Online TV/Music
01 February 2008
Could social networking sites save the music industry? International Herald Tribune
If a songbird sings in the forest and no one is there to hear it, is it really music? Not if you're a teenager. Especially among 15- to 25-year-olds, people seem to need their peers to validate their musical tastes, making the Internet a perfect medium for the intersection of MP3s and mob psychology.
Pirate Bay hit with legal action BBC
Four men who run one of the most popular file-sharing sites in the world have been charged with conspiracy to break copyright law in Sweden.
31 January 2008
EU court says file sharers don't have to be named ABC
[Reuters] European Union countries can refuse to disclose names of file sharers on the internet in civil cases, the EU's top court said in a blow to copyright holders trying to fight digital piracy.
30 January 2008
Qtrax's boasts of 25m free songs were just not connected with the truth The Times
It was billed as the "second coming" for the music industry, but it turned out that the offer of an unlimited supply of songs downloaded free turned out to be little more than a sham.
Swedish prosecutors close in on The Pirate Bay ComputerWorld
Swedish prosecutors have until Thursday to file charges against The Pirate Bay, one of the most widely used search engines for locating music and movies on the Internet. The deadline was set by a Swedish court last year after The Pirate Bay asked the authorities to return servers seized in a raid, said Peter Sunde, one of The Pirate Bay's operators, on Monday.
Music file-share site Qtrax forced into humiliating U-turn The Times
A website which promised to give music lovers the world's first legal file-sharing service was forced into a humiliating climbdown today after it emerged that the company had not secured the backing of the record industry.
U2 manager proposes novel piracy crackdown International Herald Tribune
Saying that Internet and technology companies have for too long had a "free ride on music," the veteran manager of the band U2 on Monday urged them to start "sharing their enormous revenue" with singers and songwriters. Also includes links to "Silicon Valley's hippy values 'killing music industry'" (Guardian), "U2 manager urges ISPs to help fight web piracy" (Financial Times), "Music industry finds the solution to its pirate troubles - give everything away" (The Guardian) and "Mainstream music industry realizes the value of 'free'" (IHT).
29 January 2008
All this online sharing has to stop The Guardian
The IFPI - the International Federation of Phonographic Industries - is the global music industry organisation whose very name tells you how long ago progress overtook it. On Thursday it published its digital music report for 2008, which says boldly that "the spread of unlicensed music on ISP networks is choking revenues to record companies and investment in artists, despite a healthy increase in digital sales in 2007, up approximately 40% on the previous year". (If you're wondering, those sales were $2.9bn (£1.45bn) for the year, including ringtones.)
French plan email warnings for illegal downloads Financial Times
Legislation allowing the French government to send email warnings to anyone downloading music tracks without paying for them should be passed by the summer, a senior official said on Sunday.
From today, feel free to download another 25 million songs - legally The Times
With CD sales in free fall and legal downloads yet to fill the gap, the music industry has reluctantly embraced the file-sharing technology that threatened to destroy it. Qtrax, a digital service announced today, promises a catalogue of more than 25 million songs that users can download to keep, free and with no limit on the number of tracks.
26 January 2008
Web disconnection threat to downloaders; Global music sales fell around 10% in 2007; Illegal downloads outnumber bought music 20 to 1 The Guardian
Internet users who illegally share music could face having the plug pulled on their web connection after record labels yesterday called for new legislation to tackle digital piracy. New figures showed music sales continued to decline, down by about 10% in 2007 as strong growth in digital revenues failed to offset the continuing slump in CD sales and the effects of piracy. Global sales via the internet and mobile phones grew by 40% to an estimated $2.9bn (£1.48bn).
25 January 2008
Last.fm to launch free, on-demand music streaming The Times
A world where music lovers can listen to free music over the internet - legally - came a significant step closer today when Last.fm, the social music website, announced that it had record industry's approval to start an unprecedented new streaming service.
