Peter Althin, the attorney representing Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde, has called for a retrial, Swedish news site The Local revealed today. Swedish radio channel Sveriges Radio’s P3 news programme reports that the judge in the case was a member of the same copyright protection groups as several of the main entertainment industry representatives, who [...]

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an off-the-record explanation from an RIAA official on how they identify colleges and universities to target: The official explained that one way the RIAA identifies pirates is by using LimeWire, a popular peer-to-peer file-sharing program that is free online and used by many college students (there is also a [...]

Amazon.com has announced plans for an international rollout of Amazon MP3, a DRM-free MP3 digital music store, in 2008. Amazon MP3 is currently the only retailer that the four major labels are allowing to offer customers DRM-free MP3s. As a result, it can offer over 3.3 million songs from more than 270,000 artists in DRM-free [...]

The IFPI, an organization that represents the mainstream music industry worldwide, has released its take on the state of digital music 2008. According to the report, digital music is booming and the music industry is further along in the transition to digital than other industries. The industry appears to be more focused on P2P file [...]

There’s a lot of misinformation going around the Internet as a result of a report in the Washington Post that suggests that the RIAA is suing people for ripping music for personal use: In legal documents in its federal case against Jeffrey Howell, a Scottsdale, Ariz., man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music [...]

In Atlantic v. Howell, an anti-piracy lawsuit in Arizona, the RIAA is making the case that, while it’s legal to rip CDs for personal use, it’s illegal if you store ripped tracks in a folder that is shared: Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs‚Äô recording into the compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared folder, [...]

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today sent another new wave of 411 threatening letters to 19 universities nationwide. The RIAA sent letters to these schools schools: Drexel University (17 letters) Indiana University (23) Northern Illinois University (25) Occidental College (19) State University of New York at Morrisville (18) Texas Christian University (20) Tufts [...]

The music industry has introduced a new music format that’s a twist on the singles of the past – the ringle. The ringle, the brainchild of Sony BMG, combines three tracks – a new track, a remix and a old track – on a slip-sleeved CD. The CD also comes with a code that can [...]

DJ Premier¬†has announced that the Live From HQ podcasts have been cancelled as the result of threats from the RIAA. Here’s Live From HQ’s A.C.’s explanation of the situation: Our¬†site has been hit with a cease & desist order from the RIAA for broadcasting copywritten material. Additionally, our relationship with SIRIUS has been up and [...]

It looks like the high-profile negotiations between the music industry and commercial Internet broadcasters over royalty rates for netcasting traditionally licensed music is moving from the court system to the backroom. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has denied motions to stay any aspect of the ruling by the Copyright Royalty Judges [...]