The Recording Industry Association of America on Thursday said it filed 80 new lawsuits against alleged file swappers, a move that comes after a wave of letters it sent earlier this month that warned targets of their legal risk. The action marks a second round of suits against computer users who, record label investigators say, …

Napster is back, with an inescapable marketing campaign that’s put the familiar kitty-with-earphones logo everywhere, from Yahoo Mail boxes to stickers seen on the streets of San Francisco. Its features having been unveiled early this month, Napster’s introduction to the masses Wednesday contains little in the way of surprises. As announced earlier, the free software provides access to a huge …

The Recording Industry Association of America has begun preparing a second round of file-swapping lawsuits, notifying 204 individuals that they are in line to be sued for copyright infringement. Unlike with the previous wave of suits, the record labels’ trade association is giving the lawsuit targets warning this time around, offering them a chance to settle before the suits are …

A small New York company has sued Microsoft, charging that the software giant’s new music download service in Europe infringes on a nearly 20-year-old patent it owns. E-Data, a Long Island-based company that’s focused largely on licensing its patents, contends that Microsoft, Internet service provider Tiscali and digital music company OD2 are collectively trespassing on its rights with their . …

The head of file-swapping company Grokster, Wayne Rosso, has resigned from his post and will take the helm of younger Spanish peer-to-peer technology rival Blubster. Rosso has long been one of the most colorfully outspoken executives in the file-trading world, known for comparing recording industry executives to Josef Stalin and the fight over digital file trading to the Vietnam War …

A Los Angeles-area Web designer has emerged as the second person to challenge a recording industry file-swapping lawsuit, saying that the record labels appear to have made a mistake in identifying him. Playa del Rey, Calif., resident Ross Plank has enlisted the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group that has been a vocal critic of …

A brand-new Napster unveiled its digital face Thursday morning, a year after the once-proud file-swapping service was sold in pieces in bankruptcy court. The new digital music service, owned by CD- and DVD-burning software company Roxio, bears little resemblance to the original anarchic Napster. In its place is something like a cross between Apple Computer’s iTunes download store and the …

At an open meeting Wednesday of a peer-to-peer forum backed by the parent company of Kazaa, the discussion will turn to a seemingly improbable concept: how to eliminate piracy from file-swapping networks. But in their bid to win respectability–as well as economic and legal breathing room–that’s just what Distributed Computing Industry Alliance (DCIA) founding members Sharman Networks and the affiliated …

Earthstation 5 has released a new edition of its file-swapping software, responding to reports that running older versions could allow hackers to delete critical files on a user’s computer. The concerns were raised in a bulletin posted to security lists last week by a programmer with the pseudonym Random Nut, who . In an e-mail statement sent to CNET News.com …

The reconstituted Napster music service will be unveiled on Oct. 9, according to CD and DVD software company Roxio, its new corporate parent. Roxio has spent tens of millions of dollars over the past year to position itself in the increasingly crowded online music distribution business. The Napster it launches next week will be much different from the original–there won’t …