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Napster Wins a Round

Napsterhttp://www.napster.com">Napster; may have finally won a round in court. The Federal District judge in the music industry's ongoing case against the file-sharing service has allowed for the possibility that the plaintiffs may have abused their own copyright privileges in the launch of their online music services, MusicNet and pressplay.

Consumer Lawsuit Victory

In the record industry's ongoing">http://www.stereophile.com/news/11261/">ongoing battle against its customers, score one for the consumer. Amid recent industry rumors that Universal Music Group has retreated from its position of adding restrictions to all of its new CDs, a lawsuithttp://www.stereophile.com/news/11134/">lawsuit; over a Charley Pride release has been settled in California, paving the way to alert the public to playback restrictions on discs.

Nakamichi Seeks Protection

One of the most revered names in the audio industry is seeking legal protection from its creditors. On November 19, Nakamichi">http://www.nakamichi.com">Nakamichi Corporation Japan "applied to the court of Japan for a civil rehabilitation," in the words of a company press release on the development, issued the next day. On the 19th, Nakamichi stock closed at ¥22/share (approximately 17¢); the Tokyo Stock Exchange announced that the company would be de-listed effective May 20.

Meridian's Smart Link

Many audiophiles are incensed that the digital outputs on high-resolution disc players are limited to the 16bit/44.1kHz standard of the "Red Book" CD when playing DVD-Audio discs. To read some postings on audiophile newsgroups, you'd think it's a massive conspiracy to prevent people from adding their own processors to the playback chain. Putting as many boxes as possible in an audio system is a constitutionally guaranteed right, isn't it?

Pure Audiophile is Born

It's a brave group of souls who run today's audiophile music labels. Sane business minds would likely deem it foolhardy to start a new specialty label these days, but sometimes one's passion for music overrides the rational impulse to try something a little bit more secure (like perhaps an Internet company?).

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