Michael Robertson, the outspoken entrepreneur who helped set off the early digital music wars with his MP3.com site, said Wednesday that he is getting back in the online music business. Robertson, now chief executive both of Linux software company Linspire and Net-calling service SIPphone, said he wanted to give consumers–particularly those who use Linux-based computers–a …

An Australian judge has thrown out a request to block media and music industry access to a document that specifies how much Sharman Networks paid for the Kazaa peer-to-peer software. The lawyer for Altnet, a company allegedly associated with Sharman, had asked the court to make the order in relation to numerous documents originally seized last year under civil search …

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said Thursday that it had filed 717 new lawsuits against alleged file-swappers, including 68 unnamed people at universities. The suits come several days after the record label group filed its arguments with the Supreme Court in a case examining the broader legal liability of file-swapping software companies. Movie studios also filed their own …

By any measure, Napster Chief Executive Chris Gorog is one of the world’s biggest believers in digital music. Eighteen months ago, his company, Roxio, was a successful, if unspectacular, player in the CD-burning software market. Then, in a rapid-fire corporate transformation, he purchased the Napster brand name at a bankruptcy auction, bought the record-label-backed Pressplay subscription service and relaunched the …

Apple Computer is making catcalls over Microsoft’s musical talents. The creator of the trendsetting iPod music player and iTunes music service on Thursday took its on-again-off-again rival to task for the new MSN Music download service, saying it has fewer features and fewer songs than the market-leading iTunes. “Its biggest problem may be that its downloaded songs can not play …

A song called “Rocket Man” helped launch the career of Elton John, and now the pop superstar is setting out to ignite gadget sales for XM Satellite Radio. XM has drafted the singer for a TV ad campaign to promote its handheld radio, Delphi MyFi. The TV spot will begin to appear on national channels Nov. 15, a week after …

Sharman Networks, the parent company of controversial file-sharing service Kazaa, could face the music by the end of the year following an Australian federal court ruling. On Thursday, Justice Murray Wilcox set a tentative trial date of Nov. 29 and said that directed discovery and affidavit proceedings should be completed by October. Wilcox also dismissed a range of procedural matters …

When a copy-protected CD hit No. 1 on the U.S. music sales charts last month, it marked a breakthrough for the antipiracy technology in all but one sense: The music still wouldn’t play on Apple’s iPod. Now the two companies responsible for most copy-protected CDs are scrambling to create new versions of their technologies that are compatible with Apple’s popular …

Microsoft on Wednesday released a beta version of its highly expected online music download service, in hopes of unseating Apple Computer’s dominance in the hot market. The software giant quietly raised the curtain for its MSN Music Web site, which offers song downloads for 99 cents. The store also has a home in Windows Media Player 10, which is slated …

A start-up is bringing radio to portable MP3 players, betting that digital audio fans will want a diet beyond their own music collections. AudioFeast announced on Wednesday that it is creating a subscription service that offers downloadable radio shows for portable players–the first of its kind, the company said. It hopes to attract customers who are looking to fill their …