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Isohunt Founder at Center of U.S. Torrent-Tracking Legal Battle - Via Threat Level:
Gary Fung remembers years ago when the first computer he operated was a Pentium 90.
His programming skills have grown considerably since that first computer and his mastery of Pascal. Combined with his business acumen, the 25-year-old Fung now heads the popular BitTorrent search engine Isohunt and two tracking sites, Podtropolis and Torrentbox.
The Motion Picture Association of America claims in a lawsuit that Fung is a copyright scofflaw of the highest order -- facilitating the theft of millions of its copyrighted works hosted in tiny pieces resting on servers and individuals' computers worldwide. read more »
Judge in Murdoch Hacker Trial Admonishes CEO - Via Threat Level:
A California judge overseeing the trial against a Rupert Murdoch company for allegedly hacking a competitor and helping pirates steal pay-TV content, admonished the CEO of the Murdoch firm for leaving the court without testifying. As a result of the CEO's action, the judge suggested that if his company loses the trial it could face shareholder lawsuits.
Multichannel News reports that U.S. District Court Judge David Carter made the comments on Friday after temporarily halting the trial in mid-testimony and dismissing the jury. read more »
Analysis: Despite Blogosphere Reports, RIAA Retains Legal Muscle Under Howell Decision - Via Threat Level:
The blogosphere is celebrating a recent Arizona federal judge's decision that, at first glance, seems to portend the death of the Recording Industry Association of America's thousands of pending copyright infringement lawsuits against Kazaa file-sharers.
But that's simply not the truth. In fact, the opposite might be true under Monday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake. read more »
NewYorkCountryLawyer Debates RIAA VP - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "At Fordham Law School's annual IP Law Conference this year, Slashdot member NewYorkCountryLawyer had a chance to square off with Kenneth Doroshow, a Senior Vice President of the RIAA, over the subject of copyright statutory damages. Doroshow thought the Jammie Thomas verdict of $222,000 was okay, since he said, Ms. Thomas might have distributed 10 million unauthorized copies. NYCL, on the other hand, who has previously derided the $9250-per-song file verdict as 'one of the most irrational things [he has] ever seen in [his] life in the law', stated at the Fordham conference that the verdict had made the United States 'a laughingstock throughout the world'. read more »
Universities Baffled By Massive Surge In RIAA Copyright Notices - Via Threat Level:
In the last 10 days, universities around the country have seen more than a 20-fold increase in the number of filesharing takedown notices from the recording industry, in an unexplained spike that seems focused on colleges in the Midwest.
The spike is not matched by an increase in actual file sharing.
"Universities are getting as many notices from the RIAA in one day as what they would typically get from all content owners in a month," says Mark Luker, a vice president of higher education technology advocate Educause.
Indiana University says that starting on April 21, the Recording Industry Association of America began sending 80 legal notices a day to the university, under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Typically, the university handles less than 100 such notices a month from the RIAA, the Motion Picture Association of America and HBO combined. read more »
Betrayed MSN Music Customers Deserve More from Microsoft - Via EFF: Breaking News:
San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is urging Microsoft Corporation to fix the problems it will cause when it shuts down the MSN Music validation servers, making it impossible for customers to transfer their music files to new computers or even upgrade their operating system.
In an open letter sent to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer today, EFF outlines five steps Microsoft must take to make things right for MSN Music customers -- including a issuing a public apology, providing refunds or replacement music files, and launching a substantial publicity campaign to make sure all customers know their options.
"MSN Music customers trusted Microsoft when it said that this was a safe way to buy music, and that trust has been betrayed," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "If Microsoft is prepared to treat MSN Music customers like this, is there any reason to suppose that future customers won't get the same treatment?" read more »
MSN Music Pulls the Plug on Customers - Via EFF: Deep Links:
Last week, Microsoft announced that it was leaving the paying customers of its MSN Music store out in the cold. Rob Bennett, the head of MSN Entertainment and Video Services, told customers in an email that “[a]s of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers."
In other words, the DRM copy protection that Microsoft and the major record labels insisted customers put up with has now drastically devalued that music -- at least for consumers who like to regularly upgrade their PCs. Come August 31st, if you buy a new computer, or even upgrade your OS, you’ll have to give up your MSN Music. read more »
Big Victory in Atlantic v. Howell: Court Rejects RIAA "Making Available" Theory - Via EFF: Deep Links:
The district court in Atlantic v. Howell today denied the recording industry's motion for summary judgment against Mr. and Mrs. Howell, two lawyer-less defendants caught up in RIAA's litigation campaign against file-sharers. EFF filed an amicus brief on their behalf in the case and participated in oral argument. read more »
Hacker in Murdoch Trial Acknowledges Receiving Money from Murdoch Firm - Via Threat Level:
An American hacker who is at the core of a piracy trial against a Rupert Murdoch subsidiary, testified this week that he created pirating software for the company but did not use it to sabotage the company's rivals. read more »
DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys - Via Ars Technica :
Customers who have purchased music from Microsoft's now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated making: commit to which computers (and OS) they want to authorize forever, or give up access to the music they paid for. Why? Because Microsoft has decided that it's done supporting the service and will be turning off the MSN Music license servers by the end of this summer.
MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. "As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," reads the e-mail seen by Ars. read more »
MSN Music DRM Servers Going Dark In September - Via Slashdot: Your Rights Online:
PDQ Back writes to tell us about an email Microsoft sent to former customers of MSN Music today. The company said it would be turning off the DRM servers used to authorize playback of music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music store. "'As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,' reads the e-mail. This doesn't just apply to the five different computers that PlaysForSure allows users to authorize, it also applies to operating systems on the same machine (users need to reauthorize a machine after they upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for example). Once September rolls around, users are committed to whatever five machines they may have authorized — along with whatever OS they are running."
MPAA Secretly Tells Court Why BitTorrent Tracking Sites Violate Copyrights -- UPDATE - Via Threat Level:
The answer to the question of whether BitTorrent tracking sites are legal in the United States depends on who is asked. Now it seems the Motion Picture Association of America is prohibited to say publicly why the movie industry believes the answer is "no."
Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court might provide guidance, as there has been no definitive ruling on the merits. A case likely headed the high court's way is one brought by the MPAA accusing tracking site isoHunt and its owner, Gary Fung, of copyright infringement. The offense: the site points the way to torrents of movies and other copyrighted material hosted elsewhere. read more »
Music Label's Copyright Argument is Rubbish - Via Threat Level:
Tossing it like a Frisbee is OK. The kids, cat and dog scratching the hell out of it is just fine.
But throwing away that CD is copyright infringement.
According to UMG Recordings, that's true insofar as the label's promotional CDs are concerned: those thousands of unaccounted for discs the label mails out each year to reviewers, radio stations and others.
The record label says throwing away such CDs is a no-no because it claims it has an eternal right of ownership to them. read more »
UMG Says Throwing Away Promo CDs is Illegal - Via EFF: Deep Links:
In a brief filed in federal court yesterday, Universal Music Group (UMG) states that, when it comes to the millions of promotional CDs ("promo CDs") that it has sent out to music reviewers, radio stations, DJs, and other music industry insiders, throwing them away is "an unauthorized distribution" that violates copyright law. Yes, you read that right -- if you've ever received a promo CD from UMG, and you don't still have it, UMG thinks you're a pirate.
This revelation came in a brief for summary judgment filed by UMG against Troy Augusto. Augusto (aka Roast Beast Music Collectibles, eBay handle roastbeastmusic) buys collectible promo CDs at used record stores around Los Angeles and resells them on eBay. UMG sued him last year, claiming that the "promotional use only" labels on the CDs mean that UMG owns them forever and that any resale infringes copyright. EFF took Augusto's case to fight for the proposition that a copyright owner can't take away a consumer's first sale rights just by putting a label on a CD (after all, the Supreme Court first recognized the first sale doctrine when a book publisher tried the same thing with a label stating "may not be sold for less than one dollar," and we've seen patent owners trying the same trick on printer cartridges). In other words, EFF believes that if you bought it, or if someone gave it to you, you own it. read more »
European Parliament to Sarkozy: No "Three Strikes" Here - Via EFF: Deep Links:
Despite last minute attempts by the French government to divide them, European<
MEPs today voted decisively against "three strikes", the IFPI-promoted plan to
create a class of digital outcasts, forbidden from accessing the Net if
repeatedly accused by music companies of downloading infringing content.
In a vote held today, hundreds of MEPs supported language
which declared termination of Internet access to be in conflict with "civil
liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality,
effectiveness and dissuasiveness", all core values of the European Union. read more »
Online Symposium: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music - Via Freedom to Tinker:
Today we’re kicking off an online symposium on voluntary collective licensing of music, over at the Center for InfoTech Policy site.
The symposium is motivated by recent movement in the music industry toward the possibility of licensing large music catalogs to consumers for a fixed monthly fee. For example, Warner Music, one of the major record companies, just hired Jim Griffin to explore such a system, in which Internet Service Providers would pay a per-user fee to record companies in exchange for allowing the ISPs’ customers to access music freely online. The industry had previously opposed collective licenses, making them politically non-viable, but the policy logjam may be about to break, making this a perfect time to discuss the pros and cons of various policy options.
It’s an issue that evokes strong feelings — just look at the comments on David’s recent post. read more »
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