This paper explores the extent to which the peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing of music is a form of communication protected from the restrictions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (U.K.) (CDPA) by the guarantee of free expression enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and incorporated into domestic law [...]

Young people in Europe are three times more likely to illegally swap songs than they are to download them from legitimate sites such as Apple’s iTunes Music Store, according to new data that suggests the music industry has yet to solve its lingering digital conundrum.   Jupiter Research said file-sharers outnumbered those who paid to [...]

The latest and greatest from those crazy cats at Mozilla is available for download.   Havent come across a link that works for it yet, but if you scroll to "HELP/ DOWNLAD UPDATES" it should come up as it did for me to download.   UPDATE: HERES A LINK COURTESY OF SP00KY

SIP Thor , based on SIP and ENUM standards, is a sef-configurable network that provides the customer with scalability and survivability of its SIP communications.   Using P2P technology, it distributes a P2P Proxy/Registrar that acts a like a cluster of super-nodes in a pure P2P network.   After installation of the software and connection [...]

Illegal downloads are still beating legal online music in Europe, analysts say. According to a new report from analyst house JupiterResearch, consumers are three times more likely to get their digital music from illegal file-sharing networks than pay to download the tracks from online song shops such as iTunes and Napster, with 15 percent of [...]

Three days ago, during his visit to the city, Chinese superstar and action hero, Jackie Chan complained about the bane of piracy in the film industry all over the world.   On Friday, his lament was echoed by producer Firoz A Nadiadwala. "Piracy is a $ 8 billion industry," said Nadiadwala, adding, "It’s a menace [...]

One visit to the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Web site Get Linux or Windows Managed Hosting Services with Industry Leading Fanatical Support. offers an eye-opening glimpse into the world of cybercrime.   Case after case details how the Feds are cracking down on cyber-criminals, defendants are pleading [...]

A Homeland Security Dept. official has weighed in, accusing Sony BMG of undermining computer security. And Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has alleged, in a suit filed Nov. 21, that Sony BMG violated his state’s antispyware laws. Now, the Sony BMG debacle has drawn the scrutiny of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer’s office [...]

The row concerns the decision by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) to allow the private firm Verisign to maintain control of .com forever.   A trade body for internet businesses says the deal between Icann and Verisign breaks US anti-trust laws.   It has filed a lawsuit against the two parties [...]

Jane Doe’s appeal of 82-year-old Manhattan judge Robert W. Sweet’s order for the revealing of her indentity has been rejected.   The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that since it involved a subpoena to reveal someone’s identity it is not appealable by the person whose identity is to be revealed. [...]

Appropriately named G2G Exchange, the Web-based service does have some drawbacks. It requires users to hand over their Gmail account information, although it can be configured to index only e-mails with certain labels. G2G’s FAQ page recommends that users create a new Gmail login specifically for sharing files.   The process also isn’t exactly straightforward. [...]

Why defrag ment your PC? Regularly scheduled defragmentation your PC is very important in maintaining your hard drive’s optimum performance.       A good metaphor is to think of your hard drive as a desktop covered with pieces of paper or files. Each time you add or remove files you scatter these pieces of [...]

UnifiedRoot S & M BV, based in Amsterdam, said its system allows its customers to use more intuitive Internet addresses that are easier to remember. They can combine the TLDs with second-level domains for categories of products and services, such as fruit.supermarket and vegetables.supermarket, for example.   "Take CNN," said Erik Seeboldt, UnifiedRoot’s managing director. [...]

The bug-bearing message claims to come from either the FBI, CIA or German BKA police agency.   It warns users they have been detected visiting illegal sites. Those opening a questionnaire attached to the message will be infected by a variant of the well-known Sober virus.   Anti-virus firms have caught millions of copies of [...]

An Australian court has told Kazaa’s owners to impose a filtering system so searches for 3,000 keywords do not let users find copyrighted material.   Kazaa is making the changes to win a chance to have an appeal heard on a copyright case it lost in September.   It is unclear whether the keyword list [...]

The report by Jupiter Research suggests European consumers who download music from illegal file-sharing websites outnumber those using legal services.   It says illegal networks are used three times as much as legal ones.   It also warns that file-sharers, particularly young people, have little concept of music as a paid commodity.   The UK [...]

Kazaa will have to modify its software to filter out key words linked to copyrighted material by December 5 or be shut down, music industry officials have said of the ruling.   The court extended until late February a stay of an injunction barring it from distributing copyrighted recordings, Kazaa operator Sharman Networks said. Peer-to-peer [...]

It happened to Napster, Grokster, eDonkey (eMule is next) and finally BitTorrent.   Now the Dutch Supreme Court hammered down another nail. Peer 2 Peer has not died but most of its vital functions have seized under relentless attacks and is now on life-support.

Music is neck-deep into a new era in which convenience is paramount. Artists are creating music at increasingly lower costs in their own homes and distributing it over the Internet, while consumers are listening to that music anywhere, anytime on wireless portable devices.   Cell phones are no longer just cell phones, they are becoming [...]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), along with two leading national class action law firms, today filed a lawsuit against Sony BMG, demanding that the company repair the damage done by the First4Internet XCP and SunnComm MediaMax software it included on over 24 million music CDs. EFF is pleased that Sony BMG has taken steps in [...]