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The classical electromagnetic friction of a charged particle, moving with prescribed constant velocity v parallel to a planar imperfectly conducting surface, is reinvestigated. As a concrete example, the Drude model is used to describe the conductor. The transverse electric and transverse magnetic contributions have very different characters both in the low-velocity (nonrelativistic) and high-velocity (ultrarelativistic) regimes. Both numerical and analytical results are given. Most remarkably, the transverse magnetic contribution to the friction has a maximum for |v|<c, and persists in the limit of vanishing resistivity for sufficiently high velocities. We also show how Vavilov-Čerenkov radiation can be treated in the same formalism.