"Reps. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) and Mary Bono (R-Calif.) joined forces last night to perform in a rap video that was shown during Rosen's goodbye party at Charlie Palmer's restaurant on Capitol Hill"

"It's become an article of faith among many in the file-sharing debate that "peer-to-peer" services like KaZaa, Morpheus and the now-defunct Napster never would have attained stratospheric popularity had there been an array of cheap, legal alternatives for consumers who wanted to buy digital music, rather than steal it"

"Weary of being cast as the Internet's black marketeers, proprietors of free online music and file-sharing services are coming to Washington to launch a formal lobbying campaign to convince Congress of their legitimacy."

"The chief lobby group of the nation's major recording labels today said it is preparing hundreds of lawsuits against Internet users who illegally trade copyrighted music files."

"Bars can't have TVs bigger than 55 inches. Teddy bears can't include tape decks. Girl Scouts who sing "Puff, the Magic Dragon" owe royalties. Copyright law needs to change."

"321 Studios LLC has released an upgrade to its DVD copying software despite still being embroiled in a court case over the software's legality."

Second of two articles on the page: "When most people propose technology that can destroy other people's computers remotely, they're called cyberterrorists. When Orrin Hatch calls for that technology, as he did June 17, he's just doing his job as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee."

"I believe you should be able to convert a film from a prerecorded DVD you own to a format you can watch on a portable player. But doing that by any means other than simply recording by plugging into a standard DVD player and showing the movie is both difficult and illegal."

"Free speech proponents say the movie industry's anti-piracy efforts disguise the more sinister goal of controlling computers so that consumers must watch movies when and how the movie studios choose."

"But it's the kids who continue to take advantage of the latest technology out there -- not as a new trick, but as something accepted and tacitly expected. They are the ones driving the market for digital downloads, which Reston, Va.-based ComScore Networks estimated was worth $545 million last year. Where they go, so go the consumer dollars that copyright law was supposed to harness in the first place."

"Dell Computer's chief executive, Michael Dell, on Monday called for the makers of music, movies and other entertainment to clearly say what consumers can and can't do with the content."

"The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that the industry has lost $2.5 billion to piracy, but it's hard to substantiate that figure. Just about every business has write-offs for uncollected debts and other losses, so why not chalk up personal piracy as a minor loss for the studios as well?"

"Rosen's tenure at the association has been rocky, to say the least. It has been marked by the growth of trading free music online, the ease of CD burning, declining sales and shutdowns of major record stores. All the while, she has been the industry's often angry voice, calling for change, enforcement and reason."

"I'm not defending music piracy, although I think the vast majority of those who download music illegally buy at least as much music as they ever did. I'm just tired of the music industry whining because its profits are not obscenely large enough."

"Dallas-based Streamwaves is the first music service backed by the major record companies to cozy up to Kazaa, an online file-sharing network that attracts at least 4 million users at any given moment."

Press release: "Kazaa v2.5 adds a host of new features, including licensed content channels, a rewards program for sharing licensed content, and upgraded security."

"Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Rick Boucher issued a press release yesterday calling on Congress to fix DMCA, in light of information that doing so would not put the US in treaty violation."

"Digital media upstart Roxio on Friday announced the completion of a $22 million equity financing round to be used for capital expenses. The funding comes as Roxio readies a reborn-as-legitimate Napster music download service."

"Senator Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah, made a rather spectacular fool of himself last week during a hearing on electronic data piracy."

"The chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has promised to hold hearings on a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that allows copyright holders to subpoena the names of alleged copyright violators from Internet service providers without even having to talk to a judge."

"Twenty organizations, representing a diverse cross-section of the entertainment and technology industries, today filed an amici curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in support of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its effort to enforce subpoenas issued to Verizon Internet Services, Inc., under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA)."

"So Eldred was a loss: It let the Sonny Bono Act extend the quantity of copyright protection. The DMCA does something different: It tries to toughen the quality of copyright, by giving owners more thorough protection than they previously had. Justice Ginsburg brushed off concerns about copyright quantity. But as to copyright quality, she seems to have opened the courthouse doors for the information freedom fighters to come storming back in."

