After all the lawsuits they have started, they finally won one. In a major win for record companies seeking to establish precedent for prosecuting those who trade copyrighted material on the Internet, a federal jury awarded six firms $222,000 in damages from a Minnesota woman who shared music online. Jammie Thomas, 30, was ordered to [Continue]

Wired magazine is running a story pondering the MP3 format, how long it will last, and where surround sound is going to fit in. Basically, it looks like it will be around for a while even though better formats, like AAC or MP3Pro, are out. AAC is part of the MPEG4 standard, but a lot [Continue]

I just picked up a copy of Tim Ries “The Rolling Stones Project”. I have to say, this is probably the best CD I’ve bought in 2005. I can’t think of another CD that I bought in 2005 that was better. Seriously, I think the industry needs to stop doing American Idol and other cheese [Continue]

If you haven’t heard, Sony is installing DRM on its CDs. This DRM has also been exploited. In fact, there is even a lawsuit over it. Now, it seems even Mac OS X gets some sort of DRM with a Sony CD. It’s time to boycott Sony Music. Update: 11/13 20:27 GMT by E :There [Continue]

The History Channel has a program on December 26th about Saving Our Recorded History. The Library of Congress has thousands of recordings that are endanger of being lost these include: "Lead Belly's last sessions recorded in 1949; radio broadcasts from the bombing of Pearl Harbor; and one of the most precious American recordings - Woody [Continue]

The NY Times has an article about Mark Turner and the state of the Jazz Music Industry. Mark’s a great player who has a different sound and style. A refreshing change to the endless Coltrane/Brecker clones out there. It’s too bad Warner Brothers dropped him. [Continue]

This website comprises hundreds of documents (texts, scores, audio and video files) associated with music copyright infringement cases in the United States from 1845 forward. All of these documents have been collected, edited, digitized, organized, analyzed, and commented upon by staff at Columbia Law Library and the Columbia Center for New Media [Continue]

Will this be the death blow to internet radio? The American Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (“CARP”) is proposing to lawmakers that internet radio stations pay royalties retroactive to 1998; royalties of .14¢ per song per listener for Internet-only webcasters, .07¢ per song per listener for broadcast radio simulcasts, and [Continue]

This is from a Slashdot.org story. I thought it was worth posting here as it pertains to the RIA and how I think they suck. Posted by jamie on Wednesday February 27, @05:46AM from the tiny-violin dept. Third time's the charm. Napster came out in 1999, and the Recording Industry Association of America had two [Continue]

Copy protected CDs. Yes, they are coming thanks to the Universal Music Group. To prepare for the backlash they are likely to receive, they have a support site up complete with FAQ section and how to get a refund if the CD doesn’t work. I doubt they will be doing this to any jazz CDs [Continue]

Newsbytes has this Story. ‘A federal judge has approved an interim agreement over royalties to be paid to songwriters and publishers when radio stations stream music online. The rates are set somewhere between those requested by the parties involved: music-licensing agency BMI, and the Radio Music License Committee, which represents the [Continue]

Anonymous Coward writes “I read about DownSlam here some months ago. Just wanted to let you know they are now accepting music uploads for their new disribution model. If this catches on it could really put the screws to the recording industry. After all, they have been screwing us for a long time now and [Continue]

According to Wired, the recording industry wants the right to hack into your computer and delete your stolen MP3s. Lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) tried to glue this hacking-authorization amendment onto a mammoth anti-terrorism bill that Congress approved last week. A copy of an RIAA-drafted amendment obtained by [Continue]

Dotcomscoop.com has an interesting story that says the RIAA is going to try to sue KaZaZ, Morpheus and Grokster. Internal memos from within the RIAA outline the record label’s findings and strategy going ahead. Now, why can’t the RIAA stop wasting it’s money and set up a cheap subscription service? Going after two foreign [Continue]

The EFF is staging a public concert in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park to promote its “Open Audio License” (OAL), a music license based loosely on the GPL. There is also an interesting critique that discusses the intended and unintended effects of the EFF’s license, and suggests alternatives that might be more beneficial [Continue]