Monday, July 8, 2002

Bill to Make Attacks on P2P Networks Legal. Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) is proposing a bill that would allow copyright holders like the movie and record industry to use technology tactics to shut down P2P networks such as KaZaa and Gnutella. [MP3 Newswire]

US Commerce Department Wants Your Comments on Digital Rights [MP3 Newswire]

'Fair Use' Legislation Introduced. U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher said he would introduce legislation intended to codify fair use provisions of copyright law (that have been implied but not necessarily guaranteed). He also wants to ease up some of the more copy-restrictive provisions of the 1998 Digital Milennium Copyright Act, whose pay-per-use provisions on copies he has criticized as a threat not only to fair use, but to innovation, idea exchange, even First Amendment guarantees on free speech.     Google It!

File-Sharer Eyes Major Label Coup. Kevin Bermeister believes he has magic Kool-Aid that will convert the music labels over to the dark side of file-trading technology. [Wired]

Record Biz Has Burning Question. The record industry continues its claims that the sky is falling due to piracy. But the very CD-burning technologies that make piracy easier these days make people who buy music want to buy more. [Wired]

SongPro Music Players Will Link to Game Boys. SongPro Inc. said it will launch a digital music player this fall that will attach to Nintendo Co.'s Game Boy hand-held consoles. [LA Times]

Labels See Perks in File Sharing. Music: Independent record companies embrace 'peer-to-peer' networks as a boon to CD sales. [LA Times]

Newhouse News Service weighs in with a well-balanced, quiet story on the Roadrunner/AOL/Time-Warner Wi-Fi situation: look, folks, if you sign a contract for a certain kind of service, you're obliged to follow the rules. Don't like the rules? Find a competitor that has different rules. If you know that you signed up for home service and you're sharing it with neighbors and strangers, you know you violated the terms of the agreement. There's no question about this... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service] hmmm...

Shawn Dodd:  "There are just two solutions to the whole Hollywood vs. File Sharing problem.  The first solution involves the entertainment industry adopting a sustainable business model that acknowledges the basic truth that bits are copyable.  The second solution involves end users giving up fundamental rights (e.g. fair use, first sale and others) we've enjoyed since as early as the 1800s, and giving them up without getting anything in return." Shawn also points to Digital rights management - we're all grilled and toasted in another post.

New worm eats into Kazaa. MSNBC Jul 8 2002 7:26PM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Analysis: The Broadcasters' New Clothes-I. Almost a generation ago TV broadcasters embarked on a mission to upgrade their service to high definition television, or HDTV. Along the way the digital revolution happened... As more and more homes discard their TV antennas in favor of a cable connection or a satellite dish, the very future of local TV broadcasting is in doubt. UPI Jul 8 2002 3:03PM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Radio chief calls on government to push digital radio. Media Guardian Jul 8 2002 10:28AM ET [Moreover - moreover...]

Labels defend MusicNet, Pressplay. Critics of the major labels' online music efforts speak out at a conference, forcing record industry executives to defend subscription services against accusations of "duopoly." [CNET News.com]

EarthLink offers subscribers FullAudio. The Internet service provider teams with FullAudio and MusicMatch for a new digital music service that offers both streaming and downloadable music. [CNET News.com]

EarthLink Plays the Music. The Atlanta ISP is among the first of the service providers to hop on the digital music train with the launch of the EarthLink Digital Music Center. [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service]

Phones, tones and mobile music. BBC Jul 8 2002 6:52AM ET... [Meerkat: An Open Wire Service] Not sure how this stacks up to Thomas Dolby Robertson's Beatnik, which is a very interesting technology. Check out his intriguing bio here.

MSNBC: Labels to Net Radio: Die Now. Steven Levy. Instead of instating the kind of royalty already paid to songwriters by both broadcast and Web radio--about 3 percent of revenues--the tariff on digital music is based on the number of listeners . So it's possible for the fee to exceed revenues, especially in a fledgling business where ads are scarce. [Tomalak's Realm]     Google It!