Culture and Society

Big doings Down Under: The enforcement arm of the Australian record industry has raided the premises of Sharman Networks and its proprietor, Nicola Hemming, in what it says is a bid to stop illegal copying of music through the Kazaa network. Yesterday, Music Industry Privacy Investigations obtained court orders allowing …

Janet Jackson’s breast has become the most searched-for image in net history. To this I reply, “No shit.” Search engines reported a big jump in searches for terms such as Janet Jackson and Super Bowl, as people turn to the web for images of the event. The maker of digital …

We mentioned yesterday that big entertainment’s appeal against the Grokster decision isn’t going very well for them. For those of you who enjoy courtroom drama, here is a link to the actual audio of the proceedings – the momentum is even more one-sided when you actually hear it for yourself.

As our writers know, I have been very pleased and even proud of our progress as a site, developing a very steady and dependable readership of about 10,000 people in the course of our first year-and-a-half. Part of that success has been predicated upon technical know-how. As I learned in …

CNET reports that Yahoo! is looking seriously into creating its own online digital music store: According to knowledgeable sources, Yahoo bought music software developer Mediacode in December to help create a digital jukebox and media player–the key components in many music download services. The Mediacode team includes two founding members …

Excellent news for the indispensable Electronic Frontier Foundation: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded a $600,000 grant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation to represent the public interest at meetings of the Digital Video Broadcasting Project in Europe where global standards on digital television and other digital …

The RIAA and MPAA are appealing the Grokster ruling of last April – apparently it isn’t going very well for them: A federal appeals judge questioned whether distributors of online file-sharing software should be held responsible for copyright infringement just because some people use the programs to swap copyright music …

This forum got a very good reaction last year. It’s kind of expensive, but if you are in the biz, it could be well worth your while. If any of the Big Questions get answered, let me know. 4th Annual DIGITAL MUSIC FORUM March 1, 2004 New York City ABOUT …

We’ve been waiting for a comprehensive plan to replace the current business model with regards to music and other content over the Internet. Check out this one from Harvard University Professor Terry Fisher, as discussed in the Register: Fisher actually lays his philosophical armory down for us to inspect at …

This is an interesting dilemma: Apple’s iTunes leads the legitimate music download biz, and with nominal margins and profits in the per-song approach, Apple head Steve Jobs has made it clear that he’s in it to drive iPod and computer sales. So if he’s selling music to drive iPod sales, …