By Luke Baker -- British and Dutch police shut down one of the world's largest sources of illegal pre-release music on Tuesday and arrested a 24-year-old man. The raids in Amsterdam and the northeast English city of Middlesbrough followed a two-year investigation into a members-only Web site, www.OiNK.cd, which allowed users to upload and download albums before their release. Pre-release leaks have become one of the most serious forms of piracy for the music industry.
By Amy Brittain -- With 1.3 billion music files pirated by college students last year, schools are turning to technology to curb the practice. Congress watches with interest.
By Ellen Lee -- In an example of the media and entertainment industry's readiness to embrace new technology, its top executives will be in the Silicon Valley this week to meet with key leaders. Google, Yahoo and Sun Microsystems will take turns hosting the meeting, starting today, for the Paley Center for Media, an organization made up of large media leaders formerly known as the Museum of Television & Radio. The center's international council, whose 80 high-profile members include CBS Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, EMI Music CEO Roger Faxon and Warner Bros. Television Group President Bruce Rosenblum, will gather behind closed doors with a who's who of Silicon Valley, including YouTube CEO Chad Hurley, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Yahoo CEO Terry Semel and Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz.
By James S. Granelli -- AT&T Inc. has joined Hollywood studios and recording companies in trying to keep pirated films, music and other content off its network — the first major carrier of Internet traffic to do so. The San Antonio-based company started working last week with studios and record companies to develop anti-piracy technology that would target the most frequent offenders, said James W. Cicconi, an AT&T senior vice president.
Sam Vaknin -- Based on the recommendation of its Patent Office and following fierce lobbying by VG Wort, an association of German composers, authors and publishers, Germany enforced a three years old law and imposed a copyright levy of $13 plus 16 percent in value added tax per new computer sold in the country. The money will be used to reimburse copyright holders - artists, performers, recording companies, publishers and movie studios - for unauthorized copying thought to adversely weigh on sales.
Canadian musicians and record companies have received more than $100 million from the levies imposed on recordable CDs, minidiscs and audio cassettes over the past four years. The Canadian Private Copying Collective says it reached the milestone after paying out nearly $32 million over the past year. About 88,000 rights holders have benefited from the program.
Berlin - Germany's music industry said Wednesday it had launched legal action against 25,000 internet users since the start of the year for illegally downloading music. About 90 investigators were involved in attempting to track down the illegal downloading of music, said Stefan Michalk, the deputy chief executive of the Federation of the German Phonographic Industry, said in Berlin.
By Andrew Orlowski -- Professor Lawrence Lessig is used to hostile audiences - but he faced the most prickly and feisty gathering of 500 he'll ever address yesterday in Brussels at CISAC's first ever Copyright Summit. What was the audience really vexed about? Well, when Lessig talks "rights", he means the right to specify how a work is used by other users of digital computer networks. This doesn't include the right to be paid, which is why everyone is here in Brussels this week. Lessig was pitted in a head-to-head with a sensible opponent: Brett Cottle, head of Australian collection society APRA, and chairman of the CISAC board, (after which) Irish film maker Keith Donnell stepped up to the microphone, and congratulated both debaters for their presence: "...And I'd like to congratulate Lawrence Lessig for his bravery...in coming here and making such an unsustainable argument," he said. "By allowing people to redefine copyright he's playing into the hands of people who over the years have tried to redefine copyright - so people like me don't get paid."
By K.C. Jones -- The U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution supporting more training, education, and enforcement of intellectual property laws at the group's annual meeting in Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa backed the resolution, which calls for a comprehensive plan to fight piracy and counterfeiting. It also calls upon city governments to improve internal prevention of peer-to-peer applications and piracy on local government equipment. The RIAA immediately praised the group for the action, "The adoption of this resolution serves as a reminder that the theft of copyrighted works affects the smallest of towns and the largest of cities," RIAA chairman and CEO Mitch Bainwol said in a prepared statement. "Piracy costs cities significant tax revenue that could be used for municipal priorities and results in lost jobs and wages for U.S. workers. In addition, city officials must be aware of the exposure to dangerous criminal organizations that actively engage in this theft." Bainwol predicted that the mayors' resolution would become a model for local governments.
HONG KONG -- by Vicki Rothrock -- Digital music, which almost exclusively means mobile, is driving the market in Asia. It makes up 30% of the Asia-Pacific market, while in China it accounts for 80%, said Nigel Mukherjee, director of the technology, info-communications and entertainment advisory team at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. In 2006, Asia accounted for 48% of the world mobile market and it was almost 70% larger than the U.S. market, he continued. Indeed, 61% of people said they are listening to more music now that it's available digitally across the region, according to a Synovate survey commissioned by MTV. And 71% think all or most music will be digital in the next five years.
Katie Allen -- Britain's music shops were given some badly needed good news yesterday with industry figures showing British shoppers led the world in CD purchases in 2006. Despite the growing popularity of downloads, UK physical music sales held up strongly last year and Britons bought an average of 2.7 CDs each, according to the Entertainment Retailers Association. That was the same as 2005 and put UK music buyers at the top of the world rankings for the fourth year running. They were well ahead of jointly second-placed Norway and the US, according to figures which ERA obtained from international music industry group IFPI.
Posted by David H. Deans -- Following six years of decline from a high of $39.7 billion in 2000 to just $32.1 billion in 2006, the value of the global music market is set to reverse and grow again -- back to $38.8 by 2011, according to a new market study by Portio Research. In 2006 the major mobile handset manufacturers (Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG and others) have been shipping MP3 enabled handsets in some volumes. At the same time, many mobile network operators have started to distribute MP3 enabled phones and launch OTA (over-the-air) music download services (Vodafone, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile, Cingular, DoCoMo, SKT, O2, Orange and many more) thus creating a new digital consumption market.
The musician Peter Gabriel has told the BBC about his ambitions for a new website that will distribute free music - legitimately. The former singer with prog rock group Genesis has established the We7 website as a place that will benefit both music fans and musicians. Users will be able to download music for free, but adverts that are "grafted" onto each track will provide a source of income for artists.
by Andrew Beutmueller -- In a clear sign that mobile media and infotainment really is hitting the big time, the venerable US-based TV/Entertainment industry ratings authority, the Nielsen Company, has announced that it is to expand its data gathering activities to include wireless media use. The "Nielsen Wireless Programme" will be dedicated to measuring the viewing habits of mobile phone subscribers.
By Declan McCullagh -- Last year, an attorney representing a woman sued by the Recording Industry Association of America claimed his client is innocent and asked a federal judge to levy sanctions against the association's lawyers. Instead, in an unexpected legal twist, U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled on May 16 that it was entirely likely that the woman was violating copyright law via the Kazaa file-sharing program -- and ordered that her attorney be sanctioned for wasting the court's time with "frivolous" arguments.
Microsoft has introduced an initiative to promote emerging music acts across its digital properties. Called Ignition, the program is designed to expose new artists and their music to consumers for an entire month by featuring exclusive content through Microsoft's multiple services, including MSN, Xbox Live and Zune.
By Greg Sandoval -- A court decision reached last month but under seal until Friday could force Web sites to track visitors if the sites become defendants in a lawsuit. TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create logs detailing users' activities on the site. The judge, Jacqueline Chooljian, however, granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow TorrentSpy to file an appeal. The appeal must be filed by June 12, according to Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney.
By K.C. Jones -- The U.S. Senate on Tuesday passed 95-0 a rewording of the Higher Education Reform Act to include a contingency that would tie educational funding to campus participation in fighting software piracy.
