Music piracy - archive for March 2005

Music piracy ('muziekpiraterij' in dutch) is a very complex phenomenon to comprehend. These pages wishes to address all of you who are interested in music piracy in a broad sense. You'll find articles related to music and video piracy (with special attention to articles from Belgium and the Netherlands).

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Archive

iPod standaard in veel auto's

De Amerikaanse computerbouwer heeft recent een samenwerkingsverband gesloten met Mercedes. (...) Het samenwerkingsverband is niet het enige. Eerder al sloot Apple deals met automakers als Volvo, Nissan, Ferrari, BMW Mini, Chevy, Pontiac, Buick en Cadillac.

Date: 2005, March 31 | Source (NL): De Standaard

Sony wil iTunes-model voor films

Tijdens een bijeenkomst van de filmindustrie in Hollywood heeft Sony-topman Michael Arrieta onthuld dat het bedrijf werkt aan een filmvariant van Apple's populaire muziekdienst iTunes. (...) Sony's filmdivisie wil volgend jaar 500 van de populairste films omzetten in digitaal formaat en ze "in diverse digitale omgevingen" beschikbaar stellen. Zo komen er sterk gecomprimeerde versies voor op mobiele telefoons.

Date: 2005, March 31 | Source (NL): Zdnet

RIAA suit against 2 students dropped

The Recording Industry Association of America decided to drop its case against two anonymous individuals identified only by their Internet protocol addresses in a Dec. 16 lawsuit.

Date: 2005, March 30 | Source (EN): Daily Pennsylvanian

'VCR' argument weighed in P2P case

But legal analysts say the case, likely to be decided in June, has broader implications for the battle against rampant online piracy and for whether new technologies can be introduced without fear of litigation. Activists on both sides of the issue demonstrated outside the court. Some carried signs reading "Hands off my iPod." Others, highlighting the losses for artists, carried banners reading "Feed a Musician."

Date: 2005, March 30 | Source (EN): Australian IT

24 in Alabama sued for downloading songs

A music industry group has filed suit in federal court against 24 Alabamians (...)

Date: 2005, March 30 | Source (EN): Sun Herald

Tech firms in court over music piracy

If there's an outbreak of thievery should the authorities pursue the makers of ladders or chisels because burglars use them as tools of their trade? If there's a spate of armed robberies, should gun makers find themselves in court? The question is whether or not the software firms are to blame The argument - if provocatively put - is central to the grand dispute before the Supreme Court between the entertainment industry in the form of 28 music and movie companies and two producers of file-sharing software.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (EN): Bbc

Supreme Court may redefine file swapping

Supreme Court justices cast a critical eye Tuesday on entertainment industry proposals for quashing file swapping, while making clear they had little sympathy for ongoing piracy on peer-to-peer networks. (...) The justices were clear that they were concerned about the effect of their ruling on the ability of technology companies to create future products like Apple Computer's iPod. However, several appeared to seek a way of holding file-swapping companies responsible for the piracy on their networks without endangering other technology companies.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (EN): Zdnet

VoIP calls get podcast treatment

A growing number of people are sharing the digital music on MP3 players and other music devices using freely available software and Skype, a free Internet phone service. The enthusiasts are borrowing heavily from another personal broadcasting phenomenon called podcasting, in which digital recordings are posted on a Web site for download to a variety of music players, including desktop PCs and portable gadgets like Apple Computer's wildly popular iPod. "Skypecasters," as they call themselves, use Skype's peer-to-peer telephone network to distribute recordings over the Internet directly to each other for free.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (EN): Cnet

P2p-software bindt strijd met nepbestanden aan

De belangrijkste reden voor de afnemende populariteit van Kazaa en Kazaa Lite is - naast de bundeling van dubieuze spyware bij de officiële Kazaa-versie - de gigantische hoeveelheid nepbestanden op het netwerk. Internetters denken hun favoriete nummer binnen te halen, maar komen van een koude kermis thuis als blijkt dat het om een heel ander nummer gaat of slechts een fragment in een eindeloze loop.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (NL): Webwereld

