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Kazaa Agrees to Pay Big - Again |
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| October 31, 2006 - Legal |
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Earlier this year, Kazaa paid the record labels and movie studios $115 million to settle a copyright infringement lawsuit after the Supreme Court ruled file sharing providers were liable for illegal activities on their networks. The payouts continue. Attorneys for the National Music Publishers' Association say they have reached an agreement for Kazaa to pay "a substantial sum" under a settlement. NMPA is trumpeting the agreement as another significant victory for the legal music download business. Meanwhile, the President of Sharman Networks, owner of Kazaa, said he did not know anything about the agreement. With this kind of response, what everyone else knows for certain is that this guy is either clueless, out of the loop or in need of much better PR advice. The "I don't know" line doesn't work for very long. Particularly when you are talking about $100 million.
 DiggIt |
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MySpace and YouTube Scrub Copyrighted Content |
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| October 30, 2006 - Legal > Web |
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Both MySpace and YouTube are suddenly feeling the simultaneous pressure to scrub thousands of files from their websites that contain copyrighted material. MySpace is using a digital fingerprint technology to block users from uploading copyrighted music. All uploaded audio files will first have to pass through Gracenote before they can be posted. The announcement follows MySpace's recent launch of its own digital music store and mirrors YouTube's recent moves to delete clips from Comedy Central and other TV networks. This, in turn, follows aggressive approaches by record labels who have sued services that allow users to post copyrighted songs as the soundtrack to their personal websites. YouTube is choosing to share ad revenue with record labels instead of pulling songs from it site. With YouTube as a guinea of Google and MySpace as a nephew of News Corp., more big business corporate moves should be expected soon. We just hope the soul that has made each of these sites so fantastic survives the culture wars between old and new masters. |
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International Music Industry Gavels the Hell Out of Downloaders |
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| October 17, 2006 - Legal |
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As the RIAA scales back its legal push to strike fear in the hearts of illegal music downloaders in the US, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) is getting more aggressive. This week they filed 8,000 lawsuits against file sharers who upload music for others to enjoy. (Actually, most of the lawsuits were filed against the parents of alleged downloaders) The cases were brought in 17 countries, including the first in Brazil, Mexico and Poland. The IFPI paid particularly close attention to Brazil - South America's biggest country and largest economy - where it claims more than 1 billion songs were downloaded illegally last year, corresponding with a 50 percent decrease in album sales since 2000. All in all, IFPI claims that more than 20 billion songs were downloaded illegally last year. |
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Kazaa Gets Kapow'ed |
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| July 27, 2006 - Legal |
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| Worried that it would get clobbered in court, the makers of once legendary P2P software Kazaa settled global lawsuits from the major players in the entertainment industry. Sharman Networks paid an unspecified, but purportedly hefty sum to settle the lawsuit and gain the opportunity to start legally distributing songs and other copyrighted materials in an iTunes style pay for download service. Sharman promised to revise its software in "robust and secure" ways, to discourage piracy. I guess that means you won't be able to snag the latest Captain Jack escapade after all. In a related legal development earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that there was overwhelming evidence of copyright infringement on the part of Streamcast, the makers of Morpheus. |
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Techno Senate - The Tubes, The Tubes |
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| July 12, 2006 - Legal > My Soundtrack |
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| Ted Stevens, the Senator from Alaska who recently generated headlines by proposing to fund a $250 million bridge to an uninhabited Alaskan island, gave a bizarre rant during the June 28 Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on net neutrality. Stevens called the Internet a "series of tubes" and also said, "It's not a big truck." Technology blogger and podcaster BoldHeaded (www.boldheaded.com) sampled the rambling speech to a techno beat and turned it into a brilliant song - "Ted's Techno Tubes." My favorite line is where Stevens says "Just the other day, an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 O'Clock in the morning on Friday and I go it yesterday. Why?" followed by a series of shouting "Tubes," "Tubes," "Tubes." Who said the Senate was full of old white dudes that just didn't get it? You can download the song here. |
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Apple Suit - Not Just Fruit of the Loom |
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| June 26, 2006 - Legal |
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| Call it the battle of the big apples - and we're not talking about the Mets vs. the Yankees. Let us stop there. Apple (computers) and Apple Corps (including the Beatles's Apple Records) have been battling for the mythically embattled fruit. The record company claimed that the computer (and iPod) company violated an agreement to stay out of the entertainment realm. The iPod proved superior to vinyl, at least in the legal realm. The courts ruled that Apple Computer is not violating the Corps's trademark by displaying the Apple Computer logo on iTunes. With this slap in the face, we wonder whether Apple Corps will ever license Beatles tunes for distribution on iTunes. While the Beatles were an early pioneer of good 'ole rock 'n roll, they are downright primitive when it comes to distributing their music electronically. |
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Your iPod, Mr. Senator |
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| June 20, 2006 - Legal |
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| The Intellectual Property Action Committee recently sent spankin' new video iPods to 12 US senators on key committees addressing intellectual property issues. The iPods were loaded with songs from the public domain and readings from the Constitution to beats brought by Thievery Corporation. Unfortunately, for the Action Committee, all 12 senators sent the iPods back, citing a range of ethics and "I'm with it. I'm hip to be square. I've already got an iPod, helloooo" excuses. Since it's probably too later for the Action Committee to return the iPods to Best Buy, there's probably a dozen happy committee staffers sporting brand new video iPods around town. |
