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Copyright

privacy

Judge Orders Google To Turn Over All YouTube User Data To Viacom

Wired's Threat Level blog says that the judge in the Viacom/Google lawsuit has made a ruling forcing Google to turn over "every record of every video watched by YouTube users, including users' names and IP addresses," to Viacom. More »

copyright

Leaked ACTA Treaty Will Outlaw P2P

ACTA—the misleadingly named "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement"—is the worldwide copyright treaty that's being negotiated behind closed doors, and that will create a sort of global DMCA if continues in its current state. Now Wikileaks has posted a draft of the treaty, and Boing Boing's Cory Doctorow gives his take:

Among other things, ACTA will outlaw P2P (even when used to share works that are legally available, like my books), and crack down on things like region-free DVD players. All of this is taking place out of the public eye, presumably with the intention of presenting it as a fait accompli just as the ink is drying on the treaty.

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bad company

EMI Says You Can't Store Your Music Files Online

Today, MP3tunes' CEO Michael Robertson sent out an email to all users of the online music backup and place-shifting service MP3tunes.com, asking them to help publicize EMI's ridiculous and ignorant lawsuit against the company. EMI believes that consumers aren't allowed to store their music files online, and that MP3tunes is violating copyright law by providing a backup service. (And we're not using a euphemism here—it really is a backup/place-shifting service and not a file sharing site in disguise.) More »

worst company in america

Universal Music Group: Throwing Away Promotional CDs Is An "Unauthorized Distribution"

All promotional CDs are forever the property of Universal Music Group and giving or throwing them away are "unauthorized distributions," according to a brief filed by UMG. In a lawsuit filed in federal court, UMG claims that ownership rights to promotional CDs, typically sent to DJs, reviewers, and others in the music business to generate hype for new releases, are expressly retained by the label. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is taking up the fight against this absurd position in UMG v. Augusto. More »

riaa

RIAA Pockets Filesharing Settlement Money, Doesn't Pay Artists Whose Copyrights Were Infringed

None of the estimated $400 million that the RIAA received in settlements with Napster, KaZaA, and Bolt over allegations of copyright infringement has gone to the artists whose copyrights were allegedly infringed. Now the artists are considering suing the RIAA. More »

copyright

After Further Review, NFL Decides Churches Will Be Allowed To Host SuperBowl Parties

Don't you just love instant replay? The NFL has decided to reverse its previous ruling and allow religious organizations to hold SuperBowl parties "regardless of size." Previously, the only exception had been for sports bars.
The league has said that organizations that host public viewings of its games on television screens larger than 55 inches violate its copyright. Sports bars are exempted. Last year, the league sent letters to two churches advising them of the policy.
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copyright

Church Planning A SuperBowl Party? Don't Tell The NFL

Federal copyright law allows sports bars to show NFL games on screens larger than 55", but churches are not extended the same luxury, says the Washington Post:
"There is a part of me that says, 'Gee, doesn't the NFL have enough money already?'" said Steve Holley, Immanuel's executive pastor. He pointed out that bars are still allowed to air the game on big-screens TV sets. "It just doesn't make sense."
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pervs

"Family Friendly" Movie Censors Were Running Porn Business

According to the Provo, UT Daily Herald the founder of "Flix Club" a defunct company that edited swearing and nudity from films and resold them as "family friendly' versions, has been arrested on charges that he and another man paid two 14-year-old girls for sex. Police also said that the men may have been using the "family friendly" video business as a front for producing porn. More »

lawsuits

Diane Von Furstenberg Sues Target For Copyright Infringement

Wrap-dress designer extraordinaire Diane Von Furstenberg has sued Target, claiming the retailer is selling dresses with a print that is nearly identical to its "spotted frog design."

"Defendants' infringing dresses are 'wrap' dresses made of materials designed to look like silk jersey, a style consumers and the general public have come to associate with DVF," the complaint said.
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videos

Joel Johnson Hijacks AT&T Funded Show To Question Internet Filtering Plans

Joel Johnson, Boing Boing Gadgets editor, was booked to go onto an AT&T sponsored and underwritten show to talk about how cool gadgets are, but instead hijacked the interview to discuss The Big Blue And White Ball's recently announced plans to spy on the internet. The Hugh Thompson show is made by AT&T to show solely on its online AT&T Tech Channel, so what better way to count coup then to use it as a forum to ask why AT&T, in the interest of stopping potential copyright violations, wants to peer into every bundle of data its users send over the internets. After Joel keeps talking about the AT&T announcement, eventually Big Brother's voice comes over the studio loudspeakers and says "Hold, please." Gawker videographer Richard Blakeley taped this part of the interview and was grabbed by three security guards which he tried to exit, but eventually he was allowed to leave with the tape. They probably just wanted to analyze his packets for potential IP infringement. Read the rest of Joel's description of the event over at Boing Boing Gadgets. Our platonic man-crush on Joel just got larger.

Talking About AT&T's Internet Filtering on AT&T's The Hugh Thompson Show [Boing Boing Gadgets]


Why J.K. Rowling should lose her misguided copyright lawsuit against the author of a Harry Potter reference book. [Slate via BoingBoing]

misguided

Ford: Photos Of Your Car Are Copyright Infringement

Well, this seems misguided. A group of people who are members of the "Black Mustang Club" wanted to take some pictures of their cars and make a calendar using CafePress. Turns out, CafePress refuses to publish pictures of Ford cars due to claims of copyright infringement: More »

copyright

Procter & Gamble Sues Over Shampoo Bottle Infringement

Procter & Gamble has filed a lawsuit against a California company, claiming that it stole the design for their Herbal Essences shampoo bottle molds. More »

fake news

RIAA Sends Out Fake News Clip To TV Stations

The RIAA wants you to know that everyone loses with pirated products, so they've put together a fake news story and sent it out to TV stations around the country—maybe it will show up on your cash-strapped local news over the next few days, if you're lucky. We're torn, though, on posting this because it's being leaked (promoted?) heavily by the video news release (VNR) company that produced it—we want you to scoff at it with us, but keep your bullshit "stealth marketing" sensors up. More »

copyright

Article Recounts Sony's Rootkit Debacle In Detail

Remember Sony's cringe-inducing copy protection scheme a couple of years ago, where they secretly installed rootkits on millions of customers' PCs and then pretended it was no big deal? ("Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?" — Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's President of Global Digital Business.) There's a new article (PDF) about to be published in the Berkely Technology Law Journal called "The Magnificence of the Disaster: Reconstructiong the Sony BMG Rootkit Incident." It's a very detailed and entertaining read that examines the conditions that led Sony BMG "toward a strategy that in retrospect appears obviously and fundamentally misguided." More »

worst company in america

Congress Wants To Up Copyright Infringement Penalties

The usual gang of RIAA-funded suspects have introduced a bill that would boost US intellectual property laws and the penalties that go along with them, and allow the U.S. government to seize computers, says Ars Technica. More »


copyright

J.K. Rowling Sues To Stop Publication Of Fan-Written Potter Reference Book

Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling takes a dim view of independently authored reference books, it seems. She's joined a lawsuit to stop the publication of a fan-written reference book based on a website that she herself admitted to using while fact checking her writing. More »