Please use this thread to post links to news articles and other current items. Try not to "chit chat" here too much.

Listening Test Compares iTunes Plus to iTunes 128kbps

Most tunes at DMusic are 160kbps and higher! (And they are free!)

music industry overstating threat of P2P piracy

Yup! AND they keep secret the fact that the p2p nets actually are only good for the the spreading of RIAA tunes. (I mean c'mon, how are you going to discover an unheard-of indie band via p2p? But folk WILL check out new tunes by already famous artists.)

P2p likely BOOSTS RIAA sales. (We have been saying this for years.)

ISPs Facilitate Filesharing according to the IFPI

Duh...

The simple act of going on the Internet and looking at a webpage is technically FILESHARING.

During Arnold Schwarzenegger's visit to Ottawa yesterday, it was confirmed that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be introducing a bill to make camcording in movie theatres illegal in Canada.

And speaking of karaoke....
Man shot dead for bad singing in Philippine karaoke bar
The popular Frank Sinatra song "My Way" has been taken off many karaoke bars in Manila after it was found to be the cause of fights and even deaths when patrons sang out of tune. :0) LOL

I guess no one is supposed to sing "My Way" unless "their way" is totally in tune??
After all, doing a three-minute live cover just right is much more important than that person's life. Hell, if they can't sing well, bang! they deserve to die, that's what I say.

What a stupid, lame-brain, dumb-assed world we live in. Wish I could get off and go for another ride somewhere else. I'm tired of all the crap-assed shit going around on our planet these days.

Yikes! Talk about a tough crowd.

RealMedia and Window Media and will support video ripping from websites like YouTube or more. The new RealPlayer will not download or record video that is DRM-enabled.

But don't forget, RealPlayer is evil. It calls home to mama and tells on you.

RIAA sued for extortion

>>>>Suzy Del Cid alleges that the RIAA is using private investigators who are unlicensed in her state to collect information.

I guess no one is supposed to sing "My Way" unless "their way" is totally in tune??

Actually, it's simpler than that. No one is supposed to sing "My Way." And Paul Anka deserves a beat-down for covering "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Everything you ever wanted to know about video codecs

Maybe will be useful for DMusic Artists who want to do a Video.

An update on the innards of iTunes plus files (the ones that are supposed to be DRM free.)

Tips on how not to get busted for file-sharing

-------

OUR answer: Simply don't share (and thus help promote) RIAA/MPAA files.

Congressman Who Took Money From RIAA/MPAA Says Congress Should Cut Funding To Colleges

When are we EVER going to stop electing these corrupt critters?

Music industry seeks file sharer names from internet providers

The Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), which represents the record industry, brought the case following a six-month investigation into 23 people alleged to have distributed 180,000 songs.

Yesterday Mr Justice Peter Kelly ordered six internet firms — Digiweb, Smart Telecom, Irish Broadband, NTL, Eircom and Imagine — to hand over the names and addresses of the 23 to IRMA for the company to start legal proceedings.

How the desire to clamp down on Internet openness can be avoided. -An article up at the Harvard Business Review's website by Jonathan Zittrain

[from the above link]

Saving the Internet

Those who wish to monitor and block network content will see novel chances for control that have so far eluded them.

Cyberspace CAN be made safer from the chaos and crime that threaten to overwhelm it. But most recipes for security and order come at a very steep price: the loss of the Internet’s creative potency.

Doonesbury Cartoons

I'm sure this is the start of a week long "dig" at McCartney's Starbucks deal....a few frames later it kind of ends up where most of us believe it will all end...cute though...

If
enacted, the Spy Act would block lawsuits similar to the one EFF
brought against Sony-BMG for infecting customers' computers
with privacy-invasive copy protection.

Tell Congress to block it!

Dear WIPO: Don't Break Internet Broadcasting

Last year it was called the WIPO
Broadcasting Treaty, it gave traditional broadcasters and
cablecasters new copyright-like rights over their signals. It was stopped then...

But in May of this year, WIPO released a "new" draft of the
treaty that looks disconcertingly like the old one.

Spoon-Bending 'Paranormalist' Ramps Up Illegal Attacks on
Online Critic


DMCA Abuses

EFF's findings thus far on the supposedly DRM free iTunes "plus" files. (They contain something sneaky.)

Ha!

