The Italian parliament may have unwittingly legalised sharing music over P2P networks. A new copyright law, passed by both houses of parliament, would allow Italians to freely share music over the Internet as long as it was noncommercial and the music degraded
Amazon’s just bought audiobook provider Audible, the exclusive provider of audiobooks to iTunes, Amazon’s rival for audio downloads. Even though Apple says it prefers that its suppliers deliver non-DRM media (and even though Audible’s DRM does nothing to prevent piracy), Audible has a mandatory DRM policy for the books it sells. That is to say, even if they author doesn’t want DRM on his or her books, Audible will only deliver those books with DRM on them. As part of the deal, an Amazon spokesman said: Audible’s audio books are wrapped in a layer of DRM, which Amazon does not plan to remove unless customers start to complain
— via Boing Boing
Seven green groups have sued over a US Fish and Wildlife Service plan that would loosen restrictions on killing grey wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming
Sweden plans this week to charge the people running Pirate Bay, one of the world’s most visited websites, with being accessories in breaking copyright law. Pirate Bay helps web surfers share copyrighted music and film files, which is illegal in many countries, including Sweden
The Oregon attorney general’s office is investigating the Recording Industry Association of America’s practices regarding 17 University of Oregon students accused of copyright infringement. While the AG isn’t minimising the seriousness of copyright violations, his office has submitted a brief questioning the data mining tactics and subpoena practices employed by the RIAA
An internet group calling itself Anonymous has declared war on the Church of Scientology, in the form of an ominous posting to the YouTube site — via Slashdot
The Australian Attorney-General’s department is inviting submissions from the public on copying of movies and images in different formats for private use. These were sections of the Copyright Amendment Act introduced in December 2006 that made it legal for Australians to do things they’d been doing for decades, such as recording a tv broadcast to tape or disc, but illegal to watch such recordings more than once. The Minister is required by the Act to review these exceptions after two years — via Boing Boing
Jennifer Stoddart, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, is wary of DRM, and she’s not afraid to tell other branches of government about her concerns. Stoddart has just sent a public letter to Jim Prentice, the Canadian Minister of Industry, telling him that his impending copyright reform bill should not protect any DRM that gathers and transmits personal data
IBM, Nokia, Sony and Pitney Bowes are expected to announce Monday that they have put 31 inventions into an Eco-Patent Commons
designed to make these Earth-friendly manufacturing and waste-reduction processes more widely available
Last week, seven Swedish MPs wrote to a prominent Swedish tabloid newspaper Expressen
to express their dissatisfaction with proposals for dealing with copyright infringers. Now, that number has increased to 13, and the issue seems to keep growing
Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau’s repeated failures to pay phone bills on time. More than half of 990 bills to pay for telecommunication surveillance in five unidentified FBI field offices were not paid on time, the report shows. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000
The UK government has published guidelines for the application of a law that makes it illegal to create or distribute so-called hacking tools
For months, users of Adobe Creative Suite 3 have been wondering why some of the applications regularly connect to what looks like a private IP address but is actually a public domain address belonging to the web analytics company Omniture. Now allegations of user spying are getting louder, prompting Adobe Photoshop product manager John Nack to respond, though many remain unsatisfied with his explanation — via Slashdot
Complaints about online directory assistance sites that reveal extensive personal data have prompted Governor M Jodi Rell to start developing a legislative package to help. In a news release, Rell said Monday that she’s received complaints about online search engines that list not only names, addresses, and telephone numbers but also people’s ages, places of work, and other personal information. Rell said she plans to propose restrictions that would likely be in the form of an opt-out
registry that’s an electronic version of the state and federal Do Not Call
list, which blocks telemarketing calls to citizens whose phone numbers are on the list
The WTO’s recent ruling on Antigua’s complaint against the US over the banning of online gambling resulted in a payment to the island nation much less than they asked for. It appears, though, that this payment was just part of the WTO’s compensation package for Antigua/Barbuda. Via Kotaku, the Hollywood Reporter notes that the Caribbean country can now freely ignore US copyright laws — legally. This dispensation is apparently limited to some $21 million a year — via Slashdot
Google Reader Begins Sharing Private Data
One week ago Google Reader’s team decided to begin showing your private data to all your GMail contacts. No need to opt-in, no way to opt-out. Complaints haven’t been answered. Some users share their problems, including one family who says they won’t be able to enjoy this Christmas because of this feature
. You can check a summary of complaints or browse the whole thread in Google Groups — via Slashdot
From 20 January 2008 new content laws introduced by the Federal Government will force sites to verify the age of users before accessing content intended for mature audiences. The laws bring internet classification into line with Film and Book classification laws and completely prohibits X18+ and RC content from the internet. ACMA (The Australian Communications and Media Authority) claims that adults will not be affected by the new laws, yet user-generated and even chatrooms are required to be assessed for classification and powers are granted to ACMA to send take down
notices to offending sites — via Slashdot
Former FBI director J Edgar Hoover had a plan to arrest 12,000 Americans he deemed a possible threat to national security, declassified papers reveal. The FBI chief sent his proposal to US President Harry Truman just after the start of the Korean War in 1950. He asked the president to declare the mass arrest necessary to counter treason, espionage and sabotage
. There is no evidence any part of the plan was ever approved
The Organisation for Transformative Works has just launched. It’s a fascinating new proto-nonprofit determined to defend media fandom from the excesses of copyright and to help fanfic writers and vidders maintain control of their remixed works — via Boing Boing
An English court has banned a teenage boy from posting abusive or insulting comments on a social networking web site after judging his participation in the network to be anti-social. Norwich Youth Court in eastern England issued an Anti-Social Behavior Order (Asbo) against a local 17-year-old implicated in petty criminal boasting on the online community Bebo
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