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Tax Relief for Songwriters |
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| June 08, 2006 - Legal |
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| Federal Tax law is not typically the first place to look for news about the music industry, but the Tax Relief Extension Reconciliation Act, which went into law last month includes language that redefines the way profits from the licensing of musical compositions are taxed. Currently, corporations only have to pay taxes on music catalogues at the capital gains rate of 15%, but songwriters have to pay at the personal income tax rate, which can be twice as high. Under the new law, individual songwriters get to pay the lower rate. Finally a tax law that makes sense - people should not have to pay more tax than a business. That's just doesn?t make good business sense. We should not punish entrepreneurial people for going it on their own. |
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Some Lawsuits are Just Plain Ludacris |
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| June 02, 2006 - Legal |
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| Kanye West and Ludacris stood up for the authenticity of their music and won in court. The top-selling rappers won a copyright infringement trial filed by New Jersey musicians It's Only Family who claimed the duo's 2003 hit "Stand Up" was a copy of their song "Straight Like That" which never made it past college radio in 2001. The central question was whether the phrase "like that," which is repeated dozens of times in each song is a rip-off or coincidence. Judging by the speed of the verdict, the jury thought justice was best served -just like that. |
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Apple Gets Un-Creative |
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| May 19, 2006 - Legal > Tech |
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| Could Apple |
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Record Companies Attack XM |
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| May 18, 2006 - Legal |
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| First they took on their listeners. Now the record labels are attacking radio - the people that popularize songs by broadcasting them to the public. The major labels have slapped a lawsuit on XM Radio, alleging that the company's new mp3 player, satellite receiver and digital recorder (the Inno) infringes copyrights. The lawsuit asks for $150,000 for each infringement. Since XM broadcasts 160,000 songs per month, that is quite a lawsuit. We'
e not talking about squeezing a couple thousand bucks from a few college kids. XM alleges that the labels are just trying to apply pressure during business negotiations. Forget big oil, its the record labels that deserve a little consumer ire. When are they going to learn that pissing off consumers and business partners is not the best way of doing business? I may drop $400 on an Inno just to rub it inno their faces. |
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Dark Nets |
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| April 29, 2006 - Legal > Tech |
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Beatles Jump the Digital Band Wagon - Finally |
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| April 15, 2006 - Legal > Music |
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| There are gaps in iTunes and other digital libraries - hundreds of artists and thousands of songs that aren |
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DOJ Investigates Price-Fixing for Music Downloads |
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| March 03, 2006 - Legal |
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| The music industry has been aggressively pursuing illegal activity including piracy and P2P for the last couple years, but now record companies may have their own legal troubles. The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an investigation into price fixing. They will be investigating whether the four global music companies colluded to set prices for online music. DOJ is asking if 99 cents the magical number people arrived at accidentally or if they decided to pull a CD on all of us. Remember, CDs were originally supposed to retail at half the cost of tapes, but then the record companies figured out that if they all charged more, people would be willing to pay more. And the rest is 18 bucks of history. DOJ has sent investigative queries to each of the companies. This follows New York Attorney General (and shameless gubernatorial candidate) Eliot Spitzer |
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Brits Follow Suit |
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| January 27, 2006 - Legal |
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| The British Phonographic Institute (BPI) has followed the RIAA |
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These Boots are Made for Gawkin |
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| January 10, 2006 - Legal > Tech |
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iPod Immersion |
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| December 27, 2005 - Legal > Tech |
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| Police in Boston are warning people riding the rails that if they are immersed in their iPod while commuting on the train, they may become a target for pickpockets and petty thieves. Transit police have reported a rise in cash, credit cards and other valuables being lifted while people are tuning out the world around them by listening to tunes or talking intently on cell phones. They recommend that you drop an ear of the headphones so that you can hear what |
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Spitzer Alleges Price Fixing for Music Downloads |
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| December 24, 2005 - Legal |
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| New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is taking on industry again |
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Pour Some Sugar on TV |
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| December 08, 2005 - Ads > Legal > Movie > Music > TV |
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| When Drew Barrymore insisted that "Smack My Bitch Up" just had to be in the climactic racing scene in Charlie |
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Don |
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| November 20, 2005 - Legal > Music > Tech |
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| Texans are generally very friendly people. Texans will talk to you just because you |
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Grokster to P2P No More |
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| November 07, 2005 - Legal > Tech |
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| Just months after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that P2P network Grokster could be held liable for copyright infringement |
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