"Two years after music industry lawyers pounded Napster Inc. into submission, the major record companies are pointing fingers at each other over the flourishing of online music piracy."

"A lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation said the bill includes a number of troubling aspects, particularly the blurring of distinctions between official prosecution of criminal acts and civil enforcement of copyright provisions."

"With none of the fanfare that usually accompanies the introduction of a new bill, Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Tex.) quietly slipped proposed new legislation into the hopper Thursday calling for greater FBI and Department of Justice (DoJ) involvement in Hollywood's ongoing war against file swappers."

"Despite the major labels' success in clearing hundreds of thousands of tracks for purchase online through services like Apple's iTunes Music Store, some top artists continue to resist authorizing the dismantling of their albums for Internet consumption as a la carte singles."

Jordan: "The RIAA started yelling and tried to rescind my order of dismissal after they signed it because of comments that I made on CNN."

"You don't need DeCSS to steal a DVD; you can create a "disc image," an exact, bit-for-bit copy, and use that to make new copies. [...] Meanwhile, programmers of unauthorized DVD software are performing an interesting economic service by determining what features customers would enjoy if the capabilities of DVD players were not locked down by licensing dictates."

"A bill introduced in Congress on Thursday would put federal agents in the business of investigating and prosecuting copyright violations, including online swapping of copyrighted works. [...] A lawyer with the Electronic Frontier Foundation said the bill includes a number of troubling aspects, particularly the blurring of distinctions between official prosecution of criminal acts and civil enforcement of copyright provisions."

"So how much of your buck makes its way back to the artists? Not much, though it's clearly a better deal than they get from piracy."

"Despite the DRM focus, Intel, for its part, has never been as stern about digital rights as Microsoft. So perhaps it’s not surprising that Intel’s literature offers a prayer for balance."

"Declining CD sales, the hit from online downloads, and growing competition from the likes of Amazon.com, as well as discounters such as Wal-Mart and Target are pushing specialty music retailers to the wall."

Marvel studios chief: "I used to hate the Internet. I thought it was just a place where people stole our products. But I see how influential these fans can be when they build a consensus, which is what we seek. I now consider them filmmaking partners."

Interview with Rob Glaser: "Digital music has reached a tipping point. The major labels finally have made enough content available with sufficient flexibility for a consumer service to be workable."

Press release about a study paid for by the music industry: "While there are a variety of reasons contributing to the downturn in music sales, the twin problems of downloading and burning are clearly the most potent ones [...]."

"Commerce Chairman John McCain (R.-Ariz.) promised to get his committee involved in the digital rights legal dispute between Verizon and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the principal trade group of the music publishing industry."

"The chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee has promised to hold hearings on a part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that allows copyright holders to subpoena the names of alleged copyright violators from Internet service providers without even having to talk to a judge."

"Simply put, the current paradigm encourages both goon-like behavior on the part of the music industry and other content providers even as it rewards larceny on the part of consumers."

"Sen. Orrin Hatch, who seeks stealth technology to remotely fry recalcitrant Internet pirates' computers, learned Thursday his own Web site contained questionable software."

"The explosion of these part-original, part-borrowed works has set authors of fan fiction against some media companies in a battle to redefine the line between consumers' right to "fair use" and copyright holders' rights to control their intellectual property."

"A dispute between Internet providers and the recording industry over copyright protection and customer privacy has drawn the attention of the Senate Commerce Committee chairman."

"The Recording Industry Association of America said it has sent cease-and-desist letters to five people whom it suspects of illegally offering massive amounts of copyrighted music through peer-to-peer networks."

"Hilary Rosen, the outgoing head of the Recording Industry Association of America, has landed an on-air gig at CNBC, The Post has learned."

"Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) suggested Tuesday that people who download copyright materials from the Internet should have their computers automatically destroyed. But Hatch himself is using unlicensed software on his official website, which presumably would qualify his computer to be smoked by the system he proposes."

