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Kazaa spreading itself around: In a war with media conglomerates hoping to shut down its Kazaa file-trading service, Sharman Networks has flipped the familiar slogan, “think globally, act locally.” Despite an ongoing American copyright-infringement lawsuit, the Australian company has so far evaded the international recording industry’s attempts to shut down …

The WaPo reports: The music industry is launching a star-studded advertising campaign, using artists such as Britney Spears and Stevie Wonder to tout its most recent anti-piracy effort. Full-page ads are scheduled to appear in newspapers today and will be followed by television and radio spots, urging consumers to stop …

Kelly may be owned to the pit-hairs, but her first single is No. 1. Of course, wouldn’t it have been a bigger surprise if it hadn’t been?: “American Idol” champion Kelly Clarkson didn’t have to wait long to parlay her television fame into record-setting gold on the pop charts. The …

Where are my freaking royalties? A California lawmaker investigating record company accounting heard one sad song after another on Tuesday as high-profile musicians from the Backstreet Boys to Bing Crosby’s widow accused labels of robbing them of past royalty payments. At a state hearing in Los Angeles, the musicians said …

A new study says the label’s emphasis on pirating all wrong: Media companies must put less emphasis on protecting digital content and instead find ways to make money from digital music and movies if they hope to beat back copyright pirates who threaten their businesses, according to a study released …

Perhaps the paradigm is shifting: Recently, more than a few music fans who were diehard advocates of swapping songs illegally through Napster and its clones have found themselves doing something they never would have predicted: subscribing to Internet services that abide by copyright laws and paying for the music they …

Today we are going wild on Blogcritics.org: we are attempting to post 180 entries in 24 hours – one for every Blogcritic. Stop back often as the sentences are flying today and let your readers know about the verbiage orgy. And don’t be left out: upload your very own Blogcritics …

Have you purchased a CD from one of the major labels that didn’t play on your computer, CD player, etc because it had some unadvertised “copy-protection” element to it? If so, you can join in a class action suit by going to the site of law firm Milberg Weiss here: …

After it turned up on the Internet, LA’s modern rock stalwart KROQ played the unreleased Nirvana track “You Know You’re Right” Monday night and Tuesday morning: “You Know You’re Right” is one of the last songs Nirvana singer-songwriter Kurt Cobain recorded before he died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to …

Mel Gibson has decided it would be a good idea to make a movie about the last 12 hours of the life of Jesus Christ, in Latin and Aramaic, without subtitles: The directing job is Gibson’s first since winning multiple Oscars with Braveheart in 1995. Gibson will not appear in …