Free Republic

MINNEAPOLIS — A replay of the nation's only file-sharing case to go to trial has ended with the same result — a Minnesota woman was found to have violated music copyrights and must pay huge damages to the recording industry

Louise: "No these are not my songs." They are however downloaded right onto her computer. Louise:"I was embarrassed when they gave me a print out of these songs." She got this printout because of lawyers. She also got this letter telling her she was being sued for copyright infringement.Parents, there are other popular file sharing programs you need to know about: Morpheus: morpheus.com Kazaa: www.kazaa.com Bearshare: www.bearshare.com Limewire: www.limewire.com Louise: "I was in shock..I was stunned." The letter is part of a music industry crackdown.Singers, songwriters and music companies tired of people downloading and burning copies of music without paying....

WHITE PLAINS, New York - It was Easter Sunday, and Patricia Santangelo was in church with her kids when she says the music recording industry peeked into her computer and decided to take her to court. Santangelo says she has never downloaded a single song on her computer, but the industry didn't see it that way. The woman from Wappingers Falls, about 80 miles north of New York City, is among the more than 16,000 people who have been sued for allegedly pirating music through file-sharing computer networks. "I assumed that when I explained to them who I was and...

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A court ruled Monday that popular file-swapping network Kazaa breaches copyright in Australia and gave the service's owners two months to modify their Web site to prevent further piracy by its millions of users. Although the ruling is only enforceable in Australia, the record industry hailed it as a victory that would resonate around the world. "The court has ruled the current Kazaa system illegal. If they want to continue, they are going to have to stop the trade in illegal music on that system," record industry spokesman Michael Speck said outside the court. "It's a...

Company claims ability to wipe out file-sharing Music, movie sharing doomed, say Finns By : Monday 18 April 2005, 12:13 A FINNISH COMPANY, Viralg Oy, says it can wipe out file-sharing in an instant. The company says it has developed digital rights protection software that can be incorporated into digital movie, music or software releases and set to play havoc with P2P networks on which releases may appear. Viralg says it has a "virtual algorithm" which is capable of, "mixing together files in P2P networks in a way that the illegal downloader will end up downloading useless garbage instead of...

Jan. 19, 2005 Justice Dept. gains first P2P piracy convictions By Brooks BoliekWASHINGTON -- The Justice Department on Tuesday notched its first-ever convictions for copyright piracy perpetrated on P2P networks as two suspects nabbed by the G-men in the department's "Operation Digital Gridlock" pleaded guilty to felony intellectual property crimes. William Trowbridge, 50, of Johnson City, N.Y., and Michael Chicoine, 47, of San Antonio each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony criminal copyright infringement before Judge Paul Friedman in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The men made available millions of dollars worth...

Hey, people!!! We just bought a new PC (a cheap-ass Compaq Presario, but it's good enough for us basic users). I'd like to install music downloading software like Kazaa or sumthin' like that, but I don't want to plague the new machine with spyware that took the life of Ol' Sparky (the previous computer). What can you recommend to avoid spyware, and, in general, keep the computer healthy. Thanks for the anwsers you could provide me!!!

If you own a movie or record copyright, and someone else "induces" people to start infringing it, should you be able to sue the inducer? Senator Orrin Hatch thinks so, and it's possible his bad idea could become bad law. Granted, he's trying to address a real copyright problem. Music labels and movie studios are playing a frustrating game of whack-a-mole, with new Internet file-sharing networks popping up faster than the recording industry can protest. The newest networks, including KaZaa and Morpheus, are run as for-profit piracy havens but have found ways to skirt copyright laws. They display advertising on...

<p>TUCSON - A federal judge has ruled that the recording industry can force the University of Arizona to identify four people accused of using its computers to violate copyright law by downloading music.</p> <p>Federal Magistrate Jacqueline Marshall signed the order allowing recording companies to subpoena the university to provide the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for four defendants referred to in the lawsuit.</p>

A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales. For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.

