Free Republic

The Supreme Court handed Internet services providers and privacy advocates a crucial victory yesterday when it decided to pass on an important Internet piracy case. The morning papers, however, missed the boat on reporting the significance of the case, with most newspapers skipping the development all together or running wire copy on their sites. In refusing to hear the case, the justices rebuffed an effort by the recording industry to establish once and for all that Internet service providers should have to hand over the identities of suspected file-swappers who subscribe to their networks. They also tacitly rejected the...

Representatives of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a coalition that includes the Consumer Electronics Association, the IEEE and NetCoalition said negotiations collapsed early yesterday, with the coalition groups blaming the RIAA for not being willing to work toward a compromise. The fate of the controversial Induce Act that would restrict file-sharing technology that can be used to illegally download and share copyrighted material was in question today after negotiations between the music and electronics industries broke down as the current Congressional session nears an end, possibly by this weekend. The bill, formally known as the Inducing Infringement...

I am a frequent file-sharer on the Gnutella Network, the most popular Peer-To-Peer File Sharing network. For the most part, I share Political and Funny pictures as well as Political Videos, many written by Freeper Jmstein7, 911 pictures, real war pictures as well as some War On Terror videos (beheading videos, et. al) (Know thy enemy type of stuff)I use a file-sharing client known as "Bearshare Pro", which is the "pay" version of this popular File Sharing Software.Recently, I logged on to Bearshare and was startled to find out that the search page (Their own page) has a voter registration...

Grokster, Morpheus not liable for user's actions, appeals court says. A U.S. federal appeals court ruled in favor of peer-to-peer software makers this week, stating that the companies behind the Grokster and Morpheus services are not liable for copyright infringement due to the actions of their users. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously backed a lower court ruling that Grokster, Streamcast Networks (maker of the Morpheus service), and Musiccity.com are not responsible for users who illegally copy or share content such as music and movies over their services. "The peer-to-peer file-sharing technology at issue...

The political firestorm surrounding filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" has found its way into the file-sharing world. The controversial film--like virtually every new release--has been circulating online for days. Early in the week, anti-Moore Web site MooreWatch.com posted a link to a pirated version of the film available elsewhere on a file-sharing network, noting that the director himself has publicly backed downloading the movie online. The result has been a torrent of criticism from Moore supporters and his distribution company, Lions Gate Entertainment. The site was even the target of a denial-of-service attack a few days ago. But MooreWatch co-founder...

Hollywood's major studios are taking the battle to stop Internet movie piracy to a whole new level beginning this week with a high-priced series of public service announcements in some of the nation's most influential newspapers and magazines. "Parental Guidance Suggested: Illegal downloading inappropriate for all ages," the ads blare in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other papers and magazines, including 100 college newspapers. The question is, will the ad campaign make a difference and save filmmakers millions in lost revenue from illegal downloads by mostly young, Internet-savvy users? "We wouldn't be spending several million...

A new type of MP3 format being released in the next few months of 2004 will benefit audio enthusiasts with superb digital surround sound 5.1 playback, but will disturb the peer-to-peer file traders. Current MP3 files only use two channels, the "Super MP3", as I call it, will support four channel audio from a down-mixed 5.1 surround sound source. Fraunhofer Institute, originator of the MP3, will add the Dubbed Light Weight Digital Rights Management (LWDRM) code to all new MP3 files. If the owner who originally purchased the rights to that MP3 file publishes it online in a shared environment,...

WASHINGTON - The recording industry sued 477 more computer users Wednesday, including dozens of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of illegally sharing music across the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites), the trade group for the largest labels, praised efforts by colleges and universities to use technology and school policies to crack down on music piracy on their computer own networks. But it said the most egregious offenders on campus deserved to be sued. "There is also a complementary need for enforcement by copyright owners against the serious offenders to remind...

<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.

A myth exploded By INQUIRER staff: Tuesday 30 March 2004, 07:11 RESEARCH APPEARS to back up what teenagers have been saying for years - file sharing is not stuffing the music industry. A study conducted jointly by researchers from Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has found that in 2002 music sales were unaffected by the increase in file sharing, and the industry may have even benefited from it. Researchers looked at data from file-sharing services was used and 1.75 million downloads during a 17-week period in 2002. They said that while there were a...

UPDATE:Music Industry Piracy Investigations this morning raided the offices of P2P companies Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment, along with the homes of key executives and several ISPs. MIPI obtained an Anton Pilar order – which allows a copyright holder to enter a premises to search for and seize material that breaches copyright without alerting the target through court proceedings – yesterday from Justice Murray Wilcox, and began raiding premises in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria this morning searching for documents and electronic evidence to support its case against the peer-to-peer companies. In addition to the offices of Sharman...

<p>ORLANDO, Fla. - The record industry's legal battles against music pirates couldn't be more effective if the swashbuckling ship's captain portrayed by Russell Crowe were at the helm, a study shows.</p> <p>Since the fall, the number of Americans engaged in swapping digital music files online has fallen 50 percent, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO - The technology and entertainment industries have long been at odds over the best way to secure intellectual property rights as digital technology advances. Now, five of what industry executives say are the world's most powerful computer, cellphone and electronics companies are planning a new system for protecting digital music, video and software from illicit file sharing that they hope will at least narrow that gap. A global consortium of technology companies is laying the groundwork for a campaign to convince Hollywood and the recording industry that it has finally found an acceptable way not just to limit...

Online music sharing drops, but do figures tell real story? By D. PARVAZ SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER The number of people downloading and sharing music online has dropped significantly since the recording industry began filing lawsuits against alleged copyright violators last fall, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. About 18 million people admitted downloading music online, a 50 percent drop since the previous Pew survey, done in spring. But whether those numbers capture the true behavior of music downloaders and file sharers is another thing. The Pew study, released yesterday, didn't differentiate between paid...

<p>Internet service providers don't have to reveal the names of customers the music industry suspects of illegally swapping music files, a federal appeals court said yesterday.</p> <p>The ruling overturns a district court decision that gave the recording industry broad power to stop file sharing by enforcing a statute in a 1998 copyright law.</p>

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...

WASHINGTON (Dissociated Press) – Bradley A. Buckles, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, has announced his plan to retire in January and enter the private sector. He will head the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Recording Industry Association of America, which has already filed some 300 lawsuits, in just six months, against computer users who may have used the Internet to share copyrighted music files. "We're thrilled to have Director Buckles joining us," announced RIAA spokesman Norm DePlume. "He brings to the RIAA the gravitas that will strike terror in the hearts of all who might contemplate...

Send Them Back Not what you may think...

Colleges and universities derive tremendous benefits from high-speed Internet connections, but they have a duty to educate their students about the ethical issues surrounding the sharing of copyrighted music and movies, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America said Wednesday. Jack Valenti, in a speech to Penn State University faculty and students, said that while movie theater revenues have risen, video and DVD rentals and sales have dropped because so many people are using the Internet to download files for free. [snip] Valenti also said that parents should be wary of file-sharing sites because of the availability of...