COPYCENSE

"Colleges and universities across the country are taking new steps to fight rampant Internet music piracy by beefing up their education efforts, offering legal music downloading options and stiffening penalties for illegal file sharing, according to a report released today.

"The report, which was prepared by a coalition of higher education institutions and the recording industry, said that schools are adopting new policies as well as technological and educational measures to ensure that students have access to online music without resorting to illegal downloads."

Jonathan Krim. Justice Dept. to Announce Cyber-Crime Crackdown. WashingtonPost.com. Aug. 25, 2004.

See also:
Katie Dean. Music Services Score an A-Plus. Wired News. Aug. 24, 2004.
Cynthia L. Webb. Online Music Goes Back to School. WashingtonPost.com. Aug. 24, 2004.

(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 dispute between SBC IP Communications and state utility agencies over how to distribute phone numbers promises to shape regulations that are key to the future of the fledgling Net telephony industry.

"SBC IP Communications, a subsidiary of SBC, wants to sidestep the usual procedures and get telephone numbers directly from the North American Numbering Plan Administration (NANPA), without first obtaining a state telephone operator’s license.

"Last month, SBC IP asked (.pdf) the Federal Communications Commission for a temporary waiver of the licensing requirement.

"Without an unfettered supply of phone numbers from NANPA, SBC IP argues, it and other carriers’ rollouts of Net phone service will be hampered."

Ben Charny.VoIP Firm Tussles With States Over Phone Numbers. News.com. Aug. 19, 2004.

"Jon Lech Johansen, the Norwegian hacker famous for cracking DVD encryption, says he has cracked Apple AirPort Express.

"Johansen has revealed the public key that Apple AirPort Express, a wireless networking protocol, uses to encrypt music sent between iTunes and a wireless base station.

"AirPort Express was released in June 2004 as a small wireless bridge from a personal computer to a stereo. Details of the AirPort Express codes were also published on Johansen’s weblog, which is called So Sue Me."

Lars Pasveer. Hacker Takes Bite Out of Apple’s iTunes. News.com. Aug. 12, 2004.

"According to Internet statistician ComScore Media Metrix, JibJab’s online lampoon of President Bush and Sen. John Kerry received 10.4 million unique hits during the month of July.

"It’s just amazing,’ said Spiridellis, who founded JibJab with his brother Evan in 1999. ‘It really speaks to the power of word-of-mouth advertising.’

"The political movie did manage to attract the attention of music publisher Ludlow Music, however, which owns the rights to Guthrie’s original song. The music company sent JibJab a cease-and-desist letter (.pdf), asking that the site be taken down. The online media company responded (.pdf) with legal action aimed at defending its fair-use rights to the music."

Matt Hines. Political Parody Draws Web Crowd. News.com. Aug. 16, 2004.

Fred von Lohmann, Senior Intellectual Property Attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has pointed out in a recent Deep Links post that the Disney Company is attempting to get the Federal Communications Commission to regulate "all devices capable of recording from any audio broadcasting medium or from the Internet." Regulation would come via a broadcast flag.

Deep Links. Nose. Camel. Tent. Aug. 6, 2004.

The American Library Association Washington Office’s Office for Information and Technology Policy is in the process of developing the Copyright Advisory Network, an online resource that will allow librarians to post questions about copyright issues, and receive answers to those issues. The answers will come from the Association’s copyright experts, presumably including Carrie Russell, who writes the "Carrie on © column in School Library Journal, and is the author of Complete Copyright.

"The ALA should be appluaded for taking this step. It will be interesting to see how the Association navigates unauthorized practice of law concerns, and it also will be interesting to see the volume and nature of questions that may be posted to the Network.

Above all, this initiative highlights how important copyright knowledge is to all information professionals, including librarians. It is a shame, however, that so few graduate information science programs devote a full course to the topic. When last I checked about a year ago, no more than five of this nation’s ALA-accredited graduate library science programs offer a course in copyright law. (Fortunately, my alma mater, Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, is one of them.)

American Library Association. Copyright Advisory Network.

Attribution: SNTReport.com first discovered news of the Copyright Advisory Network through a posting in LibraryLaw Blog, edited by Mary Minow.

"RealNetworks’ RealPlayer program once defined digital multimedia online — it was the only way to listen to scratchy Web radio or watch grainy Web video. Today Apple’s iPod holds a similar role in the MP3-player market — it’s the gadget everybody seems to want.

"Both of these products were recently updated: Apple’s newest iPod adds the best design features of the iPod mini, while RealPlayer 10.5 adds the unprecedented feature of iPod compatibility."

Rob Pegoraro. RealPlayer’s iPod-Compatible Update ‘Stunned’ Apple. WashingtonPost.com. Aug. 8, 2004.

(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.)