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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 …
Following quickly on the heels of Sen. Harkin’s letter requesting a hearing on the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, Vermont’s Senator Leahy also sent a letter to Attorney General Ashcroft requesting answers to a list of specific questions, so at to determine “the extent to which the Justice Department is relying on data-mining” applications and …
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.
Via CyberJournalist.net, here is a link to a guide for online journalists’ ethics codes from around the world. Organized by country and topic (accuracy, copyright, civil rights, privacy, etc.), this is a fascinating, and up-to-date resource.
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 …
In typical fashion, you will not find any news releases from Google concerning legal issues actually posted on their own website. However, a number of tech publications, such as InfoWorld and PCWorld, have articles today stating that Google is fighting SearchKing’s preliminary injunction, arguing that the motion “contains only bare and conclusory allegations.” The text …
IBM announced that they now have a decade-long record for the most patents granted to one company (22,357). For 2002 alone, that number was 3,288 patents.
This is actually a new posting on yet another net taxes moratorium bill, this one sponsored by Virginia Senator George Allen . “Senator Allen’s legislation will permanently ban taxes on Internet access, as well as taxes on Internet transactions by multiple jurisdictions, and discriminatory taxes that unfairly target Internet transactions.” The bill, the Internet Tax …
Something has gone terribly wrong with the FCC’s Universal Service Program for Schools and Libraries. Known as the E-Rate Fund, the objective of the program, part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, is to ensure low-cost public access to Internet services for needy schools and libraries throughout the country. The fund is capped at $2.5 …
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.”
Senator Tom Harkin issued a written request on January 13 to Daniel K. Inouye Chair, Subcommittee on Defense U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriation, for a hearing to investigate the work of the Total Information Awareness Project. Quoting the Senator, “The Total Information Awareness project raises serious issues of privacy violations and legality, the choice of …
According to a press release from plaintiff’s counsel Eugene Crew, Microsoft has agreed to a record settlement for a series of antitrust class action suits. California consumers and businesses will receive $1.1 billion for Microsoft products that they “purchased between Feb. 18, 1995, and Dec. 15, 2001, for use in the State of California.” Payment …
