Filed in archive
Legal
on August 31, 2009
Although being almost a year after one track of Jay Z's upcoming "The Blueprint 3" being leaked, the rest of the album has now started to fall into availablility on the internet. Despite...
Filed in archive
Legal
on May 12, 2008
Nine Inch Nails, pioneers of the correct way to do online distribution, have done it agian, but this time they've gone one better. Rather than charging for a new album in perfect quality; they&#...
Filed in archive
Legal
on January 4, 2008
The Washington post ran a story on Wednesday saying that the RIAA was suing a man for copying a CD he purchased onto his computer. The columnist Marc Fisher quoted a legal brief and alleged that the R...
Read more of Blogging world supports the RIAA?
Filed in archive
Consumer Rights
, Legal
, Major Labels
on August 14, 2007
The "first sale" doctrine is simple. You buy it. You own it. You can do whatever you like with it.
In the digital world that's not so obvious. Record companies, software developers, and...
Filed in archive
DRM
, International
, Legal
on July 25, 2007
A Finnish Court rules that effective means effective. The issue is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the European counterpart, the European Copyright Directive (EUCD), which says it'...
Filed in archive
Companies
, Legal
on July 25, 2007
Media Rights Technologies (MRT) and BlueBeat, which develop and distribute software that blocks unauthorized streaming media recording, have served cease and desist letters to Apple, RealNetworks, Ado...
Filed in archive
Consumer Rights
, Education
, Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on July 23, 2007
Magistrate Judge Lorenzo F. Garcia in Capitol v. Does 1-16 denied RIAA's ex-parte motion to force the university of new mexico to disclose the identities of its students.
RIAA ex-parte motions ar...
Filed in archive
Commentary
, Consumer Rights
, Legal
, People
, RIAA, IFPI
on July 19, 2007
Shelly Palmer interviews activist and attorney Ray Beckerman, author of the blog
Recording Industry vs The People, which is "[a]bout the RIAA's attempt to monopolize digital music by redefin...
Filed in archive
Companies
, Legal
on July 18, 2007
The recording industry lawsuit against limewire has been postponed until March 2008 when the summary judgment motion will be fully briefed and pretrial discovery finished.
Justice is slow for the mu...
Filed in archive
Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on July 17, 2007
The Court ordered RIAA to pay defendant Debbie Foster $68,685.23 in attorney fees and costs. Previously the judge had ruled that Foster could collect a judgment, Foster had submitted a claim for over ...
Filed in archive
Commentary
, Education
, Legal
on July 13, 2007
Over the past six months RIAA has renewed its pressure on schools to be their proxy in copyright infringement lawsuits (RIAA To Schools: Can I Add You To My Circle?). The recording industry has experi...
Read more of Open Letter to Universities Whose Students Have Been Targeted by the RIAA
Filed in archive
Companies
, Legal
, Technology
on July 6, 2007
I admire the folks at project playlist. They've developed a service that carefully navigates copyright infringement, at least how the recording industry plays that game today.
I'll ignore th...
Filed in archive
Legal
, Radio
on June 20, 2007
In a blow for common sense and against the Bush Administration's pandering to the religious right, a US Court overturned the FCC's ban on 'fleeting expletives'.
The US Court of Appea...
Filed in archive
Education
, Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on June 14, 2007
RIAA has entered a new stage in its fight to tame wild college students. In addition to suing students directly, it's pressed the school themselves with limited progress to restrict access to P2P ...
Filed in archive
Companies
, Legal
on June 13, 2007
Another week, another Hollywood lawsuit against a web sharing site. This time it's Warner Music and imeem.
Imeem has attracted a lot of visitors for its user-content sharing service. It claims a...
Filed in archive
Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on June 5, 2007
In RIAA copyright infringement case Elektra v. Dennis, the defendant stated that he has doesn't have or know how to use P2P file sharing software and has never had or downloaded music files.
RIA...
Filed in archive
Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on May 31, 2007
In Capitol v. Foster: Justice At Last and RIAA Lawsuit Setback: Defendant Wins Attorney Fees, defendant Debbie Foster of Oklahoma was granted attorney fees. RIAA dropped the suit against the mother af...
Filed in archive
Consumer Rights
, Government
, Legal
, Privacy & Security
, RIAA, IFPI
, Society & Public Policy
on May 30, 2007
RIAA is taking a new tactic in its fight on pirates of all stripes - jump on the Bush administration bandwagon to create a police state. The Bush administration, fresh on the heels of its success on t...
Filed in archive
Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on May 29, 2007
In RIAA copyright infringement case Lava v. Amurao, the defendant has successfully raised an interesting legal theory of copyright misuse. Judge Charles L. Brieant rejected RIAA's motion to dismis...
Filed in archive
Commentary
, Legal
, Society & Public Policy
on May 28, 2007
In "A Great Idea Lives Forever. Shouldn't Its Copyright?" Mark Helprin writes "No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exi...
Read more of Copyrights Forever?
Filed in archive
Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on May 24, 2007
The RIAA has dropped a RIAA copyright infringement in BMG v. Thao after accepting that the defendant was incorrectly named by the ISP. The ISP identified Mr. Thao as holder of the account whose IP add...
Filed in archive
Legal
on May 22, 2007
Attorney Ray Beckerman is bringing out a big gun in RIAA copyright infringement case UMG v. Lindor. Beckerman announced the appointment of expert Prof. Johan Pouwelse, Assistant Professor in the Paral...
Filed in archive
Fun
, Legal
, Society & Public Policy
on May 18, 2007
Science fiction author Spider Robinson wrote a brilliant story about copyrights 25 years ago, long before the ongoing fight we have today.
"Melancholy Elephants" won the 1983 Hugo Award fo...
Filed in archive
Companies
, Legal
, Major Labels
on May 4, 2007
BMG and other major labels sued Launch Media in 2001 over the use of custom music streaming. BMG is now part of Sony BMG. Launch Media was bought by Yahoo. BMG claimed that the Launch Media LAUNCHcast...
Filed in archive
Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on May 3, 2007
In a move that smacks of desperation, RIAA has attacked the opposing counsel in Lava v. Amurao. RIAA opposed an Electronic Frontier Foundation motion to file an amicus brief based on its objection to ...
Filed in archive
Industry
, Legal
on April 25, 2007
A federal judge ruled that online music services from companies like Apple, RealNetworks, and Yahoo do no have to pay a performance fee when a customer downloads a digital song. The music clearinghous...
Filed in archive
Consumer Rights
, Legal
, RIAA, IFPI
on April 20, 2007
After two years RIAA's lawsuit against Patricia Santangelo has been dismissed with prejudice. RIAA cannot file again in the future against Ms. Santangelo. The only matter open is whether Ms. Santa...
Filed in archive
Industry
, Legal
on April 19, 2007
Is a music download a public performance?
That defies logic. But songwriters through the three major music performing rights clearinghouses - ASCAP, BMI and SESAC - would have it so. ASCAP filed suit...
Filed in archive
Legal
, Society & Public Policy
on April 2, 2007
Physical pirates who churn out counterfeit CDs and DVDs say that the P2P networks, the so-called digital pirates, are ruining their business.
TorrentFreak published a profile of Tony, a UK counterfe...
Filed in archive
Commentary
, Legal
, Major Labels
on March 21, 2007
Stanford law professor Lawrence Lessig notes the ironies in copyright law in "Make Way for Copyright Chaos."
The controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act was crafted as a comprom...
