Entertainment

It's no secret that an awful lot of TV shows and movies can be found on file-sharing networks like BitTorrent and Kazaa. It's also no secret that the producers of those shows really, really hate it when people share them without permission. Is there a way for content makers to cash in on what is a c...

The legal saga of the first file-sharing lawsuit brought by the record labels to make it before a jury isn't over just yet. Jammie Thomas, who was ordered to pay $222,000 after a jury found her responsible for posting two dozen songs on the Kazaa file-sharing network, announced through her MySpace b...

The music industry emerged victorious in the first file-sharing lawsuit to go to trial, with a federal court jury ruling a Minnesota woman was liable for swapping two dozen songs and ordered her to pay $222,000 to Capitol Records. The closely watched case ended Thursday after two days of testimony a...

One of the first file-sharing lawsuits to go to trial could be concluded Thursday, and while the case is being closely watched, the Recording Industry Association of American said it will continue to pursue legal action against alleged music pirates regardless of the outcome. Attorneys for the RIAA ...

Three years after Sony Music Entertainment and BMG Entertainment finalized their Sony BMG joint venture, antitrust regulators from the European Union have again cleared the music industry deal. The decision followed a court-ordered review of the impacts on small record labels. European Commissioner ...

In a move that further complicates the rapidly changing digital music world, alt-rock group Radiohead plans to make its next album available for direct download from its Web site without a fixed price. Radiohead said users can give what they think is a fair amount in exchange for the digital downloa...

SpiralFrog.com, a free music download site that launched on Sept. 17, allows registered users to download more than 800,000 songs and videos. As long as downloaders keep renewing their free monthly site registration, they can continue to play the song and video files on their PC. Users can also copy...

Consumers are beginning to embrace digital video recorders as they once did VCRs. A scant two years ago, only one American household in 13 had one of the gadgets. Now they're in one in five homes, according to the latest figures from the Leichtman Research Group, of Durham, N.H. What's more, by 2011...

After years of speculation and preparation, Amazon.com launched its digital music store Tuesday, debuting Amazon MP3 and promising a wide selection of music unfettered by DRM restrictions. The e-tail giant launched what it's calling a public beta of the download store with 2 million songs available ...

Having agreed to buy Slingbox maker Sling Media, Dish Network parent company EchoStar Communications now is considering splitting itself into two distinct companies. The Colorado-based satellite TV company wants to separate its consumer-based and wholesale businesses, a move it says will allow both ...

Forcing consumers to buy prepackaged tiers of bundled TV channels is a violation of trade and anti-trust laws, contends a lawsuit filed in the federal court against media companies and cable/satellite TV providers. The complaint, filed by Los Angeles lawyers Maxwell Blecher and David Kesselman on be...

NBC became the latest television network to plant a stake in its own piece of Internet video turf, saying it would make free downloads of first-run television shows available directly to viewers through its Web site. Known as NBC Direct, the offering has implications affecting various players in the...

The free music download site SpiralFrog.com has finally croaked its first notes. The company's online launch has been in the works since August of last year, and the company missed its well-publicized December 2006/early 2007 launch plans, apparently due to executive shakeups. Today, however, end us...

Enigmatic artist Prince says the Internet has allowed third parties to steal his works and may sue sites such as YouTube that benefit from the unauthorized use of his music. The bone of contention with the artist who once changed his name to a symbol is unreliable or insufficient filtering of conten...

The advent of digital distribution for theatrical, television and user-generated content comes at a time of enormous pressure for the traditional entertainment industry. The industry enjoyed years of strong returns at the box office and from DVD rentals and sales from the late 1990s into the early p...