"Senator Orrin Hatch's website uses a very impressive set of Javascript code for its menus, developed by Milonic Software. [...] So, does Orrin Hatch and his web support staff have a license number, or is he guilty of using unlicensed software himself?"

"Copyright-protection schemes, known as "digital rights management," could hinder archivists, said Steven Bellovin of AT&T Labs in Florham Park."

"The RIAA obtained the names of the file-swappers by invoking a controversial clause in the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allows copyright holders to subpoena the records of Internet service providers without a judge's review if the copyright holder believes that the ISP's service was used to violate its intellectual property rights."

"The industry has seen three years of decline, ravaged by a lack of hits, fans downloading music for free and an obsolete business model that relies on rolling the dice for mega hits."

"The recording industry plans to issue cease-and-desist letters to five people accused of illegally trading copyrighted music, now that it knows what to write on the envelope."

"Japanese videogame maker Nintendo Co Ltd said on Thursday it has won one of its "most significant anti-piracy judgments ever" against a Hong Kong firm that sold devices capable of copying its games and putting them on the Internet for limitless downloading."

"Nikki Hemming, who runs the world's most popular service for sharing online music and other files, has a message for the people who hate her most: Kazaa, infamous for enabling users to swap music and videos without paying for them, wants to be the official online distributor for the entertainment industry."

"A US senator wants to develop new technology which would remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music tracks."

"Sen. Orrin Hatch on Wednesday backpedaled slightly from his suggestion a day earlier that copyright holders should be allowed to remotely destroy the computers of music pirates."

In response to articles about his quote that we should use technology to destroy the PCs of copyright infringers: "I made my comments at yesterday’s hearing because I think that industry is not doing enough to help us find effective ways to stop people from using computers to steal copyrighted, personal or sensitive materials. I do not favor extreme remedies – unless no moderate remedies can be found."

"As we argued in an amicus brief supporting Verizon, online users are entitled to privacy in their activities, and should not have that privacy breached on a mere accusation of copyright infringement. While it may have chosen these test cases carefully, the RIAA has been wrong before, and other copyright claimants may be less scrupulous."

Quoting Tech Law Journal: "A divided Appeals Court held that the Copyright Act does not preempt state contract law that allows parties to impose a ban on reverse engineering."

"Political watchdog groups in Washington questioned the idea of a member of Congress being a possible job candidate for the music industry's lobby and a founding member of a caucus to focus on some of the industry's most important policy concerns."

"Rep. Mary Bono, a California Republican, is denying reports that she hopes to become the record industry's next chief lobbyist."

"Digital rights management company Macrovision is splitting into two business units that will focus on either entertainment or software-protection products."

"What do you call someone who advocates the destruction of the property your livelihood depends on to fight a crime you may not consider a crime, and may not in fact be guilty of? I call him a terrorist, too."

"The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said on Tuesday that he'd be interested in learning ways to damage computers used to illegally swap song and movie files."

"The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday he favors developing new technology to remotely destroy the computers of people who illegally download music from the Internet."

"The Brownback bill is not yet an actual bill in Congress; instead, it's an idea devised by Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, to explicitly prohibit some of the entertainment industry's worst actions -- such as its effort, in the Verizon case, to get at private information of Internet users, or its attempt last year to mandate that all digital equipment come equipped with copy-protection technology."

"In practice, though, DRM can stifle legal activity, too. For instance, copy protection on DVDs blocks not only illegal copying, but the 'fair use' ability to copy a frame or short scene into a home movie or school project."

"One of Europe's largest net piracy rings has been shut down by Italian police."

"Decima’s Canadian New Media reports that the Canadian government plans to drop controversial provisions from a bill that would have extended the term of copyright for unpublished works by deceased authors."

"In a victory for corporate control of cultural heritage, the Supreme Court of the United States has rejected a constitutional challenge to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act 1998 (U.S.) by a majority of seven to two."

"Facing an industry-wide decline in mechanical royalties, music publishers and songwriters are increasingly turning to a new revenue source -- video games."

