America denied responsibility Wednesday for a policy partially banning distribution of special video copies to awards groups, something small filmmakers said could ruin them. The lawyer, Richard Cooper, made the denial as he urged a federal court judge to [...]

The GAO, or Government Accounting Office, provides the United States Congress with the tools it needs to research or investigate a wide range of topics for potential legislation. Its responsibilities include providing data, analysis and opinions on just about anything, including file-sharing. On September 9, 2003, the GAO testified before the before the U.S. Senate [...]

Microsoft Corp. is preparing a series of major changes to the security capabilities in the Windows client and server platforms, and they will further lock down the company’s flagship operating systems. In separate service packs due over the next six months, the Redmond, Wash., software developer plans to add several security features to Windows XP [...]

Rita Chang, Medill News ServiceWASHINGTON–As the music industry continues to fight online file swapping by filing suit, digital music lovers everywhere should take pause–and, perhaps, inventory.Just last week, another ISP–Pacific Bell Internet Services–went to court to fight a subpoena by the Recording Industry Association of America. The RIAA, representing the major music labels, wants the [...]

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) is planning lawsuits against internet providers that do not prevent their users from downloading illegal music via the internet. ARIA-manager Michael Speck claims that the providers generate 20% of their sales with users violating copyrights. The providers agree on helping the copyright holders but they refuse being made responsible [...]

ExoSee is a P2P file sharing program. It allows you to search for, download, and transfer any type of file with anyone on the network. It works with all file types including MP3, MPEG, AVI, ASF, MOV, JPEG, and GIF. Instead of a central file list, your searches are distributed to thousands of other people [...]

Just weeks after an antitrust suit was filed against the RIAA by webcasters, the music labels’ lobby group, along with Hollywood, is seeking a permanent exemption from similar litigation. The proposal seeks to extend the exemption to anything covering mechanical copyright: a sweeping extension of the copyright cartel’s immunity. It’s buried away in a piece [...]