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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...

By Andrew Orlowski Published Thursday 9th September 2004 13:36 GMT P2P jail bill moves forward By Andrew Orlowski Published Thursday 9th September 2004 13:36 GMT HR.4077, the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act, has been approved by the United States' House Judiciary Committee. The bill specifies up to five years' jail for anyone making over a thousand copyrighted works available for download. That's if the infringer is profiting from the action: ordinary P2P users would face up to three years simply for making their collections available. Thwarted by the courts, copyright holders and their lobby groups, notably the Recording Industry Ass. of...

Supreme Court justices questioned Tuesday whether the recording industry's attempts to shut down online file-sharing networks would deter inventors from developing new products like Apple's iPod music player.But the justices also suggested that peer-to-peer networks could be held accountable for copyright infringement because they attracted users by telling them that they could copy music and movies for free. Record labels and movie studios have sued to shut down peer-to-peer software makers like Grokster and Morpheus, arguing that the millions of songs and movies copied each day over these networks have cut into sales. Lower courts have ruled that Grokster and...

<p>For someone whose business is under attack in the United States Supreme Court, Mark Gorton was remarkably serene last week, sprawled on a couch in his Manhattan office. Mr. Gorton's company, the Lime Group, publishes LimeWire, one of the most popular software programs used to trade music, video and other files over the Internet.</p>

Virus writers are targeting the world's lovers by creating Valentine's Day related malicious code. Two worms, Kipis-H and VBSWG-D, are spreading their love and destructive payload, via email and peer-to-peer networks. Cashing in on nostalgic lovers VBSWG-D spreads under the subject line "First Love Story...!!!". The grumpy worm, echoing echoing the days of Al Capone, then swears at users before murdering the computer by shutting it down. Victims receiving an email with the subject line "Happy Valentine's Day" will find the Kipis-H worm. It turns off anti-virus protection, inserts a trojan and forwards emails to other contacts. "Virus writers will...

Three judges on a federal appeals court in California made it official last week: The traditional recorded music business is doomed. Yes, there's still the US Supreme Court, one last way station on the road to the abyss. But it's unlikely that those nine justices will undo the work of their West Coast colleagues. Last week's ruling in the Grokster case was lucid, logical, and unanimous. Peer-to-peer file-sharing programs like Grokster, Kazaa, LimeWire, and all the rest, used by millions worldwide to exchange pirated copies of music and movies, do not violate federal copyright law. The users of these programs...

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...

DALLAS - Christian teens are stealing Christian music through Internet downloads and CD burnings at the same rate non-Christians are stealing secular music, according to a new study. Christian pollster George Barna completed a study on teens and piracy for the Gospel Music Association. The study, which has not been made public, showed only 10 percent of Christian teens considered music piracy to be morally wrong, The Dallas Morning News reported. Of those, 64 percent have engaged in downloading or CD burning. That's virtually the same percentage as non-Christians. Last year, sales of Christian albums dropped 5.2 percent, to just...

<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>

<p>Is California's attorney general preparing a legislative assault on peer-to-peer file sharing?</p> <p>A draft letter purportedly circulated by Bill Lockyer to fellow state attorneys general characterizes P2P software as a "dangerous product" and describes the failure of technology makers to warn consumers of those dangers as a deceptive trade practice.</p>

MIT Project Undertakes Intelligence War Abandoned By the Govt To Monitor Everyone In the US Citizens Strike Back in Intelligence War Citizens Strike Back in Intelligence War With the recent demise of the Bush administration's controversial Terrorist Information Awareness (TIA) programme to monitor everyone in the US, citizens now have a chance to get their own back. A website to be launched later in 2003 will allow people to post information about the activities of government organisations, officials and the judiciary. The two MIT researchers behind the project face one serious problem: how to protect themselves against legal action...

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...

A federal judge in Los Angeles has handed a stunning court victory to file-swapping services Streamcast Networks and Grokster, dismissing much of the record industry and movie studios' lawsuit against the two companies. In an almost complete reversal of previous victories for the record labels and movie studios, federal court Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that Streamcast--parent of the Morpheus software--and Grokster were not liable for copyright infringements that took place using their software. The ruling does not directly affect Kazaa, software distributed by Sharman Networks, which has also been targeted by the entertainment industry. "Defendants distribute and support software, the...

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...

CANNES, France (Reuters) - A top music executive said on Saturday that telecommunications companies and Internet service providers (ISPs) will be asked to pay up for giving their customers access to free song-swapping sites. The music industry is in a tailspin with global sales of CDs expected to fall six percent in 2003, its fourth consecutive annual decline. A major culprit, industry watchers say, is online piracy. Now, the industry wants to hit the problem at its source -- Internet service providers. "We will hold ISPs more accountable," said Hillary Rosen, chairman and CEO the Recording Industry Association of America...

Record makers could win the right to carry out hack attacks on music sharing services if a US proposal becomes law. Californian congressman Howard Berman has drawn up a bill that would legalise the disruption of peer-to-peer networks by companies who are trying to stop people pirating copyrighted materials. If his idea becomes law, record companies will be able to carry out a variety of attacks on the sharing services to make them unusable or so irritating to use that people abandon them. Existing legislation makes it an offence for anyone to carry out many of the attacks mooted in...