"Rep. Mary Bono, who is forming a new congressional caucus on piracy and copyright issues, also wants to run the music industry's lobbying organization in Washington, a spokeswoman said Monday."

"Verizon was ordered by a judge to turn over the names of four subscribers traced by the Recording Industry Association of America, a music industry trade group. [...] After the court's action, Atlanta-based service provider EarthLink also agreed under subpoena to reveal a customer's identity to the recording industry."

"Generation Download" -- "Youth are content to keep getting music from Net."

"If technology firms like Sony and Microsoft have their way, songs and movies will expire after a single play -- unless you pay the copyright holder their due."

"The Royal Mail had complained about the prints because it said they were a breach of its copyright."

"Since record companies are desperate for new means of distribution, shouldn't they be looking for access to the iPod rather than just iTunes? It's a classic bundling arrangement."

"Sony Music said Monday that it would begin selling music downloads in Britain for its top artists, making it the last among the major recording labels to join Europe's music download bandwagon."

"A judge approved a settlement agreement Friday in a music antitrust lawsuit that will result in more than 3.5 million consumers receiving nearly $13 each."

"A federal judge approved a settlement agreement Friday in a music antitrust lawsuit that will result in more than 3.5 million consumers receiving nearly $13 each. [...] The lawsuit, signed by the attorneys general of 43 states and territories and consolidated in Portland in October 2000, accused major record labels and large music retailers facing competition from discounters like Target and Wal-Mart of conspiring to set minimum music prices."

"While peer-to-peer computing seems intrinsically linked to piracy, it is actually a legitimate technology that can help disseminate data efficiently."

"Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) has tossed her hat in the ring as a potential successor to Hilary Rosen as chairman/CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which lobbies on behalf of the major U.S. music labels."

"Prowling through cyberspace, sniffing out sites that offer illegal downloads, the Web crawler--the latest weapon in the software industry's war on copyright pirates--is now on the case in Asia."

"The Diet on Thursday passed a bill to revise the copyright law to extend the protection period for movies from the current 50 years to 70 years after their release."

"Copyright law, trademark law, right of publicity law, and trade secret law are all speech restrictions: They keep people from publishing, producing, and performing the speech that they want to publish, produce, and perform. The laws may be well-motivated and often beneficial, but they are speech restrictions nonetheless, as many courts have acknowledged."

"Technologists argue that a narrow interpretation of the DMCA would create an extremely hostile environment for innovators, who wouldn't pursue new products for fear of legal reprisal."

"Downloading digital media, a trend that has plagued the music industry for years, is becoming a major concern for the movie industry, cutting into profits from theaters, rentals and sales."

"Fears were expressed that offering content online could leave broadcasters in the same mess as the music industry. 'Without a robust digital rights management structure we could all be losers,' Mr Parsons said. 'At the end of the day that is what is holding the content providers back - fear of putting product out there and having it pirated.'"

"Struggling to stay viable in the nascent online music sector, MusicNet on Thursday announced it would re-record more than 350,000 digital tracks in Microsoft's Windows Media 9 format in order to open new doors for potential subscribers."

"Microsoft is hitting the road with a demo of its much debated Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) in an effort to persuade more people of the merits of the security initiative."

Press release: "A diverse group of movie archivists, preservationists, and creators sent a message to Congress today that without reforms in the copyright system, the majority of the nation's historical motion picture heritage faces destruction as the film on which it's printed crumbles away."

"Last week, in Dastar v. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp, the Supreme Court held that once a work's copyright terminates, it passes into the public domain, and trademark law does not prevent its use without attribution to the original author."

"Waste, on the other hand, is completely decentralized. This architecture, coupled with its use of encryption, means users can feel completely confident that what they’re chatting about won’t be monitored by the likes of AOL or Microsoft."

"Microsoft has two visions for the future of digital media: unlimited choice for consumers, and unlimited control for producers. One thing's for sure, it's unlimited opportunity for Redmond."