<p>SYDNEY -- The makers of Kazaa, the peer-to-peer file sharing software, failed to quash a court order Thursday that allowed the music industry to raid its Sydney-based offices, prompting a furious response from its chief executive.</p> <p>In February, the music industry was granted an Anton Piller order, which grants copyright holders the rights of search and seizure, allowing it to raid 12 sites across Australia to seize documents and data. Sites raided included the offices of Sharman Networks, the home of its chief executive, several universities and other companies that were believed to be holding information relating to Kazaa.</p>

The folks who brought you Kazaa have a new hit called Skype—and a plan to set phone calls free. If the telcos want to fight back, they'll have to find them first. Near the center of the walled medieval district of Estonia's capital, Tallinn, sits the NoKu bar. It's almost impossible to find, on a cobblestone street behind a pair of old, unmarked wooden doors that unlock only with a magnetic keycard, and up a set of rickety stairs. In Estonian, "NoKu" is an acronym for "young culture"; the private club is full of twentysomethings in jeans, drinking local Saku...

Recipient Information:Customer Support, DMCA ComplaintsGoogle Inc.Mountain View, CA, 94043, USA Sent via: Federal Express Re: NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENTLadies and Gentlemen: We act on behalf of Sharman Networks, Ltd. (the "Owner"). As required under Sections 512(c)(3) and 512(d)(3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §§512(c)(3) and 512(d)(3)), we are instructed to place you on notice that: 1. The Owner is the exclusive owner of the copyrights in and to the Kazaa Media Desktop software (the "KMD"); and 2. Utilizing the search query, "kazaa," at www.google.com, the following search results (the "Infringing Material") contain unauthorized copies of the KMD...

AMSTERDAM/LONDON (Reuters) - The Dutch supreme court on Friday threw out an attempt by a music copyright agency to put controls on popular Internet file-swapping software system Kazaa, a ruling the music industry attacked as flawed. The decision is a fresh blow to the media industry, which has fought to shut down file-sharing networks they say have created a massive black-market trade in free music, films and video games on the Internet. "The victory by Kazaa creates an important precedent for the legality of peer-to-peer software, both in the European Union as elsewhere," Kazaa's lawyers Bird & Bird said in...

Hollywood Takes Anti-Piracy Message to School By Ron Harris Associated Press Writer Published: Oct 23, 2003 SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - As part of its campaign to thwart online music and movie piracy, Hollywood is now reaching into school classrooms with a program that denounces file-sharing and offers prizes for students and teachers who spread the word about Internet theft. The Motion Picture Association of America paid $100,000 to deliver its anti-piracy message to 900,000 students nationwide in grades 5-9 over the next two years, according to Junior Achievement Inc., which is implementing the program using volunteer teachers from the business...

<p>LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Turning the tables on record labels, makers of the most popular Internet song-swapping network are suing entertainment companies for copyright infringement.</p> <p>Sharman Networks Ltd., the company behind the Kazaa file-sharing software, filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing the entertainment companies of using unauthorized versions of its software in their efforts to root out users. Entertainment companies have offered bogus versions of copyright works and sent online messages to users.</p>

Sarah Ward was stunned when the record industry sued her for being a music pirate. Mrs. Ward, a 66-year-old sculptor and retired schoolteacher, received notice on Sept. 11 from the Recording Industry Association of America that she was being accused of engaging in millions of dollars worth of copyright infringement, downloading thousands of songs and sharing them with the world through a popular file-sharing program called KaZaA. Mrs. Ward was deeply confused by the accusations, which have disrupted her gentle life in the suburbs of Boston. She does not trade music, she says, does not have any younger music-loving relatives...

The recording industry has withdrawn a lawsuit against a Newbury woman because it falsely accused her of illegally sharing music -- possibly the first case of mistaken identity in the battle against Internet file-traders.... The lawsuit claimed that Ward had illegally shared more than 2,000 songs through Kazaa and threatened to hold her liable for up to $150,000 for each song. The plaintiffs were Sony Music, BMG, Virgin, Interscope, Atlantic, Warner Brothers, and Arista. Among the songs she was accused of sharing: "I'm a Thug," by the rapper Trick Daddy. But Ward, 66, is a "computer neophyte" who never installed...

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Makers of the most popular online file-sharing network are suing entertainment companies for copyright infringement, alleging the companies used unauthorized versions of its software to snoop on users in their efforts to battle piracy. Sharman Networks, the company behind the Kazaa file-sharing software, filed a federal lawsuit Monday, accusing the movie studios and the Recording Industry of America of using ``Kazaa Lite,'' a replica of its software without advertising, to get onto the network. Sharman claims its copyright was violated because Kazaa Lite is an unauthorized version of its free software. Once on the network, the...

