It’s clear that BPI CEO Geoff Taylor has his hands full. As the head of the UK record industry’s trade association, he has had a long slog trying to get…

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NDS, the UK-based DRM and conditional access firm which is majority owned by News Corp, is now being taken private: News Corp (NYSE: NWS). is teaming up with Permira Advisers,…

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Helsinki’s appeals court has overturned a 2007 copyright ruling that allowed users to break “ineffective” DVD copy protection. Last May, a judge acquitted a pair of hacktivists who cracked the…

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The BBC says it has now plugged a loophole that let enterprising viewers download shows from its iPlayer without any copy protection. Unveiled last week, the web-based iPhone edition of…

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Picking up from yesterday’s Pearson earnings, the company said its Penguin book publisher would follow the decision by Bertelsmann’s Random House last week to drop DRM from its audio books.…

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After Napster (NSDQ: NAPS) was scaled back on these shores last year, former UK general manager Leanne Sharman has joined Warner Music International as business development VP. She’ll focus on…

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Play.com has unveiled a new DRM-free UK download store called PlayDigital that will sell tracks and albums in MP3 format from EMI and several independent labels in an effort to…

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EU countries do not have to reveal the names of internet file sharers in civil cases, the European Court of Justice said today, in their ruling between Spanish music rights…

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Sony (NYSE: SNE) BMG, the joint venture between Sony and German media group Bertelsmann, will join EMI, Vivendi’s (EPA: VIV) Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) in…

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The European Commission has today finalised its Creative Content Online In The Single Market paper and will publish proposals for pan-continental digital content regulations by the middle of 2008. The…

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The BBC wants to move to “a world beyond DRM”. Future media and technology unit director Ashley Highfield, as part of his initiative to placate an open-source community disgruntled by…

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If US digital liberties campaigners think they’ve got it bad with an RIAA so active in lobbying digital copyright policy, wait until they hear about France’s next move. President Nicolas…

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The BBC’s digital media supremo has said the broadcaster’s regulator should speed up the process for green-lighting new internet projects. In an in-depth interview to mark the launch of our…

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Bertelsmann settled the fourth and (and what it hopes will be the final) lawsuit related to Napster from 2000.  The National Music Publishers Association will get $130 million, making it…

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Nearly two years after Apple added paid TV show downloads to U.S. iTunes Store, it has now launched the feature for U.K. customers. And what do we get? American imports…

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French telcos Neuf Cegetel and France Telecom are enticing broadband subscribers with free unlimited digital music downloads. The country’s second-place Neuf Cegetel (EPA: NEUF) has struck a deal with Universal…

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Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) has led a first-round investment in Amie Street, an unusual digital music retailer for independent artists. Prices for tracks at Amie Street start free and rise in…

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Growth in the number of people who legally download music is slowing, according to a new report. While last year saw 40 percent growth in legal downloaders, this year there…

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-- Broadband video use on the rise: About 81 million people, or 63 percent of the 129 million who have broadband connections in the U.S., watch broadband video at home…

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EMI has begun offering its expanded, DRM-free MP3 repertoire to some of the first retailers other than than Apple Store. 7Digital announced it would stock the entirety of EMI’s 320Kbps…

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Apple may have dropped digital rights management restrictions from its new iTunes Plus range, but some consumers are asking questions about its retention of another DRM - digital rights metadata.…

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Should have told you about this earlier ... musician Peter Gabriel has teamed with technology entrepreneur Steve Purdham and VC John Taysom to launch Oxford, UK -basedWe7, an ad-supported music…

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The role of Steve Jobs and iTunes in EMI’s announcement Monday that it would offer DRM-free versions of its digital library may have given people the wrong impression about what…

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It’s official - EMI Music just became the first major record label to drop digital rights management on its digital downloads - but many consumers must pay more. EMI is…

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San Diego-based Packetvideo has announced the acquisition of Basel, Switzerland-based SDC AG for an undisclosed amount. We noted it at the beginning of the month, and this is the official…

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