RIAA will serve new subpoenas

In its ongoing campaign against the illegal sharing of copyrighted music, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has launched another salvo targeting Princeton students. In recent days, the music industry association sent several "pre-subpoena" letters to Rita Saltz, the University's Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) agent, identifying multiple students -- as many as 12, by some counts -- who have allegedly shared music files illegally. The students targeted were apparently using a file-sharing program called i2hub, which runs off the private Internet2 network accessible only to 206 member colleges and affiliated institutions.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (EN): Daily Princetonian

Billionaire backs defendent in landmark P2P case

Billionaire Mark Cuban has announced that he will finance Grokster's defence against MGM's peer-to-peer lawsuit, which is expected to be argued before the US Supreme Court on Tuesday. Cuban, the entrepreneur who sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7bn and who is now president of HDNet, a provider of high-definition TV programming, wrote in a blog entry on Saturday that he had agreed to fund the software company's defence after he was approached by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (EN): Zdnet

P2P raids clumsy, say ISPs

Two senior figures in the internet industry have suggested that the wholesale raids taking place in search of P2P violations could be better conducted through the normal channels - the police. Simon Hackett, managing director of South Australia's Internode, and Michael Malone managing director of Perth-based iiNet, both agreed that it would be better to request information from ISPs through the use of court orders and then track down infringers.

Date: 2005, March 29 | Source (EN): Fairfax Digital

Mexico Antipiracy Plan Makes Street Vendors Legit

The music industry is hailing a pilot anti-piracy program in Mexico that helps convert illegal street vendors into legitimate retailers as a novel approach with potential worldwide applications. The so-called "Mexico Plus" project, initiated late last year in the Mexican state of Guadalajara, is unique in that it brings together record labels, distributors, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and local, state and federal government bodies in a common fight against piracy.

Date: 2005, March 26 | Source (EN): Reuters

FBI speurt naar p2p-gebruik op bedrijfsnetwerken

Zijn na particulieren en universiteiten nu ook bedrijven het doelwit van acties tegen het illegaal uitwisselen van bestanden via p2p-netwerken? Volgens het Britse ICT-bedrijf Energis scant de FBI in alle stilte bedrijfsnetwerken waarop illegaal muziek- en filmbestanden worden uitgewisseld. De zaak kwam aan het rollen nadat beveiligingsexperts van Energis een verhoging van het aantal netwerkscans constateerden op het internet. Nader onderzoek wees uit dat een groot deel van de scans afkomstig was van de Amerikaanse politiedienst FBI.

Date: 2005, March 25 | Source (NL): Zdnet

Assets in Doubt as Judge Mulls Kazaa Trial

After hearing the arguments, Judge Murray Wilcox said he was "troubled" by the apparent lack of legal uses for Kazaa's software, and said it seemed that Kazaa's owners had introduced a copying device to the Internet knowing that billions of copyright protected files would be illegally reproduced.

Date: 2005, March 25 | Source (EN): Ecommerce Times

Fewer Admit to P2P File Sharing

Maybe it is the iPod factor, or maybe it is merely the result of the widely circulated reports of P2P users getting slapped with lawsuits, but a recent study shows that the numbers of people who admit to using such Web sites is declining. (...) Awareness that this activity is illegal has risen dramatically, she says. "About a third of music downloaders have stopped using the P2P sites explicitly because of the lawsuits." (...) There likely is a true decline of P2P usage, given the increasing availability of sources to download online music content legally.

Date: 2005, March 24 | Source (EN): Newsfactor

Majors tonen weer interesse voor Belgische popartiesten

(tijd) - De nieuwe cd van De Mens verscheen onlangs bij marktleider Universal, een van de zogenaamde majors (grote platenmaatschappijen). De groep bracht al haar vorige platen uit bij independents, kleine onafhankelijke maatschappijen. Novastar, eerder aan de deur gezet door Warner Music, kreeg een contract aangeboden bij EMI. Zien de grote platenmaatschappijen investeringen in lokaal talent dan toch nog zitten? Ja, maar het moet economisch en strategisch verantwoord zijn. 'Vroeger dachten we drie keer na voor we een lokaal artiest tekenden, nu vijf keer', klinkt het.