"In the latest deal in the rapidly expanding online music business, MusicNet said Thursday that it would offer more than 350,000 songs to subscribers in Microsoft's Windows Media format."

"In the U.S., the ringtone market has grown in the past year, from a handful of startups to more than 50 companies, some of which are now aligned with larger entertainment corporations."

"Two leading experts representing the two sides of the debate answer your questions about consumer rights and media copyrights in the digital age."

"A key legislator in the House of Representatives warned Tuesday that copy protection used in the transition from analog to digital television broadcasts must protect Americans' "fair use" rights."

"The chairman of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee focused on the Internet and intellectual property said he is reluctant to create new laws protecting copyrights online."

"Hollywood won't get a hand from the head of a Congressional subcommittee on the Internet and intellectual property, who says he is wary of passing new laws to protect copyrights online."

"Verizon challenged a subpoena requested by the RIAA, refusing to turn over the identities of subscribers accused of trading copyrighted music online. An appeals court last week gave the company two weeks to comply."

"Musicians are often unwilling to speak out against the tight constraints of their record labels, afraid of biting the hand that feeds. But an increasing number of artists are embracing the changes in digital technology as a potential revolution which may free them from the shackles of the commercial record industry."

"Dick Parsons, chief executive of AOL Time Warner, and other executives on a Monday panel said they would like to see copyright regulations bolstered."

"The biggest problem is stopping the redistribution of data, not the use of data on an individual basis. I'm all for Microsoft's efforts to put a stop to redistribution, but it also needs to take into account the right of fair use and people's ability to access content on multiple machines in different locations."

"I hate to say this, but the game is over. The music industry, as it now exists, cannot continue. Small artists are toast, and big artists will not be as big as before."

"Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to roll out a digital rights management product this year that will span cell phones, desktops and smart cards. The technology is believed to be initially targeted at protecting content such as Java-based games and could be based on emerging work in the Open Multimedia Alliance."

"D&M Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said its new ReplayTV digital television recorder will not include controversial features such as automatically skipping commercials and sharing shows via the Internet."

"Sen. Sam Brownback is preparing a bill that would limit digital copy-protection efforts, a move that could shatter the shaky congressional truce between the entertainment and technology industries."

"Cable TV and consumer-electronics companies have agreed on rules to limit how much viewers could copy or distribute digital TV programs on a new generation of recording devices."

"[The recording industry] proclaims loudly that 'copyright violation is theft'. It isn't. It's copyright violation. Copiers of copyrighted music are labelled as 'pirates'. They are not - they are copyright violators."

"The tribute film is definitely a derivative work; it's probably a reproduction, too. By their own admission, the boys worked from Raiders; as long as the resulting film shows "substantial similarity" to the original, it counts as a copy for copyright infringement purposes."

Press release: "[...] Artisan Home Entertainment is using Microsoft Windows Media 9 Series Digital Rights Management (DRM) to secure the online distribution of the cutting-edge, high-definition content on the "Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Extreme Edition)" bonus DVD."

"Anecdotal evidence suggests that listeners have been downloading it at an extraordinary rate, making it not only the latest but one of the most egregious examples of people snagging electronic copies of a record before its release date. What critics and fans haven't been able to predict is whether any of this matters."

"It's part of a legal tactic called "offensive blocking patents" in which businesses or individual entrepreneurs use patents not so much as tools to build new products, but as legal roadblocks or bargaining chips against competitors or corporate giants."

"For all of the new ways that digital technology and high-speed Internet connections are making music and movies available, many of the nation's media giants remain profoundly fearful that online distribution will open the door to massive piracy."

"Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online unit are among the companies expected to launch services to compete with Apple's 6-week-old iTunes store, which charges 99 cents to download a song onto a personal computer."

"Calling popular file-swapping networks like Kazaa "thieves' nests" that bilk the movie industry out of more than $3.5 billion each year, Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Jack Valenti said Thursday he thinks those services should be shut down."

"Ending a three-year legal spat, TiVo Inc. and Gemstar-TV Guide International Inc. on Monday settled their dueling lawsuits over the electronic program guide built into TiVo's digital video recorders."

