As VHS tapes and VCRs head the way of Betamax and phonographs, commentator Bill Hammack warns that the right to fair use is in danger of disappearing right along with them
The DMCA-like amendments to the New Zealand Copyright Act passed their first hurdle in parliament, with an overwhelming 113 to 6 vote to pass the Bill to the Commerce Select Committee for further discussion. The detail-oriented can read the full debate (or rather lack of debate), and one enterprising New Zealand legal blogger has an excellent series of posts on the Bill, its background, and its implications. New Zealanders interested in fighting this legislation have until the 16th of February 2007 to make submissions to the Select Committee, before the committee makes its recommendations and sends the Bill back for a second reading — via Slashdot
Nanotechnology, the use of subatomic materials as microscopic building blocks for thousands of consumer products, has turned into a big business so quickly that few are monitoring its effects on health and the environment. So the government of Berkeley, California, is intending for the city to be the first to step into the breach and try to regulate this industry
After years of selling online music digitally wrapped with copy and playback restrictions designed to hinder piracy, major music labels are beginning to make some songs available in the unrestricted MP3 file format
When Iranian journalist Mojtaba Saminejad was sentenced to prison for insulting his leader, it was not for a newspaper article. His story was posted on his personal Web blog. Nearly one-third of journalists now serving time in prisons around the world published their work on the Internet, the second-largest category behind print journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in an analysis released Thursday
German Minister of the Interior, Gunther Beckstein, is seeking jail time for violent game developers, publishers, and players. The draft law, a reaction to a school shooting that shook German public opinion last month, will come before the upper house of parliament next year. But it is already sending shockwaves through the 2m-strong German online gaming community
Social networking web site MySpace says it will release tools to identify and ban US sex offenders from its service. The company said the new service will be the first national database that brings together about 46 US state sex offender registers. This is on the heels of proposed legislation that would require sex offenders to keep their email on file. The addresses would presumably be used to restrict former criminals from accessing online community sites, but in an the era of easily obtainable email addresses it’s hard to see how this would be effective
Providers like Skype, Yahoo, Net2phone, Dialpad, etc, will not be able to offer VOIP in India under the proposed government clampdown. BPOs and other call centres will face the axe if they use any of the VOIP services provided by the above companies. It is not clear if this clampdown will affect regular home users
Games console makers such as Sony Computer Entertainment and Microsoft may need to re-engineer anti-piracy technology in consoles made for the Australian market to stop consumers using illegal game titles. Amendments to Australia’s copyright laws expected to be passed this week will make it legal for consumers to use modified chips (mod-chips) that circumvent anti-piracy technology built into game consoles if they also overcome measures that restrict the use of DVDs and games titles purchased legally in other regions
An outspoken opponent of US government efforts to reestablish the gray wolf in western states has pleaded guilty to trying to poison the federally protected species. Tim Sundles, 48, planted meatballs laced with a poisonous pesticide in Idaho’s remote Salmon-Challis National Forest in 2004 with the aim of killing wolves. The meatballs instead poisoned a coyote, fox, magpies and three pet dogs. Sundles could face as much as six months behind bars and five years probation
The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone’s microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The technique is called a roving bug
, and was approved by top US Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organised crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him
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
A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan — via Pagan Prattle
Bob Averill, a student at the Art Institute of Portland, claims he was expelled for being an atheist after he challenged a young woman’s belief in the ludicrous. I jokingly asked her if she believed in leprechauns. It turns out, she does. They live on another energy layer,
Averill told the Portland Mercury. In the interest of bringing my own view to the discussion, I began to ask her how she knew these things. Again I know all too well that people can be sensitive about their spiritual beliefs, so I was pretty much walking on glass as I did so.
The other student complained to the teacher, and Averill was eventually expelled — via Portland Mercury
Mobile phone owners will be allowed to break software locks on their handsets in order to use them with competing carriers under new copyright rules. Other copyright exemptions approved by the Library of Congress will let film professors copy snippets from DVDs for educational compilations and let blind people use special software to read copy-protected electronic books. All told, Librarian of Congress James H Billington approved six exemptions, the most his Copyright Office has ever granted. For the first time, the office exempted groups of users. The new rules will take effect Monday and expire in three years. In granting the exemption for mobile phone users, the Copyright Office determined that consumers aren’t able to enjoy full legal use of their handsets because of software locks that wireless providers have been placing to control access to phones’ underlying programs
After three years of delays, a massive database containing personal information on every Australian with a phone number could soon be protected. A Bill before federal Parliament includes fines up to $66,000 or two years imprisonment for anyone misusing personal information in the Telstra-managed phone directory. It is three years since the Australian Communications and Media Authority raised concerns about misuse of data in the Integrated Public Number Database, a complete and always up-to-date electronic directory of all listed and unlisted phone numbers and contact details. It is used by emergency services, telcos and producers of public number databases, but only emergency services are authorised to access silent lines
A law is being rushed through the Australian legislature that will criminalise great swaths of the citizenry. The Internet Industry Association of Australia is posting warning scenarios spelling out how far-reaching this law would be
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
The MPAA has launched yet another defensive attack
, this time on a small business that is pre-loading movie DVDs onto iPods and reselling them. The original DVDs of the movies that are loaded are also given to the customer. The MPAA is claiming that the service Load ‘N Go Video offers is completely illegal because ripping a DVD is against the DMCA. The MPAA is also suing the company for copyright violation — via Slashdot
Steve Bracks has seized on a secret deal the Liberal Party has struck with fundamentalist hate preacher Danny Nalliah not to decriminalise abortion. The Premier said the Liberal action was odd and that party leader Ted Baillieu should not have his policy constructed behind the back door
by other groups
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