~ associated links, beginning with the most recent, August 1, 2005 ~
New File-Sharing Techniques Are Likely to Test Court Decision ... by John Markoff, NYTimes - "Briefly buoyed by their Supreme Court victory on file sharing, Hollywood and the recording industry are on the verge of confronting more technically sophisticated opponents.
At a computer security conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, an Irish software designer described a new version of a peer-to-peer file-sharing system that he says will make it easier to share digital information anonymously and make detection by corporations and governments far more difficult." ~ Welcome to the age of darknets ~ (Free registration required. Text is copyright 2005, The New York Times Co. Used here for contextual purposes only.)
Supreme Court rules against file-swapping ...(from June 27, 2005, John Borland's Blog from C|Net) "The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of studios and record labels Monday in the closely watched case on file-swapping. In a unanimous decision, justices said that peer to peer software companies should be liable for the copyright infringement of people using their products."
"Napster Star Changes His Tune"...Shawn Fanning, the man behind Napster, believes he may have found a middle ground between copyright owners and file sharers, from Katie Dean, Wired News, December 3rd.
Special Update, November 11th, 2004
In Thomas Goetz's Wired Magazine article, "Sample the Future" he makes their case for the Creative Commons License as applied on "The Wired CD" and basically tells the "copyright cops" to take a hike. Click the text link above, digest his story, and come to your own conclusions.
"File Sharers Win More Protection" ...October 28th, from Wired. A Pennsylvania judge ruled that file shares must be given notice of their rights prior to their ISP's giving out any personal information to record labels. Just a little thing called due process.
"Does Kazaa Matter?" ...June 30, 2004, by John Borland, CNET News.com. Competition - have eDonkey and BitTorrent stolen so many file-swappers from Kazaa that, along with lawsuits and "junk downloads," the Sharman Networks' eBrand is headed for the dustbin of WebHistory? John Borland provides the latest news and a brief trip down memory lane as "the beat goes on."
Can't Hatch Leave "Well Enough" Alone? ...June 24, 2004, by Joanna Glasner, Wired News. "File-Trading Bill Stokes Fury" invites us to examine the "Induce Act" as the Senator steps into the file-swapping fray again. Just listen to Ms. Glasner's report on Orrin Hatch's prepared statement:
More 'John Does' Sued by the RIAA ...June 22, 2004, by John Borland, CNET News.com. From Denver to D.C., the RIAA has begun another round of lawsuits against 482 file-swappers, bringing the total of those sued to 3,429 folks. Read all about it from one of our faves at CNET.
Labels to dampen CD burning?...June 2, 2004, 4:00 AM By John Borland, Staff Writer, CNET News.com. The recording industry is testing technology that would prevent consumers from making copies of CD "burns," a piracy defense that could put some significant new restrictions on legally purchased music. (copy from CNet article) Say it ain't so, Joe!
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~ Canada Rules File-Sharing Legal ~ ...March 31, 2004, by John Borland, CNET News. In a huge defeat for the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) Canadian judge Konrad von Finckenstein ruled that file swapping appears to be legal in Canada. The broad ruling may also cover music uploaders as well, and appears to set a steep threshold for identifying file sharers through their ISP's.
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"Congress Moves to Criminalize P2P"...March 26, 2004, by Xeni Jardin, Wired News. Just as iTunes and others begin to bear fruit along comes the Pirate Act to harden the lines between the music and film industries and uninformed customeers. Can Congress bridge the gap, or widen it?
"RIAA hits minor swap suit setback" ...March 9, 2004, by John Borland, staff writer, CNET. A Philadelphia judge says "No" to bundling "John Doe" lawsuits into a single case, slowing the pace, while other jurisdictions okay bundled lawsuits.
"EU backs tighter rules on piracy" ...March 9, 2004, from BBC News, World Edition. Passed by a wide margin, the EU Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive claims to target professional counterfeiters of all shapes and sizes, while civil liberties watchdog groups focus on the possibility of "home invasions" in search of everything from downloads to T-shirts.
"File-swap 'killer' grabs attention" ... March 3, 2004, by John Borland, Staff Writer, CNET. Audible Magic claims its new technology will stop file-sharing in its tracks by utilizing the "psycho-acoustical" properties of individual recordings, even compressed or otherwise altered versions. Right now they're making the rounds on Capitol Hill.
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"The Answer to Piracy: Five Bucks?" ...by Katie Dean, from Wired News, Feb 26, 2004. A proposal for a voluntary monthly fee to share files, with the monies going into a distribution pool that would pay artists, much like radio's payment setup with licensing agencies like BMI and ASCAP.
"Grey Album Fans Protest Clampdown" ... from Wired News, Feb. 24th, by Katie Dean. Online battle between Danger Mouse and EMI North America intensifies over permissions (or lack thereof) for the remix which includes parts of the Beatles' White Album.
"Song Trading Still Popular Despite Suits" ... from AP via MSN Entertainment News, Feb 22, 2004, an updated peek at how downloaders of music are responding to recent RIAA lawsuits in everyday life.
The Beat Goes On ...from AP via Yahoo, the latest batch of lawsuits against file-swappers targets 531 "John Does" with a negotiated offer prior to releasing their real names. ("Record Industry Sues More Over Downloads," Feb 17, 2004, by Ted Bridis)
Canada follows "suit" on file sharing ...from John Borland, CNet, (last modified, Feb. 13, 2004) In their own way, Canada's CRIA joins the battle, concentrating on "uploaders, rather than downloaders." ("File-swapping lawsuits loom in Canada")
From the Other Side, an example of "masking" VPN's ...from Brian Bergstein, AP (Feb.11th) Here's one programmer's answer to the battle over bands, bucks, and bandwidth. (article title: "Programmer Sets Up Mask for File-Sharers")
The Music Format Wars, could the timing be worse? ...Here's a link to Jay Lyman's article from TechNewsWorld, Feb. 2, concerning the Apple/Microsoft competition for standards, the record labels, the RIAA, and well, what a fine mess we have here, Ollie...
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Before posting many news and opinion links concerning the music industry and listeners' demands for flexible platforms, here's a brief article from Business Week (via WiredNews) summing up 2003, and taking a peek at a few new upstarts:
Downloads: The Next Generation ...(Feb. 16th hardcopy issue, BusinessWeek) by Heather Green in NY
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To be fully informed, stay abreast of the legal issues from the recording industry's main representative:
Update, ongoing legal cases, from the RIAA Web site ...includes their take on various ongoing litigation including the Verizon case.
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Click here or above for 2003's associated links.