VIRTUAL JUNGLE
I honestly thought The Pirate Bay saga was over last month when the torrent site was sold to a public company. Pending the site’s legalization, however, The Pirate Bay is conducting perhaps its final antic.

Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University physics graduate student, owes the record companies $675,000 after being convicted of downloading 30 songs illegally. The exorbitant nature of the lawsuit created the perfect situation to inspire irksome behavior: Prominently promoted on The Pirate Bay’s home page is “The $675,000 Mixtape” by DJ Joel. The mixtape’s logo comes complete with an “Approved by RIAA” certificate and the torrent itself gives “hugs” to the RIAA.

In the comments section of the torrent, many people reported to have downloaded the torrent solely to support Tenenbaum and The Pirate Bay. Also, after five days of being uploaded, the torrent still had more than 900 “seeders,” people who have downloaded the files and are subsequently sharing them.

The promotion of this mixtape is probably superfluous. After all, The Pirate Bay is on the verge of legitimacy and Tenenbaum is not going to have funds to pay the record labels anyway. Still, the act is fitting as an end to The Pirate Bay and a revival for Tenenbaum’s case.

The track list can be found on the torrent itself or on the Katz Forums here.

by Ben Benson

VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Last October, Congress fulfilled Pandora founder Tim Westergren’s wish by passing the Webcaster Settlement Act. The bill gave Internet radio providers the opportunity to negotiate lower royalty rates with SoundExchange, a royalty-collecting branch of the RIAA, which had intended to double rates by 2010.

Now, after nine months of talks, many webcasters still have not reached an agreement with SoundExchange even though negotiation time is running out. Therefore, Congress has opted to give webcasters more time to find a proper royalty rate. Without the bill’s update, webcasters could face potentially bankrupting royalty rates. Once the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 is signed by President Obama, it will give webcasters an additional 30 days to negotiate reasonable royalty rates through 2010.

Affected webcasters include non-NPR noncommercial webcasters, religious webcasters, small “Pure Play” webcasters, and large webcasters associated with Digital Media Association. Digital Media Association represents Internet radio stations such as Pandora, Slacker, and Live365.com.

Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association, issued a statement following the Senate’s approval that commended Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Sam Brownback “for quickly pushing this bill through the Senate and on to President Obama’s desk for his signature.”

Potter also said, “Hopefully, as Congress continues to focus more broadly on sound recording performance rights legislation, more comprehensive legislation will soon level the regulatory playing field for all forms of digital radio.” Webcasters hope to reach royalty agreements similar to those of satellite and cable radio.

by Ben Benson

DAILY NEWS PICKS

Governor’s Island Free Festival “Punk Island” Announces Line Up…Happening This Sunday! [Brooklyn Vegan]

Man Curses Keith Richards’s Impossibly Long Life on Death Bed [Idolator]

Athens, Georgia’s Georgia Theater Burns Down [Brooklyn Vegan]

Radiohead and Johnny Marr Contribute to The Sun Came Out Benefit [NME]

Islands Announce Follow-Up to Arm’s Way [Pitchfork]

Woman Charged $80,000 Per Downloaded Song By RIAA [Idolator]

Joy Division’s Classic Unknown Pleasures Celebrates 30th Birthday [Prefix]

Kelis Wants $20,000 a Month From Nas For Baby Expenses [Prefix]

Blur, Freshly Reunited, Writes New Material  [Rolling Stone]

compiled by Max Sebela

VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Near the end of 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America announced that it would no longer sue individual users for sharing music on the Internet. Instead, the RIAA said that would enlist the aid of Internet Service Providers to combat piracy. The RIAA intended for ISPs, like AT&T and Comcast, to help them avoid lawsuits and thwart music pirates on a large scale.

Six months later, however, that plan has not materialized. An article published last week on CNET points out how the RIAA announced its ISP-driven plan months in advance, without concrete details or contracts to support it. Despite the fact that a few ISPs thought they would partner with the RIAA earlier this year, many are still wary of making such a deal. The RIAA is trying to turn ISPs into “their own Internet cops,” says Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “What the ISPs appear to be saying is that this isn’t our job.”
More on After Six Months, RIAA and ISP Partnership Wavering

VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Not long ago, the RIAA announced that it would no longer sue individuals for copyright infringement. Instead, the RIAA devised a plan wherein it would partner with Internet service providers to police online pirating. Based on the new plan, after the RIAA identifies a music pirate, it would alert that person’s ISP. The ISP would then warn the copyright infringers about the pitfalls of illegal downloading, possibly cutting their connection. I suppose when the RIAA realized it would always be too costly to sue individuals, it decided to push those costs onto the ISPs themselves.
More on Comcast, AT&T May Enter Into Policing Agreement with RIAA

VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Not long ago, the RIAA announced that it would no longer sue individuals for copyright infringement. Instead, the RIAA devised a plan wherein it would partner with Internet service providers to police online pirating. Based on the new plan, after the RIAA identifies a music pirate, it would alert that person’s ISP. The ISP would then warn the copyright infringers about the pitfalls of illegal downloading, possibly cutting their connection. I suppose when the RIAA realized it would always be too costly to sue individuals, it decided to push those costs onto the ISPs themselves.
More on Comcast, AT&T May Enter Into Policing Agreement with RIAA

First reported in the Wall Street Journal, the Recording Industry Association of America is changing strategies after five years of pursing legal action against more than 35,000 people one-by-one. Henceforth, the RIAA will not sue individual music sharers for copyright infringement. Now, the RIAA has partnered with major Internet-service providers to curb illegal file sharing.

Under new agreements with ISPs, the RIAA will detect people sharing music illegally online and send an e-mail to the ISP that implicates the individual with piracy. The ISP can then either forward the RIAA notice to its consumer or issue its own warning. If the person does not stop sharing music illegally, the ISP may send several more warnings, with the ability to slow the user’s Internet connection speed. If all the warnings and depressed speeds do not stop the file sharing, the ISP can cut the user’s Internet altogether.
More on RIAA Ceases Its Legal Barrage

For several years now, the Recording Industry of America has lobbied public and private universities to decrease music pirating by pressuring their student bodies and closely monitoring their computer networks. Shoot, back in January, the RIAA sent 407 pre-litigation letters to 18 universities that it deemed the most prone to music theft. Much of the RIAA’s focus on colleges comes from a 2007 Student Monitor survey. The college research group found that more than half of college students download copyrighted material.
More on Tennessee and RIAA allies with Campus Downloading Bill