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2 Copyright Cases Decided in Favor of Entertainment Industry
On October 28, 2001, the entertainment industry won victories in two challenges to the DMCA: a U.S. Court of Appeals ruled for the MPAA against Eric Corley of 2600, and a judge dismissed Professor Edward W. Felten's lawsuit against the RIAA. (11/29/2001 at The New York Times)
3 Copyright Lawsuits Test Limits of New Digital Media
A trio of multimedia-related lawsuits - RIAA vs. MP3 vendors, MPAA vs. DVD hackers, and RealNetworks vs. Streambox - show the tensions between entertainment giants on the one hand, and consumer groups and startups on the other. (1/24/2000 at The New York Times)
Another Crack in the SDMI Wall
An academic team comprised of researchers from Princeton University, Xerox PARC and Rice University claims to have defeated SDMI's music watermarking system. (10/22/2000 at Salon.com)
AOL Takes Step to Allow Users to Download Music for a Fee
America Online is licensing technology from InterTrust Technologies that will let users pay for music downloads. (6/28/2000 at MSNBC)
BMG and Napster Tie the Knot
Bertelsmann AG (a recording company) and Napster have agreed to an alliance; Bertelsmann will drop out of the lawsuit against Napster and provide the startup with funds to develop a paid music subscription service. (10/31/2000 at ZDNet)
A Chat With Hilary Rosen
Hilary Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, talks about the Napster case and the future of music on the Internet. (10/2/2000 at Wired News)
Congress Gives Webcasters a Break
"Smaller Internet music broadcasters will be allowed to pay lower copyright royalty fees than they do now under legislation Congress passed on Friday." (11/15/2002 at Wired News)
Courtney Love Demands Some MP3.com Cash
Courtney Love, saying Universal won't give its artists any of the money it won in a case against MP3.com, is suing Universal for "stealing her music." (9/14/2000 at Upside)
Datamining: Spam or Future of Music Business?
The music industry has been slow to exploit the information it collects from fans; but some labels will start using email lists and demographic information to market new albums and artists more heavily this year. (9/25/2000 at The Industry Standard)
David Bowie, 21st-Century Entrepreneur
Musician David Bowie talks about technology, music, and the death of copyright. (6/9/2002 at The New York Times)
The Day Free Music Died
Many Napster users are pissed off that the not-so-rebellious company plans to start charging for trading music over its network. Its alliance with a major music label is a lesson to those who think the Internet can decentralize commerce. (11/2/2000 at The Washington Post)
The Day the Streaming Died
Real-world radio stations that stream their audio online are running into trouble; ad agencies don't want them to broadcast their ads online, because doing so costs the agencies extra cash. (4/17/2001 at The Industry Standard)
DEN: The Party's Over
Details on the death of DEN, the Hollywood-based Internet company that spent tens of millions of dollars creating content for broadband users. (5/18/2000 at The Industry Standard)
Didn't We Read This Story Yesterday?
Listen.com's proposed buyout of bankrupt scour.com didn't get much media coverage, as it occurred in the shadow of Bertelsmann's deal with Napster. (11/2/2000 at The Industry Standard)
Discussion on Web Entertainment
At a Salon.com panel called "From Degas to dot-com," celebrities - including Roger Ebert, Stan Lee, and Tracey Ullman - discussed the future of entertainment on the web. (9/29/2000 at Wired News)
DVD Cracking Case Returns to Court
In a test of the Digiral Millennium Act (DMCA), the MPAA and hacker magazine 2600 will head back to court to determine if it's legal for a publication to link to "illegal" computer code. (4/27/2001 at News.com)
EMusic, Independent Labels Sue MP3.com on Copyrights
EMusic and several independent music labels are suing MP3.com; MP3.com is allegedly providing MP3s of songs which EMusic says it has the exclusive right to provide via the Internet. (12/20/2000 at SF Gate)
Escaping the Napster Trap, Part 1
Jerome Rota, aka "Gej," who first developed DivX, is trying to go legit. When he first released his codec for compressing digital video, it was primarily used in conjunction with DeCSS to pirate movies; now, he hopes to build a business with it. (3/15/2001 at Salon.com)
Ethical Music Piracy
The Canadian programmers who developed Fairtunes.com, a website at which MP3 users can donate money to their favorite artists, have written a Winamp plugin that makes it easier to donate money. (10/5/2000 at Salon.com)
Examining the Music Business
At a 2-day conference presented by the Future of Music Coalition, musicians and industry executives met and talked about how the Internet is changing things, for better and worse. (1/16/2001 at The New York Times)
File-Swappers Fight Back
The Electronic Frontier Foundation plans to defend MusicCity against a the RIAA's copyright-infringement lawsuit; unlike Napster, which lost its case, MusicCity only distributes software - it doesn't actively help users trade files. (11/7/2001 at ZDNet)
Indie Record Labels Fear Mega-Mergers
The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA) is asking the European Commission to take steps and make rules to ensure that the AOL/Time Warner merger and Vivendi takeover of Universal won't hurt independent music labels or small-time artists. (9/5/2000 at The Industry Standard)
Is the RIAA Running Scared?
