Sharman Networks, the parent company of controversial file-sharing service Kazaa, could face the music by the end of the year following an Australian federal court ruling. On Thursday, Justice Murray Wilcox set a tentative trial date of Nov. 29 and said that directed discovery and affidavit proceedings should be completed by October. Wilcox also dismissed a range of procedural matters …

When a copy-protected CD hit No. 1 on the U.S. music sales charts last month, it marked a breakthrough for the antipiracy technology in all but one sense: The music still wouldn’t play on Apple’s iPod. Now the two companies responsible for most copy-protected CDs are scrambling to create new versions of their technologies that are compatible with Apple’s popular …

Microsoft on Wednesday released a beta version of its highly expected online music download service, in hopes of unseating Apple Computer’s dominance in the hot market. The software giant quietly raised the curtain for its MSN Music Web site, which offers song downloads for 99 cents. The store also has a home in Windows Media Player 10, which is slated …