<p>It's become a familiar rite of spring and summer around the country: city residents converging on a grassy park hillside, spreading out a blanket and enjoying a free concert.</p> <p>But even "free" concerts come with a price tag — and the organization charged with protecting copyrighted songs is determined to make sure that bill gets paid.</p>

I've used Kazaa to download music files. There, I've said it so I guess it is only a matter of time before the Canadian Recording Industry Association or the Recording Industry Association of America sends me a nasty letter or hits me with a lawsuit for stealing copyrighted music. To be honest, the RIAA's recent decision to fire off 261 lawsuits in the United States sends shivers up my spine. These guys are have become serious -- even if means further alienating their consumers. I guess the RIAA is frustrated that after five years of legal warfare, there are still...

WASHINGTON - A 12-year-old girl in New York who was among the first to be sued by the record industry for sharing music over the Internet is off the hook after her mother agreed Tuesday to pay $2,000 to settle the lawsuit, apologizing and admitting that her daughter's actions violated U.S. copyright laws. The hurried settlement involving Brianna LaHara, an honors student, was the first announced one day after the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) filed 261 such lawsuits across the country. Lawyers for the RIAA said Brianna's mother, Sylvia Torres, contacted them early Tuesday to...

LONDON (Reuters) - The music industry's latest legal crusade to sue online song swappers is copyright holders' clearest message yet to Internet users: not only is the Net's "free ride" over, but it can be expensive. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Monday said it sued 261 music fans in the U.S. as much as $150,000 per song distributed online.The film and software industry are biding their time, arming themselves to jump in with similar legal maneuvers to protect their copyright-protected movies, video games and operating systems from the massive black market that's emerged on Internet file-sharing services...

The RIAA has nailed one of the most prolific file-traders in the U.S., filing a lawsuit against 12-year-old Brianna LaHara. When not at the playground with her friends, "Biggie Brianna" is trading music files from her home in New York. The little girl received one of the 261 lawsuits filed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) on Monday, according to the New York Post. She may look like a sweet and innocent child, but the RIAA says it's only going after major copyright violators at the moment. So you make the call. "I got really scared. My stomach...

The day after a report suggested the compact disc is heading the way of the 8-track tape, the world's largest music label conglomerate promised a steep cut in music CD pricing. Universal Music Group on Wednesday said it will slash its wholesale prices and reduce its suggested retail pricing for music CDs to $13, from between $17 and $19. The company, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal, is home to a number of record labels, including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, and Philips. "Music fans will benefit from the price reductions we are announcing...

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 3 — The world’s largest recording company said Wednesday it would slash wholesale CD prices in hopes of reviving music sales, which have dropped 31 percent industrywide in the last three years. UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP said it would cut the suggested sale price on a majority of its CDs by $6 to $12.98. The company hopes retailers will follow its lead and drop their CD prices to around $10 or less. The price changes would go into effect by Oct. 1.       “We expect (this) will invigorate the music market in North America,” UMG Chairman and...

An anonymous California computer user went to court Thursday to challenge the recording industry's file-trading subpoenas, charging that they are unconstitutional and violate her right to privacy. The legal motion, filed in Washington, D.C., federal court by a "Jane Doe" Internet service subscriber, is the first from an individual whose personal information has been subpoenaed by the Recording Industry Association of America in recent months. The RIAA has used court orders to try to identify more than 1,000 computer users it alleges have been offering copyrighted songs on file-trading networks. It plans to use the information gained to file copyright...

They used to say "home taping" was killing music, now it's meant to be internet downloaders. But the real pirates these days are crime bosses - and the rewards are plentiful. The net has given rise to many novel ways of doing business but the methods of the Recording Industry Association of America has got every twisted e-commerce scheme beaten. Last month, the association began suing hundreds of its customers. For the RIAA - which represents the major US recording companies - this makes perfect sense. The people being sued are sharing music with millions of others via peer-to-peer networks...

Nervous music file-swappers who worry they may be on the list of 871 people targeted by recording industry subpoenas now have a Web site where their fears can be allayed -- or confirmed. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group that fights for personal and privacy rights in cyberspace, has set up a Web site that lets users of file-sharing services check to see if their screen names have been targeted for legal action by the Recording Industry Association of America. According to information on the site, the data is gathered from electronic court records and may not be complete....

