The suit accuses XM Satellite of "massive wholesale infringement," and seeks $150,000 in damages for every song copied by XM customers using the devices, which went on sale earlier this month. XM, with more than 6.5 million subscribers, said it plays 160,000 different songs every month.

"...Because XM makes available vast catalogues of music in every genre, XM subscribers will have little need ever again to buy legitimate copies of plaintiffs' sound recordings," the lawsuit says referring to the hand held "Inno" device.

While the labels are asserting the device has transformed radio broadcasts into a download service, XM said the device does not allow consumers to transfer recorded content. XM also said that content recorded from radio broadcasts like XM's is not on demand, in contrast to the content people buy from online music stores like Apple Computer Inc.'s popular iTunes service.

XM said it will vigorously defend this lawsuit on behalf of consumers and also called the lawsuit a bargaining tactic.

"The music labels are trying to stifle innovation, limit consumer choice and roll back consumers' rights to record content for their personal use," XM added.

A new House bill seeks to further protect the music industry from piracy by limiting the ability to record digital radio broadcasts, singling out satellite radio industry competitors XM Radio and Sirius.

Bill proponents are concerned that new portable devices allow consumers to record, sort and store digital broadcasts, resulting in them turning these broadcasts into downloads and creating an unlicensed music library without adequately paying the artist.

Chair Gary Shapiro of the Home Recording Rights Coalition released a statement last week saying that the Perform Act would stifle innovation and "take away recording rights that consumers have used since the birth of the magnetic tape 50 years ago."

"Because the bill does not allow a 'transmission' of a musical recording, it also would appear to block consumers from moving one song from one room to another within their own homes via a digital network," he said.

AT&T Corp., BellSouth Corp and Verizon Telecommunications are facing lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for the decision to turn over calling records to the government, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Under telecommunications law, the phone companies are at risk for at least $1,000 per person whose records they disclosed without a court order, according to Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and assistant professor at George Washington University

The telecommunications companies allegedly complied with an effort by the National Security Agency to build a vast database of calling records, without warrants, to increase its surveillance capabilities after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The legal experts said consumers could sue the phone service providers under communications privacy legislation that dates back to the 1930s. Relevant laws include the Communications Act, first passed in 1934, and a variety of provisions of the Electronic Communications and Privacy Act, including the Stored Communications Act, passed in 1986.

A small-time DVD pirate has gone on record as attempting one of the most risky sales of all time.

The unnamed peddler approached the Malaysian Consumer Affairs Minister Shafie Apdal as he sat at a popular restaurant and tried to flog him a selection of titles.

Shafie is currently heading Malaysia's crack-down on piracy as the country tries to set up a free trade agreement with the US.

Jeffrey Toback, a representative in New York's Nassau County Legislature, charged in a complaint filed Thursday that Google has been taking in billions of dollars by allowing child pornography and "other obscene content" operators to advertise their sites through sponsored links, which are tailored to a user's search terms and automatically accompany search results.

"Defendant is willing to accede to the demands of the Chinese autocrats to block the search term 'democracy,'" the complaint states, "but when it comes to the protection and well-being of our nation's innocent children, Defendant refuses to spend a dime's worth of resources to block child pornography from reaching children."

Toback, the politician backing the action, describes himself in his biography on Nassau County's Web site as a "quality of life guy" who has focused on legislation promoting open space and recreational areas. He has also co-sponsored a law designed to protect teenagers from tanning beds and has planned this year to pursue a ban of toy guns in the area.

Veteran rock stars Cheap Trick and The Allman Brothers Band are suing Sony Music over the amount of money they get for legal downloads.

The bands claim that Sony has promised that half of net revenue it receives from from licensing songs to download services like iTunes and Napster will go to them.

Sony is taking this cash out of the final total. At the moment if you download a track for a dollar, 70 cents of that will go to the record label and four cents will go to the artists. The bands think they should be getting 30 cents.

The bands want to make the case a class action which will cover all Sony artists who signed deals between 1962 and 2002.

Yahoo Inc. has been cited in a Chinese court decision to jail a dissident Internet writer for 10 years for subversion in 2003—the fourth such case to surface implicating the U.S. Internet giant.

Evidence cited in the verdict included "information provided by Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. stating that Wang's "aaabbbccc" Yahoo Group was set up using the mainland China-based e-mail address bxoguh@yahoo.com.cn.," HRIC said.

But the verdict did not indicate whether Yahoo Holdings (Hong Kong) Ltd. or Yahoo China-which is now operated by mainland China-based Alibaba.com-provided specific information regarding Wang's identity, the watchdog said. Pauline Wong, a spokeswoman for Yahoo Hong Kong, said she did not have any details about Wang's case.

The case is the latest in a string of examples that highlight the friction between profits and principles for Internet companies doing business in China, the world's number-two Internet market.

The family of Joan Miro was upset to discover elements of several works by the Spanish surrealist incorporated into Google's logo. Google has since taken the logo off its site.

"There are underlying copyrights to the works of Miro, and they are putting it up without having the rights," said Theodore Feder, president of Artists Rights Society.

In a written statement to the Mercury News, Google said that it would honor the request but that it did not believe its logo was a copyright violation.

Feder said the society had raised the issue of copyright violation with Google at least once before when the Mountain View-based company incorporated work by Salvador Dali into its logo in May 2002.

"It's a distortion of the original works and in that respect it violates the moral rights of the artist," Feder said.

Reporters Without Borders has obtained a copy of the verdict in the case of Jiang Lijun, sentenced to four years in prison in November 2003 for his online pro-democracy articles, showing that Yahoo ! helped Chinese police to identify him.

"Little by little we are piecing together the evidence for what we have long suspected, that Yahoo ! is implicated in the arrest of most of the people that we have been defending," the press freedom organisation said.

Jiang Lijun, 40, was sentenced to four years in prison for "subversion" on 18 November 2003, accused of seeking to use "violent means" to impose democracy. Police believed him to be the leader of a small group of cyberdissidents, which included the young Internet-user Liu Di. She was imprisoned between November 2002 and November 2003.

Alleged hacker Gary McKinnon appeared in front of the beak at Bow Street Magistrates Court yesterday morning hoping to avoid being sent to Guantanamo Bay.

The forty year-old is accused of hacking into American military computers from his home in London using his Windows-powered PC. The US government claims he caused £370,000-worth of damage to 97 computers in a year-long hacking spree.

McKinnon claimed he was only trying to get at whatever information the US defence establishment has about UFOs. The US military claims he's a terrorist.

The US Embassy in London sent the court a little note yesterday promising that McKinnon wouldn't be tried by Military tribunal and won't therefore end up hooded and battered in the infamous no-man's land in Cuba. The note was unsigned and, according to McKinnon "not worth the paper it's written on."