Music piracy research - news archive

Virgin, HMV to launch UK music downloads

Virgin looks set to beat arch retail rival HMV by a nose when it launches a revitalised UK music download service this week. Virgin Digital UK will go live on Friday, 2 September, the company said yesterday. HMV's rival service, HMV Digital, opens its virtual doors on Monday, 5 September.

The Register, 2005, August 31st | Language: EN | 302 words

eDonkey stoot Bittorrent van de troon

Meer dan de helft van alle dataverkeer op het internet wordt op p2p-ruilnetwerken gegenereerd. Het drukste netwerk is eDonkey, dat de fakkel heeft overgenomen van BitTorrent. (...) zestig procent van alle dataverkeer op de vier populairste p2p-netwerken bestaat uit de uitwisseling van videobestanden. Muziek- en audiobestanden nemen slechts 11,33 procent van het dataverkeer voor hun rekening.

Zdnet, 2005, August 29th | Language: NL | 193 words

Digital music's angel, gets record industry scorn

Two and a half years after the music business lined up behind the chief executive of Apple, Steven Jobs, and hailed him and his iTunes music service for breathing life into music sales, the industry's allegiance to Jobs has eroded sharply. (...) the one-price model that iTunes has adopted--99 cents to download any song--could be replaced with a more complex structure that prices songs by popularity. A hot new single, for example, could sell for $1.49, while a golden oldie could go for substantially less than 99 cents.

Cnet, 2005, August 27th | Language: EN | 1531 words

Accused Internet Thief Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Steal Movies, Music, Games on Line in First-of-its-Kind California Case

The operator of an Internet hub that allegedly facilitated on-line poaching of copyrighted films, television shows, music and games pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to commit grand theft in the first criminal Internet file-sharing case brought in California. (...) Kobles ran an Internet file sharing hub that allowed users to trade movies, television shows, music and games with others. To join the group, the user had to have access to a large amount of material they were willing to "share" with others.

La County District Attorney's Office, 2005, August 26th | Language: EN | 474 words

Stichting de Thuiskopie pakt handelaren Zwarte Markt aan.

De Beverwijkse Zwarte Markt handelaar Lucky Shop mag op straffe van boetes geen illegale blanco dragers meer verhandelen en dient daarnaast € 20.000,- aan nog verschuldigde heffing te voldoen aan Stichting de Thuiskopie. Dit is het gevolg van de comparitiezitting, welke plaatsvond op woensdag 24 augustus 2005 voor de rechtbank te Den Haag, in het kader van een bodemprocedure die Stichting de Thuiskopie tegen deze handelaar had aangespannen.

Cedar, 2005, August 25th | Language: NL | 339 words

Stichting Thuiskopie beboet Lucky Shop

Lucky Shop is beboet door Stichting Thuiskopie vanwege het verkopen van illegale blanco dragers. (...) De handelaar verkocht de dragers op de Zwarte Markt te Beverwijk. Lucky Shop moet nu 20.000 euro betalen aan verschuldigde heffingen. Gedurende de bodemprocedure die Thuiskopie tegen de handelaar had lopen, kwam het tot een schikking. Lucky Shop moet de boete betalen en mag niet langer dergelijke dragers verkopen.

Webwereld, 2005, August 25th | Language: NL | 155 words

Pearl Jam Goes Digital For Live Bootleg Series

Already at the forefront of issuing authorized "live bootlegs" of its shows, Pearl Jam will on Sept. 1 launch its own digital download store via its official Web site. Hours after their completion, full concerts from the group's fall tour will be available for $9.99 as 192K MP3s, which are nearly 50% higher than the standard bit rate. (...) The idea to embark on such an endeavor has been floating around the Pearl Jam camp for several years. "The thing we were looking for was a really good way to manage the thing," Tim Bierman, manager of Pearl Jam's Ten Club fan organization, tells Billboard.com. "That's where Basecamp came in. They developed a killer application I'm really confident the fans are going to love." In an interesting twist, the files will be encoded without DRM (...)

