"If venture capitalists can be held responsible for the actions of the companies in their investment portfolios, Gurley wonders if the same principle could be applied to individual investors who own stock in companies with legal headaches. 'Should someone be able to come after you because you invested in Philip Morris when you should have known that cigarettes are bad for people?' asked Gurley, a former Hummer Winblad partner who left the firm before its Napster investment."

"Compared to previous online music services, the key thing here is that somebody has finally done it right. You pay your money, and you get your song. You can do whatever you want with that song, store it on up to three computers, share it with multiple iPods (apparently any number of them), and burn it onto as many disks as you want."

"Steve Jobs may have just created the first great legal online music service. That's got the record biz singing his praises."

"Apple Computer's new music service could help shift the battle to control digital media away from Microsoft's proprietary file formats, according to analysts."

"The music industry began using a novel tactic yesterday in its fight against music piracy -- sending instant messages that pop up on the computer screens of people as they are swapping unauthorized copies of songs."

"The messages, which seek to turn a chat feature in popular file-trading software to the industry's benefit, reflect the latest effort among record executives to limit digital copying of their products."

"But even as the entertainment giants move to protect their investments, technology advocates and privacy experts wonder, at what cost to the public?"

"Tapping into the chat functions built into software programs such as Kazaa and Grokster, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on Tuesday started sending automatic messages to people who are providing copyrighted songs online, warning them that they're breaking the law."

"HP has built in time limits for its inkjet printer cartridges which means machines may stop working even if the consumable has 75% ink let to go."

"The record industry opened a new front in its war against online piracy on Tuesday by surprising hundreds of thousands of Internet song swappers with an instant message warning that they could be "easily" identified and face "legal penalties" for their actions."

Copyfight collects great quotes about the state-level Super-DMCA.

"A group of high-ranking scientists is petitioning the European Parliament to prevent the patenting of algorithms and software ideas, the latest twist in the European Commission's attempts to create a unified patent regime for member states."

"Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Convention center here and pronounced a new era for digital music consumption, saying that other online music services are either illegal or unattractive."

"The music industry pledged this week to fight on with its global legal battle to stifle online copyright abuse despite last week's unexpected setback in a U.S. court."

"Chief executive for the Recording Industry Association of America, Hilary Rosen, is helping draft copyright legislation for the New Iraq, according to investigative journalist Gregory Palast."

"Congress should not make DVD and MP3 makers use government-designed technology in their devices. The scheme is designed to reduce copyright violations, but there are other ways to attack the problem."

"Three weeks ago, technology groups and digital rights advocates were startled to discover that the motion picture industry had successfully pushed legislation in several states that strengthened cable TV piracy laws."

Boucher interview: "Consumer outrage will grow as copy-protected CDs make their way into the market in greater numbers. The public response is going to be visceral, and it will be heard by members of Congress."

"College administrators, under pressure from record labels, have dramatically stepped up efforts to wean students from downloading copyrighted music and movie files via high-speed university networks."

"As the services continue to lure more labels, artists, and publishers to make their music available online, the value-added features become, well, more valuable. In fact, if you really love music, it may be time to think about trying out a subscription service."

"One sure way to boost traffic would be to lower the price of subscription services. Customers may not be willing to pay top dollar for a service with a limited catalog, but they would pay something. And the greater the number of songs that are offered, the greater the number of fans that will sign up."

"Do you really want to know the day the music died? I can take you there. It's not that far a hike from today, actually. It was the moment that two kids, possibly time zones away, swapped MP3 song files online."

"Super DMCA legislation has already been passed in Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Wyoming. Now Super DMCA has claimed one of its first victims, the award-winning open-source application LaBrea, which is designed to stop the spread of worms such as Nimda across the Internet. Tom Liston, the developer of LaBrea, has stopped distribution of the program for fear of prosecution under the Illinois version of this law."

"When eight states propose laws that could make it illegal to use a network firewall, it would be nice if working IT professionals could laugh it off. It would be nice if those who know better could assume that laws like these would fail as quickly and obviously as a measure that seeks to repeal the law of gravity."

"The new DVD format may also be a weapon to combat illegal file-sharing, especially among young listeners who have become accustomed to downloading audio tracks free but are willing to pay for products in the popular DVD format."