Congress mulls prison terms for KaZaA users By Thomas C Greene in Washington Posted: 17/07/2003 at 12:40 GMT Not satisfied with hacking P2P networks, or destroying the computers of file sharers, House Hollywood sock puppet Howard Berman (Democrat, California) is now sponsoring legislation that would jail people who trade as little as one MP3 on the Internet. Berman has hooked up with House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (Democrat, Michigan) to produce this Hobbesian proposal. "While existing laws have been useful in stemming this problem, they simply do not go far enough," Conyers is quoted as saying. Details are...

http://au.news.yahoo.com//030717/11/kvue.html Thursday July 17, 11:15 AM Bill Would Put Internet Song Swappers in Jail Internet users who allow others to copy songs from their hard drives could face prison time under legislation introduced by two Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday. The bill is the strongest attempt yet to deter the widespread online song copying that recording companies say has led to a decline in CD sales. Sponsored by Michigan Rep. John Conyers and California Rep. Howard Berman, the bill would make it easier to slap criminal charges on Internet users who copy music, movies and other copyrighted files over "peer-to-peer" networks....

<p>Two derivatives of the popular Kazaa peer-to-peer filesharing service now actively attempt to block scans by the RIAA and other agencies, escalating the P2P war to a new level.</p> <p>Both Kazaa K++ and Kazaa Lite, two very similar modifications to the Kazaa file-sharing system by Sharman Networks, now contain hooks to the PeerGuardian database of IP addresses. Both updates were published to the Web at the end of last week.</p>

<p>When the recording industry said Wednesday it would sue heavy music sharers, it left one unnerving question unanswered: Just who would they consider a heavy sharer?</p> <p>In a conference call with reporters, the Recording Industry Association of America's President Cary Sherman said the group will begin collecting evidence against those who offer "substantial" amounts of music online to others over peer-to-peer networks, then will file hundreds of copyright-infringement lawsuits beginning in August. But he declined to say specifically what "substantial" means.</p>

Music Labels Step Up Internet Piracy Hunt TED BRIDIS Associated PressWASHINGTON - The embattled music industry disclosed plans Wednesday for an unprecedented escalation in its fight against Internet piracy, threatening to sue hundreds of individual computer users who illegally share music files online. The Recording Industry Association of America, citing significant sales declines, said it will begin Thursday to search Internet file-sharing networks to identify music fans who offer "substantial" collections of MP3 song files for downloading. It expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages within eight to 10 weeks. Executives for the RIAA, the Washington-based...

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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 surprise remarks by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright abuses represent a dramatic escalation in the frustrating battle by industry executives and lawmakers in Washington against illegal music downloads. During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have...

Music piracy 'great', says Robbie Williams challenged record labels about pirate copies Singer Robbie Williams has said he believes music piracy is a "great" idea. He made the comment at a music trade fair in Cannes, predicting it would anger his record company EMI. Williams said he had investigated the issue of music piracy before renegotiating his new recording contract last year. The heads of the record labels don't know what to do about it Robbie Williams He said: "I think it's great, really I do. "There is nothing anyone can do about it. "I am sure my record label...

WASHINGTON - 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 surprise remarks by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, during a hearing on copyright abuses represent a dramatic escalation in the frustrating battle by industry executives and lawmakers in Washington against illegal music downloads. During a discussion on methods to frustrate computer users who illegally exchange music and movie files over the Internet, Hatch asked technology executives about ways to damage computers involved in such file trading. Legal experts have said...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Concert tickets, DVDs and even laptops will be used to encourage users of the online bazaar known as Kazaa to swap legal files instead of pirated movies and music. The Peer Points Manager program announced Monday will essentially be Internet file-sharing's version of frequent flyer miles. Kazaa users earn points for making legal files available to others over the Internet. The points can be redeemed for small prizes like computer games or for sweepstakes entries to win larger items. The program is being run by Altnet, a Kazaa partner trying to promote sharing of legal files...

<p>LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) --Sharman Networks said its Kazaa file-sharing software was on track to set a record Friday as it becomes the most-popular free program on the Web with over 230 million downloads.</p> <p>By hitting that total, Shaman said Kazaa would surpass the popular ICQ instant messaging program, owned by CNN's parent company AOL Time Warner.</p>

Kazaa claims 230 million downloads Fri May 23,11:30 AM ET By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Mercury News If the most powerful emotion is neither love nor hate -- it's got to be the desire to get stuff for free. That's what one must conclude from an announcement expected today from Sharman Networks, which says its Kazaa Media Desktop has been downloaded 230 million times -- setting the record as the most popular software application ever distributed over the Internet. In just over a year, the software used to download free music over the Internet has surpassed all other applications distributed through...

