   June 2005 ArchiveJune 30, 2005Squabbling Over Pieces of the UK Online Music Pie
Online music stores and record labels fight over the licensing fees imposed by music publishers and composers, with the music stores arguing that they should get the same deal as radio stations.
Would You Like Some Music Whilst Scrabbling to Discover if Your Software is Legal?
RealNetworks begins "aggressive search-term" campaign to win over those searching for Grokster -- perhaps unaware that the Supremes frowned on Grokster's similiar courting of Napster users.
The Other Kind of File Sharing
Local law officers will soon have access to the FBI database, with DEA and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms to come.
Present Company Excluded
"A major victory for lawyers everywhere" -- Mark Cuban on the Grokster verdict.
June 29, 2005Don't Stop Grokkin'
Mike Godwin's must-read take on the Grokster decision.
Search Engines Corrupt Our Youth
The GAO was asked to investigate access to porn on P2P networks (tough job). It suggests KaZaA is better than Google for filtering content.
Teens Bypass School Filters; Threatened with Felony Charges
What's next -- arresting kids who sneak into the adult section of the library for trespassing?
June 28, 2005How Did "Mad Hot Ballroom" Survive the Copyright Cartel?
How documentary film makers have to edit 'round reality to avoid liability.
DRM Laundering
Strange thought experiments from the far side of lock-in file formats.
For the People's Eyes Only
The Center for Democracy and Technology has a cool project that makes the Congressional Research Service reports easily available to the people who paid for them -- you.
120GB Hardware Drive Encryption
Nice to see a secure storage system where the user still keeps the keys.
Proposal for a Device in Which Money Is Shoveled into Point A, and Incinerated at Point B (Fig. 1)
GAO report points out the the patent office has spent over a billion dollars on their IT systems, with little to show for it.
Subscribe Youaregoingtojail-l
Brad Templeton highlights worries that child email-protection laws may make trouble for list managers.
June 22, 2005Gilbert, Sullivan, and ID Cards
A fine musical "tribute" to the plans to introduce ID cards in the UK (Flash).
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Trailer for "Alternative Freedom" Documentary: "In a WORLD without LICENSES..."
Richard Stallman, Larry Lessig, DJ Dangermouse, and Jason Schultz fight IP maximalists...robot renegade IP maximalists.
Enter the Consistency Circumvention Device
Jupiter Research consultant advocates DRM, then, when it annoys him, bypasses it.
Iranian Censorship HOWTO
The OpenNet initiative takes a close look at how Iranian net censorship operates.
June 21, 2005Everyone Gets a New Right But You
Michael Geist picks through the new restrictions in Canada's proposed "DMCA."
Software Patents, J'Accuse!
Richard Stallman uses Victor Hugo to explain software patents to Guardian readers. Good call.
Please Do Not Describe the Exhibits
Ernest Miller boggles at proposals for DRM to "protect" 3D mesh descriptions of museum art.
Seven Nights 'til Copynight
Putting the "pub" into public domain, the monthly copyfighters' meet-up is next Tuesday, in Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, New York, Nashville, and elsewhere across the nation.
Survey Says: If You Understood the Question, You Probably Want Legal Music-Sharing
The more people use technology, the more they want filesharing protected, concludes a Digital Life America survey.
June 20, 2005UK's Home Office Claims Nobody Writes to Complain About ID Cards
Only 20 people? Well, if they're lonely, *that's* easy to correct.
Feds Regularly Ping Librarians About Your Reading Habits
According to the NYT, since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a request for information comes in on an average of once a week.
NYT Surveys Blog Pundits' Opinions on Grokster
Including the v. important perspective of the folks at rec.sports.pro-wrestling.
After Dealing with Cake Infringers, Disney Going After Pinata Makers
Evidently, film industry lawyers are running through checklist of "fun things our loyal customers do that we can spoil."
FTC Says Law Requiring "ADV:" in Spam Subject Lines Won't Help
Maybe if they demanded the messages all say "Hey sex1y viagr1 d3alz:," they would get more take-up.
June 17, 2005Gonna Get a Dell; Gotta Tell the Government Why
A Dell sales person asks what a customer is planning to do with a server, claims PATRIOT made him do it.
Hack Chinese MSN Spaces to Use Banned Words
Bennett Haselton hacks around Microsoft's Chinese blogging software that bans "freedom," "democracy," and other unapproved keywords.
Reporters Without Borders Freedom Blog Awards Announced
Congratulations to Jay Rosen of Pressthink, one of the amici in the Apple v. Does case, for winning the Americas section.
