MP3, a popular format for downloading music from the Web, is encountering competitive pressure as leading technology companies such as Microsoft Corp. work to subtly wean consumers away from the technology.
These companies, which have the music industry's blessing, are encouraging those who download music to use new proprietary software formats that make the audio sound significantly better but also make it harder to share copyright-protected songs.
A new independent movie opens on the premise that in the future MP3's are illegal, all copies of Napster have been destroyed, and an MP3 task force has been created to seek out and arrest anyone caught with MP3 music on their computers.
Saw this over at SNN
The judge isn't happy with Napster's progress at filtering songs out and the service is now in serious danger of being closed.
TVT had been seeking as much as $8.5 million and it would not have been a stretch to assume that MP3.com's earlier loss to the major labels would have made the trial a cake-walk for the smaller label. In this trial, the record company had to face a jury who seemed unconvinced by the company's argument. They won, but the award was much lower $300,000.
Universal plans to morph EMusic into its recently announced Duet service, a partnership between themselves and Sony. The EMusic acquisition means the two record labels don't have to tackle the cost and time demands of building a Net music delivery service from scratch. They also start out with an instant customer base of 10,000 users with a history of paying for Net downloads.
Today Senator Orin Hatch will open the latest hearings on the digital music industry. Called "Online Entertainment and Copyright Law: Coming Soon to a Digital Device Near You," Early highlights include a rally by 1,000 Napster supporters lead by Shawn Fanning and Chuck D and testimony by Alanis Morissette and Ted Nugent.
Many may know about OpenNapster but it still doesnt get enough press. The worlds best kept secret is OpenNapster servers including the largest one to date MusicCity. There are many versions of FileNavigator (a software package used to connect to napster and opennapster servers) available but I really really missed the Napster-like icon and look.
Catholic University boots out Napster's planned pre-march forum from the Columbus School of Law due to rules violations. But is that the real reason?
With Napster's April 3rd hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee coming up this week, the spirit of the 60's looks to have inspired CEO Hank Barry to tap into the one power that Napster has unequivocally on its side, the power of the people.
