Tools that turn Apple Computers’ iTunes software into the core of a song-sharing network are multiplying, with the re-release this week of the previously defunct MyTunes. Like OurTunes and a handful of other software programs, “MyTunes Redux” enables computer users to download songs freely from the hard drives of other iTunes users, as long as the two machines are on …

To counter Microsoft’s planned entry into the digital-music market, Apple Computer offered to sign a strategic agreement with Sony, according to a Sept. 2 report in Japanese daily Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, which quotes sources from Sony. According to the sources, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his offer to Nobuyuki Idei, head of Sony, in January during a golf tournament organized …

A hotly contested wrangle in Congress over how to outlaw file-swapping networks just took a new twist. The U.S. Copyright Office has drafted a new version of the Induce Act that it believes will ban networks like Kazaa and Morpheus while not putting hardware such as portable hard drives and MP3 players on the wrong side of the law. The …