Princeton professor Edward Felten declined to publish a paper on cracking SDMI when the RIAA threatened to sue him if he did publish his findings; free-speech advocates now have an example of the DMCA being used to quash academic freedom. (4/26/2001 at Salon.com)
Is the SDMI Boycott Backfiring?
Technical companies participating in the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) are as unhappy with the record companies as anyone; but they think the boycott of the Hack SDMI challenge will hurt consumers, rather than the record companies. (10/3/2000 at Salon.com)
Judge Explains MP3.com Ruling
The judge who ruled that MP3.com violates records companies' copyright by letting users play stored music from MP3.com's servers explains his decision. (5/4/2000 at Wired News)
Judge Imposes Law and Order on Net Music Frontier
"Patel's five-page injunction, issued late Monday and made public Tuesday, effectively runs those lovable but thievin' cowpokes from Napster right out of town." (3/7/2001 at Siliconvalley.com)
Justice Department Shines Its Antitrust Spotlight on Music Labels
The U.S. Justice Department and antitrust regulators in the European Union are examining Pressplay and MusicNet, the major music labels' planned online music services. (8/6/2001 at The Industry Standard)
Lawmakers Want to Legalize MP3.com Service
U.S. Representative Rich Boucher is sponsoring the Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000, which would make it legal for companies to copy CDs, store them online, and stream them to individuals who own copies of the CDs. (9/26/2000 at News.com)
Looking into the Digital Future
At MB5, the Festival for New Media Visionaries, people like Mayor Jerry Brown of Oakland, MP3 CEO Michael Robertson, and rapper Chuck D gathered to talk about the future of digital entertainment. (9/11/2000 at Wired News)
Major Labels in Talks With Yahoo
Yahoo may provide subscription-based access to music from several major music labels. (5/19/2000 at The Industry Standard)
MP3.com Loses Court Battle; Sued by Insurer
MP3.com is dealt a double legal blow: TVT records wins a copyright lawsuit against the online music site; and Westport Insurance, MP3.com's insurer, asked a court to rule that it needn't cover MP3.com's losses from its court battles. (3/7/2001 at ZDNet)
Music Labels in Shock Over Napster
Music industry executives were surprised by the deal between entertainment giant Bertelsmann AG and rogue music network Napster; though music companies have released statements lauding the alliance, they're not in a hurry to join. (11/2/2000 at ZDNet)
A Musical ShakeOut
The Internet has changed the music distribution industry already; wireless access will change it even more. But with many of the world's most popular musicians working for AOL/TW, the media giant could dictate music's future on the Net. (2/7/2000 at NUA Internet Surveys)
A Musician's Perspective on Online Music Distribution
Musician Jon Sobel talks about why online music distribution, supposedly a boon for independent musicians, isn't paying off for them. (1/21/2000 at Web Review)
Napster Appeal Is on Legal Fast Track After a Stay That Delayed Closing Site
After U.S. District Judge Patel granted a preliminary injunction against Napster, ordering them to shutdown, an appeals court has agreed the suit filed by the RIAA against the music-sharing service on an expedited schedule. (7/31/2000 at MSNBC)
Napster Blocks Over 115,000 Songs
Following its legal defeat, Napster is blocking users from trading over 115,000 copyrighted songs through its service; it has declined to block 46,000 other songs because record companies didn't follow the correct procedure in asking they be blocked. (3/12/2001 at The Industry Standard)
Napster Case: Hard Queries on Copyrights
The federal judges weighing Napster's appeal of Judge Patel's injunction against the service asked some pointed questions of both Napster and RIAA attorneys. (10/2/2000 at The New York Times)
Napster Filters More Than Half of Downloads
Due to the filters Napster has put in place to block copyrighted songs from being shared, the number of MP3 files each Napster user is sharing has dropped close to 60 percent; still, many of the blocked songs are available. (3/15/2001 at News.com)
Napster Knock-Offs a No-Go
A number of peer-to-peer music trading companies are hoping to strike deals with the music labels once Napster is shut down; but the labels don't seem eager to move forward. (2/27/2001 at Wired News)
Napster Loss Is Copyright Gain
Free-speech advocates bemoan the erosion of the flow of information on the Internet as a result of court cases decided based on the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. (3/3/2001 at Wired News)
Napster May Not Matter Anymore
Pundits say that Napster may become irrelevant, either by losing its outsider cachet through partnering with record companies or charging for downloads; or by being overtaken by better open-source alternatives. (5/15/2000 at Wired News)
