The Recording Industry Association of America has an ambitious goal with its first wave of lawsuits against file swappers: trying to change an anarchic, deeply rooted online culture. As yet, evidence is mixed as to whether the group’s attempts are succeeding. According to several Net monitoring groups, traffic on file-swapping networks fell throughout the period …

Barely 24 hours after suing alleged file swappers around the United States, the recording industry has settled its first case, agreeing to drop its case against a 12-year-old New York girl in exchange for $2,000. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed 261 lawsuits Monday against computer users it said were exclusively “egregious” file swappers. One of the targets …

Charles Dumond of San Mateo, Calif., learned that he was targeted in a landmark series of recording industry piracy lawsuits only when reporters started calling his home on Monday. One of 261 people named by the Recording Industry Association of America in an unprecedented wave of lawsuits aimed at alleged “egregious” file traders, an angry Dumont said the accusations had …

The Recording Industry Association of America sued 261 alleged file swappers Monday, launching a legal campaign against ordinary Internet users that could ultimately result in thousands of additional lawsuits. But are you at risk? If you or a family member have used Kazaa or any other file-swapping application recently and have left your computer open to the Net, the answer …

An Apple Computer executive on Monday downplayed recent questions over the download resale policy of the company’s iTunes Music Store, saying technical if not legal barriers would largely prevent such transfers from taking place. “Apple’s position is that it is impractical, though perhaps within someone’s rights, to sell music purchased online,” Peter Lowe, Apple’s director of marketing for applications and …

eBay on Thursday canceled an auction that sought to resell a music download that was purchased through Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store, saying the attempted sale violated its listing policies. The move for now brings to an end a quirky effort to dramatize some of the less-obvious effects of the music industry’s shift from physical media sales to digital downloads–in …

The Recording Industry Association of America will extend an amnesty program to some individuals involved in illegal sharing of copyrighted music files online, according to numerous published reports. The RIAA, which has issued more than 1,000 subpoenas to Internet service providers seeking the names of people illegally sharing copyrighted content, will offer an easy out to some of them, numerous …

The day after a report suggested the compact disc is heading the way of the 8-track tape, the world’s largest music label conglomerate promised a steep cut in music CD pricing. Universal Music Group on Wednesday said it will slash its wholesale prices and reduce its suggested retail pricing for music CDs to $13, from between $17 and $19. The …

Sony will launch its own digital music service next year, in a project that will see its music, movie and electronics divisions work closely together, the company said Thursday. Announced by Sony Vice Chairman Howard Stringer at an event in Paris, the service appears to be conceived as a rival to Apple Computer’s successful iTunes digital music store, and as …

Colleges and the entertainment industry have made considerable progress toward turning back the file-swapping tide on university campuses, representatives of both groups said Tuesday. From teaching incoming freshmen about the legal and ethical issues of file trading to starting up trial projects offering campus-sponsored digital music services, colleges are beginning to make inroads against student copyright infringement, representatives of a …