An official document (PDF), dated 19 November, summarises an agreement between the US and Russia in which Russia has agreed to close down AllofMP3.com, and any sites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works
. The agreement is posted to the web site for the Office of the US Trade Representative. It summarises the joint efforts of the two countries to fight content piracy, an issue in which Russia and Eastern Europe figure prominently
Sir Cliff Richard appears set to lose a battle to extend the number of years that musicians can receive royalties for their records. He wants copyright to last 95 years, rather than the present 50 years. But an independent review is to recommend the terms are not extended, a well-placed government source has said
Local broadband TV provider ReelTime Media is negotiating with at least two US studios
to enable Australian consumers to download episodes of US TV series 24 hours after transmission there. If negotiations are successful, it will shake up free-to-air TV, which holds back broadcasting many US TV program seasons for the Australian ratings season between February and November. Any deal would allow consumers to download episodes for 72 hours only. Any such partnership will be keenly contested by the Australian commercial networks
Universal Music Group has filed a lawsuit against MySpace for infringing copyrights of thousands of its artists’ works. Universal, owned by French media giant Vivendi, filed the suit at the US District Court Central District of California, Western Division. The lawsuit accuses MySpace of allowing users to upload videos illegally and taking part in the infringement by re-formatting the videos to be played back or sent to others
Peter Jenner, former manager of bands like Pink Floyd, T Rex and The Clash, states in an interview with the Register that music label executives have lost faith in DRM and dollar-per-track online music selling isn’t working too well as a model. He predicts that in two to three years time, many countries will have moved to a blanket licensing regime — via Slashdot
What happens when a film studio and a fanbase get into bed? Fans of Joss Whedon’s Firefly, and the movie by Universal Studios — Serenity — are not amused. After being encouraged to viral market Serenity, the studio has started legal action against fans (demanding $9000 in retroactive licensing fees in one case and demanding fan promotion stop), and going after Cafepress. The fans response? Retroactively invoice Universal for their services — via Slashdot
A Texas judge has refused to allow the RIAA untrammelled access to the defendant’s hard drive in Sony v Arellanes. The court ruled that only a mutually agreeable, neutral computer forensics expert may examine the hard drive, at the RIAA’s expense, and that the parties must agree on mutually acceptable provisions for confidentiality — via Slashdot
First, they threatened to sue over a song. Then they shut down his web site. In its losing battle with a maverick comic, the government of Kazakhstan even took out full-page newspaper adverts to confront what it saw as damaging slurs. Yesterday, however, Kazakhstan made an abrupt change of tack in its attempts to stifle Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian who has made the oil-rich Central Asian country an international laughing stock. The deputy foreign minister, Rakhat Aliyev, invited Cohen to visit the country he has lampooned across the globe
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, an international version of the MPAA, is breathing down the necks of 8,000 users of file-sharing software. The new cases cover file sharers in 17 different countries who have been allegedly using sites including BitTorrent, eDonkey, SoulSeek and WinMX. For the first time legal action is being taken in Brazil, Mexico and Poland. The IFPI said the actions affect a wide-variety of people: a laboratory assistant has been charged in Finland, while a parson has been served with action in Germany
Seeing as most riders that make their way into the public eye tend to be about the weird demands of musicians, it makes a nice change to see the hilarity that Jos Grain, Iggy and The Stooges roadie, has invested in their rider.
3 x MARSHALL JCM 800 100WATT AMPLIFIERS That have been tested recently. And when I say “recently”, I don’t mean “Sometime in the three weeks preceding the occasion when it fell 5 metres off the top shelf in the warehouse as we were fork-lifting it back up, after it came back from that Inane Clown Pussy gig where they had the Piss On The Live Marshall Amplifier Competition (If you make smoke and sparks come out, and you are still alive afterwards, we’ll give you a bottle of M***er Lite. And a go on the band’s skateboard. And some clown make-up.) The sound it made as it hit the concrete!! BAD-OI-OI-OING!!! How we laughed”.
No! I mean recently. Within living memory. Preferably that of a goldfish.
With regard to the lighting design: (This was written by someone who doesn’t really know what he’s talking about. I cannot tell a lie. Lights-wisely speaking, I’m an absolute arse-head. But I know what I like. And although nobody goes home whistling the lights, it’s also true that no-one goes to gigs to stare at the fucking P.A. stacks.)
Joy! — via Boingboing
Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens is closer to being made into a film by director Terry Gilliam… if the director can track down a coin that hasn’t been minted since the 1780s called a groat — via Boing Boing
Alton Verm, an unbelievably stupid man from Texas, is fired up because the Conroe Independent School District uses the book Fahrenheit 451
as classroom reading material. He wants to ban a book about book burning because It’s just all kinds of filth
. Not that he’d know, because he hasn’t even read it — via yourhoustonnews.com
Academics may be given limited access to books banned under terrorism laws, Federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock says. His comments came after the University of Melbourne removed three books from its library, fearful it may be breaking laws which prevent the distribution of literature which praises terrorism or terrorists — via The Age
The British Library has called for a serious updating
of current copyright law to unambiguously
include digital content and take technological advances into account
In UMG v Lindor, the defendant Marie Lindor has made a motion to preclude the RIAA from introducing into the case songs as to which it has failed to produce the song files. Ms Lindor’s lawyers submitted to the Court the RIAA’s interrogatory responses where the record companies had stated under oath that their case was based upon (a) Media Sentry’s detection of song files being distributed
and (b) Media Sentry’s allegedly making perfect digital copies
of those files. Ms Lindor’s attorneys argued that the RIAA cannot prove that it made perfect digital copies of the songs if it doesn’t have the song files — via Boing Boing
It seems Wal-Mart is threatening retaliation against studios who decide to offer movies on iTunes. The retailer seems a bit miffed that someone would dare to undercut their prices. This wouldn’t be the first time they’ve turned on a supplier for dealing with Apple — via Slashdot
Time Warner said Thursday that it had agreed to sell AOL France’s Internet access business to Neuf Cegetel, a French telecommunications network operator, for about $365 million in cash
Yahoo’s gotten Hollywood Records, owned by Disney, to release the new Jesse McCartney’s album Right Where You Want Me
, as unrestricted MP3 files. Apparently hell has frozen over — via Boing Boing
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