Filmmaker Fined for Piracy
"’The Internationale,’ the rousing workers’ anthem adopted by communists and socialists from France to China, has turned out to be a pricey tune. French movie director Jean-Christophe Soulageon is being asked to pay $1,283 because the song was whistled without permission in his 2004 film ‘Insurrection Resurrection,’ the daily Le Monde reported Friday."
Associated Press. ‘The Internationale’ Tune Turns Pricey. Yahoo! New. April 8, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Slate Profiles Brewster Kahle
"Search-engine wiz and dot-com multimillionaire Brewster Kahle founded the Internet Archive in 1996 with a dream as big as the bridge: He wanted to back up the Internet. There were only 50 million or so URLs back then, so the idea only seemed half-crazy. As the Web ballooned to more than 10 billion pages, the archive’s main server farm — hidden across town in a data center beneath San Francisco’s other big bridge — grew to hold a half-million gigabytes of compressed and indexed pages.
"Kahle is less the Internet’s crazy aunt than its evangelical librarian. Like it or not, the Web is the world’s library now, and Kahle doesn’t trust the guys who shelve the books. They’re obsessed with posting new pages, not preserving old ones. Every day, Kahle laments, mounds of data get purged from the Web: government documents, personal sites, corporate communications, message boards, news reports that weren’t printed on paper. For most surfers, once a page disappears from Google’s cache it no longer exists."
Paul Boutin. The Archivist. Slate. April 7, 2005.
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Congress Mulls Mandatory DRM
"US legislators are debating whether to force Apple’s products to interoperate with Microsoft’s.
"The Congress have been considering a plan that would outlaw music protected by proprietary digital rights management (DRM) technology, such as Apple’s FairPlay, which stops iTunes downloads being played on Microsoft digital music players and vice versa.
"However, yesterday’s Congressional subcommittee hearing on ‘Digital Music Interoperability and Availability’, which included debate on mandating interoperability for digital music, received a ‘hands off’ message from industry representatives."
Jo Best. Law to Make iTunes Compatible with Microsoft?. Silicon.com. April 7, 2005.
See also:
Silicon.com. Leader: Apple Work with Microsoft? Let the People Decide. April 7, 2005.
Erika Morphy. Congress Holds Hearings on Digital Music. CRM Daily. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
New York Court Reestablishes Common Law Copyright
"A major change to US music copyright practices could be in the offing after a court ruled a record label broke the law by reissuing old recordings.
"New York’s highest court said Naxos was wrong to release classical recordings by Yehudi Menuhin and others – even though they were out of copyright.
"The court said such recordings were still covered by common law."
BBC News. Court Secures Classical Copyright. April 6, 2005.
See also:
John Caher. N.Y. High Court Expands Copyright Protection for Recordings. Law.com. April 6, 2005.
Michael Gormley. Court Rules Common Law Protects Recordings. SFGate.com. April 5, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Lessig Speaks On Flash Restrictions
"Copyright reformer Lawrence Lessig gave Flash developers an earful Wednesday about how their platform of choice is perceived in the free-software world.
"Flash is the enemy," said Lessig, a Stanford University professor and board member of the Free Software Foundation, as he described the opinions of leading free- and open-source-software advocates.
"Lessig, addressing attendees of the Flashforward2005 conference here Wednesday, sounded familiar themes in his talk, titled ‘The Costs of Copyright.’
He argued that the digital age has created new demands for the sharing of content that old-media copyright law cannot meet. As a result, he said, outdated copyright law is casting a pall over creative expression and education."
Paul Festa. Lessig Preaches Openness to Flash Faithful. News.com. April 6, 2005.
See also:
Paul Festa. Fighting for a New Net Copyright Deal. News.com. June 6, 2003.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Duke Curtails Free iPod Program
"Dude, not everybody’s getting a free iPod next year.
"Duke University, which handed out Apple iPod digital music players to all incoming freshmen last fall, has altered its program, saying it will dole out iPods across the undergraduate student body, but only for classes in which the teacher has requested it."
Jefferson Graham. Duke’s Free iPods Will go Just for Classes. USA Today. April 7, 2005.
See also:
Ina Fried. Duke Puts Restrictions on Free iPod Program. News.com. April 7, 2005.
Michael Felberbaum. Duke Students will Have to Buy Their Own iPods Next Year. Chicago Sun-Times. April 7, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Movie Industry to Follow Apple’s iTunes Lead
"Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, said at a US Digital Hollywood conference that it wanted to create an "iTunes" for films.
"Films will be put onto flash memory for mobiles over the next year, said Mr Arrieta, and it will develop its digital download services for films.
"Movie studios are keen to stop illegal file-sharing on peer-to-peer nets and cash in on digital the download market."
BBC News. Sony Wants an ‘iTunes for Movies’. March 31, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
COPYCENSE 