The first legal action against the music giants occurred Tuesday, May 12, when plaintiff Michael Bauman filed suit against the major labels in…
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The gold rush is on in the wake of a Federal Trade Commission decision effectively ending the music industry's policy of minimum advertised pricing (MAP) on compact discs. Attorneys in California and New York wasted no time in filing class-action lawsuits against the music industry's major conglomerates, following the FTC's announcement May 10 that it had reached a negotiated settlement with them over a longstanding noncompetitive pricing policy.
On Monday, June 6, at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Steve Jobs revealed that Apple would switch from its IBM-sourced PowerPC chip to Intel's Pentium D processor beginning in the latter half of 2006. Industry analysts began dissecting this move several days before the announcement in a series of "will they/won't they" articles every bit as breathless as those announcing the splits between Ben Affleck and J-Lo or Brad and Jennifer.
June 6 removed all doubts: They will. That doesn't answer the big question of how come?, however. Apple claims that it all comes down…
Last week, the US Secret Service reported that, assisted by the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) New York Anti-Piracy Unit, it had executed two search and seizure warrants in Queens and Manhattan, resulting in what the agency called "the break-up of a massive counterfeit music operation." The Secret Service reported that approximately 20,000 recorded CD-Rs and 1200 masters were seized from the Queens and Manhattan locations.
According to the agency, equipment seized from the Queens location included one hundred two 8X-speed CD-R burners, nine computer monitors, four…
A group of researchers has claimed success at cracking four digital audio watermarking technologies presented in a challenge by the Secure Digital Music Initiative in September. The claim has been denied by David Leibowitz, chairman of Verance Corporation, creator of one of the challenged watermarks. SDMI has made no public statement on the claim, and has resolved to remain silent until all 447 submitted hacks are evaluated.
Despite SDMI's reticence, several news stories have popped up supporting the contentions of computer scientist Edward Felten and his associates at Princeton, Rice…
While the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is working overtime to jail file traders, members of the US Congress are introducing bill after bill targeting with criminal prosecution the 60 million Americans engaged in Internet file sharing.
H.R. 2517, otherwise known as the "Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2003," was introduced last month by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) to enable the Federal Bureau of Investigation to deter all "unauthorized" home recording by consumers when obtained from the Internet.
The bill states that the director of the FBI shall "…
Last week's online poll indicates that many Stereophile readers have an ongoing affinity for the retro design style of older audio gear. Several respondents say they find the warm glow of tubes and backlit displays seductively attractive in a darkened room, while others pine for the days of analog dials and softly lit meters with gently bouncing needles.
Those days may be long gone for most home-audio electronics, but if the latest car-audio product from Matsushita Electric Industrial is any indication, there may be hope for the hopelessly nostalgic when it comes to their mobile sound…
Sirius Satellite Radio is now available nationally.
The service went nationwide—covering the continental US—on July 1, following a ten-year development period and a few months of availability in some areas. Earlier this year, between April 1 and June 1, Sirius added 37 states to its coverage area. By July it had added the remaining ones, mostly in the West and Northeast. Sirius claims that its signals can be received clearly not only throughout the states but "hundreds of miles off the coast."
Featuring 60 channels of commercial-free music and 40 channels of news, sports, talk, and…
The Experience Music Project (EMP), a 130,000-square-foot interactive music museum opening in Seattle in 1999, announced on April 30 that it has acquired 19 recently discovered audio tapes of rare Jimi Hendrix recordings from 1969 and 1970.
The tapes, from Hendrix's Band of Gypsys period, were acquired at international auction; terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. As a museum "dedicated to the creative process in American popular music," Experience Music Project will preserve and protect the recordings, and give museum visitors the opportunity to learn about and experience them for…
Last week's Comdex convention in Las Vegas showcased more examples of convergence between the consumer electronics and computer industries, especially in the areas of portable devices, home theater, and digital audio. DVD-Audio also received notice at the show, as chip developer Zoran Corporation announced the Vaddis V, its latest DVD multimedia processor, slated for mass production in spring 2001.
According to Zoran, the Vaddis V will combine DVD-Video playback, DVD-Audio decoding, and web browsing. As Zoran's fifth-generation DVD system-on-a-chip, the Vaddis V, the company claims, has…
A local body shop owner explained to me recently how the center brake light that began showing up on the rear deck of cars a few years ago killed business for him and his pals. Seems that all of a sudden, folks weren't rear-ending each other as often.
Then came the cell phone and business was booming again. But cell phone legislation, banning driver use in moving vehicles, threatens to put an end to the good times.
On the horizon, however, are multichannel audio systems, along with an array of disorienting surround-sound music discs. At the recent AES convention, I briefly sat through…