Billboard, 2005, August 24th | Language: EN | 460 words

Sony BMG blesses P2P music swapping network

(...) Sony BMG has partnered with British digital music outfit Playlouder MSP to make its music catalog available online. Subscribers will be able to exchange licensed music freely, in any bitrate they want, since a portion of the subscription fee goes to a digital pool which is divided amongst Sony and other artists. (...) PLMSP will deploy watermarks and "deep packet searches" software on the network in an attempt to stem leakage.

The Register, 2005, August 23rd | Language: EN | 519 words

Napster boss on life after piracy

The last two years have seen the virtual transformation of the global music industry due to physical and online piracy, falling sales of CDs, and the rise of legal downloads and portable music players such as the iPod. But the impact has been as great on consumers, who have seen the way they can buy and use music change just as radically. No company represents that shift in the music industry better than Napster.

Bbc, 2005, August 22nd | Language: EN | 958 words

Sabam zoekt naar oplossing voor on-linemuziek

"Wij zullen overleg plegen met onze Europese zusterverenigingen en met de Europese Commissie om het beste model te vinden voor de toekenning van licenties voor de verkoop van on-linemuziek, waarbij er geen kritiek meer zal komen op het vlak van de mededinging.

De Morgen, 2005, August 18th | Language: NL | 281 words

IFPI tracks unauthorised Depeche Mode pre-release download to Poland

Police in Poland have arrested a Polish individual alleged to have accessed a secure pre-release video copy of the new Depeche Mode single Precious and made it available for public download without authorisation.

IFPI, 2005, August 18th | Language: EN | 307 words

SABAM zoekt naar nieuw licentiemodel online muziekwinkels

SABAM schrapt een belangrijke beperking voor websites die online muziek willen verkopen. De auteursrechtenvereniging reageert hiermee op bezwaren van de Europese Commissie. De auteursrechtenvereniging heeft de Europese Commissie laten weten dat ze het akkoord van Santiago niet meer zal toepassen, in het bijzonder de zogenaamde clausule van territorialiteit.

Zdnet, 2005, August 18th | Language: NL | 363 words

Music downloads to phones dominate Japanese market

Music downloads via cell phones outpaced those to digital music players by a wide margin in Japan during the first six months of 2005, according to data released last week. Cell phone downloads including complete songs and ring tone melodies totaled 108.9 million songs during the first half of the year and were worth ¥13.6 billion (US$123 million as of June 30, the last day of the period), according to figures from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).

Infoworld, 2005, August 16th | Language: EN | 232 words

Internet neemt muziekverkoop over

De muziekindustrie heeft een nieuwe markt ontdekt. Sony BMG wil een strak systeem van ,,windowverkoop'' invoeren, naar analogie met de filmindustrie (...). In een dergelijke ketting zal Sony BMG zijn singles eerst exclusief op een betaalsite aanbieden, dan als ringtone voor gsm's, daarna als nummer op een traditionele cd en uiteindelijk als videoclip.

De Standaard, 2005, August 16th | Language: NL | 243 words

Music on the move: music downloads and DRM

In the first of a two part series on digital music on the move, we look at the controversial issue of digital rights management (DRM) and consider to what extent - if at all - users are discouraged from using legitimate download services. The music downloads market is becoming ever more crowded - Amazon and Panasonic are only two of the most recent entrants - as illegal file swapping via peer-to-peer networks come under increasing legal pressure and broadband connections increase.

Pc Pro, 2005, August 15th | Language: EN | 1708 words

RIAA admits CD-R more a threat than P2P

The RIAA's chief executive, Mitch Bainwol, last week said music fans acquire almost twice as many songs from illegally duplicated CDs as from unauthorised downloads, Associated Press reports. According to Bainwol, in turn citing figures from market watcher NPD, 29 per cent of the recorded music obtained by listeners last year came from content copied onto recordable media. Only 16 per cent came from illegal downloads.

The Register, 2005, August 15th | Language: EN | 578 words

Thuiskopie pakt goedkope blanco cd's aan

Thuiskopie verwijt Opus dat deze zich bedient van een schijnconstructie om de thuiskopievergoeding te ontduiken. Opus biedt consumenten de mogelijkheid om via zijn website onder meer blanco cd-r's en dvd-r's te bestellen. Volgens de door Opus gehanteerde voorwaarden zou de consument de dragers in Duitsland bestellen en daarom zelf de thuiskopievergoeding moeten afdragen. (...) Verder stelt de stichting dat de dragers feitelijk niet vanuit Duitsland, maar vanuit Nederland aan de consument geleverd worden. Vergelijkbare constructies die werden toegepast door de bedrijven Arenca en Storpro werden eerder dit jaar door de Nederlandse en Belgische rechter al ontoelaatbaar geacht.

