Motion to Dismiss Denied

P2P Net report that a mother who attempted to have an RIAA claim dismissed against her on the basis that it was her daughter that had downloaded music illegally has had her motion to dismiss denied. This means that any accussed individual has to go through pre trial and most likely a trial to challenge a claim brought by the big music companies - very expensive compared to the $7,500 settlement they have offered her.

Editor, Santangelo appeal dismissed, P2P Net, 28 November 2005

Editor, Patricia Santangelo ruling, P2P Net, 29 November 2005 (Full Transcript from this link)

Legal/Illegal Download Reports

J. Evans, Apple Drives Big Music Download Increases in Japan, Digital Music News, 30 November 2005

Digital Music News are reporting iTunes uptake in Japan to be on the increase: "Apple’s August 4th debut drove overall sales of 2.3 million downloads from internet-based music stores during the quarter, against 1.1 million in the preceding quarter and one million in the quarter before that... Meanwhile, cell phone download services continue to dwarf sales of PC-based downloads in the territory. According to data supplied by RIAJ, 97 percent of digital music sales belonged to the mobile industry."



But in stark contrast Jupiter Research indicates that file sharing is still at least three times more popular than legal downloads:

J. Best, Illegal file-sharing three times as popular as iTunes, Silicon.com/ZDNet, 30 November 2005

15 percent of consumers use P2P sites and five percent use the legitimate online shops.

Of those consumers aged between 15 and 24, 34 percent are illegal file-sharers and have little concept of music as a paid commodity. JupiterResearch found that 43 percent of younger consumers prefer copying CDs to buying them and 40 percent believe that CDs aren't value for money.

...illegal file-sharing is here to stay... "It's a firmly entrenched behaviour and the fact it's free makes it more difficult. Instead of [the industry] paying lip service to legal services... there needs to be a whole new layer of free legal services," such as ad-supported downloads..."

Search terms on Kazaa to be blocked

S. Deare, Search terms on Kazaa to be blocked, ZDNet Australia, 25 November 2005

Kazaa users have until 5 December 2005 to share popular works within the range of 3,000 key words provided by the recording industry before an updated version of Kazaa is to be released and adopted by the use of pop up windows. The recording industry had wanted 10,000 key words blocked. Sharman sought to have the deadline extended until March 2006 and had sought to adopt finger printing technology Audible Magic. The recording industry claimed that the technology was unreliable and the Judge agreed.

P2P, Online File-Sharing, and the Music Industry

R. Pollock, P2P, Online File-Sharing, and the Music Industry, TheFactz, 10 November 2005

Analysising five empirical studies relating to the loss of CD sales at the hands of P2P Pollock finds: "online illegal file-sharing does have a negative impact on traditional sales. The size of this effect is debated, and ranges from 0 to 100% of the sales decline in recent years, but a figure of between 20 and 40% would be a reasonable consensus value (i.e. that file-sharing accounted for 20-40% of the decline in sales not a 20-40% decline in sales).

Beyond this basic result several other very interesting facts have emerged. First is the differential impact of file-sharing on an artist depending on their existing popularity. According to Blackburn who investigates this issue the 'bottom' 3/4 of artists sell more as a consequence of file-sharing while the top 1/4 sell less. Second is the first tentative estimates (by Waldfogel and Rob) of the welfare consequences of file-sharing. Waldfogel and Rob's dramatic result is that file-sharing on average yields a gain to society three times the loss to the music industry in lost sales."

Sony's DRM Disaster

These are just in the order that I read them:

M. Russinovich,Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far, Mark's Sysinternals Blog, 31 October 2005

J. Borland, Sony CD protection sparks security concerns, CNET News, 1 November 2005

Editor, The Cover-Up Is the Crime, Wired News, 2 November 2005

J. Borland, Sony to patch copy-protected CD, CNET News, 2 November 2005

M. Loney, Sony's antipiracy may end up on antivirus hit lists, CNET News, 4 November 2005

I. Marson, EMI: We don't use rootkits, CNET News, 7 November 2005

R. McMillan, Italian Police Asked to Investigate Sony DRM Code IDG News Service/ PC World, 7 November 2005

J. Borland, Antivirus firms target Sony 'rootkit', CNET News, 9 November 2005

Editor, Viruses exploit Sony CD copy-protection scheme, Silicon Valley, 10 November 2005

Editor, Suit targets Sony BMG anti-piracy technology, Reuters, CNet News, 10 November 2005

Editor, Sony to Suspend Antipiracy CDs, Associated Press/Wired News, 11 November 2005

J. A. Halderman, Sony Shipping Spyware from SunnComm, Too, Freedom to Tinker, 12 November 2005

J. Graham, Sony to pull controversial CDs, offer swap, USA Today, 14 November 2005

Q. Norton, Sony Numbers Add Up to Trouble, Wired News, 15 November 2005

E. Felten, Immunize Yourself Against Sony?s Dangerous Uninstaller, Freedom to Tinker, 16 November 2005

M. Geist, The Lasting Impact of Sony's Rootkit, Michael Geist Blog, 20 November 2005

Editor, Texas sues Sony BMG over alleged spyware, CNET News/Reuters, 21 November 2005

EFF Files Class Action Lawsuit Against Sony BMG, EFF Website, 21 November 2005.

RIAA v The People: Two Years Later

EFF release a report on the first two years of individual p2p prosecutions:

http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/RIAAatTWO_FINAL.pdf


The legal attacks on P2P technologies were initially successful in the courts. But as it was winning the legal battles, the recording industry was losing the war. After Napster was shut down, new networks quickly appeared. Napster was replaced by Aimster and AudioGalaxy, which were then in turn supplanted by Morpheus and Kazaa, which were in turn eclipsed by eDonkey and Bit Torrent.7 The number of file sharers, as well as the number of P2P software applications, just kept growing, despite the recording industry’s early courtroom victories. More recently, music fans have been turning to new so-called “darknet” solutions, such as swapping iPods, burning CD-Rs, and modifying Apple’s iTunes software to permit direct downloading.