For years, the RIAA has claimed that having the IP address of a computer that has shared unauthorised files is the equivalent of having the evidence of who was actually sharing files. That, of course, is false. The IP address simply can help you know who paid for the internet access, but not who was using what computer on a network
File-sharing service Kazaa, a longtime thorn in the side of the recording industry, has buried the hatchet with major record companies in a $100 million out-of-court settlement
Shawn Hogan, CEO of Digital Point Solutions, has found himself on the receiving end of an MPAA lawsuit claiming he downloaded a copy of Meet the Fockers
on Bittorrent. Mr Hogan both denies the charges as well as claims he already owns the movie on DVD. After being asked to pay a $2500 extortion fee, Mr Hogan lawyered up and has vowed to challenge and help change the MPAA’s tactics. They’re completely abusing the system,
Hogan says. Although expecting to pay well over $100,000 to defend himself, he claims I would spend well into the millions on this
via Slashdot
New Zealanders will be able to watch video services such as internet protocol television as early as next year using a high-speed network developed by Telecom New Zealand. The likelihood of Australians using such services on a widespread basis soon are low, with news yesterday that Telstra’s talks with the competition regulator over a $4 billion fibre-network have all but collapsed
Babylon 5, one of the greatest sci-fi series of all time, will return in a series of direct-to-DVD mini movies. They will be written and directed by J Michael Straczynski and we can expect the first set to be released during the second quarter of 2007 via digg
Several large studios will start letting people create DVDs of movies in their homes using a new feature of CinemaNow, an online movie-downloading site
Nobody’s Watching
, a pilot made for last year’s upfronts that was never picked up, is being put back into development by NBC after gaining attention on YouTube
Vodaphone has quietly disabled the DRM on the mobile episodes of 24 it sells; now those videos can be copied to iPods and PCs — via Boing Boing
Citing irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies
, an appeals judge has ruled that producing, selling or renting edited versions of motion pictures violates US copyright law — via Boing Boing
Ah, the delightful, if terrifying Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is upon us again. This year’s winner, Jim Guigli, cited his sixty submissions to this year’s contest as a constructive outlet for his dementia. Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you’ve had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean
Ever wonder what it would be like to see Yoda fly by your head or hear Chewbacca buzz instead of roar? Now you can find out thanks to entomologists Arnold Menke and David Vincent. These bug experts named new wasp species discovered in 1983 after their favorite Star Wars characters: Polemistus chewbacca, Polemistus vaderi, and Polemistus yoda — via Boing Boing
In a rare case of music retailer-turned-Internet pirate, the Virgin store chain in France said Tuesday that it had been found guilty of downloading and reselling a Madonna hit without permission. The store’s online portal, virginmega.fr, was ordered by the Paris Tribunal de Commerce to pay €600,000, or US$754,000, in damages for downloading the Madonna song Hung Up
from a France Télécom Web site that had exclusive rights to distribute the song for one week
France has given the thumbs-up to the defanged version of a controversial law that would have forced Apple Computer to open up its iTunes digital rights management to players other than its iPod
Hasbrouck Heights Library Director Michele Reutty is under fire for refusing to give police library circulation records without a subpoena. Her lawyer explained; Reutty did the right thing… At no time did Michele Reutty say to any police officer or anybody else that she would not give the information if it was properly requested.
However, borough labor lawyer, the exceedingly dim and clueless Ellen Horn, who also represented the library trustees, said Reutty was more interested in protecting
her library than helping the police
UK music fans no longer face the threat of prosecution for copying their own CDs on to PCs or MP3 players, as long as the songs are only for personal use. Peter Jamieson, chairman of the British Phonographic Industry, said consumers would only be penalised if they made duplicates of songs for other people. Mr Jamieson also called for Apple – which makes the popular iPod portable music player — to open up its iTunes software so it is compatible with the technology of other manufacturers
A group of four Connecticut librarians recently announced that the US government had requested to view private patron records and also threatened imprisonment if the librarians spoke up about it — via digg
American trade negotiators have threatened to scuttle Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organisation unless the country shuts down the AllOfMP3.com website, which sells music under Russian copyright law, despite the ire of the RIAA and its international puppet organisation, IFPI — via Boing Boing
Folks who value creative content rescued from obscurity may be concerned about major fee increases proposed by the US Copyright Office. At the end of this month, they plan to double the fee for copyright records searching from $75 to $150 per hour (it was $20/hr as recently as 1999), and add a new $100 fee just to give frugal searchers an estimate of how much a real search is likely to cost — va Boing Boing
Computer games in the hands of the elderly are shaping up as the latest weapons in the war against Alzheimer’s
Pearl Jam released their first music video in quite a while under a Creative Commons licence allowing anyone to legally copy, distribute and share the clip
for noncommercial purposes. Creative Commons thinks this may be the first video produced by a major label ever to be CC-licensed. So although the file is only available as a free download via Google Video through 24 May, fans can continue sharing it online themselves in perpetuity — via Slashdot
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