News written by Ben Reid (August, 2006)

Terry McBride, the CEO of Canadian record label Nettwerk Music believes that the recording industry's continued litigation against P2P filesharers are hurting musicians and the music business in general.

Speaking at the first-ever Bandwidth Music and Technology Conference, McBride called on the major labels to cease lawsuits against individuals. "[The major labels] are using fear as a tactic [to] push these kids away from these P2P systems," McBride said. "You can't use fear to change these behaviors - it just isn't effective. These lawsuits have hurt my artists. We need to stop these lawsuits."

McBride, who launched the label in 1984 and whose line-up includes Avril Lavigne, Barenaked Ladies, Dido, Sum 41, and Sarah McLachlan, feels so opposed to the, as he describes, "fear" tactics practised by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA), that he is prepared to pay the legal fees for one defendant. Elisa Greubel, a 15-year-old Texas girl, recently found herself dealt an RIAA suit for allegedly downloading 600 songs onto their computer. After contacting Nettwerk artist MC Lars, he solicited McBride's help.

Research firm The Yankee Group believe that Sony's highly anticipated Playstation 3 console will hold off stiff competition from Microsoft & Nintendo to dominate the battle of the consoles once more. In a press release this week, it stated it believes that, "Microsoft is off to a fast start, launching the Xbox 360 nearly 12 months before the PlayStation 3. However, by the time third-generation consoles reach market maturity in 2011, the PlayStation 3 will once again be the market leader".

It believes that by this time, Sony will have sold 30 million units and account for 44% of third-generation console sales in North America. On the other hand, it believes Microsoft will have sold nearly 27 million Xbox 360 units by 2011, accounting for 40% of the market and Nintendo will have sold just over 11 million Wii units, accounting for 16% of the market.

Additionally, the company predict that because of the high price tags that come with third-gen consoles, fewer will be sold this generation in comparison to the predecessors (i.e., PS2, Xbox and GameCube).

But it won't all be plain sailing for Sony according to The Yankee Group, who expect Microsoft to put significant price pressure on Sony during the PS3’s lifecycle. "In addition to starting at a lower price than the PS3, Microsoft is well positioned to make a large price cut in the spring of 2007 and each year thereafter - putting significant price pressure on Sony."

To date, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has dealt lawsuits to around 19,000 American citizens who they believed were guilty of illegally trading copyrighted music files over the internet. Many of these lawsuits have raised eyebrows, such as the lawsuit against a family with no computer or internet access, and of course, the suit aimed at the deceased grandmother, Gertrude Walton.

Larry Scantlebury was another at the center of an RIAA lawsuit, however he died in June - with the suit remaining unresolved. Not to be deterred by the death of the defendant, the Plaintiffs (Warner Bros. Records Inc., Sony BMG Music Entertainment, UMG Recordings, Inc., BMG Music, Arista Records LLC, Capitol Records, Inc., and Atlantic Recording Corporation) have made a motion to stay the case for 60 days in order to allow the family time to "grieve", after which time they want RIAA lawyers to start taking depositions of the late Mr. Scantlebury's children:

In support thereof, Plaintiffs state the following: Read more...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed a lawsuit against Lime Group, LLC., LimeWire, LLC, Mark Gorton (CEO), and Greg Bildson (CTO). Lime Group is the umbrella company which owns the LimeWire development firm.

Back last September, LimeWire, along with other P2P developers, were the recipients of RIAA cease and desist letters. The letters instructed P2P developers to "...immediately cease-and-desist from enabling and inducing the infringement of RIAA member sound recordings. If you wish to discuss pre-litigation Resolution of these claims against you, please contact us immediately."

BearShare, eDonkey, and WinMX, all ceased operations as a result of the RIAA letter, however, LimeWire's operations continued.

At one stage, LimeWire was expected to introduce a "copyright filter" into it's software, but months have passed, and the filter has yet to materialize. The RIAA claims that by failing to implement a filter for unauthorized works and by profiting from an infringing business model, LimeWire actively induces copyright infringement