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The Electronic Frontier Foundation has put together a fascinating article summarizing the history and effect of the RIAA’s five-year battle against online music sharing. The conclusion is compelling: every single move made by the recording industry has backfired. The RIAA has filed more than thirty thousand lawsuits and threatened even more people, turning public opinion overwhelmingly against the RIAA and the labels, and has accomplished nothing.

“The RIAA’s lawsuit campaign against individual American music fans has failed. It has failed to curtail P2P downloading. It has not persuaded music fans that sharing is equivalent to shoplifting. It has not

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A few final thoughts about file formats for audio and video and how that affects a Vista Media Center Extender. This is the place where strong people are humbled and the whole project can be brought down with screams of frustration. I can only touch on a few of the myriad details.

There is a single overriding principle that you can put to use right away: make a conscious effort to avoid any file format that is locked up with any DRM (digital rights management, the schemes used with “licensed” content to prevent you from making full use of it), […] continued

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In 2007, we started to work with Windows Vista, bought lots of handheld devices, and started to move things online – our mail, our photos, our movies.

What will 2008 bring? It will start with lots more of the same. Many of you will get your first Windows Vista computer and discover that it’s quite a nice operating system. There’s a flood of new handheld devices on the way inspired by the iPhone, although my guess is that Apple will stay a step ahead by releasing the iPhone version 2 with better data speeds and support for corporate e-mail systems […] continued

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Microsoft has a name problem.

I used to think that Microsoft had learned a lesson from the years of confusion and frustration caused by the similar names for “Outlook” and “Outlook Express,” two programs that were not even remotely related.

The same people must have been on the committee that decided “Windows Mail” (the free program included with Vista) would be on the market at the same time as “Windows Live Mail,” the similar but not identical free program for Vista and Windows XP. Not to be confused with “Windows Live Hotmail,” the final name for Microsoft’s webmail service. Which […] continued

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The music industry is in complete disarray; the shift away from CDs is irreversible and most consumers simply expect music to be free. The recording industry’s hostility, arrogance, and litigation tactics have alienated everyone, making it harder for the industry to imagine a business plan that works – especially while it’s controlled by executives who freely admit they don’t understand these new-fangled Internet tubes.

It’s no surprise that many different plans for distributing music are under way, and it shouldn’t be a surprise that the reporting is frequently confusing or wrong. Let me give you the shortest of refresher […] continued

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The first rule of Usenet is, you don’t talk about Usenet.

Careful observation of that rule has allowed Internet newsgroups to avoid getting involved in the entertainment industry’s freakish litigation war on its customers. Now a new lawsuit suggests that the RIAA can’t stand it any more.

It’s time to talk about Usenet.

Internet newsgroups predate virtually everything on the Internet. Using specialized software, you can display messages posted in “newsgroups,” with each newsgroup devoted to a particular subject matter that is more or less observed by the people posting messages. Anyone can read and post messages in […] continued

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Apple’s rollout of the iPhone and updated iPod line generated impressive buzz, giving the impression that Apple is an unstoppable force. At the same time, though, Apple’s efforts to lock down its control over its users created uneasiness.

Two things happened today that are worth watching in case Apple’s base turns out to be more fragile than we suspect.

The first involves the possibility that Apple may kill a bunch of iPhones soon.

The iPhone arrived locked to AT&T, which frustrated early purchasers more than they were willing to admit. Tempers were frayed when Apple dropped the price on […] continued

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It’s hard to make the stereotypes fit.

Microsoft is reviled as the big monopoly. I don’t want to suggest that Microsoft is a huggable teddy bear, but it’s worth noting that much of its success comes from the work of thousands and thousands of hardware and software partners invited to build products on Microsoft technology. When Microsoft puts on an event to roll out a new product, there are hundreds of partners invited to speak at the event and set up their tables outside the auditorium and send their products into stores.

Apple is praised for being independent and open […] continued

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Sony is killing ATRAC, its proprietary format for music files. Here’s a brief news article about today’s death notice.

This isn’t important – no one every downloaded any files from Sony’s store in the ATRAC format. (The store is being shuttered, too.) I find it amusing for two reasons.

One, because I get a kick out of Sony’s extraordinary list of failed formats: ATRAC, Betamax, MiniDisc, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, HiFD, Multi-Media Compact Disc, UMF disc for PSPs, Memory Stick and Super Audio CD.

Two, because grown men in suits who are paid a lot of money thought it […] continued

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The world of copyright protection is a mess, and each day brings new craziness.

• A Federal District Court judge granted a ruling for summary judgment against a family that had run Kazaa on a computer with copyrighted material in a shared folder – with no evidence that anyone had ever downloaded those files. “It is no defense that a Kazaa user did not directly oversee the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material,” the judge wrote, citing a case concluding that “the mere presence of copyrighted works in a shared folder is enough to trigger liability.” Here’s a news item

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