It seems as if it has been a while since we last heard an MPAA horror story, but not to worry because we have a goodie for you on this fine Friday morning. It would seem that those living in Coshocton, Ohio have at least temporarily lost their free Wi-Fi. And yes, they had city more »

Android is taking the books and the teachers out of music lessons. The newest way to learn music – via your cell phone (as long as you have Android).

Among the first of many Android applications is SplashPlay Mobile Music Maker, an instrument learning and music sharing tool. Wherever your phone goes, SplashPlay goes with you to learn, listen or share music anywhere. Right now, guitar is the only instrument compatible with the software. Continued after the break.

A New York District judge has dismissed EMI’s copyright infringement lawsuit against MP3Tunes CEO Michael Robertson. In November, 2007 14 record labels affiliated with the EMI filed the suit, claiming MP3Tunes’s internet locker service encourages copyright infringement. The service, which has 150,000 customers, provides personal, password protected accounts known as lockers that allow all music stored in them to be shared between PCs, game consoles, DVRs and cell phones.

The judge has allowed the suit against the company itself to proceed. It will eventually determine if it is permissible for music to be stored in cloud services the way documents and photos are. Interestingly enough, EMI has not sued the similar services offered by Microsoft, AOL or BT. Robertson believes that the reason behind that is that EMI decided it would be easier to make an example out of his small company.

Remember Jammie Thomas? The single mother who fought against the RIAA when they sued her? She was originally told to pay $222,000 for copyright infringement. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis declared a mistrial and ordered a retrial. The mistrial is ruled on the grounds that the RIAA had convinced him and the jury that it did not have to prove that files that were in Jammie Thomas’ Kazaa shared folder did not need to be downloaded. According to the judge, the RIAA downloading the files from the shared folder should prove enough, yet the instruction to the jury that no proof of the being able to download the files is needed was “erroneous.”

This is only a small step so far in the RIAA trials against piracy. Jammie Thomas was the first person to bring the claims into a court room while everyone else settled before reaching court. We’ll have to watch and see what a jury rules when under instruction that doesn’t so blatantly make the case essentially an automatic win for the RIAA.

The Guardian is reporting that according to a study by the industry group British Music Rights, 95% of 18-24 years old engaged in what it calls “home copying” which refers to things such as making copies of CD’s and MP3 files. The study reported that 2/3rds of that group copied five CD’s a month for more »