The US Mint says Hollywood's Silver Surfer Coin is breaking the law.

Boston U student fights RIAA attempt to discover names behind IP addresses

McCartney on ending his long-time relationship with EMI and making the new album fully downloadable through his new relationship with Starbucks' Hear Music label.

Lou Pearlman charged with bank fraud

forced out of hiding Thursday after being expelled by Indonesian authorities and turned over to the FBI. He was flown to Guam to appear before a judge, officials said.

Get a load of what the RIAA has recently said about their heavy-handed anti-piracy tactics:
"We are in a survival mode to maintain our ability to function as we have in the past," said Marcus Cohen, of the Recording Industry Association of America.

That about says it all, don't you think? No wonder they won't be able to endure for long into the future.

Foreign Affairs Launches IP Public Consultation (Canada)

A country is gonna listen to its' people about "IP"???

That'd be a first.

TorrentSpy ruling a 'weapon of mass discovery' -CNet

Beware of the Pirates!
-TechNewsWorld

Record exec to academic: stop criticizing us or I'll tell your university

hmm... from the title, I might front page this one!

The site is currently suspended (IFPI/RIAA goons behind it?) But the story from another source is sitting in leflaw's inbox.

SOMEBODY POST IT QUICK!!! I won't be able to log into the Dmusic admin section until tommorrow!

It's good juicy stuff!!!

NBC Tells FCC To Fight Traffic In Stolen Digital Goods

Don't ya just love how all these media conglomerates keep TELLING our government what to do and how to proceed?

Does anyone these days not think we live under a Corporate Dictatorship?

More evidence we are loosing libertys:

A bill introduced this week would force cable operators to offer à la carte cable and so-called family-tiers of service.

Congress and the Department of Homeland Security are considering several new visa restrictions, including forcing some foreign travelers to register their travel plans online 48 hours in advance.

Shelly Palmer Interviews Ray Beckerman about RIAA Lawsuits

podcast. No transcript yet.

Judge Deals Blow to RIAA

In a ruling issued last month but disclosed today by file-sharing attorney Ray Beckerman, Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia denied the RIAA's motion to engage in discovery.

The founder of Creative Commons, the Stanford lawyer behind the 'Eldred v. Ashcroft' case, and the author of 'Code' has spent the last 10 years working tirelessly on behalf of limited copyright terms, net neutrality, and the public domain. Tuesday, Lawrence Lessig announced on his blog that he has "decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism" from fighting the good fight for the public domain to
fighting the good fight against corruption and the influence of big money's effects on legislation in general."

M$ is pleading with customers to buy Vista now

...don't fall for it folks! If you feel like updating your OS, take the plunge and get linux or something else.

YouTube going International

Gee, kinda thought they already were.

EMI says its' drm free music is selling well

Darn.

But Warner's sales are at an all time low!

Silver lining in the aforementioned cloud?

News Corp to trade MySpace for a piece of Yahoo?

...hmm

Web traffic overtakes p2p

(Due to YouTube?)

Imeem Web social network offers ad-backed music

It says they are the 4th biggest multi-media site behind YouTube, MySpace and Google, but I never heard of 'em.

Ringo duped by EMI to release his music digitally

And Paul pulled away from EMI to do Starbucks just last week.

hmm...

"Judge Deals Blow to RIAA

In a ruling issued last month but disclosed today by file-sharing attorney Ray Beckerman, Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia denied the RIAA's motion to engage in discovery."


The universities involved ought to decide NOT to capitulate to the music industry! (They don't have to.)

The Local Community Radio Act of 2007 (PDF) would remove the artificial restrictions imposed on LPFM by a 2000 law passed at the urging of corporate radio giants and NPR, claiming that small community stations would interfere with the signals of larger stations. If passed, this bill will pave the way for educational groups, nonprofits, unions, schools and local governments to launch new local radio stations across the country."

Gee, I want my own LPFM station. Why can't I have one?

Oh well, there's always the pirate radio option.

Arrgh!

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is experimenting with reforming the way patents are applied for and processed.

Just like copyright, trademark and patent laws are in a sad state. Let's cross our fingers and hope this does some good!

Michael Geist is reporting that a Canadian parliamentary committee has demanded that the government establish a Canadian DMCA.

Just say NO Canada!

