Can a music site sue to find out which of its employees used a blog post to accuse the company of piracy? The blog’s publisher says the anonymous commenter is a whistleblower whose identity should be protected by media shield laws. But it’s not that simple.

The FBI today unsealed an indictment that charges file-sharing site Megaupload and its executives with a list of criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit racketeering and money laundering. The news comes a day after the proposed anti-piracy law called SOPA fell apart, and may be an effort by the White…

A California appeals court yesterday rejected Universal Music’s claim that video-sharing service Veoh didn’t do enough to protect content owners. All eyes now turn to New York where another influential court is set to rule on the same issue—who should be responsible for copyright enforcement.

The entertainment world is buzzing about a viral video that shows A-list artists like Kanye West and Alicia Keyes singing the praises of file sharing service, Megaload. Universal and others have responded by yanking the video from YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) for copyright reasons—and now Megaupload is suing to get a…

When Vivendi (EPA: VIV) announced it was buying EMI’s recorded music division last week, it cryptically said the deal would see it sell “500 million euros worth of non-core UMG assets”.

On the heels of news last week that it has secured EMI‘s recorded music division for nearly $2 billion, Universal Music is again in the news: Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is reportedly very close to signing a deal with the company to use its music as part of an upcoming download…

Four years after the whole label sold to Terra Firma for £4.2 ($6.69) billion, now one half of EMI Group - the record music division, EMI Music - is being sold by Citigroup to Vivendi’s Universal Music Group for £1.2 ($1.91) billion.

French entertainment and telecoms company Vivendi (EPA: VIV) has reported a strong first half, with record sales of its Activision (NSDQ: ATVI) Blizzard games division’s titles Call of Duty and World of Warcraft more than countering a 17% profits plunge at Universal Music Group.

While everyone’s attention was focused on Spotify finally launching services in the U.S., another online music milestone has been reached on the other side of the world. China’s search giant Baidu (NSDQ: BIDU), long accused of aiding and abetting music piracy, has finally inked a deal with major music labels…

Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) is said to have secured the services of the music industry’s “gang of four,” signing the remaining holdout, Universal Music, to a contract that would allow Apple to offer a cloud-based music service. A preview of the company’s plans could come as early as Monday, when Apple…

eMusic, the online music “club” that offers members discounts on tracks in exchange for a monthly subscription fee, has struck a deal with a fourth major music label to add tracks to its catalogue. eMusic says its members can now access more than 15,000 albums from EMI.

Universal Music Group argued one of the most closely watched copyright cases in digital media on Friday—and the panel of appeals judges who heard the case sounded skeptical of the record company’s arguments. The record label’s lawsuit against Veoh could influence how Viacom’s case against YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) turns out,…

Vivendi (EPA: VIV) has reported a strong performance in 2010 with huge sales of Call of Duty boosting earnings in its games division by more than 40%, more than countering a plunge of almost a quarter at Universal Music Group.

An appeals court confirmed today that consumers have a right to re-sell promotional CDs, which could have implications for other copyrighted goods as well. A panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has now ruled in three landmark cases that relate to whether copyrighted…

With another wave of layoffs apparently about to hit Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), Jeff Bronikowski is leaving his post after just 8 months as the head of Yahoo Music to join AOL (NYSE: AOL), where he takes on the same role. The move comes just after AOL has revamped its home…

With digital becoming a bigger part of Universal Music Group’s revenues in all parts of the world, the company is promoting Rob Wells to president of Global Digital Business, a new position. For Wells, formerly SVP for digital, this is a formal expansion of what he’s essentially been doing: striking…

Vevo is looking to widen its footprint in the Hispanic market by adding Univision to its content distribution and ad sales network. The music video site—a joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Company—has begun delivering video content to Univision, which plans…

After years of trying, online music e-tailer eMusic has finally struck a partnership with Universal Music Group with a deal that will add 250,000 tracks to the Mp3 downloader’s catalogue, which now stands at ten million.This is also an attempt to widen its extension to digital music outlets on the…

Vevo and MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA) are having difficulty coming to an agreement over whether Vevo can sell advertising around the Viacom network’s online music player, according to interviews with sources in both camps. As a result, UMG, one of the founding partners of Vevo, has pulled its artists’ videos…