In a massive boost for defenders of global intellectual property rights, for the first time ever, an international intellectual property thief was extradited from Australia to face charges in the U.S. Infamous software pirate Hew Raymond Griffiths, who went by the online nickname "Bandido" has plead guilty to piracy, ending a decade-long hunt for the leader of "warez" piracy group DrinkorDie. This group was said responsible for $70+ million in costs for broken codes. DOJ Assistant Attorney General Alice Fisher, said this, in a news release about the case, ""Griffiths claimed to be beyond the reach of U.S. law, and today, we have proven otherwise. This extradition represents the DOJ' commitment to protect intellectual property rights from those who violate our laws from the other side of the globe." Who is Hew Raymond Griffiths? What Crimes was Griffiths Charged With? What is DrinkorDie, Who is Warez? What Difference does this Case Make?
By Chis Castle -- Anyone who has taken a high school or college English composition class will probably remember studying logical fallacies. Fallacies were (and still are) a pet favorite of mine, and any clear thinker much less a good lawyer avoids them like the plague. I enjoyed reading a recent editorial by Fredrich von Lohman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation entitled "Copyright Silliness on Campus". (For those of you who don't know, the writer represented one of the defendants in the Grokster case at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and did a really and truly stellar job of making the losing argument that won the day but was thrashed to bits on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark—and highly predictable—MGM et al v. Grokster et al copyright ruling.) I noticed a couple things in the editorial's reasoning that are worth pointing out and are a great way to demonstrate two of my favorite logical fallacies: The Fallacy of Equivocation and the Fallacy of the True Glaswegian.
YouTube will soon test a new video identification technology with two of the world's largest media companies, Time Warner and Walt Disney. The technology, developed by engineers at YouTube-owner Google, will help content owners such as movie and TV studios identify videos uploaded to the site without the copyright owner's permission, YouTube legal, marketing and strategy executives said in an interview on Monday.
Universal Music Group (UMG) has expanded its Global Digital Initiatives division with the appointments of Daniel Kruchkow and Ezra Doty to Senior Vice President of Global Digital Initiatives, respectively. Mr. Kruchkow and Mr. Doty will report to David Ellner, Executive Vice President of Global Digital Initiatives and will be responsible for overseeing the growth, monetization and further innovation of UMG \'s direct to consumer online platform. Currently, the network includes over 250 artist and label web sites attracting over 8 million global users each month, according to Comscore Media Metrix. The executives will also aid in evaluating new business ventures, acquisitions and other group initiatives, working closely with all the UMG labels and artists on a worldwide basis.
First of all, I have UMG to commend Google for finally trying to get in the game and protect content. At least it's nice to know that they have an interest in trying rather than just talking.
LONDON -- By Eric Pfanner -- Bebo, an online social networking site, has reached an agreement with Apple's iTunes digital music store on a partnership that is aimed at encouraging young music fans to buy music rather than pirate it. Under the arrangement, which was to be announced Wednesday, Bebo users in Britain and Ireland will be able to buy music directly from the Bebo "profiles" of musicians whose work is available on iTunes. By clicking on a link in those profiles, users will be directed to a music store run by iTunes, but within the Bebo "environment."
A Swedish Appellate Court backed a verdict by a lower court in October last year that saw 45-year-old Jimmy Sjostrom fined 20,000 Swedish crowns ($2,843) for infringing intellectual property rights by sharing four music files.
PARIS, FRANCE -- By Geoffrey Ramos -- Three popular peer-to-peer software vendors have been sued by music companies in France for violations of the country's copyright law, which was recently amended to punish companies that create software designed for illicit use. Creators of peer-to-peer software Azureus, Shareaza and Morpheus face a lawsuit filed by the French music industry group, Societe des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France (SPPF). If convicted, the defendants face up to three years in prison and fines of up to $400,000.
UK -- By Anna Lagerkvist -- 1 in 12 mobile phone owners listen to music on their handset. Mobile users are driving the digital music download market boom, according to music industry body the British Phonographic Industry ( BPI ). Almost half of us now own a music-enabled mobile phone. The adoption of music-enabled mobiles in the UK is 40 per cent higher than any other country in Europe, BPI figures show. We also download more music using our mobile phones than our European neighbours. Some 12 per cent of mobile owners in the UK use their handset to play music. And collectively we're downloading some 1.3 million tracks annually to our mobiles.
U.S. Congress criminalizing boot-leg recordings of music performers is constitutional and does not conflict with copyright laws, a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday in a decision that reopened charges against a New York record store owner. The U.S. Second Circuit of Appeals disagreed with a lower court judge who dismissed the case against the store owner, Jean Martignon, after the government charged he sold unauthorized recordings of concerts.
By Greg Sandoval -- The user will have to surrender what's in RAM if sued. Legal experts say the decision may cost businesses big bucks and threaten Web privacy.
By Gary Gentile -- In a break with other Internet service providers, AT&T Inc. will work with Hollywood studios and recording labels to devise technology that identifies offshore content pirates who use its network to upload illegal copies of movies and music. Although details remain sketchy, the effort worries privacy advocates, who fear the San Antonio-based company could become a beat cop, monitoring which Web sites customers visit and what computer files they share. Technology officers from several entertainment companies met June 5 in San Antonio to discuss the effort, which could take months and quite possibly fail to produce a solution that would be technologically feasible and protect customer privacy. "It's daunting," said James W. Cicconi, AT&T's senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs.
(ClickPress) -- SafeMedia Corporation has developed technology -- "SafeMedia's ‘Clouseau®'" -- that they claim makes it impossible to send or receive illegal Peer-2-Peer transmissions or file sharing. SafeMedia CEO & President Safwat Fahmy, who created "Clouseau," has submitted testimony to Congress describing his company's global "P2P Disaggregator" (P2PD) technology, which examines incoming and outgoing packets of information and destroys illegal P2P, while allowing legal P2P to reach its intended destination.
(Press Release) As the school year comes to an end, millions of students will increase their hours spent on the Internet over the Summer months -- and some may fall into bad habits related to illegally downloading music online. However, a powerful new program designed to educate American middle school students about music piracy and the real costs of downloading music illegally seems to be having a tangible impact in changing young people's attitudes and behaviors about so-called "free" content online.
By Antony Bruno -- Getty Images thinks it's time to reinvent the commercial music licensing business. The company is well known for its vast catalog of pre-cleared digital stock photos, which is sells at a flat rate. Its Web site allows customers to browse, preview and buy these images without ever even making a phone call. It plans to apply that same model to music licensing for ads, TV shows and movies. The first step was its $42 million acquisition of Pump Audio in late June.
By Paul M -- According to reports in Timesonline, Reuters and other sources – Private equity group Carlyle is heading a group looking to launch an $8 billion bid to buy Virgin Media. Sir Richard Branson, who is the largest investor in Virgin Media, with 10.5 per cent, is thought to be unhappy about Virgin's performance. Virgin media have so far declined to comment.
BEIJING --China Unicom Ltd. (CHU) said Tuesday it has started testing a music-download service that offers its subscribers songs from 23 record companies, as music and telecommunications firms try to boost revenue and curb piracy by giving consumers convenient channels to buy legitimate music. Four major record companies - EMI Group PLC, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Corp.and Universal Music Group - are offering some of their songs on the download service.
By Dugie Standeford -- Belgian Internet service provider (ISP) Scarlet Extended Ltd. must filter infringing music downloads, the Brussels Court of First Instance ruled recently. The decision, the first of its kind in Europe, brushed aside ISPs' technical, economic and political arguments against mandatory filtering, setting the stage for similar litigation as well as possible changes to the European Union E-Commerce Directive, according to representatives of the technology owner and of creators and publishers. The case dates from 2004, when the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers (SABAM) sued to force Scarlet to use technical measures to reduce the number of music files seen as infringing being swapped on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks.