"Taken together, analysts say, the recent moves suggest that the recording industry may finally be learning how to play nice with some Internet music companies, even as it employs increasingly harsh tactics to fight digital piracy."

"Apple Computer plans on Monday to introduce a digital music service, according to industry analysts. It is a move that thrusts the company into the middle of a contentious and technologically challenging area of digital commerce."

Letters to the New York Times about the RIAA suing college students.

"Instead of paying for prepackaged collections on plastic discs, consumers would pay to access an enormous and growing online catalog of individual songs. The problem: A new generation of portable players designed for music that's rented, not owned, needs new software to function — something programmers at Microsoft and Real haven't been able to design."

"Here's a business model with a future: sue your customers."

"Unless this decision is overturned quickly on appeal, the P2P policy battle will now move to Washington. Having lost in the Courts, the content industry will take the judge's hint and lobby Congress to pass legislation changing the rules. My prediction is that we'll see a bill circulated that creates an affirmative responsiblity to design products that make infringement as difficult as possible."

"Friday's ruling that the makers of Grokster and Morpheus aren't liable for copyright infringement occurring as a result of people using their peer-to-peer software could spell bad news for the file traders themselves."

"Though Verizon recently lost its fight to keep two subscriber's personal information out of the hands of the recording industry, privacy advocates say the real losers are consumers."

"I just spoke to a senior committee staffer in the Criminal Justice joint committee of the Massachusetts State House. She told me they continue to be deluged with negative commentary about HR 2743, the proposed Super-DMCA bill for Massachusetts."

"A federal judge rejected a constitutional challenge Thursday by Verizon Communications Inc., which is trying to avoid turning over the names of two of its Internet subscribers suspected of illegally offering free music for downloading."

"Microsoft dug its roots a little deeper into the music business Wednesday, as copy-protection company Macrovision agreed to license its Windows digital rights management technology for CDs."

"Doubling its bet on the fledgling online music services business, RealNetworks Inc. on Monday agreed to buy San Francisco's Listen.com Inc. in a deal valued at $36 million."

"Hollywood's movie studios face a key test in their battle to defend copyright holders from digital pirates, when a federal court in California this Friday hears a case filed by a maker of software that allows users to copy DVDs."

"If copyright is a good thing, and most of us seem to support giving authors the ability to sell their work and decide who gets to copy it, then protecting copyright should surely be a good thing too."

"Computer book publisher O'Reilly & Associates is taking a dramatic stand against automatic extensions of U.S. copyrights by voluntarily limiting its own copyright protection on hundreds of technical titles--and promising they'll enter the public domain after that."

"In a huge setback to the big record and movie companies, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled in favor of two online services that allow people to share music, movies and other digital files freely over the Internet."

"Where lawyers see piracy, talent scouts see potential. It's the hip-hop mix tape."

"Don't scapegoat greedy record execs for Napster's failure, says Joseph Menn in "All the Rave: The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning's Napster." The inept bunglers who ran the company have only themselves to blame."

Hilary Rosen: "We are all at a critical juncture in our relationship with music fans and now is our opportunity to put their interests first. Not ours. I firmly believe that when the music consumer is well served, we will all be well served."

"Leading technology, consumer electronics and entertainment companies -- including Amazon.com, Microsoft and Walt Disney -- have joined together to lobby the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules preserving the free-flowing nature of the Internet."

"A federal judge in Los Angeles has handed a stunning court victory to file-swapping services Streamcast Networks and Grokster, dismissing much of the record industry and movie studios' lawsuit against the two companies."

"A federal court in Los Angeles rejected the recording industry's case against online song-swapping services Grokster and Morpheus on Friday, Grokster President Wayne Rosso said."

"Verizon Corp. must reveal the identities of two high-speed Internet subscribers accused of illegally trading music online, a federal judge ruled today."

"The lawsuits, filed on April 3, are the most aggressive legal action the record industry has ever directed against college students, who in recent years have exercised an enduring predisposition to consume large quantities of music by copying it over the Internet without ever paying for it."

"EMI Group Plc said on Wednesday it had signed deals with 20 digital music distributors to sell its music on the Internet, in the most wide-ranging online push by a major music company in Europe."

"Two major record labels filed suit Monday against venture capital firm Hummer Winblad Venture Partners for its investment in Napster, alleging that it contributed to rampant music theft through the former file-swapping network."

