Shortly after buying the MP3.com domain name and announcing that its sprawling music archive would close, CNET Networks said Wednesday it will start its own free service for independent musicians online. MP3.com’s existing database, which contains more than 1 million songs, largely from unsigned and independent musicians, will be shut down Dec. 2. But CNET …

The Norwegian programmer who distributed the first widely used tool for cracking the copy protection technology found on DVDs has turned his attention to Apple Computer’s iTunes. Late last week, programmer Jon Johansen posted a small program called QTFairUse to his Web site, with little in the way of instruction and even less explanation. But during the next few days, …

Lawyers from the record industry and telecommunications giant SBC Communications faced off in a San Francisco courtroom Friday in a dispute over the record label’s legal charges against file swappers. The Internet service provider is challenging the legality of subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that sought information on SBC Internet subscribers alleged to have offered copyrighted …

Lawyers from the record industry and telecommunications giant SBC Communications faced off in a San Francisco courtroom Friday in a dispute over the record label’s legal charges against file swappers. The Internet service provider is challenging the legality of subpoenas from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) that sought information on SBC Internet subscribers alleged to have offered copyrighted …

A new piece of file-swapping software for Macintosh computers is drawing thousands of downloads by offering peer-to-peer options that had been limited largely to Windows computers. Originally released in July, and updated substantially since then, the “Poisoned” file-swapping software allows connections to the hugely popular FastTrack system as well as several smaller networks. That means that for the first time …

Sharman Networks, distributor of the popular Kazaa file-sharing software, previewed its first-ever set of print ads Monday that will run in major newspapers and Rolling Stone magazine beginning this week. In separate ads aimed respectively at entertainment moguls and at consumers, Sharman exhorted executives to stop treating file swappers as pirates and asked computer users to lobby record labels and …

Microsoft has at last confirmed plans that it will launch its own music-download store next year, putting it on the path to direct competition with Apple Computer’s iTunes and a growing list of rival digital song stores. With unequaled software reach, Microsoft’s entry into the market will almost necessarily create a splash larger than that of virtually any other company, …

Angry at what they see as a misuse of their funds, some Pennsylvania State University students are protesting their college’s new deal with the Napster music service. The new service was announced Thursday with considerable fanfare, touted by university officials and the company as a way to provide students with a legal alternative to downloading music illegally from Kazaa or …

The newly relaunched Napster music service announced a deal with Pennsylvania State University on Thursday to give students access to music funded by student fees, in an attempt to replace campus file swapping with legal listening. The trial project is the first of what will likely be a number of similar efforts over the next year, as colleges work with …

Showing signs of a music business struggling to adapt to new digital realities, Sony Music and the Bertelsmann Music Group agreed Thursday to create a new joint venture, merging the second- and fifth-largest record labels into a single entity. The deal comes amid reports that EMI Group has secured funds to bid for Warner Music. If both deals were to …