Online TV/Music
06 March 2008
Warner drops DRM locks across Europe BBC
Warner Music has signed a deal with media site 7digital.com to offer its music without copy protection. Customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany will be able to download albums by artists such as Madonna and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
05 March 2008
Nine Inch Nails Gives Music Away On Web Information Week
Music from the band's latest album, "Ghosts I-IV," is available through their Web site in packages ranging from free to $300. Trent Reznor, leader of the rock band Nine Inch Nails, is the latest major artist to bypass major record labels and distribute his music over the Web.
01 March 2008
Chinese music industry groups file suit against Baidu Reuters
Two industry groups representing China's local musicians and songwriters have filed a lawsuit against the country's Web search leader, Baidu.com Inc, accusing it of copyright violation. The move signaled that domestic artists as well as international firms are disgruntled at the firm's free music search service.
U.S. judge pokes hole in file-sharing lawsuit InfoWorld
Legal experts say a recent U.S. court ruling could force the music industry to provide more evidence against people accused of illegal file sharing. The ruling was handed down in a case filed a year ago against Christopher David Brennan of Waterford, Conn., by plaintiffs Atlantic Recording, Electra Entertainment Group, Interscope Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and BMG Music.
More teenagers ignoring CDs, report says Los Angeles Times
48% of teenagers bought no CDs at all in 2007, up from 38% in 2006. Music downloads continue to grow, though, with iTunes leading the way.
26 February 2008
Europe funds internet TV standard BBC
The European Union is spending 14m euros (£10.5m) to create a standard way to send TV via the net. An additional 5m euros (£3.7m) is being contributed to the project by 21 other partners including the BBC and the European Broadcasting Union.
25 February 2008
Hollywood and the internet: There will be blood - Hollywood is doing its best to ignore the internet. That is a big mistake The Economist
In 1948, when only one in ten Americans had seen a TV, Time magazine sized up the new medium. Its quiz shows, cooking lessons and vaudeville were perfectly watchable, it said, but the films were awful. "The ancient cabbages that are rolled across the telescreen every night are Hollywood's curse on the upstart industry," it wrote. "Televiewers, sick of hoary Hoot Gibson oaters and antique spook comedies, wonder when, if ever, they will see fresh, first-class Hollywood films."
Hollywood and the internet: Coming soon - The internet could be a boon for Hollywood—but only if it can conquer its fears The Economist
To see what the future of film distribution might look like, go to a website called ZML.com. It offers 1,700 films for download to personal computers, iPods or other hand-held devices, or to burn to DVD. It is inviting and easy to use, with detailed descriptions of each movie, editors' picks, customer reviews and screen stills. And the prices are reasonable: "Atonement", for instance, costs $2.99.
23 February 2008
UK filesharing law 'unworkable' The Guardian
Any move by the government to introduce legislation that forces the UK's broadband providers to police the internet by clamping down on illegal sharing of copyrighted music and movies would be technologically unworkable and create a legal minefield, experts have warned.
UK government targets illegal downloading The Guardian
The UK government is to consult on legislation to punish internet service providers if they fail to take action against the illegal downloading of music, films and TV programmes.
22 February 2008
MySpace seeks joint ventures for iTunes rival The Guardian
MySpace, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp empire, is trying to tie up deals with a number of record labels to produce its own digital music service to compete with Apple's iTunes.
20 February 2008
'Hacker' launches iTunes copying BBC
The release of software from a firm run by a notorious Norwegian hacker is likely to cause waves in the music and film download world.The software created by DoubleTwist allows users to share digital media files across devices. It would allow songs bought on Apple's iTunes to be shared on other devices.
18 February 2008
A clampdown is music to the record industry's ears The Observer
... Accepting the music industry's demands would mean a radical transformation of the ISPs' role - changing them from common carriers into organisations which have to know about every file they handle. This would be technically challenging and have terrifying implications for privacy; but it would also create horrendous legal liabilities for ISPs. As common carriers, they have very limited responsibility for what users do with their services; but as Taylor's proxy snoopers they could be held liable - and not just for copyright infringement, but for lots of other questionable or controversial activities that people get up to on the net.
Australian government war on music piracy Sun Herald
As the internet threatens to kill the established music industry, the Rudd Government is considering a three-strikes policy against computer users who download songs illegally. The Government will examine new legislative proposals being unveiled in Britain this week to target people who download films and music illegally. ISPs there might be legally required to take action against users who access pirated material.
16 February 2008
Get Ready for a Crackdown on Broadband Use PC World
As traffic increases, experts say ISPs may start charging by the gigabyte, limiting use of some services and snooping at the data passing through their networks.
UK net firms reject monitoring role BBC
UK net firms are resisting government suggestions that they should do more to monitor what customers do online. The industry association for net providers, ISPA, said legal and technical barriers prohibit them from being anything other than a "mere conduit".
15 February 2008
Inside Net Neutrality: Is Your ISP Filtering Content? PC World
Your ISP acts as a gateway between you and the Internet. It's the pipeline that allows you to access everything from your e-mail to remote file servers where you back up your important data--not to mention browsing the Web. But what happens if, instead of a pipeline, your ISP instead acts as a filter? In some cases, that scenario is beginning to play out as ISPs increasingly seem to be moving toward favoring some types of traffic over others.
Comcast Defends Role As Internet Traffic Cop Washington Post
Comcast said yesterday that it purposely slows down some traffic on its network, including some music and movie downloads, an admission that sparked more controversy in the debate over how much control network operators should have over the Internet.
13 February 2008
British internet users could be banned over illegal downloads The Times
People who illegally download films and music will be cut off from the internet under new legislative proposals to be unveiled next week. ISPs will be legally required to take action against users who access pirated material, The Times has learnt. Also includes a link to "The sound of (free) music" and "Plundering the pirates" (The Guardian).
09 February 2008
RIAA boss: Move copyright filtering from ISPs to users' PCs ars technica
... At a Washington, DC, tech conference last week, RIAA boss Cary Sherman suggested that Internet filtering was a super idea but that he saw no reason to mandate it. Turns out that was only part of the story, though; Sherman's a sharp guy, and he's fully aware that filtering will prompt an encryption arms race that is going to be impossible to win... unless users somehow install the filtering software on their home PCs or equipment.
08 February 2008
Danish ISP may fight order to kill access to Pirate Bay P2P site ComputerWorld
One of Denmark's largest Internet service providers is considering fighting a court order to shut off its subscribers' access to The Pirate Bay, the embattled file-sharing search engine. Tele2 AB was ordered to shut off access last week after a court concluded that The Pirate Bay facilitates the trading of copyright material without the permission of rights holders, according to a translation by the Danish Pirate Party, a digital rights activist group.
07 February 2008
95% of music downloads are illegal The Age
An increase in legitimate music sales over the past year did not come close to offsetting the billions of dollars being lost to music piracy, with illegal downloads outnumbering the legal ones sold online by a factor of 20 to 1.
Record labels sue China's top search engine Out-Law
Three major record labels have launched court actions against three Chinese internet companies accusing them of building a business on copyright infringement. One of them is China's biggest search engine, Baidu.com.
05 February 2008
Pirate Bay Says It Can't Be Sunk, Servers Scattered Worldwide Wired
The world's most notorious BitTorrent tracking site, The Pirate Bay, won't be going to Davy Jones' Locker, even if its four operators are convicted of facilitating copyright infringement, one of the defendants said in an interview Friday with THREAT LEVEL.
Sweden Accuses 4 of Copyright Offenses New York Times
Prosecutors in Sweden on Thursday charged four men who are associated with a popular file-sharing Web site called Pirate Bay with facilitating copyright infringement.
