Universal Music have announced that they’re going to try selling much of their catalogue without DRM from now until January. People who don’t want to pay for music just download it from P2P, where all the music is already available for free, without DRM. If you want to convince people to buy your music, you can’t start by making it worse than the free stuff. So it’s inevitable that Universal would come around to this position. They’re not selling DRM-free tracks through iTunes (where Apple charges a 30 percent premium) — they’re selling them through Apple’s competitors — via Slashdot
Medical firm Johnson & Johnson is suing the American Red Cross, alleging the charity has misused the famous red cross symbol for commercial purposes. J&J said a deal with the charity’s founder in 1895 gave it the exclusive use
of the symbol as a trademark for drug, chemical and surgical products. It said American Red Cross had violated this agreement by licensing the symbol to other firms to sell certain goods. The charity described the lawsuit as obscene
. It said many of the products at issue were health and safety kits and that profits from their sale had been used to support disaster-relief campaigns — via Ben Templesmith
The Australian coffee industry is furious at news that coffee giant Nestle is trying to get the exclusive rights to images of coffee in a coffee mug. It is just the latest high profile company to try to claim a common image. Recently there has been a legal battle between Cadbury and Darrell Lea over the colour purple, and Toyota has been considering action against Jetstar over the jumping used in the airline’s advertising. The Nestle move has infuriated coffee traders and sellers — via Ben Templesmith
In a big win for TV viewers around the country, independent EPG provider IceTV has won their eight month battle against Channel Nine. This morning Justice Annabelle Bennett ruled in favour of IceTV that their EPG does not infringe Nine’s copyright in their television schedule. The entire Nine Network case was dismissed, with IceTV declared an independent compilation
built wholly by their own means
A security expert hired by eleven Oklahoma State University students picked apart the testimony of the RIAA’s own expert witness, pointing out the oversimplifications made by the RIAA in its lawsuits against suspected file-sharers
One of the largest surveys of music consumers (PDF: 2007 Digital Music Survey) to closely examine the question of DRM has an important two-part message for the music industry. The first is that DRM is definitely turning consumers off music sales, and charging them extra to get rid of it may be an uphill battle. The second message is that knowledge of DRM and its problems is spreading fast
Adium have noticed that there seems to be quite a bit of censorship on MSN. Essentially, a number of suspicious strings result in silent failure of delivery. The strings are unsurprisingly things like .scr and .info. They’ve started maintaining a list if you’re interested
Dismissing a defamation suit brought by the inventor of DOS against a British writer, a judge has left unchallenged computer industry lore that holds the operating system Microsoft licensed to IBM in the 1980s — thereby launching Bill Gates’ multibillion dollar software empire — was a knock off. In a book on American innovation, author Sir Harold Evans wrote that DOS inventor Tim Paterson relied heavily on an existing OS called CP/M (Control Program/Monitor) created by a programmer, Gary Kildall, who has since died. Microsoft in 1980 struck a licensing deal with Paterson’s company — Seattle Computer Products — to obtain access to DOS and resell it to IBM
Bloggers making Freedom of Information Act requests to the CIA will likely get them processed for free under new rules that broaden the definition of who is part of the news media
. Professional journalists have long been able to request free processing of their FOIA requests of the intelligence agency. As a general rule, they don’t have to pay fees for searching and retrieving files, although they may be charged for duplication costs — via Billboard
The British Government has rejected extending copyright for sound recordings. This is an important development in the face of trends to extend copyright duration, although it leaves British copyright protection for music recordings at a shorter duration than for written works. The decision came despite fierce lobbying from the large British music industry. The music industry will now lobby directly to the European Commission, but without the support of the national government, its position is significantly weakened. British copyright for music recordings therefore remains at 50 years after the date of release of a recording, in contrast to 95 years in the US and 70 years in Australia — via Slashdot
The FBI has used PC spyware for the first time to reveal the identity of an offender who sent bomb threats to a high school in Washington state. According to heise Security, a declaration from the FBI official who applied for the search warrant describes the mode of operation of the spyware which the FBI is using under the abbreviation CIPAV (Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier)
Tuesday, there wasn’t even a fuss. Wednesday, the world was a little different. By executive order, the Secretary of the Treasury may now seize the property of any person who undermines efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq. The Secretary may make his determination in secret and after the fact. The UK’s Guardian has an article explaining how the new authority will only be used to go after terrorists — via Slashdot
In March, the Justice Department’s Inspector General revealed that FBI agents had sent a flurry of fake emergency letters to phone companies, asking them to turn over phone records immediately by promising that the proper papers had been filed with US attorneys, though in many cases this was a complete lie. More than 60 of these letters were made public as part of a FBI document dump in response to a government sunshine lawsuit centered on the FBI’s abuse of a key Patriot Act power
EFF has obtained FBI documents showing years of chronic problems with its use of National Security Letters (NSLs). The issue first drew widespread attention four months ago, when the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General released a report revealing extensive misuse of NSLs in a sampling of four FBI field offices. These findings were, unfortunately, not surprising to critics of the Bureau’s NSL power. Before the USA PATRIOT Act was passed in 2001, the FBI could unilaterally issue these demands only to obtain the records of suspected terrorists or spies. Under the changes made by the controversial anti-terrorism law, however, the FBI can now use NSLs to get telephone, Internet, financial, credit, and other personal records about anybody — without any court approval — as long as it believes the information could be relevant
to an authorised terrorism or espionage investigation
In the end it looks like the Swedish police dropped the Pirate Bay from the list of sites filtered for containing child porn. The update of the filter, which is scheduled for later this week, won’t contain the Swedish file-sharing giant. The police say that the reason for this change is that the torrent containing the porn has been removed. But the Pirate Bay states that no files have been removed — via Slashdot
A showdown between Rising Tech, a Chinese Antivirus vendor, and Kaspersky Lab in a Chinese court could have implications for software vendors that misidentify system files and files from their competitors as being malicious — via Slashdot
A court has ruled that the Belgian ISP Scarlet Extended SA is responsible for blocking illegal file-sharing on its network, setting a precedent that could affect other ISPs in Europe, according to a recording industry group. Belgium’s Court of First Instance has given the Internet service provider six months to install technology to prevent its customers from sharing pirated music and video files. The music industry has long sought to hold ISPs responsible for illegal file-sharing on their networks, although in the US it has been largely unsuccessful. ISPs have argued that they provide a service like a post office or a telephone company, and shouldn’t be required to police the traffic on their networks
The eagerly awaited new album by Prince is being launched as a free CD with a national Sunday newspaper in a move that has drawn widespread criticism from music retailers. One music store executive described the plan as madness
while others said it was a huge insult to an industry battling fierce competition from supermarkets and online stores. Prince’s label has cut its ties with the album in the UK to try to appease music stores
Banks in New Zealand are seeking access to customer PCs used for online banking transactions to verify whether they have enough security protection. Under the terms of a new banking Code of Practice, banks may request access in the event of a disputed transaction to see if security protection in is place and up to date. The code, issued by the Bankers’ Association last week after lengthy drafting and consultation, now has a new section dealing with Internet banking
Online auction site eBay has made public the details of a three-year long campaign to curb online fraud being perpetrated from criminals in Romania — an effort that has resulted in several hundred arrests
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