Stories about: Digital Media Association

Large music webcasters are claiming the recording industry is "backtracking" on its offer to compromise with them over new, higher royalty rates that went into effect in March and were to be paid on July 15.

Internet radio may not be dead after all.

A U.S. federal appeals court Wednesday denied a petition from music webcaster associations for an emergency stay of new royalty rates that Internet radio companies have to start paying on Sunday.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and two major IT trade groups have agreed on the direction public policy for copyright projection should take, but representatives of a couple of consumer groups say the agreement may still hurt Internet users.

While vendors at last week's Comdex trade show in the US displayed products that could quickly and easily create copies of music, movies and software programs, experts in the field of "digital rights management" weighed the legal and ethical issues surrounding the untethered electronic reproduction and distribution of copyright material.