The big-six music retailers, organized under the name Echo, have launched a new consortium to license and distribute digital music services. Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Digital Rights
Kazaa Sues Movie Industry
Sharman Networks Ltd., owner of the file swapping application Kazaa, has responded to the January 23, 2003 order from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denying their motion to dismiss a copyright infringement lawsuit by the music and recording industries. Sharman filed its answer and counterclaims on January 27 in which… Continue Reading
New IP Advocacy Group
“IP Justice is a new non-profit organization that works to promote balance in global intellectual property law and protect freedom of expression with digital media.” An interview with Executive Director Robin D. Gross, an IP attorney formerly with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was conducted by CNet. Continue Reading
Debut of the Alliance for Digital Progress
A new lobbying organization, the Alliance for Digital Progress, representing industry and advocacy groups, launched their website and announced their agenda yesterday via a press release and press conference presented by President Fred McClure. The group is “opposed to government-designed and mandated technology to solve the problem of digital piracy,” and seeks to create acceptable… Continue Reading
RIAA Wins Battle With Verizon Over Customer Data
Judge John D. Bates, United States District Court for the District of Columbia, has ruled in favor of RIAA in their high profile case against Verizon to compel the ISP to provide personal data on customers’ use and online distribution of music obtained using P2P downloading applications. See Recording Industry of America v. Verizon Internet… Continue Reading
Hollywood v. PlanetReplay TV and SonicBlue
Chad Little, owner of Planet Replay, a P2P service that allows users to share TV shows they have digitally recorded using SonicBlue’s ReplayTV, has issued a press release indicating the discontinuation of part of his website’s service. This was done to protect the privacy of site users as a result of the entertainment industry’s copyright… Continue Reading
Libraries and UCITA
This Action Alert from the American Associaton of Law Libraries (AALL) Washington Affairs Office urges law librarians to contact the ABA House of Delegates as they consider Resolution 113G, proposed by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) that, “Approves the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (2002) promulgated by the National Conference… Continue Reading
Publisher Prentice Hall Tries Open Source
Prentice Hall has made the leap into open source publishing, in no small measure due to the impetus provided by Bruce Perens, author, programmer, researcher, and father of the open source movement. He states on this site, “I’ve convinced Prentice Hall PTR to publish a series of books that have their text under Open Source… Continue Reading
Music/Tech Industry Reach Digital Rights Agreement
Yesterday afternoon, the Recording Industry Association of America announced via this press release that “key members of the recording and technology industries” had reached an agreement on a set of principles as the foundation for their joint anti-piracy and copyright protection lobbying efforts in the 108th Congress. The agreement is a result of efforts by… Continue Reading
Copyright and Open Source Software
With Microsoft making news today regarding their efforts against government use of open source software (OSS), this newly revised article, Making Copyright Ambidextrous: An Expose of Copyleft, is a useful resource on the history of OSS and associated licensing issues. Continue Reading
Kazaa Will Fight Infringement Lawsuit
Via ZDNet there is news that Sharman Networks, the investment consortium based in Sydney, Australia that owns the popular and controversial P2P software Kazaa will fight the copyright infringement lawsuit brought against them in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California (CV 01-08541-SVW, CV 01-09923-SVW) by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, after the court issued a 46… Continue Reading
Intel CEO and Digital Rights
The CEO of Intel, Craig Barrett, spoke about digital rights at the 2003 International Consumer Electronics Show. His comments sought to strike a balance between fair use rights for consumers who legally purchase digital services and media, and appropriate punishment for those “who grossly violate anybody’s content.” Continue Reading
