“If we do not receive acceptable answers, Congress will be forced to act,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee after sending a chiding letter and “survey” to 20 U.S. universities thought to have the “greatest amount of online piracy.”
copyright
Proposed Legislation To Save Internet Radio
By 5.1.07
As you may well know, U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.) filed legislation that would reverse a recent decision of the federal Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to drastically increase the amount internet radio stations have to pay to air their songs. For those of you interested you can read the proposed legislation, here. This is yet another one of those situations where you may want to write a letter expressing your opinion.
RIAA 1, NPR 0: Copyright Royalty Board Denies Motion For Rehearing
By 4.18.07
Internet broadcasters suffered a blow Monday when the Copyright Royalty Board judges denied a motion for rehearing sponsored by NPR and other broadcasters. The motion denies a rehearing on the grounds that the parties did not offer sufficient new evidence. They also denied a motion to stay the enforcement of the new royalty rate until the appeal process is complete, claiming that if the rate is eventually overturned it can be refunded.
RIAA Files 23 "John Doe" Lawsuits Against NC State Students
By 4.13.07
From the Technician Online:
Pam Gerace, the director of Student Legal Services at the University, is fighting the lawsuits for her student clients. She advises that the students should remain anonymous.
College Radio Feels The Effects Of The RIAA
By 4.6.07
Internet radio’s low overhead allows for stations to broadcast on a shoestring budget and still access a worldwide audience. For some college stations that only have small transmitters or broadcast in small communities, streaming actually becomes the main source for listeners.
RIAA Sends Cease And Desist Letters To Its Own Viral Marketing Campaign
By 4.6.07
Trent Reznor leaks songs from his new album via USB drives hidden in bathrooms. Fans share the songs. Websites post the songs. Websites receive cease and desist letters from the RIAA. From Billboard:
Another Web posting alleged that all this activity resulted in entertainment blog Idolator and other sites receiving e-mail from the Recording Industry Association of America, demanding that they remove the MP3s from their sites. An RIAA representative confirms this, a move that boggles the minds of many. “These f*cking idiots are going after a campaign that the label signed off on,” the source says.
Good job, guys. —MEGHANN MARCO
MPAA's Most Wanted: MPAA Compiles List Of Top 25 "Pirate" Universities
By 4.2.07
It wasn’t too long ago that the RIAA compiled their list of the universities most infested by alleged music pirates, and now it seems the MPAA is following suit. The RIAA used their list to target universities, sending threatening letters to the school’s administration, insisting that they forward “settlement letters” to students who matched IP addresses the record companies had harvested from P2P sharing programs. Now the MPAA has a list of its own, compiled at the request of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary. Read the list inside…
The RIAA Wants To Interrogate Your 10 Year-Old
By 3.26.07
Tanya Andersen, a 42 year-old mother on disability accused of downloading “gangster rap”, doesn’t want the RIAA to interrogate her 10 year-old. The RIAA says the 10 year-old is a material witness. Tanya’s motion to the court argues:
“Emphasizing whether they can subject this young girl to distress, plaintiffs ignore whether they should. The should aspect of this evaluation is easy: Mrs. Andersen and her daughter should not be subjected to any more abuse in this litigation whatsoever.”
Tanya’s motion goes on to say that the plaintiffs know she is not the kazaa user who downloaded and shared music files, and that “a 5 minute Google search is all that was necessary to establish this and avoid the stress and damages to Ms. Andersen and her daughter.”—MEGHANN MARCO
Purdue University Will Gladly Forward RIAA Letters To Students
By 3.21.07
If an Internet user notified decides not to pay the settlement, the music association will ask the university for its computer logs so it can pursue legal action. University spokeswoman Jeanne Norberg said the university would comply with the requests.
NPR Bites Back: Files Motion Against RIAA Internet Rate Increase
By 3.21.07
Today, on behalf of the public radio system, NPR filed a motion for rehearing with the Copyright Royalty Board in response to its March 2, 2007 decision on rates for streaming internet music. This action is the first step in NPR’s efforts to reverse the decision, and it will be followed by an appeal of the Board’s decision to be filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Yeah! They’re bringing the fight! According to Andi Sporkin, Vice President for Communications, NPR: “The Board’s decision to dramatically raise public radio stations’ rates was based on inaccurate assumptions and lack of understanding of the issues. The new rates inexplicably break with the longstanding tradition of recognizing public radio’s non-commercial, non-profit role, while the procedures we’re being asked to now undertake for measurement are non-existent, arbitrary and costly.” Read the filing inside.
RIAA Sues Stroke Victim Who Didn't Even Live In the Correct State
By 3.14.07
RIAA Sues Stroke Victim in Michigan [Recording Industry vs The People via BoingBoing]
Explain DRM To Your Dad
By 2.17.07
Ever try to explain why DRM is bad for consumers to someone who just didn’t get it? Wired’s Listening Post Blog has a bunch of good examples. We don’t know if they’d work on your Dad (does Dad give a crap about Linux and Region 2 DVDs?), but they are nice examples of ways that DRM gets in the way of consumer goals. —MEGHANN MARCO
RIAA Tries To Avoid Paying Expensive Lawyers By Bullying ISPs
By 2.14.07
“The RIAA has sent out a letter to the ISPs telling them to stop making mistakes in identifying subscribers, and offering a ‘Pre-Doe settlement option’ — with a discount of ‘$1000 or more’ — to their subscribers, if and only if the ISP agrees to preserve its logs for 180 days. Other interesting points in the letter (PDF): the RIAA will be launching a web site for ‘early settlements,’ http://www.p2plawsuits.com”
That’s cool, just bypass the legal system with a scary letter and a website. ISPs aren’t going to fall for this, are they? Comcast? Verizon? Are you there? —MEGHANN MARCO
Pottery Barn to Target: You Stole Our Stockings
By 12.19.06
- “Williams-Sonoma, which operates Pottery Barn and other chains, claims in a federal lawsuit filed last week that a quilted Christmas stocking sold at Target stores contains “every distinctive element of Pottery Barn Christmas stockings,” right down to the snowflakes and blue sky.
Williams-Sonoma isn’t the first to sue Target over copyright infringement. “Lucky Brand Dungarees, which sells $100-plus jeans worn by the likes of Salma Hayek and Sandra Bullock, filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York, accusing Target of copying its distinctive floral design jeans and its rear-pocket stitching.” It seems like Target is taking their knock-off aesthetic a bit too far. They’d better get back to partnering with designers and stay away from ripping them off, lest lawsuits drive up prices.—MEGHANN MARCO
Unlock Your Cellphone Now
By 11.28.06
The US Copyright office killed cellphone crippleware companies locking your phone to their sepecific service last week. We heard about this but didn’t post anything, as we didn’t see anything actually compelling cellphone companies to let you enjoy the full use of your phone. full phone portability.
Target Agrees To Stop Selling “Coach” Bags
By 10.25.06
Today, Coach dropped a trademark infringement suit alleging Target sold counterfeit versions of a popular purse, the Python Signature Striped Demi.
Windows Media Player 11 is Big Brother?
By 9.22.06
Watch out! Don’t burn that Shania Twain CD with Microsoft Windows Media Player 11, or it might encode whatever you rip with DRM.
Amazon Unboxed Is Also Unhinged
By 9.18.06
Those copyfighters over at BoingBoing have uncovered some tasty tidbits in the user agreement of Amazon’s new Video-on-Demand service. The gist?
