   December 2004 ArchiveDecember 20, 2004BSA: 1 in 5 Brits Buy from Spam
That's a lot of naughty Brits.
Hatch Is Out, Specter Is In, and What it Means for Copyright Law
The Washington Post on the coming shift in copyright politics as Sen. Orrin "Induce" Hatch hands leadership of the Judiciary Committee to Sen. Arlen Specter.
More on the Satellite Radio/Time-Shifting Tussle
The amateur behind TimeTrax, the satellite radio-recording software, is now selling it professionally.
Putting the World's Greatest Libraries Online
Google is working with four university libraries - Stanford, Michigan, Harvard, and Oxford - and the New York Public Library in an ambitious plan to scan their holdings and put them on the Internet.
December 15, 2004Apple Makes iPods Incompatible with Harmony
RealNetworks' Harmony music service doesn't work with the newest iPod software, leaving customers who upgrade with unplayable files. Aren't the DRM wars great?
BitTorrent Infringers Cross Finnish Line
Finnish police arrested 34 locals associated with a popular BitTorrent download site.
Google Trounces Geico Already?
It looks like a judge just ruled in Google's favor: the company can use trademarked company names to trigger advertisements. We're listing that in the "Good for Consumers" column.
MD Spam Law Unconstitutional
The statute was found to improperly regulate interstate commerce and was tossed by a state judge.
It's a Small World After All
Ed Felten has written a P2P application in 15 lines of code to illustrate the futility of regulating the software. It's called TinyP2P, and it allows users to create "small world" networks for sharing files.
December 14, 2004Is Patent-Only Protection for Software Smart?
Greg Aharonian hopes to convince a court that copyright shouldn't apply to software -- a plan that would trade invalidating the GPL for a reduction in the term of the work's protection.
To Tivo, or Not to Tivo?
The company says neither, since "Tivo" is a registered trademark that's not supposed to be used as a verb. Or else.
December 13, 2004Sony Picks on Blogger Over Jeopardy Spoiler
When blogger Jason Kottke posted an audio clip of Ken Jennings' final appearance on Jeopardy, he wasn't expecting the show's parent company to call in the lawyers. After all, Sony didn't send nastygrams to the Washington Post or an ABC affiliate that disseminated the same info.
Google Adwords Spur Geico Lawsuit
The insurance company brought a claim against Google for letting other companies buy search results for the term "Geico."
Patents as Toxic Waste of Dotcom-Bust
Our own Jason Schultz on the fate of some nasty patents that were granted at the height of the boom.
Bad Santa
If the patent lobby succeeds in circumventing the EU parliament, the EU could get software patents by Christmas. Slashdot coverage here.
December 10, 2004The BitTorrent Phenomenon
This AP article looks at what happens when the tyranny of bandwith is broken.
Public Domain Case Appealed to 9th Circuit
The Internet Archive's Brewster Kahle and the Prelinger Archive's Rick Prelinger will appeal their public domain-protection case up to the 9th Circuit in the wake of the court dismissal last month.
Former Bush Campaign Official Indicted for Dirty Tricks
He apparently conducted a "low tech" denial of service
attack against Democratic offices during the 2002
election. Just how "low tech" was it? He repeatedly
called the offices and then hung up the phone.
Aussie Universities Get Blanket License for Copyright
A large Australian rights-holder representative has agreed to grant local universities a blanket license for the noncommercial redistribution of its work. The deal promises to free universities from some liability while allowing students and faculty to continue using whatever technology suits their needs. Plus, the copyright holders will get paid for the use. Sounds great to us!
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Australia Rejects Mandatory Net Filtering
The plan to combat child pornography was going to be
expensive, but Communications Minister Helen Coonan
clarified, "The biggest issue is not so much the money
but such an expensive scheme would not necessarily
solve the problem and small to medium ISPs would be
driven out of business for little or no benefit."
George Tenet Calls for Restricted Net Access
"Access to networks like the World Wide Web might need to be
limited to those who can show they take security seriously,
he [Tenet] said." Wow.
FL E-Vote Study May Be Flawed
The Berkeley report on statistical anomalies in Florida's e-voting results is being criticized by other scientists.
DVD Jukebox Maker in Hollywood Crosshairs
Kaleidescape, a company that makes super-expensive DVD
jukeboxes for the home, is being sued by the DVD Copy
Control Association for violating the terms of its
CSS license.
Big Content Snubbed by Congress this Year
The public can sleep easier now that Congress has officially
adjourned without passing any of the copyright lobby's
biggest requests. Props to groups like Public Knowledge,
the librarians, the consumer electronics industry, Downhill
Battle, the EFF supporters who used our Action Center,
and many others who helped hold the line.
When EULAs Bite
Ben Edelman bites back. Lawmeme coverage here.
EFF Meme Gets Northern Exposure
The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's biggest papers, recently
ran an article about the Induce Act that focused on how
the bill threatens devices like the iPod.
Artists: "We're Not Threatened by Filesharing"
Mary Madden of the Pew Internet and American Life Project
says, "What we hear from a wide spectrum of artists is
that, despite the real challenges of protecting work
online, the Internet has opened new ways for them to
exercise their imaginations and sell their creations."
Starbucks CD Sales Gives Record Industry the Shakes
In the latest fit of music distribution ingenuity, the coffee chain sold 350,000 copies of "Genius," the Ray Charles duet album that it helped to market and produce.
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