Napster Offers $1 Billion to Settle Suit
Napster Inc. offered to pay each of the 5 major record labels $150 million/year for five years, and split $50 million/year among independent labels, in return for the right to offer users (paid) unlimited music downloads. (2/21/2001 at CNN)
Napster Rocks the Recording Industry
Nobody's sure yet what effect Napster (and similar MP3-trading technology) will have on the music industry; but musicians and fans are already choosing sides. (5/12/2000 at Web Review)
Napster to Voluntarily Block Songs
At a court hearing, Napster announced it would start filtering specific songs from its file-trading service, in an attempt to stop users from trading songs that the music labels don't want traded. (3/2/2001 at ZDNet)
Napster's Sad Song Falls on Deaf Ears
Because of problems Napster is having blocking unauthorized music from being traded on its file-sharing service, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel says the company's system might have to be shut down. (4/10/2001 at The Industry Standard)
Napster-like Service Lays Off Two-Thirds of Staff
Scour, which makes software for trading multimedia files over the Internet, is cutting its staff after failing to secure additional funding; investors are probably scared off by pending lawsuits by the MPAA and RIAA. (9/3/2000 at News.com)
Napster: A Surprise in the Works?
Some advice to Napster and the music labels on making the most of the Napster trial: work together. (3/1/2001 at Time Magazine Online)
Naughty by Nature
A look at several Net companies that provide edgy, perhaps objectionable, short films, and the pressure they're facing to distribute more mainstream fare. (9/18/2000 at Variety.com)
Net Music: The Courts Played On!
A look back at the music-related court battles and technology advances that helped shape the year 2000. (12/21/2000 at ZDNet)
NetPD: Block Napster Files, Not Users
Attorneys representing Dr. Dre are asking Napster to block trading of MP3s of Dr. Dre's songs by using the MD5 hash algorithm to ID the songs; while an interesting idea, technologists say it won't work. (5/18/2000 at InternetNews.com)
Olympics Sites Come Up Short
Web and TV viewing of the Olympics were lower than expected; still, 14 million Americans watched the event on TV, and millions hit the official websites. (10/5/2000 at The Industry Standard)
Online Sundance Festival Showcases Net Films
For the first time, the Sundance Film Festival will have a special showcase - both at the festival and online - for films developed exclusively for the Internet. (1/19/2001 at CNN)
Part One: Up, Up, Down, Down
"The pace of cultural change in the western world has accelerated so rapidly that it's reached the breaking point..." As a result, the young believe - with some justification - that older generations have little to teach them. (11/30/2000 at Slashdot.org)
Piracy to Hurt Music Firms?
According to Forrester Research, major recording labels will lose $3 billion and book publishers will lose $1.4 billion by 2005, due to authors and artists setting up their own online distribution systems, in addition to Internet piracy. (9/19/2000 at CNNfn)
Playing the New Game of Life?
A new game from Electronic Arts, called Majestic, will take place both online and off; players will be called, faxed, and emailed by the computers that run the game, over a period of months. (3/7/2001 at ABCNEWS.com)
Providers, Sites Told To Work It Out
Peter Jaszi, a law professor at American University, says that if the entertainment industry does not provide acceptable licensing terms for music and movies to the technology industry, the courts and Congress will decide how music is distributed online. (3/6/2001 at TechWeb)
RealNetworks: Get Ready To Pay for Music
RealNetworks will launch RealOne Music, a $9.95/month music subscription service giving listeners access to 100 downloaded files and 100 streams per month, next week. (12/4/2001 at ZDNet)
Record Industry Sues Napster Clones
The RIAA and MPAA are suing MusicCity, Kazaa and Grokster, all file-sharing networks that use software developed by Amsterdam-based FastTrack. (10/3/2001 at ZDNet)
Record Labels' Answer to Napster Still Has Artists Feeling Bypassed
From musician's perspectives, the online music services that labels have launched aren't much better than the free illegal ones: artists get paid less than a penny per download, and have no control over which of their music is online. (2/18/2002 at The New York Times)
Recording Industry Turns the Screws in Napster Case
The recording industry wants a judge to order Napster to pay copyright infringement fees for the illegal copies that Napster users made. (8/8/2001 at The Industry Standard)
Revenge of the Pumpkins
The Wallflowers' new album, Breach, is available on Napster in advance of the album's release, as is The Smashing Pumpkins' Machina II; the former supposedly by accident, the latter clearly on purpose. (9/14/2000 at Salon.com)
RIAA Sues MP3.com