The DVD Copy Control Association is considering an amendment to the agreement equipment vendors must abide by, which would completely ban all DVD backups, whether fair use or not, and prevent DVDs from playing without the DVD disk being present in the drive.

Horrible evil afoot here! Talk about abuse of a patent!

Slyck Interview with the NCRA

Canadian College radio faces tough times too! (Internet Broadcasting fees being used to silence all but the largest and richest major media outlets!)

Can't our governments EVER stop listening to the whims of the monopolist mega media cartels? Cultural diversity is threatened!

I have recently read somewhere that there is a movement afoot to tie hardware as well as software to DVD DRM. This needs to be vehemently opposed.

Dissent in the Ranks

NPR and Bell ExpressVu balking at some of the NABA's WIPO lobby efforts. (But not loudly enough!!!)

MusicGiants specializes in offering high quality “lossless” tracks in Windows Media format and are offering McCartney's new album for about $15 ($21 if you want his interview included!)

...sheesh Paul. Glad you not with EMI no more and avoiding DRM, but are you not rich enough already?

(...and Windows Media Format sucks!)

DRM may be why Microsoft flip-flopped on Vista virtualization

Yup. M$ luv's tha DRM's

Mystery of tiny faces on Vista DVDs solved

'Conspiracy theorists will be disappointed,' says Microsoft

Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed has reversed himself completely over the charges against Brian Kelly, arrested for wiretapping after videotaping a police stop. Now let's see if they are good enough to compensate Kelly for the 26 hours he spent in jail and the anguish of the cloud over his future caused by a felony arrest.

Lawyer Asks RIAA To Investigate Bush Twins

Update: 06/22 18:55 GMT by KD : The lawyer in question has retracted his analysis and now says no laws were broken, probably.

...aw, pooh. Woulda been fun to see this pushed forward.

hmm... come to think of it, didn't someone previously try to run with this "Bush Twin's CD for papa" story a while back?

Citing Supreme Court Precedent, 11th Circuit Reverses Major Copyright Ruling

...oops, meant "http" - not "html"

Rock act Ash embraces singles-only deal

Northern Irish rock group Ash is predicting the imminent demise of the album format as it switches to a singles-only release schedule for its next deal. And other acts may soon follow the band's lead.

(hmm... I wonder if it isn't really Ash's LABEL'S idea instead.)

Spice Girls to return?

leflaw oughta dig this news, lol...

But then again, maybe not. The Spice Girls have WAY more class than most of the pop diva's he obsesses about. (Not that that's sayin' much.)

ITunes No. 3 music retailer in U.S.

...was the third-largest overall music retailer in the United States, leapfrogging ahead of Amazon.com and Target Corp. in units sold, a market research firm said Friday.

PluggedIn: Online video recorders stoke new piracy concerns

It took Brian Baker only five minutes to persuade a major U.S. television network that it needed his company's technology to protect their programs from Web pirates.

(Stupid network! You just got took!)

Don't forget to always check out other new stuff by idie artists while at DMusic!

Ok, I'm done for the nite. Happy reading folks!

Garageband's sister site iLike is now joined with facebook

(Link takes you to the FAQ's. If you already have a GB account, you are already added, but check the details folks!)

"After you have uploaded your music to Garageband.com you need to take one additional step so your music will show up within iLike on Facebook: install the iLike Sidebar and play your music. Once you do that your music from GarageBand.com should automatically show up on iLike.com and on Facebook. We (currently) require this step because our primary source of data about artists and their discography comes from the music that users play in their iTunes. Learn more about how we build our artist database. We know this is more complicated than it needs to be, we're working to make this faster and expect the changes to be ready in 2 - 4 weeks."

hmm... you gotta download a toolbar and add it to your browser? Sounds like potential spyware abuse to me.

Research the TOS and think about it before you opt in folks!

Something doesn't quite smell right.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVYhwKu7J5E

Michael Moore speaks out on Copyright Law.

A Recording Industry EULA, circa 1909

Looks like the fine print has always been bad...

A Washington woman sued by the RIAA has asked the Court to award her attorneys fees.

She should also counter-sue for emotional distress, slander, racketeering, etc.

P2P piracy is now hurting the corn famers!

http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8867/NBC+Says+that+P2P+is+Robbing+Poor+Corn+Farmers

Oh, the humanities.

