In a unanimous decision, members of the U.S. FTC (Federal Trade Comission) chastised Vivendi Universal and Warner Communications for restricting competition in the sale of "The Three Tenors" – Jose Carreras, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti – audio and video products. It seems that PolyGram (a company later bought by Vivendi) conspired with Warner "to [...]
Archives for July 2003
Time to completion: 2191.78 years..
RIAA will take 2191.78 years to sue everyone If the RIAA is going to sue all of the estimated 60M file-sharers currently using peer2peer networks today, at the current rate of filing subpoenas it will take them close to 2200 years… Just suing 10000 people will take them about 2/3 of a year… They’re obviously [...]
Another ISP fights back.
Pacific Bell Internet Services jumped into the contentious music-downloading fray late Wednesday, filing a lawsuit against the recording industry and questioning the constitutionality of the industry’s effort to track down online music sharers. Pac Bell’s Internet arm sues music industry over file-sharer IDs PBIS claims that more than 200 subpoenas seeking file-sharers’ e-mail addresses were [...]
Mitch Bainwol to follow Hilary Rosen
The Recording Industry Association of America has tapped a former Republican Senate staffer, Mitch Bainwol, to replace Hilary Rosen as chief executive, firming up the group’s leadership during one of the most controversial moments in its history. GOP staffer chosen to head RIAA | CNET News.com It’s going to be interesting to see how he [...]
Napster 2.0
The Register Napster 2.0, which will be released some time before christmas. The users will be able to either buy single songs, a montly subscription, streaming, or any combination of the above. It’s a complete rewrite of the code to make a product flexible enough that people would want to use it. Mac users will [...]
Copying is Theft – and other legal myths
As the war over P2P downloading heats up, and the record companies launch the novel marketing technique of suing their customers, I think it is an appropriate time to settle some of the pervasive myths about U.S. copyright law which fuel both sides of the debate, writes Mark Rasch, SecurityFocus columnist and former head of [...]
Are you on RIAAs Hit List?
The subpoenas are flying, and we’re naming names. Are you on the list? TechTV | RIAA Hit List Keep in mind that this is just a small part of the list which TechTV has created by searching the court systems paid online database.
Colleges fight back against the RIAA
Boston College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, citing concerns about student privacy, moved yesterday to quash subpoenas issued by the recording industry to discover the identities of students the industry says are illegally distributing copyrighted music. Boston Globe Online / Nation | World / BC, MIT decline to name students in music-use case These [...]
RIAA going to war.. Again and again and again.
WASHINGTON — The music industry has won at least 871 federal subpoenas against computer users suspected of illegally sharing music files on the Internet, with roughly 75 new subpoenas being approved each day, U.S. court officials said Friday. FOXNews.com This means that the RIAA is now targetting individual users, and hoarding subpoenas to force ISP’s [...]
RIAA paid Congressman $18k for “fact finding mission”
The powerful Congressman at the center of the controversy over royalty rates for small webcasters took $18,000 from the Recording Industry Association of America. The Register Something smells… And it’s not my socks…