RealNetworks is closing down its half-price online music sale for all but a handful of songs that will continue to sell for 49 cents apiece. The company on Thursday labeled its music promotion a success, with more than 3 million singles sold during the three-week campaign. The aim was in large part to highlight its …

Altnet, a company that sells music and other digital goods through file-swapping services, sued the Recording Industry Association of America on Wednesday for alleged patent infringement. The company, a subsidiary of Brilliant Digital Entertainment, contends that the RIAA has been infringing on one of its patents in the course of copyright enforcement efforts inside peer-to-peer networks. Overpeer, a copyright company …

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 …

Microsoft is set to unveil the latest version of its media playback software on Thursday, giving its partners powerful new tools for selling digital entertainment services even as it launches its own music download store. With Windows Media Player 10, Microsoft hopes to leapfrog competitors such as Apple Computer and RealNetworks with some novel features, notably support for music rentals …

As Microsoft focuses on its music store and digital media software, Apple talks bucks and BMWs–and gets in some digs at its new rival. MSN Music is off-key, Apple says The creator of the iPod and iTunes sounds off on its new rival in music downloads. September 2, 2004 Creative adds MP3 players to take on iPod Will twice as …

Apple Computer announced Wednesday that it will offer commissions to third-party sites that drive customers to its iTunes online music store. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said that the iTunes Affiliate Program will allow Web sites to link directly to specific content stored in iTunes’ digital archives, and will pay dividends to those companies that can help Apple generate downloads. The …

ASPEN, Colo.–Electronics manufacturers and some Internet providers are mounting a counterattack to a copyright bill intended to ban peer-to-peer networks and that could also imperil devices like Apple Computer’s iPod. That measure, called the Induce Act, has been widely panned by the technology industry. Now some groups, including SBC Communications, Verizon Communications and the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), are fighting …

Microsoft is expected to enter the online song store market this week, which should put the software giant head-to-head with Apple Computer in the music business at last. The launch of Microsoft’s iTunes rival will be timed along with the beta release of Microsoft’s new Windows Media Player 10, expected on Thursday, sources say. The store will also be in …