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Internet music piracy has no negative effect on legitimate music sales, according to a study released today by two university researchers that contradicts the music industry’s assertion that the illegal downloading of music online is taking a big bite out of its bottom line. Songs that were heavily downloaded showed no measurable drop in sales, the researchers found after tracking sales of 680 albums over the course of 17 weeks in the second half of 2002. Matching that data with activity on the OpenNap file-sharing network, they concluded that file sharing actually increases CD sales for hot albums that sell… Read more »

Two-thirds of Internet users who download music don’t care whether they’re violating copyright laws, according to a new survey that highlights the uphill enforcement battle facing the recording industry. The survey published Thursday by the nonprofit Pew Internet and American Life Project estimated that roughly 35 million American adults use file-sharing software, about 29 percent of Internet users. Those figures were generally consistent with other estimates of 60 million American users across all age groups. The Pew survey was completed before the Recording Industry Association of America announced its aggressive campaign to sue individual computer users who illegally share “substantial”… Read more »

You are your record collection, according to new research that reveals how personality is reflected through music. If you really want to get to know someone, try rummaging through their CD collection. An study has proved that when it comes to judging a person’s character, their favourite music is one of the most valuable clues. Almost anything about a man or a woman – from their looks, intelligence and fitness, to politics, wealth and even conversational ability – can be gleaned from the tunes they enjoy most. People who favour Madonna’s Material Girl, for example, are likely to be cheerful,… Read more »

The MTV pop channel is using its global reach, the sparkle of its stars and the moral authority of South Africa’s Nelson Mandela to send a message of AIDS awareness and tolerance to young people worldwide. Video footage from a Cape Town concert Saturday featuring stars Sean “P. Diddy” Combs and Alicia Keys will be combined with an earlier concert in Seattle to produce a 90-minute program, likely to reach up to two billion people around the world, MTV executive Bill Roedy told Reuters Friday. The Cape Town concert – which the stars will be performing for free – and… Read more »

XM Satellite Radio today unveiled its state-of-the-art digital sound technology, featuring customized CT-aacPlus audio encoding with Neural Audio optimization, which provides superior sound quality remarkably close to Compact Disc. “XM Satellite Radio, Fortune Magazine’s 2001 ‘Product of the Year,’ succeeds because of its superior digital sound technology, unparalleled signal coverage, proven chipset technology and outstanding programming,” said XM Executive Vice President Steve Gavenas at a news briefing today in New York. “The technologies that define XM Satellite Radio sound quality have been auditioned and endorsed by leading audio experts from around the world.” CT-aacPlus Audio Compression The superior XM sound… Read more »

Willie Nelson will be the featured performer for the 8th Annual Country in the Rockies event at Club Med Crested Butte, Colorado January 29 through February 3, 2002. Nelson’s legend as a songwriter is matched only by his reputation for opening his heart to help raise funds where there is need. Proceeds from this annual event help fund research efforts at the Frances Williams Preston Laboratories at Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, a division of the T.J. Martell Foundation. A highlight of the fundraising and fun each year is the fabulous auction that takes place during the week. This year,… Read more »

In a major victory for Hollywood movie studios, a federal appeals court on Wednesday barred a Web site from revealing how to make unauthorized copies of digital video discs (DVDs). The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not infringe on the free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution. There were actions in two other DMCA-related cases on Wednesday. A federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey, dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the DMCA filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In that case, a group of… Read more »

Free music downloading is hotter than ever, said researchers on Thursday who found more than 3 billion files were downloaded on four leading file-swapping services in August, topping Napster at its peak. Several peer-to-peer services, which enable users to trade music, video and other files over the Web, have sprung up recently to fill the void left by song-swap service Napster, which has seen activity die due to music industry lawsuits. “Despite the millions of dollars spent trying to kill off pirate networks, the popularity of peer-to-peer file-sharing continues to grow,” said Matt Bailey, the Webnoize analyst who led the… Read more »

Bowing to a threatened recording industry lawsuit, a Princeton University computer scientist decided against revealing Thursday how he and other researchers thwarted security measures meant to protect copyright digital music. Edward Felten, an associate professor whose team included Rice University and Xerox-PARC researchers, had been silent for days on whether he would present his findings at the International Information Hiding Workshop in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, a frustrated Felten said he decided against releasing the information because of the potential for lawsuits against the researchers, their schools and conference organizers. He did not say what he would do next. “Litigation is… Read more »

A group of researchers who foiled four different copyright protection technologies in a contest launched last year by the music industry is now being asked by the record companies to suppress its findings, one of the researchers said Tuesday. The research group – composed of students and professors from Princeton and Rice Universities and an employee of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center – had initially planned to present its findings Thursday at a Pittsburgh conference on information security but was then threatened with legal action by the forum, the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), a forum representing music and technology… Read more »