Media Rights Technologies and BlueBeat.com, developers of digital rights management software, have issued cease and desist letters to Microsoft, Adobe, Real Networks and Apple for failing to implement the companies’ DRM technology in Windows Vista, Adobe’s Flash Player, Real Player and Apple’s iTunes and iPod. The companies are using an unusual interpretation of the Digital [...]

Microsoft’s top lawyer Brad Smith, right, warned Apple yesterday not stop complaining to record labels about music copyright restrictions, saying the computer giant was already selling plenty of iPod music players. “I’m not a big believer in just blaming the music industry for Apple’s inability to sell every conceivable iPod,” said Brad Smith, senior vice [...]

Microsoft is changing its tune on DRM-free music. The company is now planning to follow Apple’s lead, selling music from EMI DRM-free. “The EMI announcement on Monday was not exclusive to Apple,” said Katy Asher, a Microsoft spokeswoman on the Zune team. “Consumers have made it clear that unprotected music is something they want. We [...]

EMI has beat Apple to the punch, releasing The Good, The Bad & The Queen, an album by Gorillaz’ Damon Albarn’s latest supergroup as a DRM-free download. It’s the first EMI album to be offered for legal download in mp3 format, free of copy protection. For the first time, downloads by EMI artists purchased from [...]

On Friday, the United States Copyright Royalty Board announced new royalty rates for webcasts, effective from 2006 to 2010. The new rates force webcasters to pay for each traditionally copyrighted song streamed to each user, and increase over the next few years as follows: 2006: $0.0008 to stream one song to one listener 2007: $.0011 [...]

Gizmodo is calling for a boycott on the RIAA in March: Gizmodo is declaring the month of March Boycott the RIAA month. We want to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible that we can all send a message by refusing to buy any album put out by an RIAA label. [...]

The push for DRM-free music has reached a dead-end in the UK. The U.K. government has rejected a call for a digital rights management ban, but acknowledged that the technology could undermine consumer rights. The decision was in response to an online petition at the U.K. government’s e-petitions Web site calling for digital rights management [...]

While Apple is calling for an end to DRM, and some record labels are considering distributing digital music without DRM, Microsoft is introducing a new DRM technology. Microsoft PlayReady is designed to enable a broad spectrum of business models such as subscription, rental, pay-per-view, preview and super-distribution, which can be applied to many digital content [...]

EMI is reported to be talking to online retailers about selling its entire digital music catalog in MP3 format without copy protection. The move would create a major split in the music industry. Earlier this week, Warner Music chief executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. responded to Steve Jobs’ challenge to dump DRM by telling industry analysts [...]

While Steve Jobs may have a vision for the future of digital music, Warner Music isn’t buying it. The company said on Thursday it will keep anti-piracy copy protection for digital songs sold on services such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes Music Store. The company’s comments come two days after Apple Inc.’s chief executive Steve Jobs [...]