The music industry made much of research a couple of months ago suggesting there had been a marked decrease in the number of people downloading songs, and citing this as evidence of the effects of their ongoing legal battles against the evil downloaders.

“But some experts and users say that file sharers are only being more secretive, and that file swapping is actually increasing. At least two research firms say more than 150 million songs are being downloaded free every month. “

It’s being suggested that the downloaders have just moved underground – they don’t own up when surveyed. Which makes a lot of sense.

Perhaps the final comments should be from a 26 year old financial planner in Boston, who says the lawsuit publicity has stopped he and his friends sharing, but not downloading:

“No matter what they do, it’s not going to work,” Spurr said. “To me the lawsuits are useless because the Internet is about sharing.”

Pepsi in the US is giving away 100 million free songs from the iTunes music download site. (You may remember they launched the campaign during the Superbowl using people who had previously been sued for downloading songs illegally). It seems Pepsi hasn’t quite got it right:

“One in three bottles is a winner, but it turns out that the markings can be read without removing the cap. Not only is it possible to pick out winning bottles in advance, but careful scrutiny can reveal the full 10-digit redemption code, meaning that no purchase is required to get a free iTunes single, courtesy of Pepsi. “

Oops.

From IT Vibe:

“The Record Industry Association of America, RIAA, who recently issued another 532 lawsuits against file sharers, are now being sued by one of the file sharers they are targetting. Michele Scimeca is accusing the RIAA of extortion and racketeering offences, which fall under Americas 1970 Organized Crime and Control Act.”

Sounds like someone the RIAA targeted decided enought was enough. You have to be careful in the land of litigation, the USA. Sue someone, and inevitably someone will sue you. And with hundreds of lawsuits pending, it was only a matter of time before a defendent decided to turn the tables.

Love this media release on the FBI web site. Nothing like overstatement. “Does the number TWENTY THREE BILLION DOLLARS get your attention?”

It explains:

“That’s how much money was lost last year as a result of criminals swiping copyright-protected digital copies of music, movies, software, and games… and distributing them through websites, chat rooms, mass email, FTP, and peer-to-peer networks.”

Weeellll, maybe. If, and a big if, everyone who ‘swiped’ (lovely turn of phrase from the Bureau) turned around and paid for the material instead. Which is extemely unlikely. And therein lies one of the core issues. The copyright content industry makes a great deal of noise about ‘lost’ revenue. But is it really lost? Losing it implies it can be found. And I haven’t seen anything which suggests that’s true.

Apparently legal sales of music downloads are running at 2 million a week. Great. But illegal swaps are running at 250 million a week. Me thinks the music industry has some way to go with its campaign against the file swappers.

If you’ve ever been scammed on eBay, indeed, if you’ve ever used eBay, or considered buying and selling stuff online, check out this site. Great stories of scamming the scammers.

Despite legal setbacks, the music industry is having another crack at those pernicious fileswappers in Canada.

“The Canadian Recording Industry Association said on Friday that it had filed court requests earlier this week that seek identifying information for subscribers at five Canadian Internet service providers. The information gained from those requests would be used to file copyright infringement lawsuits against people who had made large amounts of music available for upload, the group said. “

All this follows on from a Canadian court ruling a little while ago that downloading from services such as Kazaa appeared to be legal under Canadian law. Of course, the music industry disagreed, although this time they appear to be focussing on people who upload as opposed to download.

A DJ who re-mixed the Beatles White Album with words from a popular rapper has incurred the wrath of music giant EMI whilst simultaeneously enjoying ‘thermonuclear’ applause and the album being dubbed an instant classic. Problem is, he didn’t ask EMI’s permission, and they own the rights to the Beatles album.

“As news of EMI’s demand spilled online this week, music-industry and intellectual-property activists went ballistic. It’s a sign of everything that’s wrong in the American copyright system, they contend. “

If my kids ever find out, I’m in big trouble. A love for M&M chocolates has sparked a physics breakthrough. A US physicist was known to be passionate about the chocolates, so his students played a prank, leaving an oil drum’s worth in his office. Which made him realise that the oval M&Ms packed more tightly than normal round spheres.

“The issue of how particles pack together has intrigued scientists for centuries and has implications for fields such as the design of high-density ceramic materials for use in aerospace or other industries.”

Well I suspect a legion of Barry White fans would suggest he would be off the scale with this little gadget. It’s the Love Detector, a gadget which allows you to analyse a person’s voice on your computer as they speak on the telephone.

“On the computer screen, the love level is presented by a daisy. The more petals on the daisy, the hotter the passion. If the love level is negative, the daisy starts to wilt. The program also gauges the level of embarrassment and concentration in the call. “

Apparently it’s based on Israeli anti-terrorism software!