By Eric Bangeman -- P2P-based music sharing has remained relatively flat over the past year. During May 2006, Big Champagne reported just shy of 9 million simultaneously connected unique peers sharing music on the popular P2P networks. One year later, that number had increased only slightly to 9.35 million. "There have been years when we have seen double-digit percentage growth," Garland told Ars. It could be that the threat of lawsuits are keeping people from popular P2P networks like Limewire, driving them instead to a legal outlet like the iTunes Store. It might also be that the market has reached saturation. The news for the motion picture and television industries is not so good.
By Rob Preston -- When it comes to giving away other people's intellectual property, there's apparently no limit to our altruism. Just because it's getting easier for criminals to steal and distribute digital property doesn't argue for giving them a free pass.
By Monika Ermert -- After four years of evermore controversial debate the German Parliament late Thursday passed another reform of the German Copyright Law intended to make updates for the digital age. But some are already planning for the next round of changes to the law. Referred to as the "second basket" (after a first round of reform transposing the European Union Copyright Directive and the "Internet treaties" of the World Intellectual Property Organization), this reform dealt with the German levy system and various adaptations of the over 40-year-old law to the digital age. It confirms that private copies of digital content are allowed, but does not allow users to break technological protection measures, even in case a copy would be allowed.
The Swedish Justice Department has launched a new proposal that would enable copyright holders to find out the identities of people illegally sharing their material on the internet. The proposal was released by the department for formal consultation on Monday. Should the draft proposal result in new legislation it would allow copyright holders to turn to the courts for assistance in demanding that internet providers reveal the identities of people suspected of sharing files containing copyrighted material.
By Adam Sherwin -- Tory leader David Cameron yesterday offered the music industry a unique deal – cut the glorification of materialism, misogyny and guns in hits and the next Conservative government would back an extension of the copyright on sound recordings from the current 50-year period to 70 years.
By Seth Sutel -- The sun always seems to shine in Sun Valley, a pristine mountain resort in Idaho, when the top brass from media and technology companies convene every July for a deep-think retreat hosted by the investment banker Herbert Allen. But it's the darkest of thoughts that are racing through the minds of the media power elite as they go between high-level meetings, golf and family activities: How can they survive the rapid-fire technological changes that are transforming their industries and changing the way people get news and entertainment? Besides the many pillars of the media and technology establishment, some of the really intriguing guests are coming from newer companies that are just beginning to make names for themselves but could show media dinosaurs and technology giants some new tricks — or takeover targets. This year's five-day conference, whose proceedings are private, formally kicks off on today.
MySongStore.com, a leading independent music download service, and The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), a leading U.S. music rights licensing organization, announced that they have entered an arrangement to issue mechanical licenses for full-length, permanent digital downloads to MySongStore artists. This arrangement allows MySongStore to act as a licensee on behalf of their independent artists. Once they are licensed, they have the ability to record and sell downloads of cover songs directly from their website, MySpace page or virtually anywhere they can post a link.
Seven months ago singer-songwriter Colbie Caillat (Ken Caillat’s daughter) was working in a Californian tanning salon. Now, as the latest star to rise on internet networking site MySpace, she is touring the globe to promote her debut album, Coco, on UniversalRepublic. Caillat, 22, shot to stardom on Myspace last year when her single Bubbly became the hottest track on the web. The track attracted so much traffic to Caillat's page that she became the site's number one unsigned artist for four months. It’s all about A&R and production.
Consumers in Switzerland will have to pay a tax on popular digital music devices such as iPods and MP3 players in addition to some types of audio/video recorders. The Federal Court rejected complaints by consumer and user groups who had described new tariffs for authors' rights as too high or too low. A court statement on Wednesday said the federal arbitration commission was justified in introducing the new tax in response to a request by a group of collecting societies including SUISA, the organisation responsible for administering music rights on behalf of authors, composers and music publishers.
The Harry Fox Agency's Express Live Licensing helps deliver live cover versions to fans fast.
By Eliot Van Buskirk -- A patent filed by Microsoft last December shows that Microsoft and Apple are thinking along the same lines when it comes to enabling users to copy music between their wireless devices. Certain cellphones already allow you to do this via Bluetooth file transfer, but Microsoft's patented idea would take the concept further, by allowing users to trade MP3s that may have come from file sharing networks to one another, expiring the song on the recipient's device after three plays, unless the user pays Microsoft a fee in order to continue to listen to the track, with a percentage going to the person who provided the song. As the abstract puts it, "even [the] resale of pirated media content [can] benefit... the copyright holder."
By Katie Allen -- Sales of 7in singles rise by 13% in first half of year. New bands and collectors turning to old format.
First ISP in the world ordered to filter illegal file-sharing of music on its network has announced that it will appeal the ruling.
File-sharing service eDonkey suffered a body blow last Friday as German music industry lawyers won a fight in the battle to to shut down the 'Donkey servers. The District Court in Hamburg has made a temporary injunction to the operator of an eDonkey server. Heise reports that the computer must be taken offline for "as long as the range of music files offered for download via the server contains illegal files."
Susan Butler sets the record straight in BillboardBiz/R&R as to how the change in Clear Channel's license agreement with indie artists came about
Lord Triesman, the first Minister for Intellectual Property, stressed that counterfeiting and piracy remain a significant threat to the competitiveness of UK businesses, and confirmed the Government's commitment to take action in this area and the importance it places on protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights. "We need to work hard to address public perceptions that this is a victimless crime. Communities, individuals and businesses all suffer from this illegal trade. There is growing evidence of links between the counterfeiters, the intellectual property pirates and the narco-criminals. These networks of criminals are truly global crime businesses".
By Jacqui Cheng -- Canadians who purchase digital music players and removable memory cards should have to pay an extra tax, according to the Copyright Board of Canada. The decision (PDF) stated that the proposed levy, originally suggested by the Canadian Private Copyright Collective (CPCC), followed the intent of the country's Copyright Act and Parliament and therefore such a tariff could be enacted.
By Jared Bernstein -- The second provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998, also known as the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA), gave service providers a "safe harbor" from copyright infringement if they removed the alleged infringing content from their websites at the request of the copyright owner. However, content-filtering technology has evolved since Congress passed the DMCA, which may in turn affect how the law is interpreted and enforced. The courts have begun to send a message to service providers: Now you have technology available to help avoid infringement, so you need to take a more proactive role in filtering copyrighted content. In a lawsuit filed in early May, England's Football Association Premier League Ltd. and independent music publisher Bourne Co. filed a class-action lawsuit against YouTube, alleging copyright infringement. In the complaint, the Premier League claims YouTube has content-filtering technology but it will only provide filtering to copyright owners with whom it has licensing agreements. Until Congress amends the DMCA to more effectively enforce content filtering by service providers, regardless of whether they have license agreements, copyright infringement lawsuits will continue to arise.
For the former operator of the Russian music download portal allofmp3.com the threat of a prison term in his own country is real. In the trial against Denis Kvasov, the former owner of the site, the public prosecutor in Moscow had demanded on Monday in Moscow that the defendant be given a 3-year jail sentence for violating copyright on a massive scale, the German-language news agency Deutsche Presseagentur (dpa) reports.
By M. Amigot -- Local ad revenues have been eroding and the radio industry is fighting to respond to satellite radio, Internet radio and downloads, MP3, a music industry in chaos, new radio HD technology, and competition from multiple new sources. What to do? Dan Mason, president of CBS Radio division has said: "For years we tried to figure out how to make the product compatible for the audience, but the issue was the platform, not the content. In the near future, every radio station will have the ability to become a TV station. We will see webcast and webisodes. There's no reason we can't have our own webcast shows with talent. Radios will evolve and occupy more share of the digital space."
Combining two media distribution methods hampered by decreasing revenues in recent years doesn't intuitively sound like a recipe for success. Intuitively, an online radio station might sound like the cure for what ails a terrestrially-focused broadcast group, not a newspaper company. But it's the San Diego Union-Tribune that is putting up plans for a new initiative that radio industry analyst Mark Ramsey argues could be the "Next Big Thing.
