News

A cabal of record labels—including Arista Records, Warner Bros., Capitol, and BMG—have taken legal action against the Russian music site allofmp3.comhttp://www.allofmp3.com/>allofmp3.com;, charging that the site offers their music without having received permission. The suit, filed in federal court in New York, is only the latest step in the war against the Russian digital download site.

On October 4, a federal jury in Duluth, MN found Jammie Thomas liable for copyright infringement, imposing a damages assessment of $220,000 ($9250 for each of 24 songs). It was the first jury trial resulting from the series of lawsuits the recording industry began in September 2003. Since most of those suits were settled out of court (average settlement: $4000) or defaulted, Capitol Records v. Thomas was the rare case to actually go to court and in front of a jury. It was interesting in ways other than its seemingly high damages.

Sunday, April 22, 2-5pm: The Los Angeles and Orange County Audio Society will hold its monthly meeting at Evolution Audio Video (5341 Derry Avenue #S, Agoura Hills, CA). The event includes presentations from Dave Kakenmaster, Western Region Sales Manager for GoldenEar, as well as Tony Weber, Sales Manager at Cary Audio, as well as a mega-raffle with stupendous prizes.

Lars is dead.

Last year's media darling may be this year's has-been. Napsterhttp://www.napster.com">Napster;, the music file-sharing service that shook the music industry's foundations, remains shut down after US District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel ruled that it cannot resume operations until it can prove that no copyrighted songs can slip through its filter. In a closed session on Wednesday, July 11, Patel ordered Napster to stay offline until she authorizes it to do otherwise.

Things looked grim for Internet radio late last week. On July 11, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals declined to delay the increasehttp://stereophile.com/news/031907internet/">increase; in digital performance royalties the Copyright Royalty Board imposed last March. The new fees were scheduled to go into effect on July 15, retroactive to the beginning of 2006.

When we last heardhttp://stereophile.com/news/042307linn/">heard; from Linn, The Scotsman reported layoffs, restructuring, and a hoped-for resurgence. On May 25, we received a note from Ivor">http://www.stereophile.com/interviews/1101ivor/">Ivor S. Tiefenbrun, Linn's founder, that he had returned to the positions of chairman and managing director, after an absence of four or five years due to serious health problems, thanks to new medications that have "returned [him] to fitness and restored energy levels."