Posts from — June 2006

The European Commission is starting to move forward with a directive to EU countries to roll back levies on hardware devices. The levies were introduced in the 1960s to compensate artists for the fact that consumers used photo copiers and cassette recorders to make private copies of books, and records. They have been extended to all manner of devices that handle content in electronic form.

Sources: Link | Market Watch | Top VOIP News

Related Posts:

• EU to Roll Back Hardware Levies (June 29, 2006)
• CRIA Wants No Further Part in Canadian Blank Media Copy Levy (April 10, 2006)
• Canada’s Private Copying Levy Distortion (February 26, 2006)
• Canadian Recordable Media Levy to Stay (December 22, 2006)

Categories: Copyright, Media Levy

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Text of U.S.S.C. Grokster Decision
I link to several “one year after” stories. The essence of these stories, as anyone who has paid attention over the last year knows, is that, while the law suits may continue, and the content industry legal tactics may be changing, Internet-based file sharing not only continues but has increased.

Dale’s Comment: As has been the pattern of the content industry for a century, fighting new technologies may stem the inevitable tide for awhile, but in the end, the content industry will have to adapt its business models to the Internet era. As with all the technologies they opposed in the past (player pianos, FM radio, VCRs, cassette tapes and more), the content industry will, of necessity, embrace consumer-friendly and fair Internet music distribution business models and, despite themselves, will likely be even more profitable when they do. The question is, how long will they persist with this futile battle.

Sources: San Jose Mercury News | MSNBC | LA Times | Star Tribune

Related Posts:

• One Year After Grokster Decision: File Sharing Continues Unabated (June 27, 2006)
• Grokster Shuttered in Court Settlement (November 7, 2005)
• U.S. Supreme Court Finds Grokster Liable (June 27, 2005)
• Grokster & Streamcast Win Major Court Victory (August 9, 2004)

Categories: BigMedia v P2P Providers, Policy Analysis

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The original proposed French legislation would have, among many other things, forced Apple to open up iTunes DRM to third-party licensing (or legal hacking) so that consumers can play purchased in one on-line music site on portable music devices and computers that are designed to work with another music store. The final bill out of committee settled on a system keeping DRM technologies entirely proprietary and unlicenseable when the copyright owner approves. This final bill is expected to be voted on in parliament on June 30.

Dale’s Comment: Apple and the RIAA/ifpi have one another victory in the ongoing war over consumer rights in electronic music purchases. With the control over the online music distribution industry that Apple and the music labels have, its unlikely that even the most successful artists with the most leverage would ever disapprove of this system. If an artist disapproved of the online distribution system, they’d likely be shut out. It’s hard to imagine Apple and the music industry would create an alternative rights system for such copyright owners to use if they “disapproved” of the current consumer unfriendly system. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden will be the next battle grounds.

Sources: ars technica | New York Times | Wired | Silicon.com | Pocket-lint | CNet | Washington Post (Reuters) | Boston Globe (AP) | Reuters | Playfuls | ZDNet | Out-law.com | MP3.com | CD Freaks | The Register | DRM Watch

Related Posts:

• France’s Diluted iTunes Plan Becomes Law (August 4, 2006)
• France Rolls Over on DRM Rights Law - Fails to Mandate Interoperability as Hoped (June 23, 2006)
• French Pro-Consumer DRM Law Reportedly Gutted by Senate Committee (May 1, 2006)
• Geist’s CBC Interview: France Tunes Apple Out: Apple Bites Back (April 7, 2006)
• Denmark May Follow France to Challenge Apple DRM (March 26, 2006)
• Apple Responds to Proposed French Legislation (March 22, 2006)
• French National Assembly Passes Bill to open iTunes (March 21, 2006)

Categories: DRM as Market Lock, International Legal Reform

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Boston Herald movie critic, Paul Sherman, was arrested and charged with selling over 100 “screeners”—preview copies of movies on DVD handed out to reviewers—to various pirate groups over the last few years. He was paid US$4,714 for the use of his screeners. He faces a maximum penalty of US$250,000 and three years in prison. He will be sentenced in October.

Sources: ars technica  |  cinematical  |  boston.com

Categories: Piracy, Police Actions

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Alexander Eric Smith was arrested after a three-month stretch where he periodically parked in front of a coffee shop off-and-on with a laptop and used its wireless Internet connection.