TiVo and RealNetworks are set to announce an agreement on Tuesday that will allow TiVo subscribers to listen to songs from the Rhapsody digital music service on their televisions, the companies said. Both services require a monthly subscription fee of around $13 a month, but TiVo subscribers will receive a free one-month trial of Rhapsody. Consumers using the service will be able to search for music directly on their TV, browse charts of Rhapsody's most popular artist or tunes, or listen to thousands of radio channels.
By Jim Finkle - BitTorrent Inc., which was co-founded by the developer of a software program widely used to share pirated music and video over the Web, plans to start helping media companies stream videos over the Internet. In February, the privately held company opened an online video store at bittorrent.com to sell videos licensed from Hollywood studios. Now it is offering that distribution technology to other companies.
Even after they fended off a Senate proposal that would have forced some colleges to buy antipiracy tools, many campus officials were in no mood to celebrate: It was only a matter of time, they said, before the House of Representatives brought up a similar measure. They were right. Late last week, two Republican representatives — Rep. Ric Keller, of Florida, and Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon, of California — introduced their own proposal intended to combat music and movie piracy on campus computer networks.
By Asher Moses -- The anti-piracy arm of the Australian music industry has threatened to start suing individuals for illegal downloading if internet providers do not exert more control over their users.
By Jason Fry -- There's a flurry of activity around a common theme: making digital music truly mobile, instead of contained in music players that get topped up at desktop PCs. But what will be the effect of this newfound musical mobility? Could it mark a substantive change in the digital-music experience? Or will wireless buying and sharing remain mere offshoots of the familiar PC/MP3 player ecosystem?
By Rob Mead -- Social networking site Facebook is apparently teaming up with Apple to create an alternative musical universe to Rupert Murdoch's MySpace. Facebook has allegedly been working on an artist platform that will act as a showcase for new and existing talent, with pages created by solo artists, bands and record labels.
By Declan McCullagh -- The Bush administration said on Friday that the recording industry's $222,000 courtroom victory shows that the legal system is working against peer-to-peer pirates. "Cases such as this remind us strong enforcement is a significant part of the effort to eliminate piracy, and that we have an effective legal system in the U.S. that enables rights holders to protect their intellectual property," said Chris Israel, the U.S. Coordinator for International Intellectual Property Enforcement. Israel also said: "Piracy impacts many of our most innovative industries, costs American jobs and is a huge threat to our economic competitiveness."
Statement by John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO, IFPI on the case of Jammie Thomas who has been found guilty of copyright infringement in the US. "We have always made it clear we are reluctant litigators. We do everything possible to persuade people not to leave themselves exposed to litigation. We educate, we warn, we even try and settle before a case gets to court. We derive no great satisfaction from this but hope it will prove a deterrent to others. Our message is: we don't want to litigate - don't leave yourself exposed to litigation."
By Jeff Leeds -- In a crucial legal victory for record labels and other copyright owners, a federal jury yesterday found a Minnesota woman liable for copyright infringement for sharing music online and imposed a penalty of $222,000 in damages. (Plus legal fees.) But critics suggested that even the new verdict would do little to curb the sharing of music. On its Web site, the EFF, a nonprofit organization that has opposed the industry's legal effort, said that tens of millions of Americans would continue to swap music, as they have since the arrival of the original Napster peer-to-peer service in 1999.
By Chris Castle -- The good people of Duluth, Minnesota made quick work of the defendant in Capitol Records, et al v. Thomas, and handed down a clear signal that the dog didn't eat the homework--$220,000 worth of homework (and change). The truly sad part of this is that I feel very confident (although the story is yet to be told) that the defendant was sold a bill of goods by a lot of people in the anti-copyright crowd who probably told her she had a case, a case that feathers everyone's nest but hers. That wouldn't be the first time such a thing happened, and it wouldn't be the last. It's unclear at this point exactly what truth can be proven as to who played what role in this poor defendant's demise. Yet we can make some guesses as to who benefits... (Hint: The EFF because they will get to whine and groan and moan, the defendant's lawyers, but most importantly, the creative community.)
By Jay Baage -- Many of the Thursday morning Digital Music Forum panels acknowledged the fact that, in this digital age, people are consuming more music than ever. They are just not paying for it. So how do we adjust to that reality? Digital revenues are still not making up for the drop in sales of CDs. Far from it. However, many panelists agreed that the industry is now finally moving in the right way ...
By Natesh Sood -- Who would have thought that Microsoft's 30GB White Zune would be the top seller of hard drive players on Amazon. Well, believe it or not, it has happened. Coupling with the Zune's announcement and the much lower prices, it seems that people are becoming much more interested in the Zune now.
The recording industry won a key fight Thursday against illegal music downloading when a federal jury found a Minnesota woman liable for damages for sharing copyrighted music online. Jurors ordered Jammie Thomas, 30, to pay record companies $220,000 -- or $9,250 for each of 24 songs for which the companies sought damages. They could have awarded damages as low as $750 per song. Thomas and her attorney, Brian Toder, declined comment as they left the courthouse.
By David Kravets -- Cary Sherman, the Recording Industry Association President, tells The Associated Press that the lobbying arm of the music industry will continue suing pirates regardless of the outcome of the Jammie Thomas trial. "We think we're in for a long haul in terms of establishing that music has value, that music is property, and that property has to be respected," Sherman tells AP's Josh Freed.
By Jay Baage -- There is no denying that the business of selling music in form of CDs is failing. However, there should be other ways to make money off music, right? Ways that are compatible with how music is experienced in a digital era. So what are they? "Subscription is going to win over a la carte purchasing", said Ted Cohen, Managing Director, TAG Strategic in his introductory remarks. "The best defense against piracy is great label (approved) music services", he continued.
By David Kravets -- Cary Sherman, the Recording Industry Association President, tells The Associated Press that the lobbying arm of the music industry will continue suing pirates regardless of the outcome of the Jammie Thomas trial. "We think we're in for a long haul in terms of establishing that music has value, that music is property, and that property has to be respected," Sherman tells AP's Josh Freed.
The only online digital music store that actually rewards you for sharing your music with others answers all of the burning questions many of us have had.
By Anick Jesdanun -- Now you can listen to the music your friends enjoy while chatting away online. The new version of AOL's instant-messaging software, AIM 6.5, offers a plug-in that lets users listen to songs their buddies have on their playlists. AIM Tunes does not require a separate media player. Copy-protected songs such as those bought on Apple Inc.'s iTunes won't play, however.
Jeff Leeds -- Microsoft plans to release the second generation of the Zune next month, backed by a revamped digital-music store and a social-networking site. In an interview here this week, Mr. Gates hinted at his strategies for taking potential customers from Apple and expressed bewilderment that the recording industry had failed to turn digital music into a big moneymaker.
By- Anne Broache -- Content creators and their digital distributors must unite against piracy by installing more "safeguards," Viacom's CEO said Tuesday. -Through more widespread adoption of copy-protection features and filtering tools like watermarking, "we will usher in an unprecedented period of creative output across the globe," Philippe Dauman told a few hundred attendees at the first day of an antipiracy summit hosted here by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a pro-business lobbying group.
By David Kravets -- Did Tereastarr do the deed, and unlawfully download and share copyrighted music? Tereastarr is the username that Jammie Thomas, a 30-year-old a Native American single mother of two from Minnesota uses on Match.com, on her e-mail addresses, on web site logins and such, according to testimony here Tuesday. The industry showed that the internet protocol address assigned to her that fateful night of Feb. 21, 2005 was used to share the songs on the Kazaa network. The RIAA put on evidence that the cable modem used that night was registered to her. Also, the username of Tereastarr was logged into Kazaa using that IP address and modem that evening, according to testimony.
