"A federal judge has handed a preliminary victory to the recording industry by granting its request to unmask anonymous file swappers accused of copyright infringement.

"U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ruled  (.pdf) Monday that Cablevision, which provides broadband Internet access in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, can be required to divulge the identities of its subscribers sued over copyright violations.

"This ruling is the latest decision to clarify what legal methods copyright holders may use when hunting down people who are trading files on peer-to-peer networks."

Declan McCullagh. Judge: RIAA can unmask File Swappers. News.com. July 27, 2004.

"Sales of digital tunes in 2004 in the United States will reach $270 million, more than double the takings from the previous year, according to a report released by JupiterResearch.

"That revenue will rise to $1.7 billion, or 12 percent of total consumer spending on music, by 2009, the research firm projected.

"While healthy sales of digital downloads have brought cheer to the U.S. music industry, which has seen four years of sliding sales for compact discs, the growth in the niche is not enough to make up for the shortfall."

Dinesh C. Sharma. Study: Song Downloads to Hit a High Note. ZDNet.com. July 26, 2004.