Sources: ars technica | Engadget | San Francisco Chronicle | techsearch | EETimes | iTnews.com.au | katu.com

Dale’s Comment: Still another arrest for another victimless crime. See my comments to a similar story on March 23, 2006. In this particular case, if the coffee shop wanted to ensure against external users, then they should have used password access control. Otherwise, if people make their wireless access available without protection, passers-by should be entitled to use it.

Related Stories:

• Another WiFi Arrest - This time in Vancouver Washington (June 22, 2006)
• Illinois WiFi ‘Freeloader’ fined $US$250 (March 23, 2006)
• Paramount Sues Man for Piracy - But Can’t Find any Evidence (December 14, 2005) - a man cleverly used his unsecured wireless connection as an affirmative defense to allegations that he was pirating movies from Paramount Pictures.
• ‘Stealing’ Your Neighbor’s Net (August 10, 2005)
• Florida Man Charged with Felony for Accessing Third-party WiFi (July 7, 2005)

Categories: Police Actions, WiFi Access

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The CEA has taken out another advertisement criticizing the content industry of fear-mongering once again in the context of its current law-suit against XM radio. The ad quotes the content industry’s dire warnings as far back as 1906 about how new technologies are going to spell the end of their industry.

Sources: CEA Ad [pdf]  |  ars technica  |  EFF Deep Links  |  Boing Boing
 
Related CEA Stories:

• Consumer Electronic Association Runs Pro-Consumer Ads on Capital Hill (April 26, 2006)

See related stories about the content industry opposing satellite-radio-based time-shifting posted on May 17, 2006, April 26, 2006, January 16, 2006 and December 2, 2005 (the Sirius Deal).

Related Satellite Radio Posts:

• Music Labels Sue XM Over its Inno/Helix Recording Capabilities (May 17, 2006)
• Proposed “Perform Act” to Restrict Satellite & Web Streaming Recording (April 26, 2006)
• RIAA Negotiates DRM with XM and Other Digital Radio Operators (January 16, 2006)
• Sirius S50 has been (siriusly) crippled by the RIAA (December 2, 2005)

Categories: BigMedia v NewTech, Satellite Radio

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Post a few seconds of you or your friends dancing to an RIAA-member song on YouTube or Google Video? Expect a cease and desist letter from the RIAA.

Sources: ars technica | techdirt

Dale's Comment: I wonder how the RIAA is going to justify how a video of my sister contorting to the Chicken Dance is going to hurt their members' bottom lines.

Related Posts:

• Why Google & YouTube are Not Getting Sued Out of the Water (December 11, 2006)
• YouTube Faces Heightened Copyright Scrutiny Since Google Buyout Announcement (October 30, 2006)
• YouTube Sued by L.A. News Service (July 17, 2006)
• How YouTube Avoids the Internet Copyright Police (July 17, 2006)
• RIAA Sends Cease and Desist Letters to YouTube/Google Video Users (June 15, 2006)
• YouTube's Looming Fair Use Battle (May 5, 2006)

Categories: Big Media v Internet, BigMedia v NewTech, BigMedia v. P2P Users, Cease & Desist, iVOD/iTV

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In a decision reminiscent of the Canadian 2000/2003 iCrave TV decision, UEFA and BSkyB took three people behind Sportingstreams.com to the High Court where the judge upheld their claim that the site’s re-broadcasting of Champion League football games was unauthorized and breached copyright legislation.

Sources: Out-law.com | The Register

Related Posts:

• TIOTI - Another Web-based TV Service Combining Legitimate TV with BitTorrent Feeds (November 15, 2006)
• TVUPlayer - Watch Most Any TV Station Anywhere (October 19, 2006)
  
• Judge Shuts Down UK-based Streaming Football Site (June 14, 2006)
• Canada Blocks Free Net TV - iCrave TV (January 17, 2003)

Categories: Decisions, iVOD/iTV

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iTunes’ terms and conditions are ‘unreasonable’ under Section 9a of the Norwegian Marketing Control Act according to the country’s Consumer Ombudsman. The three main problems are: (i) the law of the contract is British law (rather than Norwegian law); (ii) Apple limits its liability for damages caused by the product; and (iii) Apple reserves the right to change the terms of the agreement, and consumers rights to the music at any time. Apple has two weeks to make changes to their click-wrap agreement. A side story seems to be that the Ombudsman may also require Apple to open its ‘Fairplay’ system and make iTunes music playable on any device.

