   May 2005 ArchiveMay 31, 2005Grokster Editorial War Kicks Off in Tampa
We've heard P2P users called thieves, pirates - but music rustlers? If you're a Tampa reader, you might want to step in and point out the other side.
Texas Municipal Wi-Fi Saved!
SaveMuniWireless, a coalition of public interest groups including EFF-Austin and Common Cause, succeeded in stopping heavily lobbied legislation that would have placed heavy regulatory restrictions on city-funded wireless.
Patent Hit Squad in Europe
EFF's Jason Schultz talks Thursday to those involved in the Euro software patents battle about EFF's Patent Busting Project.
Fair Use -- and Fairly Useful
Google Print launches, with a hundred books containing the phrase "fair use," the banner under which Google proposes to scan copyrighted works.
An Email Provider's Take on FTC's "Zombie" Crackdown
Don't block ports; correctly identify dialup pools in DNS instead. Best of all, go after those who make the money.
May 30, 2005The Hard Life of Andrew Lack
Mike Resnick gives Andrew Lack, Sony Music's CEO, the snark for blaming bad DRM, his own music's fans, and now Steve Jobs for his poor performance. Not quite as harsh as Glenn Case's musical critique, but still...
May 28, 2005A Transatlantic Database, Hurrah!
US and UK authorities want to make their new ID card proposals chip-compatible. "Hopefully, we are not going to do VHS and Betamax with our chips," Homeland Czar Michael Chertoff, cheerily suggesting that undesirables may be overwritten.
May 26, 2005Digitizing == Infringing
The Association of American University Presses calls Google's plan to scan library books "infringement of copyright on a massive scale," even though its use is to provide free, public full-text search, not full copies. (250KB PDF, scandalously scanned.)
May 25, 2005"Compatibility Is Not the Goal"
Rick Lane of News Corp. claims that whether the Broadcast Flag breaks people's TVs is of no concern to the entertainment industry. Not a popular stance - as Ed Felten comments, "the most dangerous place in Washington is between Americans and their televisions."
A Law to Replenish the Public Domain
Zoe Lofgren reintroduces legislation to let abandoned works that are still restricted by copyright into the public domain. (Via Ed Felten's Dashblog.)
May 24, 2005Millions of Readers and Countless Scoops Isn't Good Enough
Massachusetts considers a shield law for reporters - but restricts it to old media journalists. (Via Ernest Miller.)
Creative Commons: the Silent Killer
Billboard journalist Susan Butler uncomfortably splices the Creative Commons project with the tragic story of a musician struggling with AIDS, not-so-subtly implying that CC licensing might kill you in the end. Good thing free healthcare is a perk of the average recording industry contract these days.
FTC to Take On Zombies with Oversized Broomstick
Good news: the FTC sees malware-infected zombies. Bad news: it wants to solve the problem by getting ISPs to block ports and spy on customers. How about putting a little pressure on those insecure OS manufacturers?
May 22, 2005The MPAA's DRM Police
Reverse-engineering for in-operability: the story of the MPAA's tech labs, which test - and sue - hardware manufacturers who fail to comply with CSS's license.
May 21, 2005Tougher Copyright Law Should Mean Lighter DRM, Says Sweden
Sweden is introducing a law that would make downloading copyrighted material without permission illegal. But the justice minister, Thomas Bodstrom, has asked for quid pro quo: downloading for private use should be legal, and DRM on CDs that breaks fair use should be unacceptable. Swedish music reps say: "We totally agree." Who says we can't work it out?
Movie Revenues Near $45 Billion; Piracy Somehow Not to Blame
Worldwide revenue for major Hollywood studios is up 9% on last year to $44.8 billion. Home video (which they tried to ban as a dangerous copying technology) gets them $21 billion, up 10%. Foreign DVD sales - horrendously damaged by home DVD copiers and weak foreign IP regimes - rose 46%. They must be really hurting.
May 18, 2005Attack of the Recursive End-User License Agreements
Ben Edelman discovers the fractal EULA for 3D Desktop's Flying Icons Desktop.
The click-through license includes, by hyperlink, the EULA of another program
installed in concert with the screensaver. That program itself installs a
family of at least four other third-party programs. Each has its own
separate license, which are included, Russian Doll-style, in the parent EULA.
Click once, tacitly agree to three levels of misdirection.