(PRNewswire) -- According to a report released today by the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), pandemic theft of copyright-protected products, including motion pictures, video games, sound recordings as well as business and entertainment software, has cost the U.S. $58 billion in annual economic output and 373,375 jobs. The report, "The True Cost of Copyright Industry Piracy to the U.S. Economy," sheds light on the injuries from copyright piracy to the national economy as a whole, not just to U.S. copyright producers and industries.
By Frank Ahrens -- When Jeff Zucker took over media giant NBC Universal from longtime chief executive Bob Wright in February, he inherited more than the task of lifting the slumping network out of the ratings basement. Zucker also took on Wright's self-appointed role as the industry's torchbearer on fighting piracy. So far, he has had more luck with ratings than robbers. So today Zucker visits Washington to address the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and ask lawmakers for tougher penalties for music and video pirates...
Posted by Anne Broache -- There's still a lot of (misinformed) hatred out there for a controversial law known as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, but don't count the U.S. Copyright Office chief in that camp. "I'm a supporter; I think it did what it was supposed to do," Register of Copyrights Marybeth Peters said of the 1998 law at an appearance at the Future of Music Policy Summit here. "No law is ever perfect, but I remain a supporter."
Mega-broadcasters CBS Radio, Clear Channel Radio and others are now backing a digital radio technology that enables iTunes tagging. The feature allows digital radio listeners to bookmark favorite songs while on-the-go, and download them later from the iTunes Store. The innovative tagging concept, which first emerged last month, could excite more impulse buying, and reengage radio listeners in the process. Meanwhile, terrestrial broadcasters are actively investing in the next-generation digital radio format, though a transformation remains years ahead. Digital radio technology allows for the transmission of multiple station streams over a single frequency, and offers a platform for fresh ideas like iTunes Tagging.
Japanese electronics giant Sony and Germany's Bertelsmann won competition clearance from the European Commission on Wednesday for their recorded music joint venture, in a move which angered independent music labels. The Commission, which polices competition in the European Union's 27 member states, placed no conditions on the companies.
Since IPWatchdog.com, one of the most popular intellectual property websites on the Interent, was originally launched in October 1999, it has been owned and maintained by Gene Quinn, a patent attorney, law professor, author and inventor. Now Quinn is selling the site and domain name via auction. The auction will wrap up on Saturday, October 6, 2007 at 5:00pm Eastern Time. For information about the auction or to place a bid you can simply go to IPWatchdog.com and click on the "Bid Now" banner near the top right of the page.
By Dan Goodin -- Slap on the wrist shows that cyber crime pays. Three men accused of forcing spyware onto more than 15 million computers have agreed to pay $330,000 in fines and to to be monitored by federal authorities for up to eight years.
Four years after its campaign against individual file-swappers began, the RIAA is now entering its first jury trial. The label group has faced serious challenges - and setbacks - before, though the onerous expenses of a full-blown trial are too weighty for most. The RIAA has structured its legal actions with serious disincentives for defendant challenges, and most opt for a quick fine of several thousand dollars. But despite the extreme risk, lawsuit recipient Jammie Thomas has chosen a dangerous courtroom challenge.
By Jon Healey -- The major record companies' campaign against individual file-sharers hits a milestone today: for the first time since the lawsuits began four years ago, a case will actually go to trial. If the jury sides with the defendant, it may persuade more of the RIAA's targets to resist settlement offers and demand trials. If the the RIAA wins, the case could help their cause by persuading similar defendants to settle. A win might also help the group fend off some challenges to its contractors' methods. Yet it wouldn't quell other questions raised by the RIAA's campaign but not applicable the defendant. These include whether people are liable when, unbeknownst to them, someone uses their computer or broadband account to infringe.
Pump Audio relaunched today as Soundtrack, following its $42 million purchase by Getty Images last June. Pump Audio's catalog of music from 20,000 independent artists can be licensed for the Web, TV, or radio. Customers range from major TV shows like The Colbert Report to advertising agencies and podcasters. You search online through a pretty slick interface that lets you quickly narrow your music search by type, genre, mood, ambient/spacious, and speed Once you find a song and listen to a stream online, you can license it for a variety of purposes. Using a song in a Web video might cost $35 plus five percent of any associated ad revenues, while using it for a cable TV show will cost you $450. (A license for a regional TV ad runs as high as $2,100).
Bertelsmann is now considering a reentry into music publishing, despite the recent sale of its BMG Music Publishing unit. The German media giant offloaded the division as part of a larger plan to buyout minority ownership shares and avoid a public offering. But according to a recent report in the Financial Times Deutschland, Bertelsmann would have preferred to retain the property, and is actively considering a publishing reinvestment.
By Coolfer -- "It's like going to General Motors and convincing them to give away the cars for free, in return for half the gas money. This was not an easy undertaking." SpiralFrog CEO Joe Mohan.
By David Kravets -- The Recording Industry Association of America and a mother from Minnesota will face off Tuesday in the nation's first copyright jury trial. The case stems from the music industry's four-year-old legal campaign against peer-to-peer piracy. The RIAA is seeking millions in damages. The case could set legal precedent concerning the level of proof a jury would consider sufficient to find a defendant liable for copyright infringement. It's also likely to offer a glimpse into the industry's investigative techniques.
In two rulings on 21 September 2007, Cologne Higher Regional Court confirms that the operators of the services rapidshare.de and rapidshare.com are responsible for works of music that can be illegally downloaded via these services.
A paper from economist Stan Liebowitz argues that both the music industry and file sharing defenders are cherry picking facts to prove their points. The primary purpose of the paper was debunking earlier research out of Harvard University which concluded that P2P file sharing has no impact on CD sales. He notes that the Harvard researchers didn't release their entire dataset, making it impossible for it to be subjected to any kind of peer review. His report isn't one sided though. He also points out that the music industry's problems are primarily of their own making.
By Matt Richtel -- New technology that allows coffee patrons to download the music playing in Starbucks stores to their iPhones is just the beginning of a wave of options for impulse purchases.
By Seth Sutel -- Radio advertisers who for years complained about the low-tech way of tracking listeners are getting what they asked for and more: Electronic ratings are delivering more accurate counts, but are also upending basic assumptions about the industry. Though the new technology shows more people are tuning in, it also found listening habits to be far different than expected. "Morning drive" isn't as important as it seemed. And some formats are faring better than others, contributing to several stations switching to higher-rated genres like rock.
By Ed Christman -- Online social networks clearly constitute a preferred channel for marketing music. But at least one such Web site, YeboTV, is banking on a belief that you can still reach fans in record stores as well. The site recently approached Fords, N.J., independent record store Vintage Vinyl with an interesting proposition: namely, musicians' in-store performances streamed live to YeboTV's site.
By Andrew Orlowski -- Professor Lawrence Lessig is used to hostile audiences - but he faced the most prickly and feisty gathering of 500 he'll ever address yesterday in Brussels at CISAC's first ever Copyright Summit. What was the audience really vexed about? Well, when Lessig talks "rights", he means the right to specify how a work is used by other users of digital computer networks. This doesn't include the right to be paid, which is why everyone is here in Brussels this week. Lessig was pitted in a head-to-head with a sensible opponent: Brett Cottle, head of Australian collection society APRA, and chairman of the CISAC board, (after which) Irish film maker Keith Donnell stepped up to the microphone, and congratulated both debaters for their presence: "...And I'd like to congratulate Lawrence Lessig for his bravery...in coming here and making such an unsustainable argument," he said. "By allowing people to redefine copyright he's playing into the hands of people who over the years have tried to redefine copyright - so people like me don't get paid."
