Song swappers busier than ever
Downloaders are busier than ever, according to Big Champagne, a research firm that tracks peer-to-peer file sharing for clients such as music companies and movie studios. The firm said 8.3 million people were online at any one time last month using download services. That’s an increase of 19 percent from June 2003.
Despite the music industry filing thousands of lawsuits against music sharers, “usage is much more widespread than it was a year ago,” Big Champagne’s chief executive, Eric Garland, told USA Today. Swappers have turned to new unauthorized services including iMesh and eDonkey, shifting away from Kazaa, which has been polluted by spyware and virus files.
Previous reports from research firms had indicated a slowdown in peer-to-peer usage. “What people say and what they do are two different things,” Garland said.
Over the weekend, the legal music service operated by Apple Computer sold its 100 millionth song. “Somersault (Danger Mouse remix)” by Zero7 was purchased by 20-year-old Kevin Britten of Hays, Kan., on July 11, the company announced. The iTunes Music Store launched 15 months ago.
Surfers turning to new browsers
One in a hundred Web surfers using Microsoft’s Internet Explorer turned to an alternative browser since last month. Web Side Story, a San Diego research firm, reported Explorer’s share of the market has dropped from 95.48 percent to 94.42 percent, according to the Register, a U.K.-based IT publication.
The combined Mozilla and Netscape market share rose from 3.21 percent in June to 4.05 percent in July. A spokesman for America Online, which owns Netscape, was quoted saying the company is working on a new strategy to “spruce up” the Netscape browser and portal.
EBay to offer song downloads
eBay is expected to begin helping visitors buy and sell song downloads. The company has until now resisted the business because of uncertainties over copyright and digital distribution, but rapid growth in legitimate online music sales has persuaded it to begin a six-month test.
“We know there are certain things where downloading is the preferred way,” a spokesman for San Jose, Calif.-based eBay told the Mercury News, “and we needed to explore if this was a viable transaction.”
eBay also has been meeting with record labels to discuss the new service, the Mercury News reported. Buyers will be directed to the sellers’ Web sites to make purchases, either at auction or fixed price.
More power for broadband
A trial run of broadband wireless Internet access is under way in Menlo Park, Calif., with about 100 residents taking part in the joint effort by AT&T Corp. and Pacific Gas & Electric. An Internet connection is delivered to street lampposts outfitted with wireless repeaters, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Residents can then access a Wi-Fi signal.
Michael Powell, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, said the test suggests it’s “theoretically possible to reach every power outlet in America with a broadband connection.” There are about two dozen similar trials of Net access-over-power lines underway in the United States, the newspaper reported.