The Recording Industry Association of America has begun preparing a second round of file-swapping lawsuits, notifying 204 individuals that they are in line to be sued for copyright infringement. Unlike with the previous wave of suits, the record labels’ trade association is giving the lawsuit targets warning this time around, offering them a chance to …

A small New York company has sued Microsoft, charging that the software giant’s new music download service in Europe infringes on a nearly 20-year-old patent it owns. E-Data, a Long Island-based company that’s focused largely on licensing its patents, contends that Microsoft, Internet service provider Tiscali and digital music company OD2 are collectively trespassing on its rights with their . …

The Recording Industry Association of America is pressing a federal court to ignore cable Internet provider Charter Communications’ attempt to keep private the names of 93 subscribers who allegedly traded songs online illegally. On Friday, the trade organization filed a court memorandum opposing Charter’s “motion to quash” a subpoena request for the names. The RIAA charges that Charter is unlawfully …

The head of file-swapping company Grokster, Wayne Rosso, has resigned from his post and will take the helm of younger Spanish peer-to-peer technology rival Blubster. Rosso has long been one of the most colorfully outspoken executives in the file-trading world, known for comparing recording industry executives to Josef Stalin and the fight over digital file trading to the Vietnam War …

A Los Angeles-area Web designer has emerged as the second person to challenge a recording industry file-swapping lawsuit, saying that the record labels appear to have made a mistake in identifying him. Playa del Rey, Calif., resident Ross Plank has enlisted the help of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an online civil liberties group that has been a vocal critic of …

In an abrupt reversal, SunnComm Technologies said Friday that it will not sue a Princeton University graduate student who published a paper that describes how to bypass CD copy-protection technology simply by pressing the Shift key. SunnComm had angrily assailed Princeton doctoral student John “Alex” Halderman just a day before, claiming that his academic paper was “at best, duplicitous and, …

A brand-new Napster unveiled its digital face Thursday morning, a year after the once-proud file-swapping service was sold in pieces in bankruptcy court. The new digital music service, owned by CD- and DVD-burning software company Roxio, bears little resemblance to the original anarchic Napster. In its place is something like a cross between Apple Computer’s iTunes download store and the …

A New York man was sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of using the Internet to sell hundreds of CDs that were loaded with unauthorized copies of songs. Alvin A. Davis, 42, of Brooklyn, was also ordered to pay $3,329.50 for selling pirated music via his Web site. Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court …

Capitalizing on the re-aunch of Napster on Thursday, Samsung has announced a new digital audio player that can store up to 5,000 songs on its 20GB hard drive. The company said the co-branded YP-910GS is the only player that’s designed to operate with the Napster 2.0 service. Subscribers will be able to access more than 500,000 songs from all five …

Apple Computer is expected next week to expand its online music service to Windows-based computers. The Mac maker has scheduled an event for next Thursday at San Francisco’s Moscone West convention hall. “The year’s biggest music story is about to get even bigger,” Apple said in an invitation to journalists. The company is expected to launch the long-awaited Windows version …