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 …

While Apple Computer, Microsoft and others target a potentially vast market for paid music downloads, Viacom’s MTV unit is setting its sights closer to home. In his first remarks on MTV’s planned music download service, an MTV executive in charge of online properties described more limited ambitions than the company’s chief executive officer did when he announced the service earlier …