San Francisco - After similar moves were made by Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) and Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) has announced plans to shut down servers that provide continued access for consumers to songs they purchased from its digital music store that were wrapped in digital rights management (DRM) security -- which the company has since abandoned in favor of MP3s.

Los Angeles - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has filed court documents seeking sanctions against Ray Beckerman, an attorney who defends those accused of illegal file-sharing and runs a blog documenting those and other related cases, called Recording Industry vs. The People.

Los Angeles - A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that copyright holders must consider the potential "fair use" of their works before sending copyright takedown notices to online video sites. "In order for a copyright owner to proceed under the DMCA with 'a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law,' the owner must evaluate whether the material makes fair use of the copyright," U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel wrote, in his ruling.

San Francisco - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) has announced that it will provide refunds to any consumers who purchased songs locked by digital rights management (DRM), which otherwise would have eventually become unplayable after the company discontinues support for the technology. Yahoo had initially not offered any compensation to patrons of its Yahoo Music Unlimited service who purchased song downloads; had they needed to reauthorize the tracks on a new computer, for instance, they would have found the songs unplayable.

San Francisco - Yahoo (NASD: YHOO) is taking some criticism for following a move Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) was compelled to backtrack on, namely discontinuing a digital rights management-laden music service in a way that will make some songs purchased by consumers unplayable. Microsoft eventually added three years of support for customers who purchased downloads from its MSN Music store, who complained that their songs would no longer be available if they ever had to reauthorize them on another computer.

Washington - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has closed public comments on a proposal from the Hollywood studios that would give content owners control over the recording capabilities of devices like digital video recorders, with service providers like AT&T (NYSE: T) and DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) weighing in in favor of the proposal, while groups including the Consumer Electronics Association, Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) opposed it.

San Francisco - A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by major label Universal Music Group against a California man who sold promotional CDs from the label on eBay. U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero ruled that the promo CDs are gifts distributed by UMG, as they are mailed free and unsolicited to thousands of people -- including music journalists and radio stations -- without any expectation or intention of their return.

London - In what is thought will become the first prosecution in the U.K. involving pre-release music, a London-based DJ and music critic has been arrested on suspicion of theft and money laundering in connection with his alleged selling of 150 pre-release albums on eBay, according to a statement from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a record label trade group.

Los Angeles - A federal judge has rejected a pillar of the recording industry's argument in the copyright infringement lawsuits it has filed against file-swappers, ruling that simply "making available" songs in a shared folder on their computers does not equate to infringement. In Atlantic v. Howell, Judge Neil V. Wake has dismissed the label's motion for summary judgment against Pamela and Jeffrey Howell, saying in his ruling that "merely making an unauthorized copy of a copyrighted work available to the public does not violate a copyright holder's exclusive right of distribution."

Los Angeles - Digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) earlier this week filed a brief on behalf of an eBay seller who was sued by Universal Music Group for reselling promotional CDs, arguing that the record label is violating copyright law's "first sale" doctrine.

San Francisco - Following reports that broadband providers Comcast (NASD: CMCSA) and Cox have been interfering with their subscribers' peer-to-peer traffic, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on Wednesday released tools for Internet users that can be used to test for "packet forgery" or other ISP interference on their connections. "Comcast is discriminating among different kinds of Internet traffic based on the protocols being used by its customers," said EFF senior intellectual property attorney Fred von Lohmann. "When confronted, Comcast has been evasive and misleading in its responses, so we decided to start gathering the facts ourselves."

Washington - Nine consumer privacy organizations on Wednesday asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create a list of consumers who do not want their online behavior tracked for advertising and other purposes, similar to the national "Do Not Call" list the FTC operates to prevent calls from telemarketers.

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties advocate, will file a friend-of-the-court brief supporting Jammie Thomas' appeal of a jury verdict ordering her to pay $220,000 to the record industry for offering music in a shared folder on a file-sharing network, Wired News reported.

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties group, on Thursday released a 20-page white paper that chronicles the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) four-year legal campaign against illegal file-sharing.

San Francisco - Digital civil liberties advocates the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a San Francisco law firm have filed suit against Universal Music Group, on behalf of an eBay seller sued by the label group for offering promotional CDs for sale.

San Francisco - Digital civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has sued Universal Music Publishing Group, after the company ordered a home video removed from YouTube that showed a baby dancing to a clip of Prince's song "Let's Go Crazy."

San Francisco - Digital civil liberties advocates the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) will file a friend-of-the-court brief in support of TorrentSpy, a site that links to copyrighted downloads that has been sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), CNET News.com reported. A judge in the case recently ruled that temporary RAM memory on TorrentSpy's servers must be stored and turned over to the court. "This is the first time the court has found that information found only in RAM is subject to preservation," EFF senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann told CNET. "Companies may be obliged to begin logging and producing information about conversations that occur on digital phones, which are stored on RAM. Nobody is asked to preserve records for analog phone conversations."

Los Angeles - AT&T has partnered with Hollywood movie studios and record labels to develop anti-piracy technology for deployment on its broadband networks, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.

New York - A number of powerful telecom firms and technology trade groups have come to the aid of Cablevision, filing a brief in support of the company's appeal of a federal court ruling that prohibited it from launching a network-based digital video recorder (DVR).

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), a digital civil liberties group, said this week that, after examining information embedded on the DRM-free tracks sold on Apple's new iTunes Plus -- first reported on by Ars Technica and TUAW, which found them to include user names and e-mail addresses -- it found significant differences in the sizes of the files.