Majority Think Bloggers Should Have Same Rights as Journalists
Fifty-two percent of those polled by Web hosting company Hostway say that
bloggers should have the same First Amendment protections as mainstream
media.
The Register of Copyrights Misconstrues the Founders
Ed Felten criticizes the maximalist interpretation of the Founding Fathers' intent in the US Register of Copyrights' annual report.
Lessig in Technology Review
MIT's Technology Review includes pieces by, and in response to, EFF Board
member Larry Lessig on copyright and DRM. Ernest Miller guides us through.
Required Reading for Copyright Reformers in Australia
Kim Weatherall continues her terrific coverage of the deliberations over fair use in Australia with this collection of links to government and law reform reports relevant to the proposed copyright exceptions.
May 16, 2005How TV Filesharing Can Boost Audiences
Just as the MPAA preps for a smackdown of TV BitTorrent sites, Mark Pesce suggests that widespread filesharing may have helped make the new Battlestar Galactica and Dr. Who series mega-hits.
Fair Use Is "Hacking"
The Copyright Assembly says
that the DMCRA, a bill to allow circumvention or copy controls for the purposes of fair use, is unfair to
"both copyright owners and the people who create those copyrighted works to
create and distribute the highest-quality products to American consumers." A
bit of a mouthful that we imagine must mean "unfair to those whose business models are threatened."
Data for Dissidents
Ethan Zuckerman's terrific guide to anonymous blogging, from the perspective of "a
government whistleblower in a country with a less-than-transparent
government."
Open Wi-Fi Access Points and the Law
What's your liability for using an open wi-fi point? We don't necessarily
agree with all of the points examined in this legal paper, but it's an
interesting overview. (Via Bruce Schneier's Crypto-Gram.)
May 13, 2005Paying the Piper
The New Yorker quotes EFF co-founder John Perry Barlow on old and new ways for musicians to get paid for their work: "The value of songs falls, and the value of seeing an artist sing them rises, because that experience can't really be reproduced."
University Uses Copyright to Unmask Blog Critics
St. Lawrence University is using copyright claims to discover the identity of the people behind a website critical of the faculty. Meanwhile, one faculty member is using his blog to defend their right to anonymity.
Broadcast Flag Rises Again
That didn't take long, did it?
DRM and RFID, Together at Last
A UCLA group is exploring implementing DRM - using RFIDs. Ed Felten says it
isn't totally crazy. In theory, at least. (Via CoCo blog.)
Thinking of the Orphans
Joe Gratz helpfully summarizes the reply comments submitted in the Copyright Office's Orphan Works proceeding. (Via Importance Of...)
Filtering - Still Fallible
Consumer Reports tests show that filtering software has marginally improved, but
still blocks perfectly legitimate speech - including KeepAndBearArms.com and National Institute on Drug Abuse. (Via Freedom to Tinker Dashblog.)
May 12, 2005Music, Movies, and Now Television
The MPAA is now filing lawsuits against sites providing BitTorrrent trackers that include metadata files on TV shows.
May 11, 2005Big Brands Fund Spyware
Not deliberately, perhaps - but the LA Times says ads for Mercedes and Travelocity are being spat out by some of the most pernicious adware products. (Via Eric Goldman.)
Small Steps to Fight Trolls
Brenda Sandburg analyzes the latest modest legislative proposals to defend patent law against patent trolls. She also reveals that Peter Detkin, who coined the term, now works for Nathan Myrhvold's Intellectual Ventures -- a company that's been accused of trollishness itself.
Good Patriot, Bad Patriot
The American Bar Association is hosting a blog containing arguments for and against allowing the PATRIOT Act "sunset" provisions to expire. It's under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons license, so you can reuse the pieces.
May 10, 2005REAL ID Passes
Proponents tacked the REAL ID Act onto an Iraq military spending bill, guaranteeing passage. Now the US has a federal standard for identity cards - the de facto national ID system Americans have always rejected.
Observe WIPO Close-Up
The deadline for public interest organizations to apply for "permanent observer" status with WIPO is this Sunday, May 15th. Earlier this year, WIPO tried to bar groups that hadn't obtained permanent observer status from discussions about the organization's future. Don't let administrative shenanigans tip the scales toward the IP maximalists - apply with plenty of time to spare. (Via CPTech.)
