Judge to RIAA: You can't sue over songs 'made available' via P2P

In a widely anticipated decision, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ruled Monday to reject the RIAA's claim that a Kazaa user who merely "made available" copyrighted music necessarily violated the law. Rather, he said, the RIAA would have to demonstrate that unlawful copying actually took place. While the judge rejected the RIAA attorneys' "making available" argument, he did provide them with a road map showing a detour that might still allow them to arrive at their destination. (News.com)

Record companies sue Pirate Bay four

Record companies are demanding that the four individuals responsible for operating the file sharing site The Pirate Bay pay €1.6 million (15 million kronor/$2.5 million) in compensatory damages. The indictment covers 24 music albums, nine films, and four computer games. The compensation claim was presented to Stockholm District Court on Monday. "The record companies can go screw themselves," said Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg to The Local. (The Local, Ars Technica)

File Sharers Get Help Spotting ISP Moves

Vuze Inc., a California-based company that provides a popular file-sharing program, is giving its users a tool to help figure out if their Internet service provider is interfering with their traffic. The Associated Press last year confirmed user reports that Comcast Corp., the country's largest cable company, was secretly disrupting some file-sharing by its subscribers. The "plug-in" Vuze made available as a free download last weekend looks for "reset packets," the tool Comcast uses to break off some connections with computers trying to download files from Comcast subscribers, Vuze said Wednesday. (AP)

The 2008 conference video series: Janus Friis at MidemNet

Janus Friis, co-founder & co-chairman of Joost (and co-founder of Kazaa & Skype) spoke to TAG Strategic's Ted Cohen about the importance of disruption; and of going legit'! (Midemnet's Blog)

Peter Jenner: Thoughts on why the ISPs need an Access to Music Charge

International Music Managers' Forum secretary general Peter Jenner's latest post adds fuel to the ISP levy debate currently burning in the UK; and on midemnetblog.com, with readers such as Guillaume Laurent pointing out in response to Jenner's last post that the same idea was "happily shot down back in 2006" in France. Nothing to discourage Jenner, however, as you'll exclusively discover here! (Midemnet's Blog)

Kazaa downloads cost one man $750 per song in RIAA suit

James V. Lewis was sued by the labels in August 2007 after an IP address flagged by MediaSentry was traced to his ISP account. Lewis never showed up in court, and the RIAA filed for a default judgment in October. After a hearing held last week, the judge gave the RIAA what it was looking for: a default judgment in the amount of $3,000 plus an additional $420 in court costs. (Ars Technica)

LimeWire Launches DRM-Free Online Music Store

The developers of file sharing client LimeWire have launched a DRM-free digital music store that serves up 500,000 MP3s, many of them from indie bands, for as little as 27 cents apiece. Users of the application will eventually see "buy" links alongside options to download songs for free from other users using BitTorrent or Gnutella technology. At 256 Kbps, LimeWire's MP3s are relatively high-quality files, which could entice some to buy a given track rather than downloading a potentially inferior-sounding version for free. (Wired)

Italian File-Sharers Let Off The Hook

Italian companies may not spy on individuals who engage in illegal file-sharing, according to a controversial new ruling. The ruling of Francesco Pizzetti, president of the official Italian body for Guaranteeing the Protection of Private Data, follows the attempts of a German record label, Peppermint, which last year began using the Swiss computer firm Logistep to gather the IP addresses of at least 300 Italians who were illegally sharing files. (Billboard)

Soribada Gets OK For Legal P2P Service

Soribada, South Korea's top P2P music service provider, claims it has received approval from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to launch a legal subscription-based P2P music-download service May 1. The Seoul-based service claims its current service has some 700,000 subscribers and reported sales of $29 million and an operating profit of $3.9 million in 2007. (Billboard)

Sweden to Get Tough on File-Sharers

Swedish courts will soon be able to force the country's Internet providers to hand out information on suspected file-sharers in a move to crackdown on online piracy, the culture and justice ministers said Friday. "We need to... stand up for musicians, authors, filmmakers and all other copyright owners so that they have the right to their own material," Justice Minister Beatrice Ask and Culture Minister Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth wrote in a joint opinion piece published in the Svenska Dagbladet daily. The ministers said they will move ahead with the proposal this spring. (AP)