June 16, 2005How I Became the Subject of a Secret Service Investigation
A blogger tells how posting a set of Flickr pictures protesting art-gallery censorship ended up bringing the feds to the door.
Take My Privacy, Please!
Ted Koppell with a bit of schtick arguing that private data-collection hurts privacy more than PATRIOT.
Universal DRM Standard Now The Cure For Nonexistent Problem
Techdirt pours scorn on a report claiming that the lack of DRM is holding up media-sharing in the home: "DRM, by its very definition, restricts flexibility, not encourages it."
ISPs Encouraged to Spy on Their Customers
ISPs are being pressured to retain their customer logs for use by law enforcement.
June 14, 2005Conservatives Against PATRIOT Expansion
Conservative Republican leaders are showing concern about the push to expand PATRIOT's surveillance powers.
An Even-Handed Look at Online Music (PDF)
The OECD with a balanced report concluding that music distribution needs "reevaluation," while the connection between filesharing and any drop in music sales remains unclear.
Fisking the President
The Washington Post on the misleading numbers the President is using to justify renewal and/or expansion of PATRIOT powers.
June 11, 2005Jack Valenti Unwrapped
J.D. Lasica asks the former MPAA president about the future of the copyfight in a 2004 interview: "Well,the big problem is the analog hole, and that's a technological aberration that can only be solved through technology."
People Don't Criminally Leak Medical Secrets - "Covered Entities" Do.
The US government gets out of prosecuting individuals for selling private medical info, saying the HIPAA crime only applies if you're a bad institution.
Tor for Anonymous Academic Review
Reviewers of scientific papers want to explore websites without giving away that they're the peers doing the reviewing. Enter Tor.
China Gets its Films on Time
Warner releases a DVD ("The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants") in China at the same time as the US, in a "groundbreaking response to piracy." The best solution to black market: eliminate the market inefficiency that created it.
June 07, 2005Worlds Without Music
Multiplayer games are being forced to ban music in their virtual worlds for fear of liability if anyone plays a copyrighted tune.
Crazy Copyright
The sad story of an artist forced to redesign his fiberglass buffalo because of copyright claims to the image of Crazy Horse painted on its side.
Open Access Law Program Debuts
Creative Commons' "Science Commons" project unveils a new program advocating for open access to legal scholarship.
Supreme Court Rejects Lexmark's Petition for Hearing
The Supreme Court this week denied Lexmark's petition for a hearing, thereby ending its attempts to use the DMCA to control aftermarket sales of toner cartridges. The scuttlebutt is that the company not only failed to impress the Court with its claims, it filed the petition a day late.
June 06, 2005ICANN Announces ".Polinc" TLD for Politically Incorrect and Dangerous Opinion Sites
EFF Chairman Brad Templeton on an idea whose time has come.
Common Sense Prevails in Cook County
Cook County in Illinois, which happens to be the third-largest electoral jurisdiction in the country, has chosen an optical scan-based system with a paper trail over e-voting systems that can't be audited.
UK to "Harmonize" with US Copyright Extensions?
The UK is considering upping its copyright length to 95 years, according to The Scotsman.
June 03, 2005PATRIOT Subpoena - or Just Use Google?
In the wake of reports that there was a handwritten threat in the margin of a library's copy of a book about Osama bin Laden, the FBI demanded from the library the names of everyone who borrowed it. The library refused to give up the records, but the library counsel thought to search for the words using Google, which revealed that the notes may simply have been copied from a widely read bin Laden interview.
When You Search with Google, Google Searches You
Speaking of Google and privacy, CNN has an apropos piece on Google's endless data retention policy.
Three Notes Bad
Sixth Circuit Appeals Court denies a rehearing for its maverick decision that sampling three notes of a song is still "infringement."
June 02, 2005TV Industry Gets Flagged Over Another Evil Plan
Andy Ihnatko of the Chicago Sun-Times on the Broadcast Flag and "the same idiots who swore that cable television and VCRs would destroy the entertainment industry."
Tor Named One of PC World's 100 Best Products of 2005
The EFF-sponsored anonymizer is one of the seven security products that made the list. We're honored.
June 01, 2005ICANN Gives Preliminary Go-Ahead to .XXX Domain
Any bets on how long it'll take governments to attempt to ghettoize adult content?
Cameras to Scan for Bootleg DVD Sales
The MPAA has donated $186,000 for ten CCTV cameras to monitor for movie piracy in Los Angeles, an effective way to move the problem elsewhere.
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