Date: 2005, March 23 | Source (NL): Tijd

Nooit waren Belgische cd's goedkoper, zegt Ifpi

Wereldwijde muziekverkoop rekent op digitale steun BRUSSEL - Dankzij de muziekverkoop op het internet en het succes van ringtunes (songs voor gsm's) slaagde de muziekindustrie er in 2004 in om geen verliezen te lijden. Maar champagne zullen de grote platenbonzen niet drinken: vooral in Europa blijft het crisis.

Date: 2005, March 23 | Source (NL): De Standaard

'DVD Jon' reopens iTunes back door

A group of underground programmers has posted code online they say will reopen a back door in Apple Computer's iTunes store, allowing Linux computer users to purchase music free of copy protection. The release comes just a day after Apple blocked a previous version of the program, called PyMusique, in part by requiring all iTunes customers to use the latest version of Apple's software. In a blog posting, Norwegian programmer Jon Johansen, who was previously responsible for releasing software used to copy DVDs online, said he had been successful at reverse engineering the latest iTunes encryption.

Date: 2005, March 22 | Source (EN): Cnet

Global music retail sales, including digital, flat in 2004

Global sales of recorded music were flat in 2004, with a slight reduction in physical audio sales offset by growing sales of DVD music videos and a sharp increase in sales of digital music. Regionally, 2004 saw strong markets in the US and UK and a slowing rate of decline in other major markets. Sales of physical formats declined by 1.3% in value (and by 0.4% in units) to US$33.6 billion. (The growth calculation is net of exchange rate fluctuations, comparing with US$34.1 billion in 2004). But with sales of music downloads via the internet and mobile phones making their first mark on the global market in 2004, total global sales are estimated to be flat in comparison to the previous year.

Date: 2005, March 22 | Source (EN): IFPI

iTunes hack disabled by Apple

Apple Computer has closed a security hole that allowed an underground program to tap into its iTunes Music Store and purchase songs stripped of antipiracy protections.

Date: 2005, March 21 | Source (EN): Cnet

Hackers build back door into iTunes

A trio of independent programmers has released new software that allows people to tap into Apple Computer's iTunes music store and purchase songs free of any anticopying protections. Joined by Jon Johansen, the Norwegian programmer responsible for distributing DVD-cracking code in late 1999, the programmers say their "PyMusique" software is a "fair" interface for iTunes, primarily aimed at allowing people who use the Linux operating system to purchase music from Apple's store.

Date: 2005, March 21 | Source (EN): Cnet

Next-generation P2P Music Network Launched: Bitmunk

Digital Bazaar, a groundbreaking digital file distribution company, announced today that they have launched their Bitmunk music network to the world. Their innovative file distribution technology ensures that artists can distribute their work via a peer-to-peer based network while ensuring the proper royalties are paid to them.

Date: 2005, March 21 | Source (EN): E Mediawire

RIAA Targets Harvard Student

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has specifically targeted at least one Harvard College student in its current legal campaign against the piracy of copyrighted music. According to Robert Mitchell, director of communications for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the RIAA has sent at least one "pre-subpoena letter" to the Associate Provost's office. The letter serves as an "advance warning" that a student or students will "probably be subpoenaed," Mitchell said.

Date: 2005, March 18 | Source (EN): Harvard Crimson

What price for 'trusted PC security'?

Could built-in security also mean more restrictions? You can now buy "trusted computers", but can we really trust the PC vendors, asks technology analyst Bill Thompson. (...) Because the trusted computing base is also used to make digital rights management systems more secure, this will give content providers a lot more control over what we can do with music, movies and books that we have bought from them.

Date: 2005, March 18 | Source (EN): Bbc

New DualDisc format ups the ante against music piracy

Quite possibly the most exciting thing about the new Lopez album was its release in the DualDisc format. The new format has a two-sided approach that helps combat piracy. (...) There is one caveat to be aware of. The CD side does not conform to normal CD standards, meaning that an occasional CD player will simply not be able to play it.