"John Fanning was the closest thing to a father that Shawn had. But the elder Fanning had made some terrible calls, behind the scenes, as the press was turning the soft-spoken Shawn into a generational icon."

"There's another theory — that there is something thrilling about being unshackled, at least partly, from a device that for years has had people at its mercy. Skipping ads and thumbing your nose at the scheduling structure imposed by corporate broadcasters feels, if not exactly revolutionary, at least titillating."

"To suggest a solution to the music industry's ills presupposes that we want and need to save it."

"The U.S. government sided with the recording industry in its dispute with Verizon Communications Inc. on Friday, saying a digital-copyright law invoked by record labels to track down Internet song-swappers did not violate the U.S. Constitution."

"Cinea LLC, which created an encryption system for DVDs, and Sarnoff, a technology research firm, are developing a system to modulate the light cast on a movie screen to create a flicker or other patterns that would be picked up by recording devices, making the resulting images unwatchable."

"The software industry is slamming the door on a push for Oregon government agencies to use open-source software -- computer programs that don't carry recurring fees or usage restrictions."

"US District Judge John D. Bates, who ruled against Verizon in January in the same case, determined that First Amendment protections concerning anonymous expression do not conflict with the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

"Three Sydney men could face up to five years' jail if found guilty of charges of breaching copyright, following a raid relating to alleged music piracy. The men, who are understood to be students, were arrested yesterday when police executed warrants at four Sydney addresses in the city's west and south-west."

"We are a group of Tennesseans who are dedicated to preserving your online freedoms. We are specifically trying to counteract the new "Super-DCMA" legislation proposed by the MPAA. In TN, this legislation has been proposed through two bills, namely SB213, and HB457."

"About 20 people turned up in Nashville today to oppose the Tennessee edition of the Super DMCA legislation. In response to our arguments, the Judiciary Committee postponed a final decision on the bill for 2 weeks so that the Senators can hear more debate."

"The Copyright Office has scheduled hearings in this rulemaking in Washington, D.C., on April 11, May 1, May 2, and May 9, 2003 and in Los Angeles, CA on May 14 and 15, 2003 at the UCLA School of Law."

"The shift proposed by these bills is radical: all technology that is not expressly permitted becomes forbidden. This would give communication service providers unprecedented control over the home entertainment and the technology marketplace."

"I don't think the legislators who support these bills really understand the harm they would do. In my experience, if you can explain to them what the problem is, they will want to do the right thing."

"Regardless of the system implemented in the end, the demand is clear: Universities must provide a legal alternative to Napster that does not require students of lesser means to break the law in order to legitimately access our musical culture."

"IPR Systems' Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) version 1.1 has been adopted by mobile makers such as Nokia, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson, operators including Vodafone and open-standards-setting body the Open Mobile Alliance to safeguard copyrighted content distributed over third-generation (3G) networks."

"Even if Speth is able to steer clear of Apple's lawyers, he might incur the wrath of the recording industry, given that the new version allows songs to be downloaded onto a user's hard drive, rather than just played as a streaming music file."

"The U.S. Naval Academy has punished 85 midshipmen caught downloading copyrighted files onto their computers in November but did not impose the maximum penalties of court-martial or expulsion, according to an academy document."

"Video-on-demand site Movielink said Wednesday that it will distribute its downloadable feature films via Hollywood.com, giving Web surfers yet another new legal avenue for viewing digital entertainment."

"Pop queen Madonna has a message for fans trying to download unauthorized copies of her latest songs: "What the [expletive] do you think you're doing?" the Material Girl asks in audio files circulating on Internet song-sharing services."

"The Official Charts Co. (OCC), a joint venture between the British Phonographic Institute and the British Association of Record Dealers, said that it is developing a special chart to specifically track sales of music downloads, with the eventual aim of incorporating into the official UK singles chart."

"A hotly contested copyright law adopted on Friday by Germany's Parliament gives universities and research institutions considerable leeway to digitally distribute copyrighted materials among students and scholars without paying extra charges."

"Two college students who were set to discuss security weaknesses in a popular college debit- and identification-card system last weekend were prevented from revealing their findings after a Georgia judge issued a temporary restraining order."

