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According to the blog Recording Industry vs The People, the RIAA, gracious as ever, will allow the children of the deceased Michigan resident Larry Scantlebury a 60 day grieving period before they proceed to depose them in the case of Warner Brothers v. Scantlebury. Mr Scantlebury passed away on June 20th, 2006. You can read the motion for the 60 day stay here (PDF). Recording Industry vs The People credits Michigan lawyer John Hermann for pointing them to the story. Hermann represents several victims of the EMI, Sony BMG, Warner and Universal sue 'em all marketing campaign. In an earlier...

MOSCOW - A Russian website that lets visitors download albums for less than $1 is a smash hit with music fans -- but not with U.S. trade and music industry officials. The site is a pirate, they allege, adding that Russia's failure to close it down presents a direct obstacle to the country's negotiations to join the World Trade Organization. [ ... ] The website www.allofmp3.com just adds to the dispute. The site's knockdown prices, coupled with its huge catalogue, crisp design and convenient downloading software make it a strong draw. [ ... ] "MediaServices pays licence fees for all...

Eliot Spitzer is taking on the music industry again, this time over the pricing of digital downloads. Warner Music Group disclosed Friday that it had received subpoenas. A source at Sony BMG said the company also received a subpoena and said it was cooperating as well.

The next time you visit the Web site of Microsoft Corp. to download some software, be prepared to let the world’s biggest software company have a look inside your computer. In a determined strike to quell the proliferation of counterfeit software, Microsoft is now requiring that all customers coming to its Web site for upgrades and other downloads submit their computers to an electronic frisking. If you use one of the estimated 100 million PCs running pirated software, don’t expect your upgrade. For Microsoft, the new policy is a stepped-up effort to combat the loss of billions of dollars’ worth...

A new rock group featuring former members of The Clash and Generation X has taken a novel approach to the issue of piracy by urging their fans to copy their music. Carbon Silicon make all their recordings freely available online, and actively encourage bootlegging or filming of their gigs. They even attack the current waves of litigation surrounding illegally copied music in their song Gangs Of England, which includes the line, "if you want the record, press record". "What we're talking about here is fans who are sharing music," Tony James, formally of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Generation X -...

For the children? the clintons ARE pornography downloads by Mia T, 7.14.05 How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in With gently smiling jaws! ~Alice's Adventures in Wonderland LUCINDA FRANKS: I think you're wrong because, after about two years of -- of working on this, you know, on and off, I think the president -- that the teenage culture caused the president's behavior in the way he behaved in -- with the oral sex. BILL O'REILLY: I think you're crazy, Ms. Franks, with all due respect. Fellating Kids and clinton Degeneracy:...

Modernizes the sales and use tax. As reported by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on June 20, 2005, with amendments. An Act modernizing the sales and use tax, amending and supplementing P.L.1966, c.30 and amending P.L.1980, c.105.

Brave US terrorist hunters end stand off against BitTorrent web site Comment (0) Trackback (1) Published: May 27, 2005 05:20 GMT A massive collection of highly-skilled, dedicated, brave law enforcement officials managed yesterday to shut down a Bittorrent web site alleged to facilitate the illegal trade of the latest Star Wars movie and other content. Yes, it took the FBI and the Homeland Security Department to pull off "Operation D-Elite" - an action directed at BitTorrent hub Elite Torrents. The Feds, working off 10 search warrants, seized control of the bittorrent site's central server in a quick, decisive maneuver and...

On Tuesday, April 12, Microsoft will turn off the blocking feature that has made it possible for some enterprises to block Windows XP Service Pack 2 downloads by employees who use Automatic Update. That means in companies that used the blocking tool, SP2 will be downloaded automatically to desktop computers that use Windows' Automatic Update feature. In its April 4 report on business adoption of Windows XP SP2, AssetMetrix warned that a surge of SP2 downloads on April 12 could stress IT help desks and cause "productivity brownouts" among employees. But a Microsoft spokesman downplayed that scenario, saying fewer than...

