March 01: It‚Äôs 31 Days of Free Music month at Podcasting News. Every day in March, we’re going to do our best to hook you up a great free music podcast. The first podcast we’re going to highlight is the Forgotten Melodies Podcast. The podcast features beautiful, but largely forgotten piano music, performed by Daniel […]

U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle have proposed the FAIR USE Act [PDF], which would remove some of the limitations on innovation and fair use that the entertainment has used (and many would say, abused) over the last few years. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is calling on people to tell Congress to help restore […]

A federal jury’s ruling that Microsoft infringed on two MP3 patents and must pay Alcatel-Lucent SA $1.52 billion in damages may turn into problems for Apple and other technology companies. Microsoft said it paid for the technology from Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute, which licenses it to hundreds of companies, including Apple Inc. and RealNetworks Inc. Companies […]

Gizmodo is calling for a boycott on the RIAA in March: Gizmodo is declaring the month of March Boycott the RIAA month. We want to get the word out to as many people as humanly possible that we can all send a message by refusing to buy any album put out by an RIAA label. […]

The push for DRM-free music has reached a dead-end in the UK. The U.K. government has rejected a call for a digital rights management ban, but acknowledged that the technology could undermine consumer rights. The decision was in response to an online petition at the U.K. government’s e-petitions Web site calling for digital rights management […]

The RIAA is increasing the pressure it puts on colleges and universities to restrict activities on school networks, sending thousands more complaints to top universities this school year than it did last year. A few schools, including Ohio and Purdue universities, already have received more than 1,000 complaints accusing individual students since last fall. For […]

Toronto, ON-based digital music store Puretracks has announced that it will sell a full catalog of MP3 music files for purchase and download, free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) restrictions. The new DRM-free MP3 catalogue will initially feature 50,000 titles from a number of major independent labels, priced from $0.79 cents per song. Additional tracks […]

Cisco and Apple today announced that they have resolved their dispute involving the ‚ÄúiPhone‚Äù trademark. Under the agreement, both companies are free to use the ‚ÄúiPhone‚Äù trademark on their products throughout the world. Both companies acknowledge the trademark ownership rights that have been granted, and each side will dismiss any pending actions regarding the trademark. […]

Warner Music Group Corp. confirmed today that it has approached EMI about a possible acquisition of the entire equity of EMI. Unlike previous hostile attempts at taking one another over (in 2000 and 2003), this proposed acquisition seems to be mutually desirable, with Warner’s confirmation issued in response to an earlier announcement by EMI. This […]

It looks like the music industry has figured out a new way to anger music lovers. Suretone Records, a label distributed by the Universal Music Group, plans to start distributing free video files featuring popular acts like Weezer and new bands like Drop Dead Gorgeous on file-sharing networks. The music videos will not be wrapped […]