Radio and Records is reporting that 3Com has announced that they'll finally be shipping their Kerbango Internet radio appliance in two weeks.

The Kerbango unit will connect directly to the user's broadband connection and tune in thousands of Internet radio stations -- without the use of a PC. The unit includes speakers, but can be wired into a home stereo system. The Kerbango includes and AM/FM tuner.

The company had originally planned to get the unit to consumers as much as a year ago, but now say the "rigors of design and testing" have delayed the launch. The device is going through the final test stage now.

Consumers can pre-order the unit at Amazon.com. Look for it to sell for around $300.

See RAIN's coverage of the product's unveiling last February here and here. Here is RAIN's review of the product and the web-based channel guide.

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BY PAUL MALONEY
Music download retailer EMusic has filed an official complaint against Napster for "contributory and vicarious copyright infringement and unfair competition." The filing comes less than a day after US District Court Judge Marilyn Patel handed down her rewritten injunction against the embattled file-sharing network (see RAIN coverage here, and the ruling itself here).

This past weekend, apparently as a good faith move in anticipation of Patel's revision, Napster announced that they were installing software that would block the trade of selected copyrighted files on its system. However, EMusic CEO Gene Hoffman (left) contends that Napster has, until now, been insisting that such a move wasn't technically feasible. It was Napster's "180" that apparently spurred the filing.

"For over six months, Napster Inc. has flatly rejected our requests to filter out and effectively block EMusic tracks from being traded on their system without our permission," says Hoffman. "In light of this position, Napster's ability to quickly implement such a filtering system over this past weekend shows the company's true motive -- to unfairly build a business upon the copyrighted works of others."

It's proving just this -- that Napster has engaged in "willful infringement" -- that could prove to be a potential financial windfall for copyright owners looking to collect damages. According to CNet News (here), should plaintiffs be able to prove such a motive on Napster's part, they stand to collect as much as $150,000 per song traded.

Last November, EMusic announced that they were unveiling software that could identify and block song files being shared by Napster users (see RAIN coverage here). EMusic began notifying Napster of users that were distributing EMusic tracks without permission. Napster then barred these users from the system. Yesterday EMusic, as goodwill gesture towards these file traders, asked Napster to reinstate them.

EMusic, like most companies in the downloadable music retail space, has suffered as millions log on to Napster every day to get popular music for free. Though it has enjoyed recent small spikes in price as more signs begin pointing to Napster's doom, EMusic's stock has fallen from nearly eight dollars less than a year ago to the neighborhood of about 25 cents. The company laid off on-third of its staff last January, following the cut of 20 percent of its employees the previous June.

Producers of the Grammy awards have also announced that they are filing suit against Napster. They allege recordings of exclusive musical performances have been traded on the file-sharing network.

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Reprinted from yesterday's edition...

From Digital Coast Daily: "It was the ruling that many once feared would spell D-Day for Napster, but when U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued her injunction today, it left Napster with plenty of 'wiggle room,' in the words of digital music analyst Nitsan Hargil at Kaufman Brothers...

"Napster will now have to stop enabling its users from swapping copyrighted songs as the potentially lengthy court case proceeds. Once the copyright owners inform Napster about infringements, the file-sharing company will have three business days to prevent the trading of the files in question...

"At the Friday hearing to discuss the injunction, Napster announced that it would voluntarily block certain songs from being swapped, and over the weekend it had already started blocking some songs by anti-Napster acts including Metallica and Dr. Dre.

"But users quickly found ways to circumvent the blocks, such as Aimster's plan to convert file names into Pig Latin (here), a 'plus one' alphabetical system (see below) or the MP3 Translator solution posted at timwilson.org. Now, the labels and Napster will be working together to keep track of such schemes. Broussard said that will be a major headache for both parties. 'It's a proverbial game of Whack-a-Mole,' he said. 'File-sharing is a hydra: every time you cut the head off, it's going to grow two more...'

"Maybe this new 'shared responsibility' between Napster and the labels has the potential to spur some more positive developments. (Entertainment lawyer Whitney) Broussard pondered, 'I wonder ultimately if when these guys start really sitting down to figure out these technological issues, they don't just sit there and look at each other and say, "My God, why don't we just license this stuff, it would be so much easier!"'"

Read the entire article here.

From Silicon Alley Daily: "You got the new Sadiohead?

"Starting tomorrow I suggest that everyone start renaming their Napster files with a 'plus one' scheme on the initial character. So, Metallica becomes Netallica and Eminem becomes Fminem. Problem solved, let's all get back to stealing!

"In another six months when Napster and the music industry fight over whether it is legal or illegal to ban searches by names that are somehow related or derivative of real artist names (and you thought the pregnant chad court testimony was absurd?), we can all go to the 'plus two' scheme on the initial character and start searching for the new Fido track."

Read this excellent essay by Jason McCabe Calacanis (on right, with Broadcast.com founder Mark Cuban) here.

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May 3-4, 2001	Streaming Media Asia 2001: Hong Kong