"Gemstar-TV Guide and TiVo cleared the way for both to strike new deals on Monday as they settled a major dispute over who controls rights to technologies for on-screen TV program listings."

"Pirates armed with CD burners and cheap discs are bringing the industry to its knees. The U.S. could be next."

"In today's Los Angeles Times, Jon Healey writes about a new DRM proposal from a company called Music Public Broadcasting. The company's claims, which are not substantiated in the story, give off a distinct aroma of snake oil."

"A Massachusetts legislative committee held a hearing this week on an anti-UCITA bill, and the state could become the fifth to enact a law whose sole purpose is to protect its residents and businesses from the controversial software licensing law."

"But Jordan did agree to pony up $12,000, his entire savings account, to the RIAA. Jordan and his father, Andy Jordan, felt the settlement was their best option."

"An executive at a major record company who's seen the technology for protecting streams and CDs said he was impressed, although he's not sure the demonstration can be duplicated in the real world. "If it's not snake oil, it's pretty awesome," he said."

"Forty-three million Americans — half of those who connected to the Internet — used file-sharing software last month that allows people to copy music without paying for it, according to a survey by the NPD Group, a market research firm."

Intertainer: "Taplin tells a compelling story of how the major studios tried to extract onerous financial terms from his company before cutting off much of its movie supply just as Intertainer was undertaking a nationwide roll-out."

"Better known for browsers than blockbusters, Microsoft is still angling for a major role in the digital film business. The company is downplaying its ambitions until it finds out whether or not Hollywood will bite."

"The computer manufacturer is selling about 500,000 songs a week and about half of those are sold as albums, allaying fears that people would choose individual tracks instead of a whole record."

"With sales of CDs on a three-year slide, the music industry sees mobile phones as powerful outlets for promoting artists and distributing music for profit -- something it failed to do in the early days of Internet music-swapping."

"In its all-out war against file swapping, the recording industry has done itself a lot of damage. It has alienated its ideal audience — young people who live and breathe music — by being way behind the technological curve and by repeatedly sounding as if its main job was law enforcement rather than selling music."

"[The media conglomerates] consider every action that does not result in some form of payment theft. These are their rules and the only ones they want applied to digital rights management initiatives."

"Under the DMCA, allegedly aggrieved copyright holders need only get a subpoena from a lowly court clerk in order to glean information about suspected file-swappers. That standard is inconsistent with the higher burden of proof required in the nation's civil and criminal courts. At the very least a judge should be involved in granting a subpoena."

I think they meant "gouge": "The Digital Media Association and the Mobile Content Forum, the two Japanese trade groups representing companies producing 3G (third generation) wireless content, believe the copyright holders for the next generation of MPEG compression want to gauge them, and are seriously considering not adopting the MPEG-4 standard."

"Copyright holders like record labels have too much power over what people do with songs, argues technology analyst Bill Thompson."

"Justice Tamberlin has given copyright owners some access to files and data on University computer systems, to search for copyright infringers. Tamberlin J has clearly tried to tread a middle line between giving the full access sought by copyright owners, and the restricted access the Universities argued for."

Richard Stallman and Nick Hill: "The computer industry is threatened by a wild west-style land grab. The biggest, richest players are being assisted by governments to take unassailable exclusive control of the ideas that programmers combine to make a program."

Music industry representative: "Verizon decided to litigate this as though this were a case involving capital punishment going to the U.S. Supreme Court. They decided to put the full weight of a $40 billion company behind protecting pirates, and somebody has to pay for that."

"Apple Computer may never be able to stop Mac users from sharing music over the Internet, despite its best attempts."

"Five months after losing a high-profile argument in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, foes of federal copyright law are launching a public campaign to create a policy that they see as better in step with the Internet age. Lawrence Lessig is leading the charge."

"Recent consumer-tracking surveys from The NPD Group suggest that the music industry and retailers must look beyond music file sharing to find other important root causes of ongoing music sales declines - especially among mature music buyers."

