Add another competitor in the battle for dominance of the digital download market. AOL, in its quest to stem a long tide of lost subscribers, has decided to add it’s music subscription service “Music Now” to the growing list of AOL features offered to non- subscribers. Starting today, “outsiders” can pay $10 to $15 a [...]

UK record companies have demanded stronger action on CD piracy, saying 37m pirated CDs were sold last year. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) says intellectual property crime should be “higher on the police’s agenda”. A survey suggests CD piracy cost the industry £165m in lost revenue in 2005 – nearly 10% of total sales. Car [...]

Online downloads inched upward slightly in Japan during the latest quarter, though the rate of increase raised some concerns. According to figures issued by the Recording Industry Association of Japan, or RIAJ, second quarter paid downloads topped 5.94 million units. That is up slightly from a figure of 5.92 million recorded during the first quarter, [...]

Internet giant Google Inc. took the software battle deeper into Microsoft’s territory with a new package of online services for small-business users. Google said it would offer businesses tailor-made versions of its free email service Gmail, instant messaging, voice calling, shared calendars and basic design, publishing and hosting of websites. The company is marketing its [...]

Blackboard Inc. owns ‘basic framework for learning management systems.’ Every day, millions of students taking online college courses act in much the same way as their bricks-and-mortar counterparts. After logging on, they move from course to course and do things like submit work in virtual drop boxes and view posted grades — all from a [...]

In the spring, music executives at the E3 video game convention predicted music would take on a greater future role as the game market grows more sophisticated. This fall, that prediction seems poised to become reality. As the pre-holiday game release schedule swings into high gear, titles expected to hit retail shelves in coming months [...]

I’m spending the year at the University of Southern California on a Fulbright chair. Yesterday, some of my students forwarded me a memo sent to them by USC Deputy Chief Information Officer and Vice President for Student Affairs on “Copyright Compliance.” It purports to inform students about the contours and boundaries of copyright, but actually [...]

WinMX Music description What is WinMX Music? WinMX Music is an unique file-sharing application. It allows you to connect, download, and share files with MILLIONS of other users through the decentralized Peer Network. Once WinMX is installed, you’ll have access to one of the largest and most diverse networks of shared media files in the [...]

“Modern-day pirates ought to expect modern-day penalties,” said U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg, who added that the sentence “sends a strong message to those who pilfer the intellectual property of others.” Danny Ferrer, former operator of BuyUSA.com, was sentenced yesterday to six years in prison, ordered to pay restitution of “more than $4.1 million and to [...]

Would you please briefly explain to us what inspired you to create your site? AllPeers is a P2P extension to the Firefox browser (not a website) to simply enable the sharing of any file within a private group of people. Today there are no easy ways to share files with friends, family or colleagues. AllPeers, [...]

This story from the Herald, about copyright interests reaching new heights of privacy abuse seems to be missing a few key facts. What is this software they’re using to track personal searches? Does it really work like the story says? And who the hell do these people think they are? It’s quite an alarming piece [...]

So far as the yet very quiet forums are claiming, a new app called FairUse4WM can be used to strip Windows Media DRM 10 and 11 (i.e. PlaysForSure, but not WM DRM 9). Yes, yes, we know, we’ve heard this song and dance before. But before we proceed, let’s just be totally clear on how [...]

There are many reasons locking files down with copy protection or DRM is short-sighted and pointless, but one of the biggest is that it simply doesn’t work. Time and time again, various copy-protection schemes have been broken or circumvented, and all the DRM in the world hasn’t stopped file-sharing networks from being filled with supposedly [...]

The Weekend Herald was taken through the process of downloading the recently released movie Miami Vice by a New Zealand “pirate” this week. All we needed was a broadband internet connection – and a lot of time. It began by downloading a software “client” that connected us to a so-called peer-to-peer sharing network. There were [...]

EMI Music backs a label that turns the traditional economics of the recording industry on its head. Vivendi’s Universal Music Group creates multiple pricing schemes for CDs. Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Yahoo decide to sell a single without digital rights restrictions. These moves typify a flurry of experimentation by major record labels in recent [...]

update Microsoft’s forthcoming Zune player is shooting to be the life of the party, allowing users to create mobile social networks and stream music to nearby friends or strangers, according to a government regulatory filing. Zune owners can act as their own DJ, sending streaming music content to up to four other devices, according to [...]

On the heels of yesterday’s post about USC’s lunatic copyright policy, many readers have written in with more examples of copyright lunacy on USC and other campuses, instances in which scholarship is being trumped by a desire to appease the entertainment industry, enforcing rules that don’t take any account of the limits put on copyright [...]

Terry McBride has an idea. Another idea. A good – no, a great idea. McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, is sitting in his Vancouver, British Columbia, office with his local marketing staff discussing strategy for the release of a new album by Barenaked Ladies. The marketing departments in three other cities are conferenced in. [...]

Consumer representatives from several Nordic countries are discussing how to proceed in their battle against Apple Computer over the iTunes digital rights management (DRM) policy. The leaders have convened in Reykjavik as part of a regularly scheduled meeting, and iTunes is among the issues they’re discussing, said Torgeir Waterhouse, a senior adviser on Norway’s Consumer [...]

Michael Robertson, the founder of MP3.com, SIPphone and a whole slew of other companies is at it again – giving away free storage (1 GB) as part of Oboe Free, a music storage locker. You can upload your music to this locker and get unlimited high-quality music streaming. (Maybe we could put together a list [...]