This Week In News

Sorry for the radio silence, everyone — we've been getting ready to announce a whole bunch of info about our upcoming events, including the date and venue for "Creative License: A Conversation about Music, Law and Fair Use." Stay tuned for more info! Oh, and here's that news ya ordered:

File Sharing Lawsuits at a Crossroads, After 5 Years of RIAA Litigation
It was five years ago Monday the RIAA began its massive litigation campaign that now includes more than 30,000 lawsuits targeting alleged copyright scofflaws on peer-to-peer networks. But despite the crackdown, billions of copies of copyrighted songs are now changing hands each year on file sharing services. Some are wondering if the campaign has shaped up as an utter failure. Today, the RIAA admits that the lawsuits are largely a public relations effort, aimed at striking fear into the hearts of would-be downloaders. Spokeswoman Cara Duckworth of the RIAA says the lawsuits have spawned a "general sense of awareness" that file sharing copyrighted music without authorization is "illegal." "Think about what the legal marketplace and industry would look like today had we sat on our hands and done nothing," Duckworth says in a statement.
David Kravets, Wired

DailyTech Talks Piracy, Taxes, Orphan Works and More With Independent Music Chief
The music industry is a wholly different beast from your father's music business or even the industry that existed at the start of 1990s. While the advent of CDs and music video brought revolutionary changes of sorts, nothing would compare to what the future held in store in the form of the digital revolution. DailyTech recently talked to Rich Bengloff, a music veteran and president of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), an organization that represents small labels.
Jason Mick, DailyTech

Internet's First Music Festival to be Launched by College Radio Network
Internet radio is taking another step forward this month as the Intercollegiate Broadcasting System's IBS Student Radio Network by Backbone (IBS-SRN) launches the Web's first live music festival, called IBS-Palooza. Increasingly sophisticated college radio clubs combined with advances in Internet broadcasting technology will allow, for the first time, multiple stations to digitally share and play each other's live content and provide valuable exposure to emerging local artists from around the U.S and around the world. IBS-Palooza is intended to break new ground in the areas of both entertainment technology and education. As the first live multi-venue music festival created for the Internet, it harnesses the technologies of both Apple and Backbone Networks to enable live syndication of streaming content among several stations simultaneously.
PRMac.com

Comcast Appeals FCC Web Traffic-Blocking Decision
Comcast is appealing an FCC ruling that the company is improperly blocking customers' Web traffic, triggering a legal battle that could determine the extent of the government's authority to regulate the Internet.
John Dunbar, Associated Press

Amazon, IMDb Launch Music Wiki
Amazon and IMDb have now launched a music-focused wiki, one that allows anyone to enter and edit content. The site, SoundUnwound, also features content from Amazon, Musicbrainz, and YouTube. Artist entries include discographies, biographies, photos, videos, timelines, recommendations, and of course, purchase links to AmazonMP3. A living, breathing music database sounds useful and interesting, though Wikipedia already carries a serious advantage. Whether SoundUnwound can ever rival that dataset remains unclear, especially since Wikipedia delivers a large body of highly-detailed and relevant music listings.
Digital Music News

Music Tastes Link to Personality
Musical tastes and personality type are closely related, according to a study of more than 36,000 people from around the world. The research, which was carried out by Professor Adrian North of Heriot-Watt University. "We have always suspected a link between music taste and personality. This is the first time that we've been able to look at it in real detail. . . If you know a person's music preference you can tell what kind of person they are, who to sell to. ... One of the most surprising things is the similarities between fans of classical music and heavy metal. They're both creative and at ease but not outgoing."
BBC News