SAN JOSE, Calif. - After getting a taste of the radio business in college, software designer Craig Patchett never lost his interest in broadcasting. But without a job in radio, it seemed likely to remain one of those unfulfilled passions — until something called "podcasting" came along. Now, Patchett's creating shows and sending them out to the masses every day — not over the airwaves to radios but over the Internet, from his personal computer in Carlsbad, Calif. His listeners download his shows to their iPods and other digital music players. Patchett, 43, is among a growing number of people...

Firefox breaks 20,000,000 downloads!

It's hard to believe but to-date, Mozilla's Firefox browser has seen more than 18 million downloads. This appears to be a greater response than even Mozilla had hoped for. Many sources on the Internet are reporting that this is due to a great drive of Firefox user's missionary zeal in spreading the good word. Those people are credited with the unprecedented growth and success of Firefox 1.0. "We're going to hit 20 million downloads before the end of the month. It's a wild ride and shows no sign of slowing down. Keep spreading the word. You all are the ones...

The Reg launches downloads site By Team Register Published Thursday 16th December 2004 12:05 GMT Site offer We’re absolutely delighted in the run-up to the Festive Season™ to be able to offer our readers a little something from the Vulture Central “get-something-for-free-pay-nothing-ever” department.Indeed, we’re sure that fans of El Reg will find this a refreshing change from the inexorable “buy-now-pay-2020-at-86%-APR” Yule orgy of capitalism which has so sullied the spirit of Christmas.So, with all temptation to utter "bah humbug" pushed firmly from our minds, we direct you immediately to our all-new downloads service, offering a range of gratis and shareware...

Given what I had written about them, I had no right to expect my lunch companions to be friendly. But apart from one fraught moment (of which more later), the spokesmen for the international music industry were perfectly amicable. I had written several columns and editorials arguing that the internet had deprived the record companies of their purpose, that the bullying of teenagers who downloaded free music smacked of desperation and that the industry's only hope of survival was finding a new business model. Determined to convince me that I was wrong were Jay Berman, chairman of the International Federation...

Okay...my first total vanity post.I just went to the ESPN website because I wanted to see a video of that brawl between the Texas Rangers bullpen and the Oakland A's fans, but you have to download something called ESPN Motion---which is fine except for those of us who work in a secure environment and can't load programs onto our computer.Let's hear some other reasons why ESPN (website or TV show) is really starting to suck.For example, the upcoming bio pic about Pete Rose...one would have thought ESPN would have learned its lesson from that awful football series last year; or...

The top-of-the-line iPod music player from Apple Computer can hold four solid weeks of music. But what if you just want a little peace and quiet? As it turns out, Apple sells that too - sounds of silence for 99 cents. Steve Halberstadt of Raleigh, N.C., made such a purchase last week after discovering that Apple's iTunes store, the Web's leading downloadable music outlet, had added "The Whitey Album," a 1995 release by Ciccone Youth, a jokey side project of the rock band Sonic Youth. The album's second track album, "Silence," consists of 63 seconds of exactly that. (The band...

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...

I just came across a great website that I wanted to point out to Freepers. It is called Project Gutenburg, and it offers books free to download. Since they can only do this with books whose copywrites have expired, most books date from prior to 1923. However, there seems to be many great finds ready to be read. Here is a link to a zipped text file of all the titles, and here is one for the authors. The website also has an alphabetical listing along with a search function. I like anything that is free, so if you are...

Son of Napster One Possible Future for a Music Business That Must Inevitably Change When I mentioned in last week's column that I would this week be writing about a legal way to do a successful music downloading business -- a business that would threaten the Recording Industry Association of America and its hegemony -- dozens of readers wrote to me trying to predict what I would write. Some readers came at the problem from a purely technical perspective, ignoring the fact that the real issues here aren't technical but legal. Some readers took a legal approach, but they tended...