Wal-Mart Music Is Online

As the major record labels intensified their legal attack on online file sharing, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday expanded its bid to sell downloadable songs at a discount to Middle America.

The nation’s largest retailer officially launched its online music store with an expanded roster of artists, and kept the price at the same 88 cents per song that it offered during a three-month test.

The store, which sells digital downloads for 11% less than major competitors, expanded its catalog of artists 50%, including exclusive songs from Jessica Simpson, 3 Doors Down and Shania Twain.

Wal-Mart’s store will face off against a number of firms that are better known in the online music space, such as Apple Computer Inc.’s iTunes and Roxio Inc.’s Napster. Both iTunes, the most popular online music service, and Napster charge 99 cents per song, although Napster and several other services also offer options that allow users to pay a monthly fee for downloads.

Online stores are taking off as the music industry cracks down on piracy. On Tuesday, the recording industry sued 532 people, including scores of individuals using computer networks at 21 universities, claiming they were illegally sharing digital music files over the Internet.

The latest wave of copyright lawsuits brought by the Recording Industry Assn. of America on behalf of record companies marks the first time the trade group has targeted computer users swapping music files over university networks.

The RIAA filed the “John Doe” complaints against 89 individuals using networks at universities in Arizona, California, New York, Indiana, Maryland, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Washington. Lawsuits also were filed against 443 people using commercial Internet access providers in California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas and Virginia.

With the “John Doe” lawsuits, the recording industry must work through the courts to find out the identities of the defendants, which at the outset are identified only by the numeric Internet protocol addresses assigned to computers online.

Including Tuesday’s filings, the recording industry has sued 1,977 people since launching its legal assault against online music piracy last fall, and has reached out-of-court settlements in about 400 of the cases.

Meanwhile, Downhill Battle, an advocacy group that opposes the RIAA and its copyright-enforcement efforts, is launching a website -- Bannedmusic.org -- to offer music that the labels have tried to prohibit.

Associated Press and Reuters were used in compiling this report.