MP3 ruling could haunt music tech firms
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A federal jury's ruling that Microsoft infringed on two MP3 patents and must pay $1.52 billion in damages could turn into a major sour note for other technology companies in the digital music business.
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Electronics giant Sony has reversed its position on the formats playable by its range of digital music players. The company has announced its new devices will now be able to play music tracks in the MP3 format
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Amid an outcry from online listeners and Congress, the recording industry indicated it may show new leniency on royalties for Internet radio.
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Record labels don't trust us with their music. They need to retune that thinking
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People who received MP3 players as holiday gifts may want to steer clear of some Web sites that claim to offer legal music but don&#39;t have licensing agreements with major music labels, the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) said.CDT, a consumer rights group, has published a list of more than 30 MP3 download sites that don&#39;t have licensing deals with major U.S. music labels. The sites, which charge between $20 and $35 for subscriptions, say they offer music from artists signed to the major labels, CDT said.Consumers should be aware of the sites on the list because in some cases, they may simply provide subscribers popular peer-to-peer (P-to-P) software that&#39;s otherwise free, said David Sohn, CDT&#39;s senior policy counsel. And customers using P-to-P software to trade unauthorized music files could face lawsuits from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), he said.&quot;People might get the false impression of what they paid for was legal,&quot; Sohn said. &quot;If you pay $25, you might think that $25 goes to compensate the rights holder.&quot;The CDT tried to contact the operators of each site on its MP3 warning list. In each case, the site operators did not respond.Several of the sites on the list seem to be run by the same people -- they have similar designs and make similar claims. In many cases, the sites are registered outside the U.S., Sohn said.Some of the sites hedge their claims of being legal in small print. For example, AllCoolMusic.com, which says it offers 12 billion files, includes a disclaimer at the bottom of its front page: &quot;Today, there are 240 million users trading MP3s on legal file-sharing networks. Sharing is not illegal as long as you obey all relevant copyright laws. Sharing copyrighted material, without permission to do so, is illegal. Purchasing a membership in AllCoolMusic.com does not give you license to download or upload copyrighted material. AllCoolMusic.com implores you to respect all copyright laws.&quot;AllCoolMusic didn&#39;t respond to CDT&#39;s letter, and there&#39;s no contact information readily available on the site.In March 2005, CDT filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission against two Web sites claiming their music and video downloads were 100 percent legal.The FTC filed a complaint in U.S. court against one of the Web sites, mp3downloadcity.com, obtained an injunction, and eventually reached a settlement with the Web site operator in May 2006. The settlement required the site to refund customers.The RIAA has focused its lawsuits on P-to-P users that share music with others, not those that simply download music from P-to-P networks. However, if subscribers to these sites would opt to share their music on the P-to-P software some of the sites provide, that could expose them to lawsuits, Sohn said.In many cases, users of the sites are &quot;getting less than you pay for,&quot; he said.
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A new copyright law in Italy making its way through Parliament seems to suggest that trading in MP3s would become legal so long as no profit is made from its distribution.
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By Bernhard Warner LONDON  - Consumer electronics giant Sony Corp. said on Thursday it is mulling a major strategic shift to make digital music devices that play MP3 song files.
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Apple may dominate the MP3 market, but other players have their fans and laudable features.
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MP3 players should carry warnings that users risk damage to their hearing, deafness experts say.
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Online music downloading might be the new wave in the music business, but it won't crest for at least another five years, according to a new report. -washingtonpost.com
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After years as the unrivalled king of the digital-media world, the venerable MP3 music format is losing ground to rival technologies from Microsoft and Apple.
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The music industry claimed another legal victory in its battle against illegal file sharing in Europe on Friday, but the win may not last long.
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By THE WASHINGTON POST  WASHINGTON - Technology is taking the middleman out of the music business, giving artists a bigger array of tools to get their songs in the MP3 players of potential fans around the world.
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New royalty rates may doom many small stations and the struggling musicians who depend on them.
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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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The UK music industry is set to launch legal action against people who download music from the internet.
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The digital music battle of the  future may not be over where music is purchased, but where and  how it is stored.