A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing

The current battles surrounding peer-to-peer file sharing are a losing proposition for everyone. The record labels continue to face lackluster sales, while the tens of millions of American file sharers—American music fans—are made to feel like criminals. Every day the collateral damage mounts—privacy at risk, innovation stymied, economic growth suppressed, and a few unlucky individuals singled out for legal action by the recording industry. And the litigation campaign against music fans has not put a penny into the pockets of artists. We need a better way forward. (EFF White Paper)

Woman To Record Industry: Stop Spying

A woman who claims the recording industry's anti-music piracy campaign threatens and intimidates innocent people has filed a new complaint accusing record companies of racketeering, fraud and illegal spying. Tanya Andersen originally sued the Recording Industry Association of America after RIAA representatives threatened to interrogate her young daughter if she didn't pay thousands of dollars for music she downloaded from somebody else. (CBS News)

Japan : Winny copiers to be cut off from Internet

The nation's four Internet provider organizations have agreed to forcibly cut the Internet connection of users found to repeatedly use Winny and other file-sharing programs to illegally copy gaming software and music, it was learned Friday. The organizations plan to launch a consultative panel, possibly in April, together with copyright organizations including the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers and the Association of Copyright for Computer Software. They will then begin making guidelines for disconnecting users from the Internet who leak illegally copied material onto the Net. (Daily Yomiuru Online, Variety, News.com, Billboard)

Verizon embraces P4P, a more efficient peer-to-peer tech

The Distributed Computing Industry Association's P4P workgroup is devising a new protocol for what researchers describe as carrier-grade peer-to-peer file transfer systems. Verizon reports that a recent test it conducted revealed that the new protocol provides a significant boost in download performance while simultaneously reducing network congestion. Verizon senior technologist and P4P workgroup co-chair Doug Pasko said that Verizon observed download performance improvements of approximately 200 percent during tests conducted with Pando. (Ars Technica, AP)

ISPs urged to help combat pirates

The call will be made in a speech, seen by the Financial Times, to be delivered by Feargal Sharkey, chief executive of British Music Rights, at the awards ceremony of the Internet Services Providers' Association. "My key message to you tonight is that the music industry is embracing change," wrote Mr Sharkey, former singer with 1970s punk band The Undertones. "This is the debate we need to get back on track: how to unlock that insatiable demand for music, and in a way that grows both of our businesses. Surely the bright and brilliant minds in this room can help figure this out?" (Financial Times)

Babelgum invests $15 million in shorts

Internet TV network Babelgum has earmarked Euro 10 million ($15.4 million) fund that will invest in new, original and exclusive content. Babelgum is “transforming into a digital media studio,” spokesperson Andrea Giannotti said of the company, which uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver professionally produced content, instead of the user-generated clips of sites such as YouTube. (Variety)

Peer-to-Peer Software Firm Pando Raises $8.1 Million

Pando Networks, a provider of peer-to-peer file-sharing software, has secured $8.12 million of a $20.9 million second round of venture capital financing, PEHub.com reported, citing a regulatory filing. Pando provides peer-assisted content delivery to media partners including NBC, Blip.tv and ROO Group. (Digital Media Wire)

Music firms take Irish ISP to court over illegal downloads

Four major record companies have brought legal action to force Irish ISP Eircom to stop its networks being used for the illegal downloading of music, according to The Irish Times. This is the first case in Ireland where internet service providers have been targeted rather than individual illegal downloaders. (Computer Weekly, Billboard, Ireland.com)

Beggars Group and QTRAX Sign Digital License Contract

Chairman and CEO of QTRAX Allan Klepfisz announced that Beggars Group has signed a digital distribution licensing agreement with QTRAX, the free and legal ad-supported peer-to-peer music network. Beggars Banquet, 4AD, XL Recordings, Rough Trade Records, Mantra Records, Mo'Wax Records, Locked On Records, Matador Records, Too Pure Records and Wiiija are all part of Beggars Group. The labels are distributed by Alternative Distribution Alliance in the United States. (PR)

U.K. pirates would heed ISP warning

Piracy would be massively reduced if offenders in the U.K. received a warning from their Internet service provider. A report undertaken by Entertainment Media Research, suggests 70% of people would cease piracy if they received a warning. Percentage of those who would stop downloading unauthorized content if contacted by their ISP rises to a whopping 78% among male teens. (Variety, Ars Technica)