HONG KONG -- by Vicki Rothrock -- Digital music, which almost exclusively means mobile, is driving the market in Asia. It makes up 30% of the Asia-Pacific market, while in China it accounts for 80%, said Nigel Mukherjee, director of the technology, info-communications and entertainment advisory team at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Hong Kong. In 2006, Asia accounted for 48% of the world mobile market and it was almost 70% larger than the U.S. market, he continued. Indeed, 61% of people said they are listening to more music now that it's available digitally across the region, according to a Synovate survey commissioned by MTV. And 71% think all or most music will be digital in the next five years.
The musician Peter Gabriel has told the BBC about his ambitions for a new website that will distribute free music - legitimately. The former singer with prog rock group Genesis has established the We7 website as a place that will benefit both music fans and musicians. Users will be able to download music for free, but adverts that are "grafted" onto each track will provide a source of income for artists.
by Andrew Beutmueller -- In a clear sign that mobile media and infotainment really is hitting the big time, the venerable US-based TV/Entertainment industry ratings authority, the Nielsen Company, has announced that it is to expand its data gathering activities to include wireless media use. The "Nielsen Wireless Programme" will be dedicated to measuring the viewing habits of mobile phone subscribers.
Lawyer for Woman Sued by RIAA Asks for Sanctions, Gets Sanctioned Himself
By Declan McCullagh -- Last year, an attorney representing a woman sued by the Recording Industry Association of America claimed his client is innocent and asked a federal judge to levy sanctions against the association's lawyers. Instead, in an unexpected legal twist, U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled on May 16 that it was entirely likely that the woman was violating copyright law via the Kazaa file-sharing program -- and ordered that her attorney be sanctioned for wasting the court's time with "frivolous" arguments.
Digital formats offer huge - and inexpensive - opportunities for artists to ignite viral campaigns and build critical fan relationships. But what happens when the action gets too big to manage?
Before preset sound banks overflowed with prefab beats, electronic musicians made them from scratch with freestanding synthesizers. When the digital production revolution finally did come, dance producers led the charge, emboldened by the standardization of sounds and methods they had pioneered. But now, less than a decade after the debut of computer synthesizers the same early adopters who embraced digital are turning their gazes back to the future. People are realizing what's missing from the sounds they're getting out of software.They're conscious of how everything is sounding the same, and digital replication is the same every time. The magic of analog is it's never the same, depending on the weather, where you are in the world, the electricity supply.
By Noam Cohen -- A lawsuit highlights some of the pitfalls of reusing photographs shared on photo sharing Web sites like Flickr.
Six in 10 marketing executives put at least one-half of their media spending into traditional channels, according to a Gundersen Partners survey. About 45% of respondents allocated less than 10% of their budgets to new media. Respondents said they were going to change their emphasis on traditional media. More than one-half of respondents planned to put 10% to 30% of their media spending into new media, and 28% planned to spend over 30%.
(Business Wire) -- Liquid Compass, a leading content delivery network that provides streaming and digital media services to the radio industry, has developed RIAA Reporter — a royalty reporting tool that automates the new per performance RIAA royalty reporting requirements that go into effect in 2008.
At their core, peer-to-peer applications can deliver the seamless ability to transfer files with little hassle or interference. Unfortunately, that same simplicity can create environments rife with threats to data and efficiency, leading enterprises to discover a middle ground between P2P's usefulness and its potential to slow traffic or even allow wide-ranging attacks.
By Eliot Van Buskirk -- Michael Robertson's MP3tunes service announced a new generation of its online storage locker called LockerSync 3.0 that can automatically sync music purchased from iTunes Plus, eMusic, Best Buy, Amazon, Wal Mart, or anywhere else that sells DRM-free music -- as well as music you've ripped from your CDs or downloaded in unprotected MP3, OGG, WMA, and AAC formats. Once your music is in your MP3tunes locker, you can stream it, create playlists, have the system clean up your music tags, and sync the collection back down to your computer. This gives you a free way to keep your music collection(s) up to date across multiple computers and backed up in case of hard drive emergency.
The Motion Picture Association of America has filed suit against two Web sites that it claims are allowing Internet users to view pirated films, many of which are still in theaters. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday on behalf of the major studios, seeks to shutter cinematube.net and ssupload.com from further infringing on the copyrights of the MPAA members. The sites feature links to hundreds of titles, including recent releases such as Resident Evil: Extinction, The Brave One and Good Luck Chuck.
By Grant Crowell -- Search marketers will almost certainly run into copyright issues at some point in their careers. They may be the victim, finding their own optimized content duplicated without permission and showing up in targeted search results. Or they may be an infringer, stealing copyrighted content from others and finding themselves subject to penalties by the search engines and the courts. There are some legal fundamentals and procedures that search marketers should know about to protect copyrighted material online and prevent copyright infringement.
In the previous article, we covered the law fundamentals search marketers should know about online copyrights. This next article covers important tips and tactics by online intellectual property attorneys, and legal counsel for the search engines, for both protecting your own copyrighted material and respecting the copyrights of others.
With a few minor changes the upper chamber of the Swiss Parliament yesterday passed the new federal legislation dealing with copyright and related intellectual property rights which the lower chamber had already approved. One of the most important points of the new act is that downloads of works of art from the Internet for personal use remain legal (PDF file) without restriction. At the same time the law upholds the legal principle whereby technical means such as access and copy-protection measures must not be circumvented. The revision of the Copyright Act was prompted by a desire to incorporate into national law two treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and to bring the act in line with the requirements of the digital age.
Nobody would be surprised to hear that the smoking ban in Irish pubs has improved air quality. However, it seems that the quality of music has also improved, according to a Letter in the British Medical Journal, this week's issue. Pub sessions are commonplace in Irish pubs. A pub session is where musicians play traditional music. John Garvey and colleagues explain that a number of instruments might be played, including accordions, concertinas, melodeons and Uilleanns bagpipes - all bellows-driven instruments. Anecdotal evidence indicates that the insides of these bellows-driven instruments used to get filled with impurities as a result of the smoky environment when smoking was allowed in pubs. In fact, according to one instrument repairer, the deposition of dirt used to be such that the pitch of the reed was affected.
By Kevin Kelleher -- iTunes Plus sells DRM-free songs for $1.29 each. Amazon sells the same songs for either 89 cents or 99 cents. That's a discount of between 23% and 31% from iTunes' DRM-free songs. Many of Amazon's best-selling songs -- including those in the Top 100 albums -- are retailing for the lower price. There are two reasons this is interesting: First, it's setting up a new tech-titan smackdown between Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the master strategist, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Crazy Eddie of the Internet. Bezos is doing here what he does best: Building market share and volume by slashing prices. Jobs won't take that sitting down, and he is probably plotting some cunning strategy to hold on to its iTunes customers.
Louis Hau -- Sony BMG Music Entertainment has agreed to make its music available to online social media network imeem.com, according to sources familiar with the situation. Representatives for imeem and Sony BMG declined to comment Wednesday. Meanwhile, representatives for Vivendi's Universal Music Group and EMI Group confirmed Wednesday that they are holding talks with imeem for possible content partnerships. Sony BMG is the second major label to reach a content agreement with San Francisco-based imeem, which enables users to share music and video content. Warner Music Group concluded a similar deal with imeem in July.
By Adena DeMonte -- Project Playlist calls itself a "social music experiment." In other words, it's just one of the many options available when it comes to adding an embeddable music player to MySpace or Facebook profiles. Its simple player lets users aggregate free MP3 files available on the Net and put them together in a widget that can be posted just about anywhere. The Beverly Hills, Calif.-based startup has raised $3 million in funding, according to PE Hub.
From Coolfer -- Somewhat music-related here...In a list of working papers at Harvard Business School's Working Knowledge, there is an abstract to a paper titled "A Taste for Obscurity: An Individual-Level Examination of 'Long Tail' Consumption." The author, Anita Elberse, a Assistant Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, is looking at DVD rental data to see if interest in popular and niche titles are evenly distributed. Her findings show that renters of niche titles tend to rent hit titles in even greater numbers -- and appreciate the hits more than the niche titles.