The Recording Industry Association of America is suing MP3.com for lettings users listen to digital music online through its new service, Instant Listening. (1/22/2000 at Wired News)
RIAA Wants To Hack Your PC
Lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America tried, and failed, to amend Congress' anti-terrorism bill to allow copyright holders to hack pirates' computers and not be held responsible for any damage caused. (10/15/2001 at Wired News)
RIAA: The License Has Landed
The Recording Industry Association of America has reached an agreement with the National Music Publishers' Association, The Harry Fox Agency, allowing RIAA members and their licensees to play musical works licensed by Harry Fox online. (10/9/2001 at Wired News)
Rock Band's Web Giveaway Turns Marketing on Its Ear
Rock band The Offspring will release their new album on the Internet, where it will be freely downloadable, a month before the CD is sold in stores; they plan to use the release to market themselves to online music lovers. (9/15/2000 at Los Angeles Times)
Royalties Proposal Casts Shadow Over Webcasters
By May 21, 2002, the U.S. Copyright Office will determine if webcasters will have to pay 0.0014 cents per song the stream per listener, in addition to the fees they already pay to compensate composers and music publishers. (4/1/2002 at The New York Times)
Royalty Fees Killing Most Internet Radio Stations
Over 200 Net-based radio stations have shut down because they can't afford the per-song-per-listener fee the U.S. government has imposed on them; over 10,000 more stations are expected to join them. (7/21/2002 at USA Today)
Sites to Challenge NBC's Control in Sydney
As the International Olympic Committee prepares to enforce its restrictions on websites that cover the Olympics, websites without deals with the IOC make plans to provide alternative Olympic-related information. (9/11/2000 at USA Today)
Small Webcasters Cut Deal on Royalties
"A last-minute agreement reached today by webcasters, record companies and recording artists cleared the way for legislation to exempt small webcasters from paying the same flat, per-song royalty rates as their larger counterparts." (10/7/2002 at The Washington Post)
Sony-MP3.com Mix-Up Shows Pitfalls of Digital Music
Due to what may be a clerical error, MP3.com removed users' ability to listen to numerous Sony albums, including Jeff Buckley's Grace, from its my.mp3.com service; industry experts say licensing and publishing quagmires will cause more such problems. (4/20/2001 at The Industry Standard)
That's Entertainment
A look at how Shockwave.com CEO Lawrence Levy, formerly of Pixar, plans to turn interactive entertainment into a profitable business. (10/2/2000 at The Industry Standard)
The Michael Jordan of Gaming
Dennis "Thresh" Fong, one of (if not the) best Doom and Quake players in the world, has stopped playing in tournaments to launch a portal for video games, Gamers.com. (9/5/2000 at Salon.com)
Think Napster -- Only for Movies
A movie-compression scheme called DivX (no relation to the failed Circuit City venture) is popular with online movie pirates, and may cause the movie industry trouble once more homes have broadband access. (5/12/2000 at ZDNet)
This MP3 Brought to You By...
Companies like Digital Payload and Everad.com hope to make money by embedding advertisements in MP3 music files. (7/11/2000 at Wired News)
'Those Pesky Dot-Coms'
The traditional attendees at the Cannes Film Festival are generally ignoring the Internet companies which are attending; perhaps due to a lack of entertainment profits online, perhaps because of the in-your-face promotions of the Net companies. (5/18/2000 at The Industry Standard)
U.S. Networks Retool Web Strategies
Most television networks are rethinking their web presences, and moving away from the portal model. (4/25/2001 at Excite News)
Uncopyable CD Strikes the Wrong Note
A company called SunnComm has developed technology to make audio CDs unreadable - and so uncopyable - on computers. (4/27/2001 at The Washington Post)
Watermarks in Music?
Talal Shamoon is working with SDMI, the music and technology association, developing technology to combat music piracy. (7/31/2000 at Salon.com)
Web Radio's Last Stand
Rusty Hodge, general manager of SomaFM, talks about the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel's ruling about web-radio royalties, and how webcasters may be put out of business as a result. (3/26/2002 at Salon.com)
Web, Music Giants March to Different Tunes
Battle lines are being drawn in the online music wars: Microsoft and Pressplay (Vivendi Universal and Sony) vs. MusicNet (RealNetworks, AOL Time Warner, BMG, and EMI) and Napster. (7/13/2001 at News.com)
Why the Music Industry Must Settle with Napster
By shutting down Napster, rather than working with the file-trading service, music labels are driving users to music-distribution systems which will be much harder to police or work with. (2/28/2001 at GigaLaw.com)
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