So finally the great day dawns, and we’ve got a firm date for the arrival of Sky HD to the UK and Ireleand. The great unwashed can start buying the service on Wednesday 12 April, and installations will begin in May, so mark those electronic organisers now. As previously announced, you’ll pay £299 for the …

Sharman Networks has cut off Australians’ access to the Web site from which the file-swapping software Kazaa can be downloaded. The shutdown, undertaken to comply with orders from Australia’s Federal Court, took effect late Monday in Australia. While people with an Australian IP address who have already downloaded Kazaa can continue to use it, Sharman is warning them not to …

Lest there be any doubt, the recording industry is quite serious about cracking down on what it perceives to be illegal file-sharing, in the United States and other countries as well. To prove the point, the industry has just initiated more than 2,100 new legal cases against individuals in Europe, Asia and South America. According to the International Federation for …

Napster and XM Satellite Radio on Monday unveiled a beta version of a joint music offering. The new service is designed to let satellite radio subscribers access, purchase and download broadcasts on about 70 music channels available over XM, the companies said. In addition, users can access Napster’s music catalog and buy tracks from it. The XM + Napster service …

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Shawn Fanning created Napster in his dorm room at Northeastern. It was the fastest-growing application in the history of the Internet. We changed the world but failed to achieve business success. Here is a glimpse into that story. Napster started out as a free download tool for college students. Later the goal was to make it a real business in …

India portal Rediff.com has debuted a music download service that is powered by Akamai Technologies’ delivery platform, the companies announced Monday. Rediff meshed its payment gateway with Akamai’s secure delivery and download service, they said. “The demand for media of all types–music, movies, games and more–is enormous and growing rapidly. However, there are many challenges to successfully monetizing media assets …

European consumers are being forced to pay usage rights on legal copy-protected music downloads multiple times because of outdated private copy levies, according to a study. The Business Software Alliance issued a report Thursday urging that the extra taxation that most European countries have added to music downloads be scrapped. The BSA said the rise in online content protected by …

Napster will offer free digital music at select cafes in four U.S. cities this month to promote its new portable subscription service, Napster To Go. Napster To Go allows customers to move an unlimited number of tracks from Napster’s catalog of 1 million songs to any compatible MP3 player, though the songs are playable only as long as the user …

Napster expects to end its fiscal fourth quarter with more revenue than it had previously forecast, the company said Thursday. The company now predicts that revenue in the quarter ending March 31 will be around $15 million, which is $1 million higher than it had projected earlier. Related story Chris Gorog sold Roxio’ssoftware business so hecould compete with Microsoftin music. …