DOJ Drops Online Music Antitrust Investigation

JOstrow writes "On Tuesday, the Justice Department ended a two year long antitrust investigation into the online ventures of the music industry. The assistant attorney general for the antitrust division, R. Hewitt Pate, was quoted, 'Consumers now have available to them an increasing variety of authorized outlets from which they can purchase digital music and consumers are using those services in growing numbers.' What took off a lot of the heat was pressplay (now Napster!) and MusicNet changing their services to allow songs to be transferred from machine to machine."

Comments

Just use irate

[treat]

Just use irate. All the free (beer) music you can listen to, computer-selected to be music you will like. The user interface could use a great deal of polishing, but I'm sure that is happening. And it's quite usable in its current state. I see no reason to support RIAA music for any reason anymore. (And sharing their music is supporting them, as it builds popularity).

Re:Not a crock of crap - it is reality!

[belmolis]

Remember that unlike theft - the grounds on which Napster, et al have been pursued - anti-trust is a civil, not crimanl action.

Not so. In the United States, although antitrust action is usually civil, unlike most other countries it is also a criminal matter. Check out the American Antitrust Institute's Primer on US Criminal Antitrust. The Sherman Act of 1890 provides criminal penalties for antitrust violations. In addition to fines, prison sentences of up to three years are possible.

Re:What a crock of crap

[sosegumu]

Yet another case of our Republican administration yanking the leash back to reward their favorite corporate donors.

Ummm...the music industry gives primarily to Democrats. Check it out.