Anne Muir who admitted distributing £54,000 worth of copyrighted music files by making them available to others via a peer-to-peer file sharing application becomes the first person in Scotland to be convicted for illegally sharing music files on line reports BBC news.

The 58-year-old to be sentenced at Ayr Sheriff Court later this month pled guilty after police, acting on a search warrant, seized evidence at her home following a formal complaint from BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) and IFPI (International Federation for the Phonographic Industry) to Strathclyde Police.

Computer equipment and 7,493 digital music files and 24,243 karaoke files were found - estimated as worth £54,792.

Defence lawyer Lorenzo Alonzi said his client, an auxiliary nurse at Ayr hospital, had not used the network for any financial gain, but to build up self-esteem after suffering from depression for a number of years.

"It has to be stressed that this offence was not committed for any desire to make money."

"Intelligence gathered by BPI and IFPI revealed that Anne Muir was a prolific user of a particular file sharing network based in the UK," said District procurator fiscal for Ayr, Mirian Watson. "Illegally flouting copyright laws is tantamount to theft and not only deprives legitimate companies and artists of earnings, but also undermines the music industry as a whole."

Royalties and rights payments
Tom Crawford  tackles the issue of royalties and rights payments, one of the most complex issues facing the digital media industry, at the current NARM Convention in Los Angeles.

As part of his talk, he is address the technology transformation digital media companies must undertake  in order to manage the massive amounts of transaction data associated with rights and royalties payments.

"Hidden risks, hidden profits: how unseen technologies will change the game for digital media, unlocking new business models and merger opportunities," describes the current landscape of technologies impacting the hidden risks and potential profits associated with managing payments for digital music downloads.

Crawford's 30-minute presentation includes: digital music downloads are the new derivatives, striking parallels between the financial services and media industry  emerge as large volumes of transaction data needs to be controlled in both.

He will compare the industries and share insights to help media companies prepare for a potential data overflow Business implications of Big Data, a walkthrough of the core business systems impacted by large volumes of data, Crawford will discuss a synopsis of what Microgen sees as the most at-risk business functions.

Digital media back-office challenge will overview, with real-world examples, the challenges facing digital media companies as they address exponential data growth.