18 January 2008
AT&T may filter illegal file-sharing Out-Law
One of the largest telecoms firms in the US is contemplating the introduction of a filter to block copyright-infringing traffic in its internet service. The company said that network-level filtering was the "optimal" way to deal with piracy.
13 January 2008
The People Vs. Comcast Forbes
Brian Roberts excels at turning power over his customers into profits for his shareholders. Now that power is slipping from his grasp. When Ralph Roberts ran his first cable television system, in tiny Tupelo, Miss., he became something of a local hero. In 1963 the birth of HBO was still a decade off, but for Tupelites, frustrated by having over-the-air episodes of the The Jack Benny Program and Gunsmoke ruined by static, Roberts' service was a godsend. Would-be subscribers chased his installers' trucks down the street, begging for the chance to pay $5 a month for a clear, reliable picture.
12 January 2008
UK Government piles file-sharing pressure on UK ISPs Out-Law
The UK government turned up the heat on ISPs today, warning that laws to force disconnection of illegal filesharers are already being drafted for a parliamentary debut in November.
11 January 2008
us: Comcast welcomes FCC inquiry into traffic management InfoWorld
Cable-modem service provider Comcast said Wednesday that it would welcome a U.S. Federal Communications Commission investigation into its broadband traffic management practices. Also includes coverage from Salon.
Apple forced to drop iTunes prices in UK The Times
British customers of iTunes will soon be charged up to 10 per cent less for their downloads, after pressure by the European Commission forced Apple into a change of policy. In what represents a significant change to the downloading site's policies in the UK, Apple announced this morning it was lowering its British prices within six months to see songs and albums brought into line with what customers in the rest of the European Union pay.
10 January 2008
uk: Copying music legally in the digital age The Guardian
Fans of the Clash, and other music lovers, will no longer be fighting the law every time they fill up their iPod, under government proposals unveiled yesterday. Owners of digital music players will be acting lawfully when they transfer music from their computer to a digital player or copy a CD for their own use, under proposed amendments to bring copyright law into the digital age.
us: F.C.C. to Look at Complaints Comcast Interferes With Net New York Times
The Federal Communications Commission will investigate complaints that Comcast actively interferes with Internet traffic as its subscribers try to share files online, the commission's chairman, Kevin J. Martin, said Tuesday.
29 December 2007
Radiohead offer fans New Year's Eve gig online The Guardian
Those who find the familiar strains of Auld Lang Syne too upbeat - or insufficiently experimental - may wish to log on to the internet this New Year's Eve. Radiohead, who pride themselves on being one of the most technologically literate of bands, have announced that a pre-recorded concert will be available online from midnight to usher in the new year.
Amazon Challenges Apple's Music Empire Forbes
Amazon.com on Thursday added Warner Music Group to the growing number of labels that sell music free of copy protections in its digital music store. The news is a challenge to Apple, which has built a digital distribution empire for copyrighted music around its iPod digital music player and iTunes music store. Also from Reuters, "Wal-Mart cancels movie download service."
28 December 2007
uk: Illegal film and TV downloaders could lose their links to the web The Times
Internet users who download pirate films or television series could soon see their service suspended as political pressure grows on broadband service providers to stop illegal downloads. The Government has given notice of its concern at the "huge cumulative effect" of illegal downloads and called on ISPs to examine ways to reverse the trend.
BitTorrenters seek sanctuary in Pirate Bay The Register
Despite a series of law enforcement and other attacks on illegal file-sharing this year the number of people using the anti-copyright BitTorrent tracker Pirate Bay has almost doubled.
20 December 2007
us: MPAA wins copyright case against TorrentSpy InfoWorld
The Motion Picture Association of America has won a lawsuit against the operators of TorrentSpy.com, with the judge ruling in favor of the MPAA because the Web site operators tampered with evidence. Also includes links to a Los Angeles Times article.
19 December 2007
Nearly half SKorean Internet users pirate movies: survey The Age
Nearly half the Internet users in South Korea -- one of the world's most wired nations -- illegally download a full-length movie a week, according to a survey released Tuesday.