Date: 2005, March 17 | Source (EN): Fairfield Mirror

Anti-P2P lawmaker gets top Senate spot

Orrin Hatch, the senator who once said the recording industry should be able to destroy music pirates' PCs, will be in charge of a new Senate panel responsible for writing copyright laws. Hatch, a Utah Republican, on Thursday was formally named chairman of the Senate Intellectual Property subcommittee. It's responsible for overseeing the U.S. Copyright Office and drafting legislation and treaties relating to copyright and patent laws.

Date: 2005, March 17 | Source (EN): Cnet

Digital-music player sales to surge

Sales of portable digital-music players are set to grow 57 percent this year after more than doubling in 2004, results of a global survey showed on Tuesday. Over the next five years, shipments of MP3 music players will expand from 36.8 million in 2004 to 132 million units in 2009, market research group iSuppli said.

Date: 2005, March 15 | Source (EN): Cnet

Sony neemt MP3 nu wel serieus

Nadat Sony lange tijd het MP3-formaat - en daarmee de wens van de gebruiker - negeerde, blijkt de recente ommekeer in het beleid al direct vruchten af te werpen. (...) Helaas lijkt Sony de SonicStage-software maar niet te willen loslaten (...) omdat die software tevens de link verzorgt naar Sony's eigen muziekwinkel Connect - die muziek overigens nog steeds in het ATRAC-formaat levert.

Date: 2005, March 14 | Source (NL): Zdnet

Court date set for Aussie BitTorrent case

Australia's music industry piracy investigations unit is preparing to face Internet service provider Swiftel Communications in the Federal Court on Wednesday following the raid on Swiftel's premises in Perth, Western Australia last week. According to the outgoing chief of Music Industry Piracy Investigations, Michael Speck, both parties were given an oral order by magistrate Rolf Driver to appear in the Federal Court this Wednesday, 16 March.

Date: 2005, March 14 | Source (EN): Zdnet

P2P sites shutdown amid raid rumours

Australian P2P hubs are closing their doors following the music industry's raid on West Australian ISP People Telecom (formerly Swiftel). Both Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) and People Telecom have been ordered to appear before the Federal Court this Wednesday, in a case that could decide the future of online file sharing in Australia. Though MIPI have repeatedly stated that they are not interested in individual users, there is no doubt that the court case will be closely watched by file sharers, concerned that their activites might bring them to the attention of the law.

Date: 2005, March 14 | Source (EN): Whirlpool News

Music piracy unit raids ISP in BitTorrent assault

Australia's music industry piracy investigations unit has raided an Internet service provider in Perth in what it says is the first Australian assault on the use of BitTorrent technology for copyright infringement. Outgoing Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) general manager, Michael Speck, said the raid was launched this afternoon at the offices of Swiftel Communications in the Western Australian capital's central business district after federal magistrate Rolf Driver yesterday granted a civil search order.

Date: 2005, March 11 | Source (EN): Zdnet

Belgische jongeren inconsequent over downloaden

Patrick Viaene, License Compliance Manager bij Microsoft, ziet een sensibiliserende rol weggelegd voor de overheid: "Enerzijds is 84 procent van mening dat intellectuele eigendom moet worden beschermd, maar anderzijds worden er massaal muzieknummers, films en computerprogramma's gedownload. Het lijkt ons dan ook aangewezen dat jongeren op de gevolgen daarvan worden gewezen." (...) De Westvlaamse zanger Flip Kowlier toonde begrip voor het downloadgedrag van de jongeren (...) De Puertoricaanse Gentenaar Gabriel Rios tenslotte, is principieel niet tegen downloaden en ziet het als een "unstoppable" evolutie die marketinglui en platenbonzen moet aansporen om creatiever om te gaan met het muziekaanbod (...)

Date: 2005, March 10 | Source (NL): Zdnet

Leading Expert Examines Spyware and Adware in P2P Programs

Ben Edelman, a noted expert on Spyware, this week released a study comparing five leading file-sharing programs on Download.com: LimeWire, iMesh, Morpheus, eDonkey and Kazaa. Of the five programs, only LimeWire was found to have no bundled software: "One program in my sample is notable not for its inclusion of bundled software but for its omission of such software. Not only did LimeWire not include bundled software, but in my testing it also did not show any advertisements beyond promotions for the paid version of LimeWire."

