Has lingering concerns that it makes unsuspecting users vulnerable to identity theft. A number of Congressman have signed onto a proposal submitted to the FTC asking for it to “investigate promptly recent disclosures regarding inadvertent file sharing over peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and to take steps to ensure that potential risks posed by P2P networks are [...]

The DMCA’s Safe Harbor provision may protect it, that is if it can prove that it has legitmate uses as well. Ars Technica has an interesting analysis of the RIAA’s lawsuit against Usenet.com. There’s reason to believe that Usenet.com — and most other Usenet providers — could qualify for protection under the DMCA’s Safe Harbor [...]

For $12.99 a month subscribers will get access to Rhapsody’s library of four million songs from the comfort of their sofa. TiVo Inc. has recently announced that they will begin offering consumers digital music in the home by delivering instant access to Rhapsody, the music subscription service, through any broadband-connected TiVo box. The partnership puts [...]

No rest for the wicked as the RIAA’s legal team demands the university gives up the identify of those it accuses of illegal file-sharing. According to CNet.com, last Thursday US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, a federal judge in Washington D.C., approved 19 subpoenas to identify the names of people listed as defendants in a campus [...]

Is Apple trying to better compete with Universal’s recent DRM-free music strategy?. Apple announced today that it has expanded iTunes Plus to begin offering over 2 million tracks, perhaps making it the largest DRM-free music catalog in the world outside P2P, and will also lower the price of all iTunes Plus tracks to just 99 [...]

Begins targeting those who it accuses of being “facilitators” of copyright infringement, meaning we can expect a fresh new wave of lawsuits from its latest and greatest legal strategy. It seems that newsgroup users will be the next target of the RIAA’s wrath with a new lawsuit filed on behalf major record labels against Usenet.com. [...]

With a relaxed regulatory environment unlike the US, Chinese developers have created file-sharing protocols that offer downloads 50 times faster than BitTorrent and real-time streaming of DVD quality video. It’s no secret that China is emerging as an economic powerhouse in its own right, developing a burgeoning manufacturing industry that produces everything from cars to [...]

Legal digital downloads of music and video in the UK rose by some 80.6% during the past year to 112 million pounds($227 million USD) researchers said last week. The way that consumers acquire music and video content continues to change around the world and newly released figures show that the United Kingdom is a perfect [...]

Will be supported by $5 a month tax on each media player that manufacturers make capable of using the service. Universal Music Group’s chief Doug Morris has long been angry over Apple’s 29cents take of each 99cents music track sold on iTunes, going so far as to partner up with Rhapsody, Wal-Mart, Google, and Best [...]

Rumored to be leaving long-time home Warner Bros. and forging a deal with concert promoter Live Nation instead. The air of death continues to swirl above the heads of the record industry as we know it with news that Madonna is planning to leave her long-time record label home of Warner Bros. in favor of [...]

Even though it’s blocked access by US visitors and stopped hosting torrent tracker files . Apparently the MPAA is out for blood in its case against the once mighty TorrentSpy BitTorrent tracker site and it isn’t looking pretty for believers of net neutrality and user privacy. Back in May the “Honorable” Jacqueline Chooljian, a federal [...]

BitTorrent’s Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) Service promises a better experience for streaming video, downloadable software, and video games. BitTorrent Inc. plans to start helping media companies stream videos over the Internet with the availability of the new BitTorrent Delivery Network Accelerator (DNA) service. Dubbed BitTorrent DNA, it also announced that its first customer will be [...]

Operator faced disciplinary action and loss of network privileges. Diamondbackonline, the University of Maryland’s self-described “independent daily newspaper,” is reporting today that a student who operated a DC++ hub on the campus network will shut it down today after being pressured by the school’s Office of Information Technology. The student faced disciplinary action and loss [...]

New teen research study claims that more are choosing legal online music services, but also says that iTunes market share is decreasing dramatically as well. The results of a new teen survey, conducted by financial analyst firm Piper Jaffray, seems to hint that young music fans are slowly turning towards paid online music sources to [...]

After 18 years of recording contracts decides to nurture a "direct relationship" with its fans. "Free of any recording contract with any label," there’s an interesting post up on NIN’s website that announces its intent to leave the record labels behind, and forge a "…direct relationship with the audience" as they see "fit and appropriate." [...]

Two more big music artists free from record industry contracts are rumored to be considering following in Radiohead’s footsteps. I mentioned last week how Radiohead will offer its new album "In Rainbows," which goes on sale today in fact, for free, allowing fans to pay as little or as much as they want to download [...]

Trust fund created by her attorney will be used to for legal expenses, and for a PENDING APPEAL of her case which may ultimately go to the Supreme Court. Last week was a sad day for the file-sharing community with a win by the RIAA against Jammie Thomas, the first accused file-sharer to ever have [...]

UC Riverside researchers examined the Gnutella P2P file-sharing network to find out how many "bad guys" are out there watching you at any given time. In a paper called “P2P: Is Big Brother Watching You?” three University of California, Riverside researchers show that approximately 15% of users connected to the Gnutella file-sharing network are there [...]

Will come with a feature that allows users to automatically sync their media via a WiFi network from their home PC to their Zune while its battery is charging. Microsoft introduced three new models of its Zune digital media player last week that allows users towirelessly and automatically update their music, photos and videos when [...]

Wants ISPs, university network administrators, user-generated content sites, search engines, auction Web sites and even consumer electronics and home networking device manufacturers to install content filtering technologies to prevent the flow of copyrighted material. In interesting video interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” NBC Universal Pres Jeff Zucker says that copyright holders are in a losing [...]