P2P traffic levels on Internet difficult to determine

Determining the actual levels of P2P traffic on the Internet is proving to be quite difficult.
From Ryan Singel of Threat Level:
How much of the traffic on the internet is peer-to-peer file trading?
Everyone seems to agree it represents a lot of the traffic, but the truth is no one knows (with the possible exception of the [...]

Is the RIAA scared of Harvard?

David Kravets over at Threat Level brings attention to the fact that the RIAA has not taken any actions action Harvard University. The post raises the questions of whether Harvard students simply do not illegally download as much as other university students, or is the RIAA hesitant to go after Harvard.
From Threat Level:
Harvard, however, seems [...]

Nine Inch Nails to give album away for free

In a first for a major music performer, rock band Nine Inch Nails is giving away their new album “Slip” for free on their website.
From the International Herald Tribune:
In a post on the band’s Web site, www.nin.com, the band’s leader, Trent Reznor, said, “Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - [...]

Huge upfront fees paid by digital music providers

Reuters reports on the huge upfront license fees paid by online music distributors to record labels.
From Yahoo News:
The last 18 months have seen the major music labels accept new technological and business models — such as dropping digital rights management and allowing ad-supported free music — that have given rise to a [...]

Music labes sign deal with MySpace

Three music labels have signed deals with MySpace in an attempt to reduce piracy and create new revenue streams.
From the Washington Post:
MySpace, the nation’s largest online social network, announced today that it is joining with the nation’s top three music labels to create a service offering free music streams and paid downloads for its millions [...]

US Attorney General: Piracy funds Terrorism

US Attorney General Michael Mukasey stated on Friday that sales of counterfeit goods and piracy are funding terrorist groups around the world.
From the AP:
Attorney General Michael Mukasey warned Friday that the huge profits generated from piracy and counterfeiting are increasingly flowing into the coffers of terrorist groups.
In remarks to Silicon Valley executives at the Tech [...]

Piracy helps music industry: Columnist

From the Guardian’s Victor Keegan’s “Why piracy isn’t such a bad thing for music”:
The industry claims there are 20 illegal downloads for every legal one, yet it is clearly not affecting the real world on that scale. If a teenager downloads 20,000 tracks, what does he or she do with them? Sell them to others, [...]

From pirate hub to marketing tool

The Washington Post reported on the how online music community imeen.com went from being labeled a pirate organization to a marketing tool for Warner Music.
From the Washington Post:
For many music-oriented Web start-ups, a copyright lawsuit can be a death sentence. But for Imeem, getting sued by one of the biggest record labels played a pivotal [...]

Sweden to crack down on piracy

From the AP:
 Swedish courts will soon be able to force the country’s Internet providers to produce information on suspected file-sharers in a move to crackdown on piracy, the culture and justice ministers said Friday.
File-sharing can be traced by tracking the IP addresses of the computers that download or distribute a file.
Sweden is home to file [...]

Illegal downloaders in Japan to lose Internet access

Illegal downloaders in Japan will be cut off from the Internet from their ISP providers according to a new plan being developed.
From AFP:
Japanese companies plan to cut off the Internet connection of anyone who illegally downloads files in one of the world’s toughest measures against online piracy, a report said Saturday.Faced with mounting complaints from [...]