Date: 2005, March 09 | Source (EN): Business Wire

Jongeren downloaden massaal

Bijna zeven op tien jongeren (68 procent) gaan via het internet op zoek naar interessante downloads. Vooral muziekbestanden zijn populair. Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek door de laatstejaarsstudenten Marketing van de Karel De Grote-Hogeschool in Antwerpen, in opdracht van Microsoft. Tachtig procent van de bestanden die jongeren tussen 15 en 29 jaar downloaden zijn muziekbestanden. De overige 20 procent bestaat uit films, software, foto's en games. Slechts 3 procent van de ondervraagden downloadt via de legale kanalen (...)

Date: 2005, March 09 | Source (NL): De Standaard

Has P2P Influenced Your Music Tastes?

About 5 years ago, when I first found out about KaZaA, it was somewhat 'underground' and had less than 1 million people. I soon discovered there was an unbelievable amount of music open to me. Instead of getting the music I always heard on the radio, I always sought out the music that was previously unavailable to me [Japanese pop & rock, overseas techno, etc]. Well, fast forward to today, and I actively buy CDs from groups I fell in love with from the songs I found on P2P. I was wondering, if any of the Slashdot community used to/still uses P2P programs to try out music that isn't heard on the radio, to expand your tastes in music from different countries & cultures?"

Date: 2005, March 09 | Source (EN): Slashdot

Vermogen van Kazaa-baas bevroren

Van een kale kip kan men geen veren plukken, moet Nikki Hemming, de eigenares van Kazaa, gedacht hebben. Prompt verkocht ze haar huis aan de boekhouder van het bedrijf. Maar dat was buiten de advocaten van de muziekindustrie gerekend: zij hebben de bezittingen van de eigenaars van Kazaa en AltNet laten bevriezen. (...) Advocaten van de muziekindustrie vrezen dat de eigenares van Kazaa de betaling van een mogelijke schadevergoeding wil ontlopen door haar eigendom bij anderen onder te brengen. Om dit te verhinderen, vroegen ze de Australische rechtbank om de bezittingen van de Kazaa-top te bevriezen. De CEO van Sharman Networks is er nu mee akkoord gegaan om haar vermogen onaangeroerd te laten.

Date: 2005, March 08 | Source (NL): Zdnet

Yahoo readies iTunes rival for launch

Web giant Yahoo is poised to launch a new digital store and music player, aiming to compete more directly with Apple Computer's successful iTunes service, according to sources familiar with the project. As previously reported, Yahoo has been working on the project along with digital-music wholesaler MusicNet since before the $160 million purchase of rival music company Musicmatch. Sources familiar with Yahoo's plans said the new store and software had been scheduled to debut early this week but that the launch date was pushed back.

Date: 2005, March 08 | Source (EN): Cnet

Zelfstandigen kunnen tot 640 euro muziekbelasting terugeisen

Zelfstandigen die vroeger een belasting hebben betaald omdat ze muziek draaiden in hun winkel of wachtkamer kunnen die terugvorderen. De Raad van State heeft het Koninklijk Besluit over de invoering van de billijke vergoeding gedeeltelijk vernietigd na een klacht van Unizo.

Date: 2005, March 08 | Source (NL): De Standaard

Sony PSP to hear the music

Sony will hook up its PlayStation Portable handheld game player to its digital music service, the company confirmed Monday. Speaking at the iHollywood Digital Living Room forum here, Yair Landau, vice chairman of Sony Pictures, said the Japanese giant plans to release software that would let the PSP synchronize with Connect, Sony's entertainment download service. The company also plans to launch software that would let the PSP link to PCs and Macs within a year, he said.

Date: 2005, March 07 | Source (EN): Cnet

RIAA prosecutes UA student

A UA student landed a deferred prison sentence and thousands of dollars in fines last month in the state's first ever prosecution of an Internet intellectual property piracy case. On Feb. 10, Parvin Dhaliwal was sentenced in Phoenix to three months deferred imprisonment, three years probation, 200 hours of community service and a $5,400 fine for the possession of pirated movies and music on his computer in Mesa, according to Krystal Garza, director of communications for Maricopa County Attorney's Office.

