Search Results for: System of a Down

Internet song-sharing software is downloaded and enjoyed by millions of music fans and becomes the talk of the nation. Record labels complain and seek to punish the program’s creators for allegedly encouraging music piracy. So it goes for Soribada, or “Sea of Sound,” South Korea’s answer to Napster. Except instead of facing a lawsuit, the two U.S.-educated brothers who authored the file-swapping program are in deeper trouble. Yang Jung-hwan, 28, and his 32-year-old brother Yang Il-hwan were indicted Sunday on criminal charges of copyright violation. The Yang brothers, who face up to five years in jail and up to $38,500… Read more »

In an effort to avoid going to trial, the recording industry has asked a federal judge to rule that the song-swap company Napster Inc. is liable for copyright infringement damages. The recording industry insisted Napster had direct knowledge of the copyright infringement aided by its network of users, according to the request for summary judgment filed late Tuesday with U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel. The documents were made available Wednesday. “Napster’s Web site advertised the piratical nature of the system by bragging that, ‘With Napster, you’ll never come up empty handed when searching for your favorite music again,”‘ attorneys… Read more »

Napster Inc. is replacing its leader with an executive from its German backer, who will try to steer the company out of its renegade past into a legitimate service that requires fans to pay for music. Interim CEO Hank Barry, a lawyer who came to Napster from a venture capital firm, will remain with the company in a reduced role, serving on Napster’s board of directors. His replacement is Konrad Hilbers, a veteran of the German media giant Bertelsmann AG, which became the song-swapping company’s primary financial backer last October. Hilbers most recently served as executive vice president and chief… Read more »

Napster got another lease on life today when a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a federal judge’s order last week that ordered the Redwood City company to remain offline until it fully complied with an injunction to remove all copyright music. On July 11, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued an order mandating that Napster, which had a week earlier voluntarily stopped all file-sharing activity, remain shut down until it could demonstrate 100 percent accuracy of its file-filtering software. The company at the time was prepared to resume its operations, telling the court it… Read more »

As their debut album, Sinner, screams up the Billboard albums chart and its first single, “Bodies,” continues on a path toward becoming hard rock’s summer anthem, Drowning Pool seem to have a lock on the title of Ozzfest’s breakout band. Such high expectations, however, haven’t made the Dallas quartet forget what landed it a slot on the tour in the first place. “It’s crazy. It’s hard from my perspective to explain [the position we’re in] because I’m in it,” singer Dave Williams said. “We’re just four jackasses from Texas who love to play music. We love doing what we do… Read more »

Public Enemy will take the next step into the digital music age by posting re-recorded versions of songs, such as “Public Enemy #1,” “Arizona” and “Shut ‘Em Down” on rapper Chuck D.’s new Web site/record label SlamJamz.com and asking fans to write new music for the tracks. A longtime, outspoken proponent of online platforms and technology such as Napster and MP3s, Chuck D. says the technology developed in recent years has made it possible for artists to work in new ways. “I think we’re living in interactive times, and technology has made it more accessible to create more creators,” he… Read more »

Embattled song-swap service Napster Inc., facing a judge’s order which could put it permanently out of business, announced Thursday it had settled copyright infringement lawsuits brought by hard rockers Metallica and rap artist Dr. Dre. “I think we’ve resolved this in a way that works for fans, recording artists and songwriters alike,” Metallica co-founder Lars Ulrich said in a statement announcing the deal. “Our beef hasn’t been with the concept of sharing music,” Ulrich said. “The problem we had with Napster was that they never asked us or other artists if we wanted to participate in their business.” Under the… Read more »

Napster plans to appeal a crushing decision handed down by a federal judge that the company remain off-line until it can perfect its song-swapping system. U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall shot down the notion that Napster could quietly come back online without 100 percent effectiveness in its song-screening technology after an injunction that it remove all copyright music. Napster told Patel in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that it could promise more than 99 percent effectiveness. But Patel demanded 100 percent compliance to keep infringing music out of the hands of music fans used to trading the songs for free. That… Read more »

Napster’s still down, and there’s no telling when it’ll be back up again. As the file-sharing service headed for the fifth day of its longest service outage ever on Thursday (July 5), the company couldn’t say when users would be able to start swapping songs again. Since early Monday morning, Napster has blocked all file transfers, blaming problems in assembling the database needed for its new filters, which use acoustic fingerprinting technology. The new filters should allow Napster to block files based on musical content instead of simply relying on user-provided filenames. “Napster’s goal is to start file transfers again… Read more »

Embattled Internet service Napster began shutting users out of its song-swap service this weekend unless they downloaded the latest version of its software using audio fingerprinting technology, a spokesman for the company saidon Monday. “All previous versions of Napster have been disabled. We’re making this change as part of our ongoing effort to comply with the court’s orders,” a message posted Friday on its Web Site at (http://www.napster.com) said. A spokesman for the Redwood City, California-based company said the latest version, dubbed 10.3, is a further implementation of its software using fingerprint technology to filter music. The company has seen… Read more »