Well, I guess they'll just have to put more of their production into biofuels instead of theater popcorn.

Hey, wait a minute. Don't people eat popcorn watching videos at home (rented or "pirated")?

The whole thing is just a concocted issue made up by the entertainment cartel.
It's amazing what lengths they will go to.

Freaking jews.

Are The RIAA's Investigation Techniques Illegal?

This would be SWEET!

PrivaTunes - Stripping your Identity from iTunes

Interview with the developers.

Exonerated defendant sues RIAA for malicious prosecution

Is the CD becoming obsolete?

(...sigh, for the 100th time, NO! The RIAA might want it dead, but CD's are too useful to indie artists!!!)

Bush official goes nuclear in Net Neut row

A San Francisco tech show degenerated into a shouting match today, after a pugnacious Bush commerce official squared off with heated supporters of net neutrality.

BBC chooses M$ DRM

boo, hiss

Dangerous Ruling Forces Search Engine to Log Users

The ruling came in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed
by motion picture studios against TorrentSpy, a popular
search engine that indexes materials made publicly
available via the Bit Torrent file sharing protocol.
TorrentSpy has never logged its visitors' Internet Protocol
(IP) addresses. Notwithstanding this explicit privacy
policy, a federal magistrate judge has now ordered
TorrentSpy to activate logging and turn the logged data
over to the studios.

"This unprecedented ruling has implications well beyond the
file sharing context," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne
McSherry. "Giving litigants the power to rewrite their
opponent's privacy policies poses a risk to all Internet
users."

In May 2004, Sony opened up its own store for selling
digital music: Sony Connect. From the start, the service
was plagued with self-inflicted woes. Thanks to Sony's use
of DRM and a proprietary music format (ATRAC), music bought
through Sony Connect could only be played on Sony's
expensive digital music players. And those devices came
loaded with software that was awkward and hard to use.

Not surprisingly, Sony is rumored to be pulling the plug on
Sony Disconnect, or at least downsizing it. In any case,
the problems of Sony's premiere music service make a point
that deserves emphasis: customers don't like having their
options limited and being herded into using poorly designed
technology.

Of course, these dangers exist whenever you buy DRMed music
from any vendor. You're locked into the limited array of
players that the DRM is compatible with, and, if that DRM
some day is entirely unsupported, you're out of luck.

Read EFF Activist Hugh D'Andrade's complete analysis and
related links:

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/005328.php

EMI reports that sales of some albums are up as much as
350% now that MP3 tracks without DRM are available.


And they'd probably be up 1000% if EMI wasn't an evil RIAA member.

Rep Inslee: Game not over for 'Net radio, not now or on July 15

Congress disturbed that the issue has not been settled already.

Exxon Hacks the Yes Men

Exxon appears to have used DMCA and copyright to have a parody site blocked by its' IP host.

I hate Exxon-Mobil and ALL OTHER FAT-CAT oil companies who have been leaching financial life from average citizens. They have been making unconscienable windfall profits from us for years with no accountability, and Congress does not call them to task the way it should at all.

The Bush and Cheney families have been part of this too.
Bushes with the Carlyle Group of corporations (some of which are oil-energy based) and Cheney with Haliburton (and the improper contracts he secured for them with Iraq's rebuilding and its oil industry).

Grrr.

Baltimore 'On Track' With Catching Music Piracy

Pat Warren
Reporting

Folks, this story is HORRIBLE reporting by a Baltimore news station/site = wjz.com

If I had the time and lived in the viewing area I'd complain to the editor.

(Anyone who watches WJZ out there?)

Well, it's July.

Time for a new "In The News"

(It should be up and running in the morning when I can get to a computer capable of logging into DMusic's admin section!)

Re: the pathetic story about Baltimore's law enforcement chasing after dangerous music infringers:

Yeah, I believe the RIAA who say that music "piracy" can be connected to (shudder) terrorism! Wow.
That, and I've heard P2P can be a cover for child pornography, too, uh-huh, good grief.
So, for the sake of THE CHILDREN and for the SECURITY OF OUR NATION, by God, we'd better put the brakes on music piracy!!! I ask you, what could be more important than that? ooh-whee!

Way to go, WJZ, for such quality investigative reporting out there!
Bless you.

Told ya it was bad.

P-U and BOO to WJZ!