Music industry consolidation reaches a terribly confusing state: EMI in talks to buy Warner Music

But, as the article states:

AOL Time Warner, soon to return to its original Time Warner name, decided last week to open the field of contenders after struggling to wrap up a deal with Germany’s Bertelsmann, people familiar with the situation said.

However, talks between AOL Time Warner and Bertelsmann over a recorded music joint venture also are continuing.

At USC: The War over Music: A Debate between Hilary Rosen and Larry Lessig. [Via Slashdot]

From Slashdot: Sony, Intel To Push Content Protection. There’s been plenty of discussion about whether Sony would decide to be a consumer electronics company or a content company. The last we heard, they wanted to be a “convergence” company. Seems like they’re leaning awfully close to their content constituency.

Sorry - a day of grading and some ugly administrative things took me off my game. So, I can only plop down what links I know that I want to read closely, and expect that I’ll add a little more once I get the chance to do so

• From the NYTimes: Think Debate on Music Property Rights Began With Napster? Hardly [pdf] — some important history, but it’ll be interesting to see if they got it right.

• Related from the NYTimes: Music’s Struggle With Technology [pdf]

• Uncovering the Napster Kitty Ads