Sources: PC Pro  |  Engadget  |  The Register  |  Aftenposten  |  Playlist  |  MacWorld  |  P2PNet  |  ars technica
 
Dale’s Comment: There is certainly nothing unique to Apple’s end user agreement here. The lesson is that online content providers cannot rely on a cookie-cutter approach to online agreements. Every jurisdiction will have its own set of laws that will apply to the sale of products to consumers.

Categories: End User Agreements

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500+ members of Canada’s art community have formed a new coalition, the Coalition of Art Professionals, arguing for three principles to be enshrined in Canada’s copyright policy: (i) fair access to copyrighted material lies at the heart of copyright; (ii) artist and other creators require certainty of access; and (iii) anti-circumvention laws should not outlaw creative access.

Sources: Coalition’s Press Release  |  Michael Geist  |  Digital Copyright Canada  |  P2PNet
 
Note: The Canadian Music Creators Coalition was also recently formed with a similar copyright policy reform agenda.

Categories: Artists Against DRM, Fair Use/Dealing

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In response to recent Russian law enforcement scrutiny brought on at the behest of the the ifpi and U.S. Trade Officials (including threats that sites like AllofMP3.com could limit Russia's chances of becoming a member of the WTO), AllofMP3.com has put out a statement detailing its compliance with Russian copyright law.

Sources: Slyck | P2PNet

Related Posts:

• AllofMP3.com Lives On Despite U.S./Russian WTO Agreement (December 10, 2006)
• Russia Agrees to Shut Down AllofMP3.com at U.S. Request (November 29, 2006)
• Danish Court Blocks AllofMP3.com (October 25, 2006)
• Visa and Mastercard Stop Servicing AllofMP3.com (October 18, 2006)
• Russia Implements Internet Piracy Law in Gambit to Join WTO (September 1, 2006)
• BPI to Sue AllofMP3.com (July 5, 2006)
• AllofMP3.com Responds to Recent Scrutiny (June 6, 2006)
• Russia-based AllofMP3 Launches DRM-free allTunes (March 29, 2006)
• RIAA's Next Big Target: Russia (December 27, 2005)

Categories: DRM-Free Services, Piracy

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Text of Committee Report
A British Parliamentary Committee is recommending regulations that require digital content packaging/websites to clearly inform consumers as to exactly what they can and cannot do with digital content “protected” by DRM. At present, details of the DRM restrictions applied to digital content are typically buried deep within legalese-laden license agreements that are unpenetrable by the average consumer.

Sources: ars technica | BBC | P2PNet | The Register | Silicon.com | PC Pro | vnunet.com | ZDNet | Cathy Kirkman

Dale’s Comment: It has been my belief from the day iTunes launched, that its success has been largely due to the fact that consumers have no idea that the songs they purchase on iTunes will not be playable on competitive devices they buy in the future, that they cannot legally sell their music, give it away, or will their music library (purchased for thousands of dollars) to their heirs when they die. A requirement that a company stamp a warning label such as “Not Playable on Your iPod” on the back of locked-down CDs would go a long way towards ensuring content owners think twice before imposing restrictions that are clearly counter to the reasonable expectations of their customers.

Categories: DRM Analysis, International Legal Reform, Policy Analysis

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Less than a week after being shuttered by police in Sweden, from servers in The Netherlands, the Pirate Bay is back at its original domain, thepiratebay.org.

Sources: The Register | Wired | Slyck | Digital Spy | P2PNet | Security Pro News

Related Posts:

• As Promised, The Pirate Bay is Back! (June 5, 2006)
• BitTorrent Site PirateBay.org Raided - Servers Seized (May 31, 2006)
  
• The Pirate Bay: Here to Stay? (Wired Feature) (March 13, 2006)

Categories: BigMedia v P2P Providers

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It appears that The Pirate Bay is not the only Torrent search site under attack by the MPAA, Canada-based ISOHunt is now the subject of an MPAA lawsuit.

Sources: CBC  |  ISOHunt Forum Discussion  |  P2PNet

Categories: BigMedia v P2P Providers, Cases

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