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About a month after colleges and universities were warned about file sharing and associated piracy issues by the RIAA, and in turn sounded the alarm, EPIC has chimed in with another warning. The non-profit privacy rights organization informs educational institutions that aggressive monitoring of online activity impacts students privacy and their right to academic freedom.
On November 6, Microsoft released an essay, An Agenda for Innovation, that focuses on hot button issues such as cybercrime and protecting copyrights.
Winnie the Pooh is at the heart of a 20 year legal battle with a potentially huge payout in terms of online royalties. Disney and Stephen Slesinger, Inc. both claim copyright control over the commercial rights to the characters that would generate $1 billion in online merchandizing revenues.
It would appear that the RIAA and their industry colleagues made a quick and deep impression on university presidents with their warning letter on piracy, about which I previously posted here. TechTV reports that the huge volume of P2P traffic, which has stressed the IT infrastructure at UC Berkeley, has resulted in the implementation of …
Senator Jesse Helms stopped the vote on the compromise webcasting agreement which had passed the House and seemed very likely to pass the Senate. Opposing reasons for his action are mentioned in this Raleigh-based News & Observer article. Either he was trying to protect the webcasters by negotiating even lower rates for them, or he …
The highly controversial P2P hacking bill, H.R.5211, introduced by Rep. Howard Berman, will apparently be subject to major revisions according to this ZDNet article. The bill would have allowed copyright holders access to the PCs of individuals suspected of software piracy. For additional background, see Rep. Berman’s press release on the bill from July 25, …
A joint “outreach letter” from the associations representing the motion picture, music and songwriters groups was sent to the Presidents/CEOs of Fortune 1000 companies. Similar to the “polite” warning sent to college and university presidents (see my previous posting at //www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/000292.html), this letter warns that there is extensive music and video piracy in the corporate …
See this informative Financial Times article for a perspectives on US and EU copyright laws provided by Prof. Lawrence Lessig of Stanford Law School, Thomas Hazlett, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, law professor Richard A. Epstein, University of Chicago, Edward Welbourne, and Frank Walker, chief executive of the Newspaper Licensing Agency …
This Chronicle of Higher Education article profiles this shy man whose love of the great books and his fight to make them freely available on the web has resulted in a national focus on the Supreme Court case that bears his name.
Although the Senate adjourned without voting on H.R. 5469, the compromise crafted by the House between webcasters and broadcasters, the Washington Post is reporting that an interim deal has been worked out. SoundExchange, an organization that represents hundreds of large and small recording labels by licensing, collecting and distributing copyright fees, has announced a temporary …
Copyright fees go into effect on October 19 for all webcasters streaming music to listeners. See this article.
A bi-partisan, bi-cameral resolution (S.J. Res. 51), sponsored by Rep. Cox (R-CA) and Senator Wyden (D-OR), calls for a Consumer Technology Bill of Rights. The sponsors seek changes to current copyright law for consumers who have legitimately purchased CDs, DVDs, e-books and subscriptions to satellite TV broadcasts. Such consumers should have the right to record …
