US music downloaders undeterred by RIAA's legal campaign

The anti-file-sharing campaign in the US continues to produce mixed results, with scant evidence that the Recording Industry Association of America's legal pursuit of music sharers is having a significant effect on the amount of sharing. The most recent survey of US Internet users' habits by Pew Internet found that in the last six months those who said that they had downloaded files increased from 14 to 18 per cent. However this is still much lower than the 32 per cent high of October 2002. ...more

Apple fires back at French iTunes revolution

Apple has fired back at the decision of France's National Assembly to open up access to its iTunes catalogue to other players than the market dominant iPod. The draft law approved yesterday has yet to be approved by France's upper house, the Senate, but the decision by the French legislators has caused shock waves across the industry. 'The French implementation of the EU Copyright Directive will result in state-sponsored piracy,' said Apple in a statement. ...more

Motorola says iTunes demo handset is not the iTunes device

Motorola is denying that the phone on which it demonstrated the iTunes application at the 3GSM conference earlier this week is the phone that will ship. Motorola's Monica Rohleder told us that, 'The product demoed at 3GSMwas not the iTunes phone. It was a product that we announced - the E1060 which is a 3G phone . ...more

AOL and DoCoMo for wireless services

AOL is hoping to team up with Japanese mobile Internet company NTT DoCoMo, according to a Japanese paper. The Nihon Keizai business paper says that AOL, the world's largest ISP, wants to do a deal with NTT DoCoMo in order to get AOL content onto mobile phones. DoCoMo is a subsidiary of Japan's biggest telco Nippon and Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and provides the incredibly popular i-mode service, Japan's equivalent of WAP. ...more

Camcorder man charged in US with copyright theft

A man in the US has been charged under new laws aimed at stamping out illegal distribution of new films. The man, Curtis Salisbury, aged 19 of Missouri, was discovered recording new films with a camcorder while in a cinema. Curtis is alleged to have made copies of the latest films 'Bewitched' starring Nicole Kidman and 'The Perfect Man' for distribution on the Internet through illegal warez sites. ...more