"In a sign that file-sharing communities may start to turn on one another, Altnet said Thursday that rival networks may be violating its patent for digital tags, and it plans to bring to them in line."

"The general consensus from those who attended the hearing was that it went badly for Madster."

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is hoping a deal it announced Tuesday will end a lengthy battle over Internet radio royalty rates, but many online "webcasters" say they still are facing royalty payments that will put them out of business."

"Russia is fast rising to the top of world music piracy charts with a counterfeit boom that could hit foreign investment and damage Moscow's efforts to join the World Trade Organisation, a leading watchdog said on Thursday."

"A U.S.-based software antipiracy group has begun to target Asia-Pacific Web sites and users of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, looking for those who trade in illegal software."

"A new agreement will allow college radio stations to pay a more palatable price to webcast music, but still saddles them with limitations on what they can play and when."

"Consumer electronics companies have been hauled into federal court for apparent violations that could never have stood up prior to the DMCA's passage."

"Verizon also contended the RIAA's action violated the First Amendment right to anonymity and privacy rights of Internet users. [...] Both sides in the dispute have said they believe the case will eventually end up at the Supreme Court as test case about the subpoena power of the DMCA."

"A conservative Republican senator said Wednesday that he has drafted a bill that would scale back the ability of record labels, movie studios and software companies to use anticopying technology. The bill, authored by Sen. Sam Brownback, would regulate digital rights management systems, granting consumers the right to resell copy-protected products and requiring digital media manufacturers to prominently disclose to consumers the presence of anticopying technology in their products."

"In a victory for copyright holders, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia refused to intervene in the case and protect the subscribers' identities while the case moves forward. However, final victory for the recording industry is still a ways off, with a pending appeal scheduled for a hearing in September that could vindicate Verizon."

"Heavy metal band Metallica are offering fans the chance to listen to their music on the internet, just three years after suing over dowloads from the web."

"What a difference a few years make: Heavy-metal band Metallica once waged a high-profile legal campaign against the online service Napster, claiming it was cheating artists by allowing people to swap songs free. Now it is Metallica putting free material on the Web and Napster that is being retooled to become a for-pay service."

"In a victory for the record industry, Verizon Communications said yesterday that it would turn over the names of four online subscribers accused of illegally copying music over the Internet to an industry trade group after a federal appeals court rejected its request for a delay pending a final decision in the case."

"A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a request by Verizon Communications Inc. to delay turning over the names of four of its Internet subscribers suspected of illegally offering free music for downloading."

"A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday ordered Verizon Communications to immediately reveal the names of two customers suspected of illegally distributing hundreds of songs over the Internet."

"British music group EMI has joined the $17bn lawsuit launched by music publishers against German media giant Bertelsmann for allegedly supporting music piracy."

"EMI, the music group that includes Capitol Records, has sued Bertelsmann AG, saying the German giant's support of the music-swapping service Napster led to the infringement of EMI's copyrights."

"It seems the long arm of the DMCA, which has been used to crack down on file-swappers, printer cartridge makers and font creators, is now reaching into the competitive world of sewing patterns."

"It seems the biggest battle faced by the entertainment industry in the war against piracy is human nature."

"Legal action and law enforcement can only do so much and certainly will not win back the hearts and minds of the customer — who is always king."

"Copy-control technology used on music discs demands one thing from users - absolute faith in the motives of the enforcer. That's the only conclusion one can draw after a fairly detailed Q and A with Roger Kuah, the new media projects manager of EMI."

"Pictures of the Queen wearing a gas mask which are on display in an art gallery in Brighton have caused a row with the Royal Mail. [...] The Royal Mail has said using the Queen's head is a breach of its copyright."

"Universities and the music industry on Tuesday said they reached a royalty payment deal that would allow college radio stations to stream music over the Internet at a discount."

"The recording industry has filed a new copyright infringement suit against the makers of Morpheus, a move that comes only a month after suffering a setback in its legal fight against the file-sharing service."

"With content already available from all five major labels, the online music service is reaching out to independent labels in hopes of offering the broadest, deepest catalog of downloadable music."

