Combating Intellectual Property Theft
"File-swapping wasn’t such a big deal when all you had to lose was a lousy download. But ever since the RIAA has gotten serious about making people pay for what they play, it’s a different story.
"The RIAA is one of the industry groups that have joined forces with a Justice Dept. task force formed to combat intellectual-property theft.
"The task force is chaired by David Israelite, deputy chief of staff and counselor to Attorney General John Ashcroft. In contrast to the RIAA, which has focused on filing civil lawsuits against accused pirates, Israelite can slap scofflaws with criminal charges."
Patricia O’Connell. Piracy and "Economic National Security". BusinessWeek Online. August 2, 2004.
The New Copyright
"Copyright law gives NBC and other broadcasters the power to deny anyone the use of its content, at least presumptively. If you want to rebroadcast Meet the Press or sell copies on the Internet, you need NBC’s permission. There are exceptions, at least in theory. The law, for example, exempts ‘fair uses’ of copyrighted material from the control of its owner. If a clip is short enough, or if its use is sufficiently transformative or critical, then the law allows its use, whether permission is granted or not.
"In practice, however, the matter isn’t that simple. The costs of defending a fair use right in court – and, more important, the costs if any such defense should fail – make the risk prohibitive for most creators. Defense of fair use could run hundreds of thousands of dollars – several times the budget of a typical documentary. And losing this type of claim could expose the filmmaker to $150,000 in damages for each copyright infringed. In a world in which Fox News sues comedian and author Al Franken for parodying ‘fair and balanced,’ a cautious director can’t be too careful."
Lawrence Lessig. Copyrighting the President. Wired. Aug. 2004.
RIAA Wins Preliminary Victory
"A federal judge has handed a preliminary victory to the recording industry by granting its request to unmask anonymous file swappers accused of copyright infringement.
"U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ruled (.pdf) Monday that Cablevision, which provides broadband Internet access in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, can be required to divulge the identities of its subscribers sued over copyright violations.
"This ruling is the latest decision to clarify what legal methods copyright holders may use when hunting down people who are trading files on peer-to-peer networks."
Declan McCullagh. Judge: RIAA can unmask File Swappers. News.com. July 27, 2004.
Digital Tune Sales Double
"Sales of digital tunes in 2004 in the United States will reach $270 million, more than double the takings from the previous year, according to a report released by JupiterResearch.
"That revenue will rise to $1.7 billion, or 12 percent of total consumer spending on music, by 2009, the research firm projected.
"While healthy sales of digital downloads have brought cheer to the U.S. music industry, which has seen four years of sliding sales for compact discs, the growth in the niche is not enough to make up for the shortfall."
Dinesh C. Sharma. Study: Song Downloads to Hit a High Note. ZDNet.com. July 26, 2004.
Senate Hears Opposition Involving Induce Act
"The Senate heard strong opposition from the technology industry on Thursday about a bill (.pdf) that would hold tech companies responsible for creating devices that could be used to pirate digital content.
"In its current form, the bill proposes to slap technology companies for making any device that could ‘induce’ or encourage buyers to make illegal copies of songs, movies or computer programs. But technology companies say it would kill innovation and potentially outlaw some of the most popular devices, including Apple’s iPod.
"The Business Software Alliance surprised some observers, as the group initially supported the bill but is now asking for clarifications to protect innovation. Representatives of IEEE and NetCoalition, which represents Internet companies and Internet service providers, also expressed opposition to the bill."
Katie Dean. Techies Blast Induce Act. Wired News. July 23, 2004.
Controversy Surrounds Piracy Study
“A study (.pdf) released two weeks ago by the Business Software Alliance, which estimated the yearly losses from software piracy at $29 billion, has managed to stir real passion.
“The piracy study has become an issue because of a copyright bill, introduced in the Senate last month, that is strongly supported by the business alliance.
“In a letter last week to the Business Software Alliance, the heads of two other trade groups, who oppose the Senate bill, wrote that the results of the software piracy study were deeply troubling.”
Steve Lohr. Software Group Enters Fray Over Proposed Piracy Law. The New York Times. July 19, 2004.
(Editor�s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archive.)
Website Deciphers Government Documents
"While legislators in Washington work to outlaw peer-to-peer networks, one website is turning the peer-to-peer technology back on Washington to expose its inner, secretive workings.
"But outragedmoderates.org isn’t offering copyright music and videos for download. The site, launched two weeks ago, has aggregated more than 600 government and court documents to make them available for download through the Kazaa, LimeWire and Soulseek P2P networks in the interest of making government more transparent and accountable.
"Steven V. Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, says the site answers a growing demand from the public to examine original source documents."
Kim Zetter. Downloading for Democracy. Wired News. July 19, 2004.
COPYCENSE 