MP3 Patent Verdict Harmless To Music Fans  --  For Now
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Don't worry. The authorities aren't coming to confiscate your MP3 player because of a patent infringement ruling this week that involves the technology behind digital music.
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MP3 players should carry warnings users risk damaging hearing by having the volume too high, experts say.
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The announcement that Apple would be selling DRM-free music generated a lot of buzz among music enthusiasts, who had been agitating for just such a development ever since music was first offered for sale online.
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Music fans are miffed about a court decision that says musicians must get permission to sample tunes even if the remix bears no resemblance to the original. An activist group is sponsoring a remix project based upon the clip in question. By Katie Dean.
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The arrival of software that lets you search for and record digital music off the airwaves could raise legal issues that will make the P2P skirmishes look quaint by comparison.
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Sony considers adding native mp3 support to its players Ars Technica
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Decision not expected to slow flood of lawsuits against file sharers by the music industry.
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The legal downloading of songs has increased tenfold, and the money is rolling in at last. Also:  Toshiba software will let you edit documents from a phone & hellip;.  Sony head admits to mistake, calls for innovation & hellip;. and more.
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As new digital-distribution plans gain traction, an inevitable fight over publishing royalties breaks out. If songwriters lose, your ears will suffer. Commentary by Eliot Van Buskirk.
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Blog: Site once plagued by copyright violations now features filtering system from Audible Magic.
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News that Microsoft must pay $1.5bn for infringing MP3 patents may have widespread effects, experts say.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has won a patent for a digital-watermarking technology that could be used to protect the rights of content owners even when digital music is distributed without DRM protection.  The technology, called "stealthy audio watermarking," inserts and detects watermarks in audio signals that can identify the content producer, "providing a signature that is embedded in the audio signal and cannot be removed," according to a filing with the U.S. Patent and Trade Organization (USPTO). The application for U.S. patent 7,266,697 was filed May 3, 2004, by Darko Kirovski and Henrique Malvar, both of whom work at Microsoft Research. Malvar is a Microsoft distinguished engineer and managing director of Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, and Kirovski is a researcher there. Microsoft currently has DRM technology called Windows Media DRM that encrypts audio files and protects them from misuse or unauthorized redistribution. The company has traditionally been an outspoken proponent of using DRM to protect owners of digital content, though it said earlier this year it would consider selling DRM-free songs online after rival Apple struck a deal with EMI Group to do so. Forensic digital watermarking technology like the technology Microsoft has patented doesn't encrypt files the way DRM technology does or prevent people from unauthorized use. However, it can be used to prove who owns the content of the digital file by encoding a file with a unique digital signature. That means illegally traded songs could be tracked back to the original purchaser, allowing authorities to identify illegal sharers and serving as a deterrent. The technology could also be used to track files for royalty distribution. In fact, Apple has been inserting simple watermarks into digital audio files that include personal information about the purchaser on some files sold over iTunes so those files can be traced back to their purchaser in the case of unauthorized distribution. However, Microsoft's watermark is much more intrinsic to the file and cannot be stripped out easily by hackers, like Apple's can, said J. Alex Halderman, a computer science PhD candidate at Princeton University who specializes in DRM technology. "It's much harder for people to remove from the recording," he said. The trick for these watermarks to be effective for digital music files, however, is that they must be inaudible and thus undetectable by those listening to the files, which has been difficult for those who have tried to create this technology in the past, Halderman said. Indeed, in their filing, Kirovski and Malvar acknowledged that to work properly, the watermarks must not only be inaudible, but also "must be scattered throughout the file in such a way that they cannot be identified and manipulated" and "be robust enough so that it can withstand normal changes to the file, such as reductions from ... compression algorithms." Microsoft Tuesday declined to comment on how it plans to use the watermark technology it has patented. However, Microsoft Research already has licensed similar yet non-forensic watermarking technology to a company called Activated Content, which is using the technology to insert and extract non-secure data into audio files.
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Description: A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that companies that provide software that runs two Internet-based file-sharing networks are not liable for copyright infringement by people who use the networks to share music and movies.
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Say what you want about the recording industry&#39;s take-no-prisoners approach to combating online piracy. At least when the music czars go after someone, they target persons suspected of trading
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After months of hearings, Microsoft loses EU court battle and must strip Media Player, share code. Also: Federal judge refuses spammer's guilty plea.... Mobile companies dispute evidence that phone radiation damages DNA.... and more.
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After years of selling online music digitally wrapped with copy and playback restrictions designed to hinder piracy, major music labels are beginning to make some songs available in the unrestricted MP3 file format.
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NEW YORK, August 20 (New Ratings)  A federal appeals court in the US has declared that the online file-sharing software companies are not liable to copyright infringement charges.