Zappster
Via
Copyfight, Frank Zappa's "proposal" for a music download service - made in 1983.
Schneier on REAL ID
Bruce Schneier points out the fallacies and perils of the REAL ID Act.
Thoughts on Australian Fair Use
Kim Weatherall has a great summary of the issues to consider if you're submitting comments to the Australian government on whether and how to codify fair use.
Adobe Head Says Software Patents Are a Bad Idea
Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen acknowledges that allowing software patents to slip under the wire in the 1980s was a mistake, but says it's too late to turn back now. Thankfully, that's not the case for Europe and India.
May 09, 2005Licensing Complexities Kill Podcast
It appears that under ASCAP rules, podcasting can't be classified as time-shifted streaming. That means that radio stations can't just switch to podcasting their broadcast shows, as podcast pioneer Infinity Radio belatedly discovered.
Hilary Rosen On Why DRM is Bad
The former president of the RIAA is mad that she can't play non-iTunes music on her iPod and can't convert other online music stores' files to work correctly on it. As Ernest Miller explains, that's a world that the Rosen-supported DMCA created -- an environment of restricted markets, with no legal interoperability tools.
What's Good for the Goose...
Roger Dannenberg responds to RIAA President Cary Sherman's op-ed tarring universities for "irresponsible" use of Internet2 with a rebuttal calling the recording industry's own history of "monopolistic suppression of innovation" an irresponsible use of networks.
Influence Australia's Fair Use Rules
The Australian federal government recently published an an issues paper (300KB PDF) on fair use and is taking public comments -- one of the few chances Australians have to moderate the DMCA-like anti-circumvention rules the US is exporting worldwide. Dan Bell has the scoop.
May 08, 2005Identity Crisis
You have less than forty-eight hours to contact your senator, and tell them to stop the National ID card plan that was slipped into Tuesday's $82 billion military spending bill. The UnRealID emergency site lets you read about the dangers, view others' mail to their senators, and fax your own representative.
May 06, 2005Broadcast Flag Struck Down!
The federal appeals court today declared that the FCC doesn't have the authority to assert control over any device capable of receiving broadcast transmissions. That means that once you've got your TV show, the FCC can't tell you (or hardware manufacturers) what to do with it. No more broadcast flag! (116K PDF)
May 04, 2005Suspected Terrorists vs. Known Capricorns
Airline passengers soon will be asked to provide their full names and birth dates when they buy tickets, "to make it less likely they'll be confused with known or suspected terrorists." Spot the potential exploit.
Disturbing Images of a Swedish Copyright Infringement Arrest
Photos of a public bust show an unfortunate escalation of hostilities between Swedish police and people protesting the crackdown on filesharing. According to the original report, one man was detained despite claiming to "share" only his own band demos.
Software Patents in Four Minutes
Bill Gates and Richard Stallman - together at last! - in Gavin Hill's snappy animated guide to the problems of software patents.
Fortifying Free Culture
Fort Culture is Downhill Battle's new cache of mini-articles explaining the current issues in copyright and strategies for defending the cultural commons.
Who Needs Products When You've Got Rents?
The New York Times reports on Blackberry manufacturer RIM's $450 million payout to NTP, a company that produces nothing but patent suits.
Cliffs Notes for the Future of Telecom Law
Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn gave a talk on the forthcoming Telecommunications Act; here are Derek Slater's crib notes.
Sensenbrenner Warns EU Not to Put RFIDs in Passports
Wired reports that Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) told EU diplomats that there's no need for RFIDs in passports, pointing out that using the unproven, expensive technology would lead to "regrettable" consequences. So who's going to tell the US?
Which Rules Rule VoIP?
The ongoing wrangle among the FCC, the DoJ, and the courts about the legal status of Net phone service providers takes another twist, with a Texas bankruptcy court finding that VoIP is more like an information service than a telecommunications service. Does that mean VoIP will evade wiretap regulations? The battle's far from over.
May 02, 2005Life Without Electronic Free Speech
Michael Geist gives a first-person account of censorship behind the Great Firewall of China.
Film Industry Lobbies to Make EU ISPs Copy Cops
On the so-called Europe Day at the coming Cannes Film Festival, the European Commission plans a talk on how to establish an online film market in Europe -- and according to some onlookers, may use the opportunity to push the film industry agenda of making ISPs bear the burden of copyright enforcement.
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