TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) – Canadian music labels Wednesday called for tougher laws against illegal Internet music downloading in an appeal to politicians at midpoint of a federal election campaign. The Canadian Recording Industry Assn. called attention to an opinion poll on Internet downloading that indicated 91% of Canadians surveyed favored copyright protection for music artists [...]

There are a ton of cool and awesome settings on Azureus that often go either unnoticed or simply overlooked by us all. Here I intend to go over the 5 coolest features of Azureus, showing where they are and how to use them. So sit back, relax, and we’ll tango and tangle with them one [...]

According to figures from Hitwise, the online intelligence company, visits to music download sites, such as Apple’s iTunes Music Store, saw a 50 per cent increase between December 24 and 25.   Hitwise also found that visits to download sites were 15 per cent higher than last Christmas. Even before the Christmas increase, the BPI, [...]

After France, it looks like Australia would become the next nation aiming to make lives of regular citizens easier going against the television and media companies. France government is trying to legalize p2p file sharing if the web users are ready to pay a fix monthly royalty charge for doing so. Australian government is also [...]

The much-talked-about move is mainly aimed at users of prepaid cell phone accounts, which can be opened easily by anyone with cash and a handset.   These accounts have no monthly fee, but instead are "charged up" using prepaid cards and used until the credit runs out. The new rules, similar to those already introduced [...]

New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has subpoenaed three major music labels as yet another controversy in the digital-music industry unfolds.   The subpoenas are in connection with an ongoing antitrust Latest News about antitrust investigation into the pricing of digital-music downloads. Werner Music Group on Friday confirmed news accounts that Spitzer’s office subpoenaed the [...]

The RIAA issued a statement on Tuesday lauding the passage of a resolution last week by the U.S. Senate that asked Russia to work harder to fight piracy of music, software and other works of intellectual property protected by international copyright laws.   The measure was passed by the House of Representatives in November, and [...]

While Internet Explorer usage shows relatively modest drops among consumers, it is in freefall with a critical constituency: SMB network managers. More administrators are running alternative browsers than ever. And when they pull the trigger, they’re taking their users with them.

Bobby Hickman, of Eden, one of the people being sued by record companies, and his family and friends used the file-sharing service Kazaa to download about 800 songs, he said. "Just about everyone who had a computer was doing it so I didn’t think nothing of it," Hickman said.   He’s negotiating a settlement with [...]

The open source source nature of Firefox that lets developers everywhere extend Firefox’s core capabilities has led to an interesting new creation.   Called "Allpeers," its a P2P browser advertised as "…a free extension which combines the strength of Firefox and the efficiency of BitTorrent to transform your favorite browser into a media sharing powerhouse." [...]

Online DVD Exchange Offers Post-Holiday Alternative to Stringent Return Policies by Enabling Members to Trade DVD GiftsThis post-holiday season, DVD recipients will be able to recycle their holiday gifts without going back to retailers.   Industry sources predict that consumers will spend $5.8 billion buying DVDs in the fourth quarter of 2005, up from $5 [...]

If Sony BMG can screw up your computer with rootkits and other dangerous tricks, so can any other trusted name in music or movies. The latest release of a CD/DVD play-or-clone package from China lets you render the latest DRM schemes harmless by stripping out the bad stuff when you copy or play CDs and [...]

Via Slashdot: Yahoo News is reporting that Patricia Santangelo of New York will be taking on the RIAA in court without an attorney. It seems that Ms. Santangelo has committed over $24,000 due to her case and simply cannot afford to continue with the services of an attorney. From the article: "Her former lawyer, Ray [...]

New York’s attorney general is investigating whether the four record companies that dominate the industry have violated antitrust laws in the pricing of songs sold online, according to people involved in the inquiry. Eliot Spitzer’s office recently began serving subpoenas on the major record companies, according to the people involved. The companies are Universal Music [...]

For those unfamiliar with the French government, there’s a lower house called the National Assembly, just like the US Congress, the Australian House of Representatives or the British House of Commons. There’s also an upper house called the Senate, just like the US Senate, the Australian Senate or the British House of Lords.   Now, [...]

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) — The French Parliament voted last night to allow free sharing of music and movies on the Internet, setting up a conflict with both the French government and with media companies. If the amendment survives, France would be the first country to legalize so called peer-to-peer downloading, said Jean-Baptiste Soufron, legal counsel [...]

The draft law is to be debated by the Lower House of Parliament on Tuesday and Wednesday before being sent to the Upper House under a streamlined emergency procedure invoked by the government with the aim of quickly bringing France into line with a 2001 European Union law on copyright protection.   Essentially, the measure [...]

For the US this represents a 4.78% increase over October figures and a 20.6 percent jump over November 2004. Bigchampagne_5 Worldwide the numbers represents a 3.14% increase month-over-month and a 21.3% increase year-over-year.   BigChampagne tracks average simultaneous users and most P2P users grab a multiple amount tracks during each session generating billions of monthly [...]

Guess what? Your digital music library is not actually a library. It’s considered "hoarding."   The entertainment cartels have already pirated the word "pirate" to replace "counterfeit" and/or "duplicate" and/or "share." It’s so much more PR-friendly — more emotive and evocative. And it works so well in a sound-bite or a headline.   Now the [...]

Parents who give their offspring digital music players – such as Apple’s iPod -as Christmas presents are being warned that they risk being hit by hefty fines, amounting to thousands of pounds, if their children download pirate tracks illegally.   MP3 players will be at the top of Christmas lists across the country and most [...]