A federal jury’s ruling that Microsoft infringed on two MP3 patents and must pay Alcatel-Lucent SA $1.52 billion in damages may turn into problems for Apple and other technology companies. Microsoft said it paid for the technology from Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute, which licenses it to hundreds of companies, including Apple Inc. and RealNetworks Inc. Companies [...]

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. [...]

Several major record labels, including Arista Records, Warner Bros., Capitol and UMG Recordings, have announced that they are suing controversial Russian music Web site AllofMP3.com, claiming that the site had been selling copyrighted music without permission. The lawsuit was filed in New york federal court against Moscow-based Mediaservices, which owns AllofMP3 and another music site, [...]

According to a poll by Metro.co.uk, a quarter of UK urbanites have downloaded pirated music recently. Almost half the 18 to 44-year-olds who took part in the survey said they downloaded tunes. While 37 per cent said they had downloaded legal tracks, 25 per cent admitted to downloading illegally in the past six months. While [...]

Owners of iPods and other portable media players are thieves, according to Universal Music CEO Doug Morris. “These devices are just repositories for stolen music, and they all know it,” UMG chairman/CEO Doug Morris says. “So it’s time to get paid for it.” Microsoft recently announced that the Zune’s purchase price includes a cut for [...]

Legislation aimed at legalizing copying your music to iPods and other portable media players appears to be going nowhere. According to reports, four months of work has resulted in a 29-page draft bill that doesn’t fix the issue. “If the law is enacted in its current form, we will have to call it ‘the Little [...]

BlogAmp, a service that offers audio hosting and a customizable Flash interface for podcasts and other audio files, is offering a free trial for the next 500 users to try the service through November 10th. The fine print: 50MB Total Storage limit with Unlimited plays/downloads 25 MB limit per uploaded MP3

Podcast Ready and mobiBLU have announced the launch of what they are calling the “first podcast-enabled MP3 players.” mobiBLU’s latest MP3 player, the B153, will come pre-installed with Podcast Ready’s myPodder podcast management software. A myPodder-enabled 2GB mobiBlu Cube is also being launched through Target stores nationwide. Podcast Ready’s myPodder software resides on the player [...]