Facing criticism from thousands of fans, the Grateful Dead appears to have backtracked on recent moves to deter people from trading free copies of concert recordings over the Internet. After consulting with the legendary jam band, a nonprofit group that distributes the group’s music online had restored the audience recordings for downloading and streaming on …

The music and movie industries are giving people who have swapped songs and other copyrighted material over the Internet a new way to repent for their illicit ways. A free program released Thursday, called Digital File Check, will uninstall or disable file-sharing programs on people’s computers. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a London-based affiliate of the Recording …

Comcast is tapping into the frenzy over MP3 players in a push to sign up new high-speed Internet service customers. The company is giving away Nomad MuVo digital music players from Creative Technology to new residential high-speed Internet subscribers who activate the service by March 31. The music player, which costs about $50 at online retail shops, can hold up …