Pandora, the internet radio station built around your tastes, will probably be going out of business soon. After getting slapped by the CRB with exorbitantly high royalty rates to continue playing music, founder Tim Westergren says the company is facing a "pull-the-plug" situation. There's one congressman trying to…
So… holy crap. EMI is releasing their music on iTunes without DRM. This is great news! And not only that, but they're offering it at twice the quality of the DRM'd equivalent. This is a huge step forward for the online music marketplace.
While this is coming from the WSJ and therefore probably credible, the announcement was still technically made on April 1st, so if doesn't pan out, don't blame us. But word 'round the campfire is that EMI, along with his Steveness, is going to announce at 8 a.m. EST that most of their catalog is going to be offered…
As we say goodbye to March and look forward to the continued fight against the RIAA with renewed vigor, we asked the EFF to give us some tips on how to keep this battle raging in the best way possible. So here, straight from the front-line fighers at the EFF, is a renewed call to arms.
So here's something a little different. This is strip number one of our new original Gizmodo comics, written by yours truly and drawn by the super-talented Pedro Camargo, a member of the webcomix collective ACT-I-VATE. We're really excited about this, so enjoy the first strip and keep your eyes peeled for more…
You might say that the RIAA sues first and asks questions later, but it looks like tomorrow at Arizona State it will be more accurately described as suing first and taking questions later. That's because the RIAA wants to have an "open dialogue" with the young defendants of America, so is coming to the campus as…
The RIAA, a company that apparently thrives on getting bad press, is suing a 10-year-old girl for alleged copyright infringement made when she was 7. Oh, and did we mention that her mom's only income comes from Social Security disability assistance? Because it does.
The RIAA isn't the only company pissing us off this month. The National Music Publishers Association has slapped a "last resort" lawsuit on XM. The lawsuit is regarding a particular service called XM + MP3 that allows XM subscribers to save and store songs on portable players as long as they remain XM subscribers. The…
The University of Nebraska isn't scared by the RIAA and their army of undead, soulless lawyers. No, they're refusing to hand over student data to the bullies, but what makes them even cooler is the fact that they're billing the RIAA for the time they've wasted. Hot damn, that takes balls.
You haven't forgotten about the boycott, have you? I should hope not. If you're having trouble not going out and buying discs from artists you like, why not save yourself some money and fulfill your little consumery desires at the same time? Buy used CDs.
Reader Rob writes in, and he makes some interesting points:
Tony, a professional pirate, is pissed at P2P for taking away his business. While it used to be that pros (the guys that sell pirated CDs and DVDs) would have had an easy time getting customers, people are now unwilling to pay for illegal material they can get for free online.
The Consumerist (swoooon) has done us all a service by profiling some of the biggest wigs at the RIAA, complete with photographs, for all of our benefit. Now if you're walking down the street and you happen to bump into Doug Morris, Chairman and CEO of Universal Music Group, you'll know who he is and therefore will be…
David Byrne, former lead singer of the Talking Heads and pretty much the coolest geek on the face of the planet, spoke out against DRM and big record labels this week at South by Southwest. He predicted that online sales would surpass CD sales by 2012, forcing labels to choose between accepting music sales as a loss…
Alright, you college student pirate assholes, LISTEN UP. Cary Sherman and Mitch Bainwol, the president and CEO of the RIAA, respectively, have a message for you in an op/ed on Inside Higher Ed. Suing all of you is "necessary" because what you're doing is costing "billions of dollars in lost revenue, millions of…
Bad news for students at the University of Michigan. At least twelve of you are in the process of being identified to the RIAA, according to Paul Howell, Chief Information Technology Security Officer of the University. Why's Paul giving you up? Read the letter after the jump.
A 2006 report by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office called "Filesharing Programs and Technological Features to Induce Users to Share" was just released to the general public yesterday, and it contains some interesting governmental observations as to the dangers of digital piracy.
NPR isn't taking too kindly to the Sound Exchange-drafted royalty rate hike for internet radio stations. The burn? The new rates are "at least 20 times more than what stations have paid in the past" and treats public radio "as if [it] were commercial radio," though it's unable to bring in extra revenue to meet higher…
John Paladuk, a retired railroad employee whose left side was completely paralyzed by a stroke last year and uses the resulting disability check as his sole means of income, is being sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement. Also, he lived in Florida during the time period the RIAA is accusing him of engaging in…