British Man Accused of Copyright Infringement
"A British man who runs a Web site that allegedly once supported the BitTorrent peer-to-peer application is facing the threat of being sued by four major U.S. movie studios.
"Kevin Reid has been accused of copyright infringement by Paramount Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios and Warner Bros. The studios filed a lawsuit in a U.S. court earlier this month claiming that copyright-protected films have been uploaded and downloaded from bds-palace.co.uk, which Reid runs.
"Reid has not yet been formally named as a defendant in the lawsuit. However, lawyers representing the four labels have served him with legal papers asking him to reach a settlement."
Graeme Wearden. U.K. Man Threatened with BitTorrent Lawsuit. News.com. March 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
PyMusique Opens iTunes Again
"A group of underground programmers has posted code online they say will reopen a back door in Apple Computer’s iTunes store, allowing Linux computer users to purchase music free of copy protection.
"The release comes just a day after Apple blocked a previous version of the program, called PyMusique, in part by requiring all iTunes customers to use the latest version of Apple’s software.
"In a blog posting, Norwegian programmer Jon Johansen, who was previously responsible for releasing software used to copy DVDs online, said he had been successful at reverse engineering the latest iTunes encryption."
John Borland. ‘DVD Jon’ Reopens iTunes Back Door. News.com. March 22, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Google Removes AFP Content
"Google has decided to remove Agence France Presse from Google News after the global news wire filed a lawsuit (.pdf) last week seeking to bar the display of its content on the news search engine.
"France-based AFP sued Google in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, alleging that Google News infringes on its copyright by displaying AFP headlines, images and story leads without its permission.
"But on Monday, a Google spokesman confirmed that the AFP will be dropped from the Google News index. Google also will retroactively remove AFP content from the news index."
Matt Hicks. Google to Drop AFP from News Index. eWeek. March 21, 2005.
See also:
United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Agence France Presse v. Google, Inc.. (.pdf) March 17, 2005.
Editor’s note See also SNTReport.com’s prior story on Google’s copyright lawsuit.
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
The Disappearance of Google X
"Google’s latest technology experiment paid tribute to Apple Computer, but the Mac OS X-themed version of the search king’s Web site was taken down a day after its debut.
"Google software engineer Chikai Ohazama played up his work, Google X, on the company’s blog on Tuesday. Located on Google’s test site, Google X featured an alternate way to connect to various services, allowing people to click on a series of graphical icons in a method inspired by a feature in Apple’s operating system.
"As of Wednesday afternoon, however, the Web page was inaccessible."
Stefanie Olsen and Ina Fried. Google’s X Files Vanish. News.com. March 16, 2005.
Chikai Ohazama. Google Goes X. Google Blog. March 15, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Same Debate, Different Era on Video Games
"Back in the early days of film, there was just no telling what damage the celluloid appearance of sulky Swede Greta Garbo might be inflicting on America’s impressionable youth.
"So it was that in 1931, some 40 religious and educational groups pressed Uncle Sam to regulate the film industry and thus protect minors from damage they might suffer from being exposed to ‘harmful’ content.
"Skip forward to 2005, and you can’t mistake the echo of that familiar argument in the push by legislators and private interest groups to get government to do something about violent video and computer games–the only difference being the particular object of society’s collective ire."
Charles Cooper. If Video Games Kill, What About the Bible?. News.com. March 18, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Disney to Release Films for Sony PSP
"Sony’s PlayStation Portable gained more support as a multimedia gadget, with Disney announcing plans on Wednesday to sell movies formatted for the sought-after device.
"Disney’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment division said in a statement that it plans to release movies on the Universal Media Disc, or UMD, format used by the PSP shortly after the device goes on sale in North America next week."
David Becker. Movie Support Grows for PSP. News.com. March 16, 2005.
SNTReport.com™ The Online Journal for Social Software, Digital Collaboration & Information Policy. A Seso Group™ Venture.
Anti-P2P Senator Will Lead New IP Subcommittee
"Orrin Hatch, the senator who once said the recording industry should be able to destroy music pirates’ PCs, will be in charge of a new Senate panel responsible for writing copyright laws.
"Hatch, a Utah Republican, on Thursday was formally named chairman of the Senate Intellectual Property subcommittee. It’s responsible for overseeing the U.S. Copyright Office and drafting legislation and treaties relating to copyright and patent laws."
Declan McCullagh. Anti-P2P Lawmaker Gets Top Senate Spot. News.com. March 17, 2005.
See also:
David McGuire. Hatch to Head Senate Panel on Copyright. WashingtonPost.com. March 17, 2005.
U.S. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary.
(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.)
SNTReport.com™ Covering the Intersection of Collaboration and Technology. A Seso Group™ Venture.
COPYCENSE 