"Amazon.com may seek partners such as Apple Computer and song distributor MusicNet for help in starting an online-music service, analysts said."

"Executives from the music world are again hunting down fan sites that may infringe copyright. This time, a number of Radiohead fan sites have been asked to remove their popular lyrics and tabs archives."

"Plans to build security features into personal computers to make unauthorised digital copying more difficult could backfire by strengthening controversial peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, say US researchers."

"Three years after suing Napster, Metallica is offering songs from its new album exclusively on the Internet."

"Like frustrated prosecutors charging an acquitted crime boss with tax evasion, the major record labels are suing the creators of the Morpheus file-sharing network again — not over the software that millions of people use to copy billons of songs for free but over a service that never launched."

"AOL Time Warner is trying to stop the spread of new software released by its Nullsoft division, whose founder and lead programmer, Justin Frankel, is known for leaking his work onto the Internet and causing headaches for his employer."

"We have launched a petition to build support for the Public Domain Enhancement Act. That act would require American copyright holders to pay $1 fifty years after a work was published. If they pay the $1, the copyright continues. If they don’t, the work passes into the public domain."

"Corporations cracked down on pirated software last year, trimming the worldwide glut by a percentage point, according to a new industry report."

"ClearPlay, Family Shield Technologies and Trilogy Studios filed a motion Friday in the United States District Court in Denver to dismiss claims that their products infringe on the copyrights of motion pictures."

"The deal will allow Warner to offer song clips from emerging artists, ring tones, multimedia message templates and wallpaper graphics for Nokia 3300 owners. Nokia will also include a CD-ROM with full-length tracks from Warner Music International artists that can be downloaded onto the 3300."

"But despite recent enthusiasm from consumers, it remains to be seen whether this is the start of a genuine fightback against the illegal peer-to-peer sites that have brought the labels to the brink, or the last gasp of a dying industry."

"File-Cash, a new Mac compatible music sharing service, will launch tomorrow (June 1). One of the ways it will differ from Apple's own iTunes Music Store is its focus on independent labels. [...] Additionally, consumers will get a percentage of the file price every time another consumer downloads the file from their shared drive."

"They charge 99 cents per song. That’s all you get, the song data file. You provide the CD, the labor to create it, the plastic case and the printer ink and paper for the album liners. That 99 cents per song is the same price as most commercial CDs."

"We might look to the government for help in regulating the Internet, but the biggest legislative action so far has been the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed at the urging of The Walt Disney Co. and the Recording Industry Association of America. It protects them and not the consumer."

"The Australians are beginning to wake up to the fact that FTAs are not all they're cracked up to be. [...] And this analysis excludes the negatives the US would extract, such as a rewrite of Australia's copyright laws to suit US producers."

"Publishers remain wary of releasing books on the Internet until there is a proven method of preventing people from copying and distributing them indiscriminately, Levin said. As a result, only a limited selection of current titles exist online."

"The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a video company cannot be sued under a trademark law for reusing old war documentary footage without giving credit to 20th Century Fox. The 8-0 decision gives some freedom to people who want to reproduce works that no longer have copyright protection."

"Through a back-end technology of TiVo's DVR service, TiVo executives can see which shows its users are watching live or recording and track when commercials are being watched, re-wound and watched again or zipped past through the DVR's fast-forward feature."

"Later this week, Kazaa parent Sharman Networks and Altnet will jointly release a new bundle of file-swapping software that will include components of a new high-security peer-to-peer network and a program that will pay users to be a part of it."

Two-part article on Edison: "Even though Edison had invented the process, defined it, set the standards and had every legal right to control his monopoly, he went over the line by preventing others from making his inventions better, stopping variations on the theme and systematically eliminating the competition by taking away their supply."

"On April 22, the House Regulated Industries held a surprise hearing on HB2121, the House version of the Texas SDMCA. It wasn't a coincidence that the MPAA lobbyists had flown in that morning. Last Wednesday, the MPAA lobbyists flew back to DC. We helped send them home."