"This analysis describes the radical transformations in pharmaceutical intellectual property protection in Argentina during the 1990s. Most importantly, it highlights the consequences of the use by the United States of unilateral trade weapons to pressure Argentina to adopt certain standards in this field."

"I will argue that the particular resolution of the copyright debate arguably has powerful implications beyond the content industries or the balance of intellectual property. It could influence the trajectory of technological innovation, indeed shaping the network’s architecture itself and the business models that harness its capacities."

"Japan's D&M Holdings Inc. won a bankruptcy court auction to acquire Sonicblue Inc.'s ReplayTV television recording service and Rio portable audio unit for about $36.2 million, Sonicblue said on Wednesday."

"'The right way to look at this is you are putting a virtual set-top box inside your PC. You are essentially renting out part of your PC to people you may not trust,' said Rivest in an interview after the panel."

"A plan to enact tough digital antipiracy legislation in Massachusetts has run into fierce opposition from technologists and civil libertarians who say the new law would violate civil rights and ban some common computer security techniques."

"Cryptography Research's proposal would shift the location of copy-protection code from the consumer products that play music and movies and run software to the content files produced by entertainment companies and software developers."

"Eighty-five Naval Academy midshipmen were disciplined for using a military Internet connection to illegally trade copyrighted music and movies."

"In the fight over digital piracy, the battleground is shifting to Hollywood, and tech companies such as Dell Computer Corp. aren't taking any chances. In late January, they formed a lobbying group called the Alliance for Digital Progress to fight government mandated anti-piracy technologies. It was a response to legislation filed last year that would have required anti-copying devices to be added to computers, DVD players and other consumer electronics."

"Microsoft Corp. is among companies approached by Vivendi Universal Music Group executives in their bid to find buyers for the unit, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday."

"If Steve Jobs wants to save the music industry, he'll have to convince millions of kids to give up free file-swapping networks and buy their MP3s instead."

"If Apple Computer Inc. winds up with a blockbuster deal to purchase Universal Music Group, it will be because Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs believes he has discovered the secret to selling music online -- something that has eluded the sharpest minds in the music and technology industries for years and ruined many entrepreneurs before him."

"Rapper Ice-T last week became one of the first name-brand artists to offer music for sale on Kazaa, a controversial clone of the defunct Internet file-swapping service Napster. The hip-hop star and actor is bypassing major record labels to distribute digital copies of his latest album through his own operation, Final Level Entertainment."

"Buying music on the Internet isn't as easy as you think. You can order a CD with one-click efficiency -- but if you want to download a song instead of waiting for a plastic disc to arrive in the mail, you'll face a maze of fine-print restrictions, enforced by proprietary, sometimes buggy software."

"The product of stealth lobbying efforts by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), these new measures are aimed at criminalizing the possession of what the MPAA calls "unlawful communication and access devices," but which are so broad that they could ban critical security and privacy tools online as well as restrict what machines you can connect to the cable, satellite, and Internet lines in your home."

"Taiwan's CD pirates are slipping into the shadows, no longer daring to man their stalls, fearful of getting caught as pressure from the United States forces authorities to step up their anti-piracy campaign."

"A London-based music publisher has filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against the rap megastar and his mentor for allegedly sampling a song sans permission."

"Artists have gotten no money after lawsuits against Napster and Aimster, said von Lohmann, and litigation has had no effect on file sharing."

"Score another win for the forces of copyright protection. On Saturday, two computer science students decided to cancel their presentation to a security conference in Atlanta after they were threatened with prosecution under, among other statutes, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

"A Virginia man has been sentenced to five months in prison for operating a Web site that helped video game enthusiasts bypass anti-piracy technology on popular games."

"A pair of students were blocked by a state court from presenting information at a Georgia security and hackers' conference on how to break into and modify a university electronic transactions system. [...] Although an initial cease and desist letter sent to the Interz0ne conference organizers hinted that the students may have violated the DMCA, the complaint that resulted in the temporary restraining order did not touch on that copyright law."

"Last week's Interz0ne security conference got chilly as Blackboard, a courseware vendor, succeeded in stopping a panel on vulnerabilities in their products."

EFF's resource page on emerging state-level copyright laws. Versions have passed in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming.

"Huang's recently completed book, "Hacking the Xbox" was recently dropped by Wiley subsidiary Hungry Minds, citing possible legal issues under the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)."