Date: 2005, March 07 | Source (EN): Arizona Daily Wildcat

Moscow prosecutor lets low-cost MP3 site off the hook

Russian prosecutors have decided they are unable to take legal action against controversial online music provider Allofmp3.com - despite the music service's lack of sufficient licences to offer the content it does. Last week, the Moscow Southwest regional prosecutor's office said no criminal indictment could be brought against the music seller because it has not violated Russia's copyright law, a local blogger has reported. Yes, AllofMP3.com offers copyright music. No, it does not always have the prior permission of the copyright holder to do so. But Russian law was written to prevent CD and DVD piracy - copyright infringement through a physical medium. Its online manifestation was not something taken into account by legislators.

Date: 2005, March 07 | Source (EN): The Register

Piracy is not a victimless crime

Over the past few weeks, governments and commercial interests in the West have adopted a subtle change of tactics in their seemingly endless and invariably fruitless attempts to combat the counterfeiting of movies and music. In the first instance, the United Kingdom asked for Thai help in stopping the rampant influx of pirated CDs, DVDs and VCDs into Britain. Our country is not a direct target but has become involved because the UK says that 40% of optical products it seizes are transported via Thailand.

Date: 2005, March 05 | Source (EN): Bangkok Post News

Asset-stripping fears in music piracy case

Parties linked to the Kazaa music piracy case have agreed to a freeze on their goods, including two luxury properties, after concerns from the music industry that asset-stripping might be taking place. In the latest twist in the long-running case, which centres on internet music file sharing, lawyers for Kazaa's alleged operators said on Friday their clients would not dispose of assets until at least March 22, when Justice Murray Wilcox would hear closing statements.

Date: 2005, March 05 | Source (EN): Fairfax Digital

Politie-actie tegen namaak op grote schaal in Leuven

Op basis van een aangifte verkregen via het agentschap SABAM Leuven werd door SABAM en IFPI Belgium een klacht neergelegd bij de Leuvense onderzoeksrechter. Tijdens een huiszoeking van de Federale en lokale Politie Leuven werden meer dan 7000 nagemaakte muziekalbums, films en computerspelletjes en een paar duizend blanco dragers in beslag genomen. Tevens werden er 8 CD-branders (...). De schade voor de rechthebbenden bedraagt volgens een eerste schatting meer dan 1 miljoen Euro.

Date: 2005, March 04 | Source (NL): IFPI Belgium

British record industry extends illegal filesharing battle to eight P2P networks

The British record industry is stepping up its war on illegal filesharing with 31 new cases against users of major filesharing sites including eDonkey and Soulseek, as it revealed that 23 internet users had paid compensation. The compensation has been paid to settle 23 out of 26 cases brought by the BPI in October last year against people who had been sharing files over the internet. The users, 17 men and six women, have paid an average of more than £2,000 to settle their cases, while two of the filesharers are paying over £4,000 each. They have also undertaken not to fileshare illegally again.

Date: 2005, March 04 | Source (EN): Digital Bulletin

P2P Defenders Issue Warnings on Grokster Case

"Make no mistake," cautioned Michael Weiss, CEO of StreamCast. "What is at stake here is whether Hollywood gets to control the development of new technology for the sole purpose of protecting their own self interest."

Date: 2005, March 02 | Source (EN): Technews World

Music Artists Rally Support Behind P2P

Several musical artists have told the U.S. Supreme Court that they believe peer-to-peer networks should not be blamed for illegal file sharing. Instead, they are urging the court to keep P2P services alive in order to give musicians another outlet to distribute their work, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday.

Date: 2005, March 01 | Source (EN): Beta News

Anti-Piracy Begins at Home

The Christian Coalition of America has fallen hook, line and sinker for spurious Big Music cartel claims that P2P file sharing applications have a major role in the existence of online pornography, including child porn.

Date: 2005, March 01 | Source (EN): Technology News