Barry Willis

In the race for technological superiority, audio electronics companies in the United Kingdom, with a few notable exceptions, haven't often been first out of the gate. Arcam, however, may have already lapped the field with its Alpha 10 DRT (Digital Radio Tuner).

Tuesday, May 6, 2003 could be a turning point in the contentious history of recording artists and record labels. On that day, hundreds of American musicians will converge on Albany, NY in support of the Artistic Freedom Act of 2003. If passed, the bill would give artists unprecedented freedom in negotiating and terminating recording contracts.

Are order and justice coming to the lawless frontier of the Internet? The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers has a new tool for cracking down on unauthorized use of copyrighted material on the Internet. Developed by Online Monitoring Services, EZ-Seeker is "web crawler" software that tracks down music and then issues license forms to the users of that music. The announcement followed by less than a week the news (see previous report) of the Recording Industry Association of America's $750,000 settlement from makers of unauthorized "DJ compilations" of hit songs.

Houston, Texas-based AstroJams is back online with Grateful Dead MP3s. The site shut down its offerings of Grateful Dead and Jerry Garcia Band downloads after receiving a cease-and-desist order from attorneys for Grateful Dead Productions in April. At issue was the site's use of advertising to generate revenue. GDP claims the sole legal right to commercial benefits stemming from the use of the band's music and logos, but had "never objected" to the free sharing of music in the Dead tradition, according to Dennis McNally of GDP's publicity department.