Search Results for: System of a Down

A federal judge overseeing the case against Napster on Friday essentially threw up her hands and appealed for help in stopping the exchange of copyrighted songs. For the moment, her ruling guarantees Napster users can continue downloading copyright music at will. Major record labels want the online music-swapping service to remove any copyrighted songs from its Internet site, a position U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has strongly endorsed in a series of rulings. But removing the songs has proved exceptionally difficult, since Napster users constantly make them reappear under different file names. Napster has said it cannot keep up… Read more »

If you’ve noticed that it’s getting increasingly hard to find just about anything on Napster lately, the file-sharing service has an explanation: it’s called “overblocking.” Napster has been incrementally improving its filtering process since March, when a judge ordered it to remove copyrighted songs cited by labels, artists and publishers. But the service’s most recent improvements seem to be blocking large chunks of the English language, taking down indie-label music, concert recordings and other material that no one has asked to be removed. In a statement posted Thursday on Napster’s Web site, the company blamed the problem on its efforts… Read more »

The American ear has been both excited and soothed, thanks to the crystal clear sound of CDs and digital music downloaded from the Web. So that makes the hiss, crackle and static of the AM and FM radio even less appealing, and more frightening for those who make a living in radio. Facing the reality that consumers are demanding better quality audio, broadcasters gathered here at a convention are looking to retool by moving from analog to digital. The result of this, say industry leaders attending the National Association of Broadcasters meeting, will be FM radio in CD-quality and AM… 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 »

With the Hollywood-Washington war expected to be reignited today, Motion Picture Assn. of America prexy-CEO Jack Valenti on Monday warned lawmakers in no uncertain terms to back off. “May God save the First Amendment,” Valenti said during a keynote speech before the National Assn. of Broadcasters, which is meeting here for its annual confab. Valenti, like his counterparts in the music biz, was gearing up for the release this morning of a Federal Trade Commission report that will chart how well the entertainment biz has done in stopping the marketing of violent or suggestive fare to kids. The FTC reportedly… Read more »

Their embraceable debut (1997’s Middle of Nowhere, featuring the Number One single “MMMBop”) sold millions of copies and established Hanson as TRL’s preeminent poster-teens. The grittier follow-up (2000’s This Time Around) alienated bubblegum-dependent younger fans and has yet to go platinum in the states. Now the brothers Hanson – Isaac, Taylor and Zac – are hard at work on a record they hope will marry the success of one to the punchy feel of the other and in the process show the world what they’ve know all along: Hanson are a hard-working, musically gifted and educated rock band. Sessions for… Read more »

Napster’s legal troubles could be about to get a whole lot worse, as thousands of music publishers could enter into a class-action suit against the file-trading company. Independent musicians, however, are still shut out of the litigation. As part of a copyright infringement case against Napster in federal district court on Tuesday, Judge Marilyn Hall said that 27,000 music publishers would likely be allowed the opportunity to consolidate their cases into one class-action suit. While issuing no formal ruling, Patel said she expected to create a “limited class” of plaintiffs by determining a specific time frame during which publishers from… Read more »

A federal judge leveled sharp criticism at Napster’s attempts to block trades of copyrighted works Tuesday, calling the company’s existing filters “disgraceful.” Presented with evidence from record companies and publishers that thousands of works ostensibly included in the file-swapping service’s filters were still available, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel said something needed to change. “I think this is disgraceful,” she said, noting that if a song can be found by people on your service, Napster ought to be able to block it. If Napster can’t block copyrighted songs, she added, “maybe the system needs to be closed down.” Patel… Read more »

As chatter abounds regarding the urgency of digital distribution, major music conglomerates are moving quickly to demonstrate their eagerness to make their content available online. Further evidence comes with this week’s pact between media giants AOL Time Warner, Bertelsmann and EMI and digital behemoth RealNetworks to create MusicNet, a platform for downloadable and streaming services. MusicNet will provide a pool of licensed music from the participating rights holders, with a technology infrastructure by Real. The label groups collectively have a 60% stake in the venture, while Real has 40%. Once the platform is established, any digital music provider satisfying the… Read more »

Consumers are still downloading more songs through Napster according to recent research findings. Although many pundits expect users to abandon Napster now that it is blocking the transfer of thousands of titles, consumers are still downloading more songs through Napster according to recent research findings by Webnoize. The number of downloads using the Napster system rose to a total of 593 million songs during the last week of March, 25 percent more than the 473 million files downloaded during the previous week. According to Napster, more than 275,000 tracks were being blocked from the company’s file sharing system by month’s… Read more »