COPYCENSE

"Staging a sort of a late-inning rally, America Online and Major League Baseball are teaming up in an instant-messaging deal.

"AOL and baseball’s interactive media and Internet company, MLB Advanced Media, announced an AOL instant-messaging feature that will give baseball fans real-time access to baseball scores, headlines, standings and fantasy game links, as well other baseball information, when they add the screen name ‘MLB’ to their Buddy List.

"The announcement comes with just a handful of games left to be played in the championship series and the World Series, which begins later this week."

Dawn Kawamoto. AOL Pitches Baseball for IM. News.com. Oct. 20, 2004.

See also:
Jim Hu. Sox Comeback Takes Web by Storm. News.com. Oct. 21, 2004.

SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.

“The Supreme Court on Tuesday let stand let stand a lower court decision holding that the recording industry can’t force internet service providers to turn over the names of users trading music files online, effectively stopping one of the legal tactics of the music business as it tries to stamp out piracy.

“The case (.pdf) pitted the Recording Industry Association of America against Verizon Internet Services, which earlier had challenged a 2002 copyright subpoena stemming from a provision in the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

“Tuesday’s loss came as a blow to the entertainment industry, which has tried to use litigation as a way to deter alleged copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks.”

Michael Grebb. Music Industry Spurned by Court. Wired News. Oct. 12, 2004.

See also:
Electronic Frontier Foundation. No “Fishing License” for the RIAA. Deep Links. Oct. 12, 2004.

No author. Subpoenas Snubbed in File-Sharing Fight. Red Herring. Oct. 12, 2004.

Gina Holland. High Court Won’t Hear Music Sharing Case. SiliconValley.com. Oct. 12, 2004.

Cynthia Webb. Supremes Quietly Change Piracy Debate. WashingtonPost.com. Oct. 13, 2004.

Update: WashingtonPost.com Supreme Court Internet Privacy Decision. Oct. 14, 2004. (Transcript of chat between Post writer David McGuire and Verizon vice president and associate general counsel Sarah Deutsch. Verizon was the lead party in the fight over keeping subscribers’ identities private from entertainment companies seeking to sue for copyright infringement.)

(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)

"A bill that would make it easier to sue online file-trading networks like Kazaa appeared on Friday to have died a quiet death, but other copyright bills sought by the entertainment industry continued to advance.

"The Senate Judiciary Committee declined late on Thursday to take up a bill that would hold liable anyone who ‘induces’ others to reproduce copyrighted material, a move observers said all but assures it would not become law this year."

Reuters. Copyright Bill Dies in Senate as Others Advance. News.com. Oct. 8, 2004.

See also:
Brooks Boliek. Induce Act Stalls as Compromise Talks Break Down. The Hollywood Reporter. Oct. 8, 2004.

Keith Regan. Congressional Action on Induce Act Could Be in Jeopardy. TechNewsWorld. Oct. 7, 2004.

"Wi-Fi hotspot operators must pay $1,000 a year, or face a lawsuit from a patent enforcement firm.

"Acacia Technologies Group says it is enforcing a patent it says covers the methods that wireless ISPs, WLAN aggregators and other Wi-Fi networks use to redirect users to a common login Web page. The company claims it owns the technology behind gateway page redirection.

"The Newport Beach, Calif.-based company is sending out information packets to Wi-Fi operators informing them of the patent claim and including a licensing agreement. Companies have 30 days to ask questions, sign the licensing pact, or prove to Acacia that the wireless operator is not infringing the patent."

Ed Sutherland. Hotspot Operators Face Patent Lawsuits. InternetNews.com. Oct. 8, 2004.

See also:
Nancy Gohring. Hotspot Operators Face New Patent Fee Demand. WiFi Networking News. Oct. 5, 2004.

"Google has quietly launched a new search technology to help publishers sell books online, a fast-growing market dominated by Internet retailer Amazon.com.

"Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will host a press conference on Thursday to demonstrate the technology at the Frankfurt Book Fair, an important showcase if the Internet search engine is to recruit the heavyweights of the book publishing industry.

"The new service, dubbed Google Print, will be incorporated into Google search queries. From launch, users will see book excerpts alongside ordinary Google Web page search results. The book excerpts will carry a link to buy the book from a choice of online book retailers."

Jeffrey Goldfarb. Google Launches Amazon-Style Book Search Business. Reuters. Oct 6, 2004.

See also:
Danny Sullivan. Google Print Opens Widely to Publishers. SearchEngineWatch. Oct. 6, 2004.
Associated Press. Google Expands Book Search, Making More Content Available. San Jose Mercury News. Oct. 6, 2004.
Keith Regan. Search Wars: Google, Snap, Amazon Arm for Battle. E-Commerce Times. Oct. 6, 2004.

"The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) was passed in 1994 to make it easier for the feds to listen in to everyone’s phone calls. The law forced phone companies to design their digital networks with special backdoors for government surveillance.

"There was a single saving grace – CALEA did not apply to the Internet.

But now, all of that could change. Under pressure from the Department of Justice (DoJ) and federal law enforcement, the FCC is gathering comments on a proposal to expand CALEA to cover broadband Internet access providers and Voice over IP (VoIP) telephony companies."

Electronic Frontier Foundation. A Government-Mandated Backdoor For Every Network. Deep Links. Oct. 6, 2004.

"Yesterday, Washington state made 2.4 million records available online – many for the first time – as part of what officials said was a crusade to rescue endangered history.

"The state now has an online archive of records, including birth, marriage, death, census and military information, free for anyone to see from a personal computer.

"This is the stuff of government,’ said Secretary of State Sam Reed, who led the project. ‘This is what makes it work. People need to have access to it.’

"Known as the Washington State Digital Archives, the government project is online at: www.digitalarchives.wa.gov."

Kim Peterson. State’s Online Archive Rescues Records From History’s Dustbin. Seattle Times. Oct. 5, 2004.

See also:
Washington Secretary of State. Secretary of State, Microsoft, EDS Rescue Endangered History. Oct. 4, 2004.