While many of the world's most opulent villas lure guests with an array of cool toys (and we do mean cool -- how does recording studio equipment once used by John Lennon sound?), others deal in what may be the most coveted holiday-home currency: privacy.

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But the bulk of the digital music on the Net is copyrighted by a major recording studio.

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"Whenever I was in the studio recording, if Phil wasn't there by my side it would seem like one ingredient was missing, " Jones said.

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In 1927 Ralph Peer, a producer with The Victor Talking Machine Company, set up a recording studio on its main drag, State Street, and by the end of that year he had recorded 19 performers.

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The motion also accused Brown of violating probation by punching singer Frank Ocean at a Hollywood recording studio last month, threatening to "bust" -- or shoot -- the singer.

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It was sped by such factors as the spread of DIY studio-recording technology, the rise of online radio and file sharing, and a growing international appetite for electronic music.

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The following year he booked a ticket to Los Angeles and played open mic nights until being spotted by Jamie Foxx, who invited him to use his recording studio.

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Fascinated by the mechanics of the studio, Ramone was a pioneer of digital recording who produced what is regarded as the first major commercial release on compact disc, "52nd Street, " which came out on CD in 1982.

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And, most recently, a federal appeals court holds a film studio liable for a soundtrack tune that includes a three-note guitar lick from a recording by 1970s funkster George Clinton.

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