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bluecalix writes "According to an article on sonicnet, 'In the new Napster, which the company says will be launched "as soon as possible," users will still be able to swap MP3 files ripped from their own CDs. But Napster will add a new "protection layer" to MP3s as they move from one user's computer to another, allowing the service to control what users do with the files they download, according to a statement from the company.'"

michael.creasy was the first with the news: "After The Offspring started selling Napster merchandise, they are now being sued by Napster according to an article at Sonicnet.com." That should wake a few people up. Update: This is not a lawsuit, it's a cease-and-desist. On the lighter side (this means it's a joke, for the differently clued), Brian Briggs wrote in to share the bbspot news story about Metallica's 'Download This' album.

ElJefe writes "According to SonicNet, Epitaph Records (Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX') is going to start selling songs and albums in MP3 format on Emusic. The songs are 99 cents each, or $8.99 for a whole album. The article quotes the president of EMusic [Ed: "SDMI will die" guy] as saying "You go where the customers are, and they're going to stay with MP3." Although I'm not a huge fan of any of the bands, it's nice to see someone using MP3 instead of SDMI. " The site also has yet another article on SDMI that says SDMI will treat copies like physical objects, limiting copies to a number specified by the content distributor.

ElJefe writes "According to SonicNet, Epitaph Records (Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX') is going to start selling songs and albums in MP3 format on Emusic. The songs are 99 cents each, or $8.99 for a whole album. The article quotes the president of EMusic [Ed: "SDMI will die" guy] as saying "You go where the customers are, and they're going to stay with MP3." Although I'm not a huge fan of any of the bands, it's nice to see someone using MP3 instead of SDMI. " The site also has yet another article on SDMI that says SDMI will treat copies like physical objects, limiting copies to a number specified by the content distributor.

ElJefe writes "According to SonicNet, Epitaph Records (Offspring, Bad Religion, NOFX') is going to start selling songs and albums in MP3 format on Emusic. The songs are 99 cents each, or $8.99 for a whole album. The article quotes the president of EMusic [Ed: "SDMI will die" guy] as saying "You go where the customers are, and they're going to stay with MP3." Although I'm not a huge fan of any of the bands, it's nice to see someone using MP3 instead of SDMI. " The site also has yet another article on SDMI that says SDMI will treat copies like physical objects, limiting copies to a number specified by the content distributor.

Fwonkas writes "Not sure if this has been posted yet (holiday distractions and stuff), but there's more bad MP3 news. Capitol has forced the Beastie Boys and Billy Idol to remove MP3s that they posted on the web. " They join Public Enemy now with that distinction. The artists see where the future is. How long before the record industry figures it out? Update: 12/27 07:37 by H :A week ago Friday (the 18th) the Wall Street Journal had an interesting article on the Beasties and MP3s. Check it out for more info-although that article was prior to this report. Afraid I can't find an online, non-pay required version. Anyone know where one is? I deleted this article. It was totally a copyright infringment and obviously shouldn't have been posted. Hemos will be slapped with salami until he begs for forgiveness *grin*

Tom Holroyd passed along some interesting pieces of information from Eric S Arnum's recent piece over at SonicNet. Many of you saw that the RIAA has decided to lauch their Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Well, that's not so interesting on it's own, but their choice of company is. It's a subsidary of SAIC, a privately held company that does work in secure defense commnuications. The company (SAIC) has worked with the CIA, NSA, and Navy, amongst others. Click below for the full story. On Tuesday, the RIAA launched this effort to apply encryption keys to digital music, their Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Ho hum.

The RIAA contracted with this consultancy called Global Integrity to run the SDTI Forum rather than run it themselves. Ho hum. But then I noticed that Global Integrity was a subsidiary of SAIC. Holy shit.

SAIC has been accused of being a CIA front, but that's probably false. What they are is a privately held company started by physicists from the Los Alamos NM lab who worked on nuclear weapons and studied the effects of radiation on humans. But SAIC now specializes in defense communications, specifically signal intelligence, so its customers include not just the CIA, but also NSA, Navy, National Reconnaiscence Agency, DISA, and DARPA.

They receive $900 million a year in classified, "black budget" national security communications contracts. See their press release on their annual report or the annual report itself (PDF: http://www.saic.com/news/1998report.html)

I first came across SAIC in 1995 when they bought Network Solutions Inc., which does all the domain name registrations for com, net, org, and edu. Therefore, SAIC has control of the database that contains the who, what & where for each and every Web site and email server in those domains -- pretty handy info for the NSA wiretappers...

Two years later, SAIC bought Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), which at the time assigned all area codes in North America, and still to this day provides the software that runs all (800) numbers and 80% of all US phone gear. Again, not a bad acquisition for a sigint contractor, to be running the Toll Free system and assigning area codes...

So now SAIC's consultants are going to help the RIAA decide what encryption schemes should be used to lock up digital music. As the church lady might say, "how conveeeeenient..." But if you buy the premise that entertainment is a strategic export, that preventing the Chinese and others from bootlegging Mariah Carey is a matter of national security, then why shouldn't SAIC be doing the encryption consulting?

I haven't heard of these guys at Global Integrity Corp. before. But anyone with an office in McLean, Virginia is most likely working for the spooks. Who suggested them to the RIAA?

Eric

Tom Holroyd passed along some interesting pieces of information from Eric S Arnum's recent piece over at SonicNet. Many of you saw that the RIAA has decided to lauch their Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Well, that's not so interesting on it's own, but their choice of company is. It's a subsidary of SAIC, a privately held company that does work in secure defense commnuications. The company (SAIC) has worked with the CIA, NSA, and Navy, amongst others. Click below for the full story. On Tuesday, the RIAA launched this effort to apply encryption keys to digital music, their Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). Ho hum.

The RIAA contracted with this consultancy called Global Integrity to run the SDTI Forum rather than run it themselves. Ho hum. But then I noticed that Global Integrity was a subsidiary of SAIC. Holy shit.

SAIC has been accused of being a CIA front, but that's probably false. What they are is a privately held company started by physicists from the Los Alamos NM lab who worked on nuclear weapons and studied the effects of radiation on humans. But SAIC now specializes in defense communications, specifically signal intelligence, so its customers include not just the CIA, but also NSA, Navy, National Reconnaiscence Agency, DISA, and DARPA.

They receive $900 million a year in classified, "black budget" national security communications contracts. See their press release on their annual report or the annual report itself (PDF: http://www.saic.com/news/1998report.html)

I first came across SAIC in 1995 when they bought Network Solutions Inc., which does all the domain name registrations for com, net, org, and edu. Therefore, SAIC has control of the database that contains the who, what & where for each and every Web site and email server in those domains -- pretty handy info for the NSA wiretappers...

Two years later, SAIC bought Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), which at the time assigned all area codes in North America, and still to this day provides the software that runs all (800) numbers and 80% of all US phone gear. Again, not a bad acquisition for a sigint contractor, to be running the Toll Free system and assigning area codes...

So now SAIC's consultants are going to help the RIAA decide what encryption schemes should be used to lock up digital music. As the church lady might say, "how conveeeeenient..." But if you buy the premise that entertainment is a strategic export, that preventing the Chinese and others from bootlegging Mariah Carey is a matter of national security, then why shouldn't SAIC be doing the encryption consulting?

I haven't heard of these guys at Global Integrity Corp. before. But anyone with an office in McLean, Virginia is most likely working for the spooks. Who suggested them to the RIAA?

Eric