After taking its anti-piracy campaign to court, the music industry is finding itself on the receiving end of a lawsuit that challenges its purported amnesty program as a fraudulent business practice
12-year-old New York girl, Brianna Lahara, was among the first to be sued by the record industry for sharing music over the internet is off the hook after her mother agreed to pay US$2,000 to settle the lawsuit. P2P United, a trade group representing six of the biggest file sharing web sites, offered to pay the fine her behalf
A company called BigChampagne sells regional P2P download statistics to most of the major record labels. When the labels know what people are downloading, they know what to put on the radio, and sales in the area increase. The record industry’s lawsuits against file sharing companies hang on their assertion that the programs have no use other than to help infringe copyrights. If the labels acknowledge a legitimate use for P2P programs, it would undercut their case as well as their zero-tolerance stance
The Court of Appeal in The Hague rejected all of Scientology’s claims in appeal in Scientology’s action against XS4ALL, Karin Spaink and ten other internet providers. As a result, Karin Spaink’s web site, which Scientology sought to remove from the Internet based on copyright claims, is entirely legal in the Netherlands. The court also overturned two lower court rulings, one of which said that linking to material that infringed a copyright was itself actionable. The other ruling said that ISPs that failed to act on credible notification of a copyright violation could be held liable for that. The Appeals Court felt that this was too vague a standard, and thus posed a threat to free speech
A French court has ruled that music compact discs which include functions to prevent copying amount to faulty goods and that buyers must be reimbursed
Lawyers for a New York woman accused of illegally sharing music over the internet suggested the US recording industry acted illegally when it investigated her online activities and that a search of music files on her computer may have been unconstitutional
The WTO has agreed to give poor countries greater access to inexpensive lifesaving medicine by altering international trade rules
US companies with the highest rates of pay for chief executives also have the greatest number of staff redundancies, according to the ‘Executive Excess 2003‘ report conducted by United for a Fair Economy and the Institute for Policy Studies. Is anyone really surprised?
EarthLink filed a lawsuit against the ‘Alabama Spammers’, an unidentified group it alleges used its access service to send massive amounts of junk e-mail
Human rights groups have condemned Vietnam for upholding espionage charges against Pham Hong Son, an imprisoned cyber-dissident and pro-democracy activist, calling for his immediate release
An alliance of online music broadcasters sued the recording industry in federal court, alleging major record labels have unlawfully inflated webcasting royalty rates to keep independent operators out of the market
Mexico claims multinational chain Zara is abusing trade agreement by importing cheap clothes from Asia
In a case that pitted trade secret rights against free speech, the Supreme Court in California has ruled that courts can block internet users from posting codes that can be used to illegally copy DVD movies
A black woman in Britain has won the right to be given an artificial foot which matches her skin colour, after first being told to make do with a white one
US Trade officials have backed off from a tough line on music, movie and software piracy, admitting that shoehorning Australia into a copyright regime based on criminal law may be a bridge too far
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is proposing a massive system of tracking for homeless people and others who are served by shelters and care centres. The system will track people by their social security number, and will collect general and mental health information. Secret Service and national security agents can gain access to the database by just asking for it
Coke and Pepsi, recently accused of having dangerous quantities of pesticides in their Indian products, are challenging a ban on their drinks in government buildings. Lawsuits must be a cheaper option than pulling their finger out and removing the pesticides
General Motors, DaimlerChrysler and Isuzu Motors have agreed to drop the lawsuit that has delayed California’s clean-air program
HBOS, one of the largest UK banks is to introduce random lie detector analysis of insurance claims according to this article from the Edinburgh Evening News. The three month trial will see calls from its 1.5 million policy holders randomly subjected to voice stress analysis. Those flagged up will then receive a set of questions designed to expose potential fraudsters
Michael Berry’s name, reputation and credit line were easy pickings for some very scary people. Yours are, too
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