"So, while the entertainment industry may be winning most of its legal battles, it seems to be losing the war [...] A closer look, though, suggests that the war has entered a new phase, as the entertainment industry has struck back with an even broader offensive."

"The university environment could be a testing ground for alternative compulsory licensing models. In exchange for standing up strongly for their users' privacy rights, universities could begin negotiating for experimental campus-wide blanket licenses for file-sharing."

Harvard: "Students caught sharing copyrighted songs and movies online more than once will lose their network access for one year."

"A University of Michigan graduate student noted for his research into steganography and honeypots -- techniques for concealing messages and detecting hackers, respectively -- says he's been forced to move his research papers and software offshore and prohibit U.S. residents from accessing it, in response to a controversial new state law that makes it a felony to possess software capable of concealing the existence or source of any electronic communication."

"This week, the MPAA reportedly has narrowed its Super-DMCA legislation yet again, this time to add special carve-outs to protect ISPs and telephone companies."

"Justice Breyer’s dissent in Eldred suggests several economic reasons why copyright terms should not be extended. Each argument, although persuasively presented, is incorrect. There may well be good reasons to limit the terms of copyrights; economics, however, provides little justification."

"Copyright, in the perception of the average consumer, is a right which exists solely for the benefit of other people, one which provides the private content industry with a level of legislative protection paralleled only by monopolies for public works and utilities, and one which permits consumers to be time/price gouged for the creation of works."

"Sony owns film studios, music labels and a games unit in addition to its huge electronics division, giving it all the pieces to connect the digital entertainment universe. However, infighting between the entertainment and electronics divisions over fears of piracy and the need to distinguish products has slowed collaboration efforts to date."

"The plug-and-play agreement would prohibit programming providers from switching outputs for the purpose of down-converting (or "down-rezing") resolution to protect against potential HDTV piracy. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has advocated the "down-rezing" technique to safeguard its copyrighted property."

"CEA strongly opposes the state piracy laws being promoted by MPAA. If enacted, these measures would have a profound and destructive impact on consumers' rights to use lawfully acquired content for noncommercial purposes. The proposed laws also would outlaw the manufacturing and use of many existing consumer electronics products and hinder future technological developments."

"Why does the government accept the 'sales are down' without any consideration of other, equally plausible explanations? And why does the press?"

"Microsoft has expressed interest in buying Vivendi's Universal Music Group, setting up a possible bidding war between the software maker and rival Apple Computer, according to sources familiar with the matter."

"Apple, the iconoclastic computer maker, has discussed an investment in Universal Music, the world's largest recording company, people close to the discussions said yesterday. These people, however, also cautioned that a deal was unlikely to be concluded."

"Rapper Ice T, one of the few artists to support file-sharing and the now-defunct Napster, said Wednesday he is making his music available for purchase to users of the controversial Kazaa service."

"Film-rental site Movielink, a joint venture of five Hollywood movie studios, is being sued for patent infringement by a video technology company, in a case that could have far-flung ramifications on the video-on-demand market."

"Apple Computer Inc. is in discussions about buying Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, according to a published report Friday."

"What record industry slump? Independent labels say business has never been better."

"In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said."

"Screenrights, the Australian Audio Visual Copyright Society, has opened up a new front in the battle over digital content and rights management here in Australia. Together with APRA, the royalty collecting agency has put a proposal to Canberra for the introduction of a levy on blank recording media as a way of securing compensation for its members for private copying."

"On top of all the other challenges facing MMS before it can become the success that the mobile operators are hoping for and boost non-voice revenues to new heights - one issue stands out that is crucial for the content providers before they even think about publishing and selling content via MMS - Digital Rights Management (DRM)."

"Digital rights management, as currently designd, will harm people with disabilities and others who rely on accessibility features."

"Stelios Haji-Ioannou's EasyInternet Cafe chain agreed to pay the British Phonographic Industry $326,700 in damages and fees to settle a 21-month-old feud, the trade body said on Wednesday."

"As the record industry starts to come down hard on unauthorized music downloading on college campuses, students are responding with defiant words and defensive actions."

"David Rocci, of Blacksburg, Virginia, was sentenced late last week in federal court in Virginia after pleading guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to violate copyright laws under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act."

