"A proposal that the Senate may vote on as early as next week would let federal prosecutors file civil lawsuits against suspected copyright infringers, with fines reaching tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars."

"But the problem for the piracy-battered music labels is that licensing restrictions have kept music labels out of the sector's early growth. With "sample" ringtones, the labels hope to cash in on the business."

"New research indicates that the net effect of DVRs actually increases the likelihood that viewers will see a TV commercial not decrease it."

"Those who rely on this theory take the idea of IP as "property" too seriously, and reason that since individual pieces of property are perpetually managed, IP should be too. But IP isn't just like real property; indeed, it gives IP owners control over what others do with their real property. The ex post justification is strikingly anti-market."

"A U.S. music industry group says it has sued 493 more people for copyright infringement as part of its campaign to stop consumers from copying music over the Internet."

"New software that lets anyone create unique cellular phone rings for free has some record labels worried it will kill the cash cow that is the ringtone."

"The study of copyright's communications policy has both a descriptive and a normative payoff. First, it helps us understand both the existing copyright code and the history of 20th century copyright. Second, it helps us ask whether copyright is in line with other important goals of national communications policy."

"In other words, the supposedly woeful state of CD sales isn't all that woeful after all. Retail outlets have been working hard to keep up with online competition, and part of that has meant following the rule of Dell: don't have inventory if you can avoid it."

"Congress has taken a step toward revising the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has attracted extensive criticism over the past six years."

"Consumer advocates asked Congress on Wednesday to amend a landmark 1998 copyright law to permit film buffs to make personal copies of DVD movies and other digital content for limited purposes. Hollywood studios and the music industry said that would lead to more piracy and lost sales."

"[Today Sony] introduced the VGF-AP1, a 20GB iPod-like digital music player. But it only plays Sony’s proprietary, DRM’d ATRAC format, not MP3 or AAC or WAV or anything else. So, in order to get their MP3s onto this new player, users will have to re-encode their collection into ATRAC format."

"Connect permits an unlimited number of transfers to portable players -- except for songs from Warner Music Group's labels, which are restricted to three transfers. Ever. Similar control-freak behavior ensues when you move purchased songs to the other two PCs you're allotted at any one time: Those copies lose all their transfer and CD-burning permissions."

"Some lawmakers are introducing a bill that Hollywood is not happy about — one that would allow consumers to make personal copies of digital entertainment like DVDs to be played on whatever device they want."

"A Japanese university professor was arrested on Monday on charges of violating copyright laws by developing and offering software that allows users to swap movies and video games on the Internet, police said."

"Under the terms of some of the deals, the prices for some of the most popular singles could rise to $1.25, according to sources familiar with the negotiations. Songs have previously been priced at 99 cents across the board."

"A two-year investigation by New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office found that many artists were not being paid royalties because record companies lost contact with the performers and had stopped making required payments."