In a paper called "P2P: Is Big Brother Watching You?" (.pdf) three University of California, Riverside researchers show that a substantial number of people on file sharing networks, approximately 15 percent, are there to troll for illegal file sharing activity on behalf of the recording industry or the government.
Top 5 tips: Choosing an audio format for your digital music collection.
By Jay Baage -- Edgar Bronfman, Jr. who heads up Warner Music, one of the world's four major record labels, keynoted at the Convergence 2.0 summit last week. (You can watch his keynote here). The music mogul gives a rare positive look at the biz and the many opportunities in music downloads, distribution of music via mobile devices, artist management and licensing. He also sees big opportunities in the big developing markets of Russia, China and India.
Remember when Napster wanted to give away music for free? I'm not talking about the P2P version of yore, I'm talking about last year's announcement that it would start a new part if its service that would let you stream tracks for free, paid for by advertising. That part of Napster has been quietly sidelined in favor of its subscription. They rolled out the service with a news release in May of 2006, with the excitement and momentum of a new feature that they saw potential in. There was no news release this time around, no announcement, just a quiet sidelining.
By Mike Musgrove -- An eBay seller and Universal Music Group are battling in a legal case that could have wider implications for a consumer's right to resell purchased music. Los Angeles area resident Troy Augusto makes a living by scooping up collectible albums at used-record stores, then selling them for a profit on the eBay online auction site. Many of those compact discs, marked "for promotional use only," were originally given away by record companies to radio stations and music publications as a means of promoting the music.
By Brad Stone -- Hollywood appears to have a preliminary winner in its bake-off of anti-piracy technologies. For the last year, the film industry, through its Palo Alto-based R&D joint venture MovieLabs, has been testing a dozen so-called "digital fingerprinting" technologies. The technology purports to scan file sharing sites, Internet providers and peer-to-peer networks to identify copyrighted material. Vobile's Video DNA, has apparently bested others from the Royal Philips Electronics, Thomson Software & Technology, and the highest profile digital fingerprinting company, the Los Gatos, Calif.-based Audible Magic, which has deals to filter video sharing sites like YouTube and Microsoft's Soapbox.
By The Pirate Party -- "Having found the necessary proof via the leaked MediaDefenders documents, the Pirate Bay is filing suit against the big record and movie labels operating in Sweden who have allegedly been paying professional hackers, saboteurs and DDoSers to destroy their trackers. They also claim to have filed a police report."
By David Patrick Stearns -- The classical music world has never been democratic - it dictates what you should want rather than what you think you want - and the latest decree is this: You will learn how to manage digital downloads. The penalty for not doing so is missing some of the most exciting recordings being made.
By Leila Cobo -- It's no secret that U.S. Latins use the Internet less than other segments of the population. And it's no secret that digital sales of Latin music lag way behind the physical. According to a study released earlier this year, only 56 percent of U.S. Latinos use the Internet, far less than the 71 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 60 percent of non-Hispanic blacks who do so. According to Nielsen SoundScan, less than 1 percent of all digital albums sold so far this year were Latin. In contrast, Latin music accounted for 7 percent of all albums sold. A new alliance between Hispanic retailer La Curacao and content provider MusicNet will address both problems simultaneously, promoting online sales of Latin music and sales of media players and computers to Latin buyers.
By now, it's a tired topic. Subscription-based music sales have failed to satisfy the hype generated several years ago, and companies invested in the format are suffering. A renovated Napster offers the most glaring example of the problematic sector. The company displays only modest levels of subscriber growth despite incredible name recognition and heavy marketing spends. Meanwhile, broader uptake of the format remains between two and three million, depending on the specific estimate. Theoretically, the subscription format offers everything a music fan could want. Catalog issues have largely been resolved, and that means instant access to massive, multi-million track collections - and even portability options (albeit, non-iPod portability options.) Yet consumers are still sidelined on the concept, despite affordable monthly fees and hassle-free access.
By Steve Gordon -- Although the recording industry is thought by some to be all-powerful, American broadcasters actually wield far greater power. Radio has been able to get away with not paying labels for music they play: specifically, performance royalties that broadcasters elsewhere in the world owe to the labels for broadcast music. But is this all about to change?
By Jan Libbenga -- IFPI has shut down six eDonkey servers in Germany through a series of injunctions from regional courts in Hamburg, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Leipzig, and Frankfurt. IFPI claims the actions have dramatically reduced file sharing.. eDonkey is a decentralized, peer-to-peer file sharing network used primarily to exchange audio files, video files, and computer software. Files are not stored on a central server, but are exchanged directly between users. However, the nodes are essential for communication.
By Yinka Adegoke -- The U.S. music industry is becoming more open-minded about working with online music stores from the tiniest start-up to Amazon.com hoping to boost digital music sales and erode the dominance of Apple Inc's iTunes. U.S. music companies, once paranoid about the wide-scale piracy enabled by Web-based companies like Napster and KaZaa, are now embracing new business models such as giving away free song downloads. Their goal is: to increase digital revenue as CD sales drop more sharply than anticipated; and to create alternatives to iTunes to boost their negotiating power against Apple when licensing contracts are renewed.
By Andrew Orlowski -- The world's biggest record label is touting a scheme that would permit internet users to swap DRM-free music under a blanket license, according to a report. Universal Music Group's "TotalMusic" program would allow customers of ISPs who signed up to the program to exchange files freely - but only if the ISP signed up. The report in Digital Music News this week also suggested that UMG was considering forcing ISPs to adopt the program - causing widespread puzzlement throughout the music business. That's because it lacks the technical, legal and financial resources to back up any threats.
By Yinka Adegoke -- Warner Music Group Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman on Tuesday raised the possibility of selling digital music without copy protection, in what appeared to be a softening of his previous outright opposition.
By Chris Maxcer -- The free music download site SpiralFrog.com has finally croaked its first notes.
(PRNewswire) -- Slacker, Inc. announced agreements with the major labels EMI Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group to make the labels' content available to listeners on the Slacker Personal Radio service. Slacker, which previously announced a similar agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment, now has agreements with all four major labels that enable listeners to choose from a vast catalog of artists to play on their personal radio stations wherever they are.
By Seth Rosenblatt Grooveshark's tag line? "Everybody gets paid." Grooveshark's solution is to secure distribution rights from the copyright holders, but then to also reimburse those who upload content. Throw in free streaming and DRM-free downloads for 99 cents a song, garnish with community forums and outreach to independent musicians, serve with a side of cross-platform use that includes the Big Three of Windows, Mac and multiple flavors of Linux, and we may be looking at the future of file sharing.
Microsoft may ultimately have developed an edge for its Zune media player that takes better advantage of its wireless networking than even Apple, according to a recently published patent filing. Dubbed "Automatic delivery of personalized content to a portable media player with feedback," the application would let users load playlists on a handheld that would intelligently queue downloads of tracks depending on the user's preferences.
By Bart Mongoven -- The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will hold its annual meeting beginning Sept. 24, at which time representatives of its 184 member countries will likely endorse the so-called WIPO Development Agenda. WIPO rejected the ideas expressed in the Development Agenda just two years ago, but leading industrialized countries appear rather suddenly to have changed their positions. As a result, this agenda will reflect a fundamental change in how intellectual property rights (IPR) will be viewed globally in the coming decades.
Robert Andrews -- Apple last night reportedly blamed pesky European taxes for the iTunes Store pricing policy that yesterday brought it to a European Commission antitrust hearing. Apple's iTunes global president Eddy Cue and general counsel Donald Rosenberg joined Universal Music and Sony BMG in Brussels to give an oral response to the commission's April " statement of objection", in which it complained to Apple and the four major labels that customers can only buy digital songs from their home nation's iTunes Store and not from others across the continent.
