Debbie Foster was sued by RIAA member company Capitol Records for allegedly sharing copyrighted material on a P2P file sharing network. However, the alleged infringement was apparently committed by someone else with access to her ISP account. Foster had the case dismissed last summer, and as reported by Listening Post earlier this month, was awarded attorney’s fees in excess of $50,000.
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Round 1: RIAA vs United Airlines
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RIAA Responds To Jobs' Open Letter Applauding Him For Agreeing To License FairPlay, Except He Didn't
Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies.
Bill Gates: Don’t Buy DRM Music
- Gates said that no one is satisfied with the current state of DRM, which “causes too much pain for legitimate buyers” while trying to distinguish between legal and illegal uses. He says no one has done it right, yet. There are “huge problems” with DRM, he says, and “we need more flexible models, such as the ability to “buy an artist out for life” (not sure what he means). He also criticized DRM schemes that try to install intelligence in each copy so that it is device specific.
Refreshing: Limewire Sues the RIAA
In a move as refreshing as a cool summer breeze, the pirates from Limewire are sueing the RIAA for anti-trust violations and a bunch of other cool shit.
Microsoft DRMifies Your Own Music
You might have caught the Zune swoon in the blogosphere last week. For those who didn’t catch it, Zune is Microsoft’s planned iPod-killer: a device that is as often nifty (built in WiFi that allows you to share music with friends on the go) as it is underwhelming (30 gig hard drive, max.)
UPDATE: RIAA Sucks Own Loogie Off File-Sharer’s Grave
Apparently mortified by the negative publicity they have received for suing the children of a dead man who is accused of file infringement (and obviously in no position to defend himself), the RIAA has declared a “temporary suspension” of the “productive settlement discussions” they were having with the grieving.
Reader Explains the Circuit City DMCA Disconnect
Hey, we’re all for Circuit City flouting the DMCA. It’s a bogus law, as anti-consumer as they come. So we were a bit disappointed when Bill Cimino, director of corporate communications, clarified that the sign wasn’t the opening jab in a legal title fight between Circuit City and the RIAA/MPAA, but was instead a disconnect between the wishes of corporate and that particular Circuit City’s store manager.
Call An RIAA Slug on Friday!
Our friends at Defective Design aren’t just cramming their pallid flesh into hazmat suits and getting into stand-offs with bemused Cambridge cops in their fight against DRM. Now they are organizing a massive telephone campaign, coordinating on their site an effort to have as many consumers as they can call up the RIAA and tell them that DRM just plain blows. Although hopefully a hell of a lot more eloquently than that.
In Soviet Russia, AllofMp3.com Is Legal!
AllofMp3.com is one of those brilliant sites that I perpetually feel guilty for using, since it really is just too great a value to be legal. Nevertheless, it’s hard to resist buying music by the digital equivalent of the kilo: 99 cents per song feels like a reaming after paying a penny per meg.
Pith & Vinegar
• Find free wifi nearby with your cellphone at ilovefreewifi.com. Stalking on a shoestring has never been easier.
Canada Flees The CRIA
We wish this analogy worked better: “Like a loathsome foreign body forcibly ejected from its host…” Then we’d follow the aposiopesis with the news that six Canadian music corporations have left the CRIA largely due to its policies towards copyright and DRM. Unfortunately, CRIA stands for “Canadian Recording Industry Association,” so when six of Canada’s largest record companies forcibly eject from the body, it only leaves the virus in control of the host.