A new virus called Fizzer apparently has been spreading rapidly in Asia and has now reached beyond that continent. Fizzer is a self-propagating worm that spreads via e-mail and the peer-to-peer file-sharing service Kazaa. On Friday, security company F-Secure gave Fizzer its second-highest alert status. On Monday, F-Secure issued a press release that upgraded Fizzer to its highest alert status, although it had not yet updated its Web site. Other security companies, such as Trend Micro and McAfee, have classified it as a "medium" risk. The virus arrives in an e-mail with of a number of potential subject lines, including...

Here's a business model with a future: sue your customers. That's what, as of this month, the recorded-music industry has been doing. It filed suit against four college students involved in Internet file-sharing (in which compressed "files" of music are swapped, Napster-style), asking for billions of dollars in damages. Yes, billions. Interestingly enough, the Bush administration, known to be opposed to frivolous lawsuits and in favor of tort reform, has weighed in on the side of the industry. Let's go after those students. That's where the money is. This strategy would suggest that lawsuits against computer makers and the manufacturers...

<p>LOS ANGELES — As the record industry starts to come down hard on unauthorized music downloading on college campuses, students are responding with defiant words and defensive actions.</p> <p>The Recording Industry Association of America, which had relied on warnings and educational programs aimed at campuses, last week filed its first legal suits against students at Princeton, Michigan Tech and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The record industry says the students infringed on copyrights by operating song-sharing sites on university servers.</p>

Ipsos-Reid Research: File Traders Feel Activities Are Not Wrong. By Richard Menta 3/16/03The music and movie industries have stepped up their campaigns to label people who trade files as pirates who steal from artists and who are violating the law. It's not working. The public is saying "Talk to the Hand".The truth is until this issue winds its way to the Supreme Court, US law will remain unclear on this issue. In the 80's, the second highest court in the land ruled it was a crime to record your favorite TV shows as it violated copyrights. We taped anyway and...

Arrests urged to foil Web piracy on campus By ANGEL WILSON COX NEWS SERVICE WASHINGTON -- Colleges need to monitor campus Internet activity more closely and possibly arrest students who download copyrighted material for free, members of a congressional panel said yesterday. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Fla., said students who download music and movies from file-sharing Web sites are clearly breaking copyright laws. "It's electronic theft, plain and simple," said Wexler, a member of the House Judiciary subcommittee on courts, the Internet, and intellectual property. Lesser-known artists are being forced to find other lines of work because they are not being...

<p>LONDON, Feb 13 — The recording industry directed its anti-piracy campaign at large companies in the United States, Europe and Asia on Thursday, warning them that employees are illegally downloading music on company time.</p> <p>The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a global trade group representing the major music labels, said it had begun issuing brochures to thousands of companies spelling out the legal and technological dangers of giving employees access to online file-sharing networks.</p>

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- Two Guy Trio's singer, Evan Gamble, doesn't mind that bootleg copies of his band's "Shelby Sugarcane" are spreading on the Internet through the Kazaa file-sharing system.</p> <p>A half-million fans have downloaded legal copies of the song through Kazaa, the Internet's leading bazaar. Illicit trading by a few million others is a minor nuisance.</p>

LOS ANGELES –– The owners of the KaZaA file-sharing network are suing the movie and recording industries, claiming that they don't understand the digital age and are monopolizing entertainment. Sharman Networks Ltd. filed its counterclaim Monday in response to a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by several recording labels and movie studios. That lawsuit accuses Sharman of providing free access to copyright music and films to millions of Internet users in the United States.

<p>NEW YORK (AP) -- Hilary Rosen, the U.S. recording industry's head lobbyist who waged a high-profile battle against Napster and music piracy, is resigning at the end of the year.</p> <p>In a statement, Rosen cited personal reasons for leaving the Recording Industry Association of America, where she has served as chief executive since 1998.</p>

The Recording Industry Association of America wants to go after the companies that provide you with your Internet access. Here are some of the printable reactions since RIAA chief Hilary Rosen presented the proposal last weekend, during which she said Internet service providers would soon "be held accountable" for money the music industry has lost due to file-swapping services: It's stupid. Unethical. Illegal. Insane. "Blaming ISPs for giving these hardened criminals the bandwidth for perpetrating their heinous file-sharing acts is akin to blaming the highway department for creating roads that are used by dope smugglers," said security consultant Robert Ferrell....