Record labels, faced with sliding sales, called on Malaysian authorities Friday to block Web sites that offer illegal music downloads - a move that could test the government's pledge not to censor the Internet. The Malaysian music industry's revenue was 87 million ringgit (US$25 million) in 2006, a fall from annual average sales of 200 million ringgit in the late 1990s, said Tan Ngiap Foo, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of Malaysia. The figures comprised sales of both local and foreign artists.
By Chris Castle -- "Most content owners understand that we respect copyrights, we work every day to help them manage their content, and we are developing state-of-the-art tools to let them do that even better," said YouTube chief counsel Zahavah Levine." This, of course, is the fallacy of equivocation. YouTube could filter, won't filter. It would be very easy for YouTube to do what iTunes does--don't use music (or any other copyrighted work) for which they don't have a license.
By Antony Bruno -- The much-anticipated music service from Amazon could go live as early as Tuesday, Billboard.biz has learned. The company has been testing the service internally for the last several weeks, and is presenting the results to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for final approval. According to one well-placed source, his approval will mean an immediate launch on Tuesday. However it could be delayed for weeks if he is not satisfied.
As Amazon pushes closer towards its digital music store launch, the industry is weighing the potential competitive impact. Analysts have been tempted to frame the Amazon entry as a stab at the iTunes Store. But according to sources to Digital Music News, Amazon is planning to incorporate its digital downloads into larger artist results sets, and skip a more complicated, stand-alone store. That minimizes the importance of content gaps, and fits into dominant iPod+iTunes behaviors.
Product repositioning is a buzz concept that is easy to dismiss. But for labels trying to monetize existing investments and artists attempting to make noise in a crowded marketplace, repositioning can be a valuable tool. For fans, these new projects can be a whole lot of fun. A new release from indie Six Degrees Records titled Cinematic smartly features new remixes of music composed for film. Classic scores by Quincy Jones, Nino Rota, Ennio Morricone, Henry Mancini, Duke Ellington, and others are re-imagined by top producer and DJs.
By Out-Law.Com -- A record label which uses Creative Commons licences and allows consumers to choose how much they pay for music is focusing on streaming music because its downloading business has dipped dramatically. Magnatune founder John Buckman told technology law podcast Out-Law Radio that the company would soon release streaming products to earn revenue from the growing number of its customers who are streaming its music rather than downloading and owning it.
By Deirdre McMurdy -- The Copyright Act is back on the political front-burner again, with officials from Industry and Heritage departments meeting this week to discuss the controversial file -- and where to take it next. Part of the problem with this file is that tougher copyright laws represent precisely the sort of micro-management and market intervention that the Tories, at least philosophically, oppose. But the external pressure from both well-funded lobby groups and the U.S government make it tough to ignore. That means that in the aftermath of the August cabinet shuffle, there are two new ministers -- Jim Prentice in Industry and Josée Verner in Heritage -- now scrambling to get up to speed on this complicated and deeply divisive issue.
By Eliot Van Buskirk -- Michelle and Robert Santangelo, who along with their mother face an RIAA lawsuit from Elektra Records, have filed a motion to have Kazaa-creators Sharman Networks, AOL, and Matthew Seckler (who allegedly installed the software on their computer) added as third-party defendants to the case. The revised Complaint blames Kazaa for designing its software to automatically share downloaded files, AOL for not blocking filesharing, both parties for not passing on RIAA warnings, and Seckler for installing Kazaa.
One of the rights accorded to the owner of copyright is the right to reproduce or to authorize others to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords. This right is subject to certain limitations found in sections 107 through 118 of the Copyright Act (title 17, U. S. Code). One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of "fair use." Although fair use was not mentioned in the previous copyright law, the doctrine has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years. This doctrine has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law. Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered "fair," such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair. The safest course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material. When it is impracticable to obtain permission, use of copyrighted material should be avoided unless the doctrine of "fair use" would clearly apply to the situation.
By Patrick Ross -- The Computer and Communications Industry Association in August implored the Federal Trade Commission in a filing to parse through language found in copyright warnings appearing before movies, television sporting events and other places. They say they want additional wording explaining ways copyrighted works could be used without authorization, because fair use is a "consumer right." (However,) fair use is not a "consumer right," but rather an affirmative defense. And this is an important difference. These warnings do exactly what they're meant to do--notify consumers in a succinct fashion that infringement has legal consequences.
CD sales are suffering a nosedive, and online revenues are only partially plugging the leak. But music fans are more engaged than ever, part of a paradoxical, modern-day music market. Of course, a large percentage of fans are enjoying gratis downloads, though paying customers are purchasing less per-capita, according to recent research.
By Jemima Kiss -- Prince is threatening to sue a raft of major websites, including YouTube, eBay and Pirate Bay, as part of a legal initiative to "reclaim the internet" from rampant piracy. Lawsuits relating to Prince's material will be launched in the US and UK as part of a campaign led by anti-piracy firm Web Sheriff, (Oh, why, oh, why did they come up with such a lame name) which is representing the star.
From Coolfer -- This Idolator post is funny. A music critic sold a watermarked CD to a record store. The person who purchased the used CD did some Internet sharing. The critic feels bad about what happened but laments how the "Orwellian" language on watermarked advances has taken all the fun out of getting free music weeks or months before its on sale.
By Greg Sandoval and Dawn Kawamoto -- SpiralFrog made a splash a year ago by promising to offer consumers free advertising-supported music. But getting that business off the ground has proved a challenge to a revolving executive team led by Joe Mohen, SpiralFrog's founder and chairman. Providing free music has proved to be a pricey proposition for the New York company. To secure its licensing deal with Universal, SpiralFrog initially paid $2.2 million and since had to pony up an additional $1 million. Since signing that agreement with Universal, SpiralFrog has failed to land another major label. A spokesman for Universal declined to comment. Now faced with hard-to-fulfill commitments to investors, Mohen isn't ruling out going public, despite his company's still-embryonic situation. Never say never, but it's hard to imagine SpiralFrog will attempt an IPO that would most likely be panned by Wall Street.
CD sales are dropping at an alarming rate, and that has majors entertaining a number of fresh sales scenarios. At Universal Music Group, that includes an experimental stab at DRM-free downloads, a move considered unthinkable just one year ago. Now, several sources to Digital Music News have offered details on a new possibility, one that modifies the subscription-based music concept currently offered by companies like Napster and Rhapsody. The more comprehensive subscription plan, called TotalMusic, would require buy-in from ISPs and mobile access providers.
By Seth Sutel -- Listening to radio over the Internet is easier than ever, as high-speed connections have proliferated and online offerings become more sophisticated. Now the legal aspects may be falling into place, too. The music industry and online broadcasters have been duking it out for months over the royalties that should be paid to record labels and artists, but there are signs that the logjam could break as early as this month.
By Andrew Orlowski -- Bloggers have expressed outrage after a singer-songwriter who won fame through YouTube turned out to be professionally backed. The most comically absurd reaction came from music biz stalwart, Bob Lefsetz, who was so upset, he reported in his newsletter, that he'd practically lost the will to live... "Once the uber-beautiful Marié Digby is revealed to be just another young music wannabe, no different from any other major label priority, suddenly, there's nothing of interest left," wrote Bob. ...the bloggers - as usual - mistake the medium for the message. What they really object to is that this digital equivalent of CB Radio has somehow been tainted by the arrival of professionals. But what else did they think was going to happen?
After nearly 20 years as a member of CISAC's Executive Bureau and then Board of Directors, BMI's former President and CEO Frances Preston is stepping down from her role within CISAC, a move that coincides with her official retirement as a consultant to BMI. [We didn't always agree on the basics ... but she always presented her case in a most agreeable way. Her already formidable legend will grow over time. She will be ... and already is ... missed.]