Webwereld, 2005, August 15th | Language: NL | 227 words

Apple, Microsoft Tussle over iPod Interface Patents

While Apple crowed on Monday over the success of its online music service in Japan, the company played a different tune later in the week with reports that it had lost a round in a patent dispute with Microsoft over the interface to its popular iPod audio player.

Pc Magazine, 2005, August 12th | Language: EN | 387 words

Microsoft, Apple in iPod patent tussle

In a ruling issued last month, a patent examiner rejected Apple's attempt to patent some of the user interface concepts behind the popular digital music player, noting that Microsoft developer John Platt filed for similar claims five months before Apple did.

Cnet, 2005, August 12th | Language: EN | 534 words

Belgische toeristen beboet na aankoop illegale cd's

Twee Belgische toeristen in Firenze kregen van de Italiaanse politie een boete voor de aankoop van illegale muziek-cd's bij een straatverkoper. (...) Om de verkoop van gepirateerde goederen te ontmoedigen, heeft Italië recent een systeem van administratieve boetes ingevoerd. Kopers die betrapt worden, krijgen meteen een boete opgelegd. Ook in Griekenland werden dit jaar al toeristen beboet wegens de aanschaf van illegaal gekopieerde cd's.

Zdnet, 2005, August 9th | Language: NL | 325 words

Europe Follows Grokster's Lead

A directive being pushed by the European Commission would, among other things, criminalize "attempting, aiding or abetting and inciting" acts of copyright infringement. The EU parliament will take up the proposal later this year. Like the Grokster ruling, the scope of the proposal reaches beyond the act of downloading or uploading copyright video, music or software files and makes supporting copyright infringement illegal. If the directive is adopted, software used primarily for illegal file sharing, for example, could potentially make its developers criminally liable in one or several EU member countries.

Wired, 2005, August 5th | Language: EN | 1109 words

Amazon.com preps digital music service

Ecommerce giant Amazon.com appears to be preparing a digital music service to compete with Apple Computer's iTunes at last, according to a job listing posted on a popular industry blog. (...) The company has not publicly said that it intends to launch a full-fledged digital music offering. However, several music industry executives confirmed on Thursday that the company has been actively discussing plans to enter the market for several months, including proposals for a subscription-based service.

Cnet, 2005, August 4th | Language: EN | 312 words

Japan launch for iTunes downloads

The iTunes store is now available in 20 countries, reaching 85% of the global music market, Apple's Steve Jobs said. Apple hopes the introduction of iTunes will help drive sales of iPods - which are bigger money-makers than its download service - in Japan. iPods currently account for more than 70% of all digital music players sold in the US but only 36% in Japan. (...) Meanwhile, iTunes' competitor Napster has announced plans to set up its own Japanese download service in partnership with CD shop Tower Records.

Bbc, 2005, August 4th | Language: EN | 225 words

Muziekdownload voor het eerst populairder dan cd-single

De verkoop van muziekdownloads steeg in de eerste zes maanden tot 1,5 miljoen nummers. In dezelfde periode gingen er 1,1 miljoen cd-singles over de toonbank bij de cd-winkel. Het is voor het eerst dat er meer downloads dan cd-singles worden verkocht. Dat blijkt uit cijfers van de brancheorganisatie voor de entertainmentindustrie (NVPI) en Gfk Benelux.

Webwereld, 2005, August 2nd | Language: NL | 236 words

FBI raids in Belgium in anti-piracy operation

House raids were carried out in Belgium in recent days as the FBI conducted an international operation against a software and DVD piracy gang. (...) No arrests were carried out in Belgium, but the suspects targeted signed a declaration stating they will abide by regulations in future.

Expatica, 2005, August 1st | Language: EN | 198 words

New File-Sharing Techniques Are Likely to Test Court Decision

The New York Times, 2005, August 1st | Language: EN | 1344 words