MetaMachine, operator of the eDonkey peer-to-peer file-sharing service, has agreed to pay $30 million to avoid copyright infringement litigation from the major record labels, the Associated Press reported. New York-based MetaMachine also agreed to immediately cease distribution of its eDonkey, eDonkey 2000, Overnet and other file-sharing applications, as well as take steps to prevent current [...]

Music Industry Debuts New Educational Video for College, University Use This Fall. RIAA has developed a new video to help inform students about the potential consequences of illegally downloading music and the many legal alternatives available today. Available free of charge for use by colleges and universities beginning this fall, the video can be ordered [...]

According to Cnet, the movie industry has plans to relax controls over how films are copied to DVDs. Digital movies, which are offered by such companies as CinemaNow and Movielink, have so far failed to catch on with the public. One of the big complaints from consumers has been that downloaded movies are prevented from [...]

Sounds like consumers (and random people in toxic waste suits) aren’t the only ones getting tired of the RIAA’s antics. Consumer Electronics Association chief Gary Shapiro had some harsh words for the music industry the other day. He’s particularly miffed at the RIAA’s wild and fairly unrealistic expectations for an audio broadcast flag. Not only [...]

Metallica, a band vocal in its opposition to free file-sharing and late to digital services, finally ended its boycott of Apple’s iTunes Store on Wednesday, agreeing to license songs from four of its early albums to be sold a la carte on the service, Billboard reported. Full Metallica albums have previously been available for purchase [...]

Sharman Networks, operator of the Kazaa peer-to-peer file-sharing network, announced on Thursday that it has settled all outstanding litigation with the movie studios and record labels that sued the company for copyright infringement. The Associated Press reported that under the terms of the settlement, Sharman will pay $115 million to record labels and an undisclosed [...]

XM Satellite Radio has asked a federal judge to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which targets new radios that can record XM broadcasts, the Associated Press reported. The record labels sued XM in May over the “Inno,” a new satellite radio that can record broadcasts and [...]

It’s the rare college student who will turn down free anything — free food, free booze, and free love are all top priorities for the modern scholar — so we were more than a little surprised to learn that those online music subscriptions being offered gratis by a number of colleges haven’t really taken off [...]

All of Britain’s recording companies will be able to sue controversial Russian digital music site AllofMP3.com in the UK, after a ruling at the English High Court. The judgement was granted to music trade body the British Phonographic Institute (BPI), which claims the music site is operating illegally. AllofMP3.com sells music downloads to a large [...]

A US technology association has labeled a new French law requiring “interoperability” of devices like Apple’s iPod music player as “attack on intellectual property rights” of all companies. Americans for Technology Leadership, a group that includes major US firms like Microsoft, said the new law approved by France’s Parliament remains troublesome despite the last-minute modifications. [...]

The Pirate Bay, a Sweden-based site that provides links to free movie and music files on the BitTorrent file-sharing network, has returned its servers to its home country following a police crackdown that temporarily forced relocation to the Netherlands, TheRegister reported. Working with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), Swedish authorities in May conducted [...]

The Orchard, a digital distributor of independent label music, announced on Friday that it has signed a license agreement with Russian digital music retailer Yanga. Under the deal, Yanga — Russia’s first legitimate online music service and the first company in the region to secure digital rights to a major Western catalog — will distribute [...]

The major record label trade group in the U.K. has announced plans to sue rogue Russian download store AllofMP3.com for copyright infringement in the U.K. courts. The site was recently revealed to be the second-most-popular music download store in the U.K., behind Apple’s iTunes Store. While AllofMP3.com claims to operate within Russian laws and compensate [...]

Though the worldwide rate of software piracy remained unchanged in 2005, the rates in emerging economies such as China, Russia and India improved, according to a new report from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an association of some of the world’s largest software developers. The BSA said that 35% of the packaged software installed on [...]

The Chinese government has passed a new regulation to ban the uploading and downloading of Internet material without the copyright holder’s permission. Under the regulation, effective from July 1, anyone uploading texts, and performance, sound and video recordings to the Internet for downloading, copying or other use, must acquire the permission of the copyright owners [...]