"If the drop in the music sales is undeniable, the industry's unwavering attribution of it to the effects of Internet piracy remains controversial. Competing studies from the record industry and independent analysts have shown differing results, with many file-swapping aficionados saying they are less willing to buy music on the one hand, and others saying they use downloading to make better-informed purchases on the other hand."

"There's a formal sense in which you're allowed to own your property forever, but what property do we have that's survives more than ten years? Real property naturally limits itself through its own destruction and limitations so that it's not really a terribly destructive burden to say that real property goes on forever subject to lots of different restraints."

"Even if there are terrible consequences flowing from obviously illegal or unconstitutional acts, the Supreme Court won't let the courts stop them unless someone steps forward with a sufficiently immediate injury. Judge Sterns ruled today that Ben Edelman's potential injury is insufficiently immediate. Or maybe that it was insufficient, period. There's a big difference, but the opinion just does not make clear which is the case."

"A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit that challenged the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act by seeking permission for a Harvard student to probe Internet filtering software used in schools and public libraries."

"A US man found guilty of selling mod chips on his website in breach of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act has been sentenced to five months imprisonment and a $28,500 fine."

"The Disney service, dubbed Movie Beam, will use a portion of the digital broadcasting spectrum used by its ABC over-the-air network, to feed up to 10 films a week into domestic television set-top boxes with a storage capacity of 100 full-length features."

"I believe that we would not be facing this situation with Joseph Nievelt today had we been able to gain your help in providing additional information to our student body. We have cooperated fully with the RIAA, but in recent months, have not seen the same from your organization."

Felten quoting MPAA VP in Washington Internet Daily: "Anyone who opposed the bills must be 'against shoplifting laws that would punish someone from stealing a movie at Blockbuster,' [Stevenson] said. The measure is a test of 'whether you subscribe to the moral compass this country was founded on,' he said."

"Recording label holdout Sony Music has quietly joined rivals in agreeing to release selected songs by top artists such as Michael Jackson and Shakira for a European Internet download promotion beginning later this week."

"A sponsor has provided Perens with a $50,000 annuity to support his advocacy for open-source organizations and his opposition to the software patents that he says are stymieing industry standards on which open-source groups depend."

"Adelaide businessman Greg Moore last week conceded that use of his Little Ripper machines, which he hoped to place in newsagents and record stores, constituted an infringement of copyright."

"Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner said Monday that his company would not let the threat of piracy keep it from aggressively pursuing business strategies based on new digital technologies, even if that means rethinking its current business models."

"But consumers don't have to break the law to benefit from the digital music boom. People don't need anybody's permission to convert their own CD collection into MP3 files, as long as the copies are for personal use only. And the big music companies are finally offering legal ways to purchase their hit tunes over the Net."

"If Choudhury has his way, every Bikram Yoga studio in the world will soon be franchised and under his control. To start this process, he recently obtained a copyright for his particular sequence of yoga poses -- a 90-minute series of 26 postures and two breathing exercises done in a room heated to 105 degrees."

"Until now, the RIAA alerted schools to possible copyright violations on their networks and expected the universities to take the disciplinary action. But because the four students named in the lawsuits were committing such serious offenses, the RIAA took matters into its own hands, Oppenheim said."

The LA Times discusses a new book about Napster: "The executives thought that by just getting big quickly, they could force the record industry to the negotiating table--how to structure a legitimate and sustainable business was simply not the focus."

"Music companies which use copy protection may be denying the artists under contract to them legitimate play time on radio stations, if the happenings at one outfit are any indication. This radio station, which recently received its regular bag of freebies from EMI, finds that it is unable to play any of the CDs it received - the copy protection on the discs gets in the way."

"The damages sought by the suits are astronomical: $150,000 per song, the maximum allowed by law. Multiply that by the 652,000 or so songs the RIAA alleges student Joseph Nievelt offered to other Michigan Tech students on his service, and the scope of the suit is clear."

"If our objective is to maximize economic growth, are we striking the right balance in our protection of intellectual property rights? Are the protections sufficiently broad to encourage innovation but not so broad as to shut down follow-on innovation? Are such protections so vague that they produce uncertainties that raise risk premiums and the cost of capital?"

Judge Posner spoke at a conference and Rick Klau took notes: "The nature of intellectual property is that today's producers build on a body of prior intellectual property by "borrowing it" or incorporating those ideas into their own. The reason that public domain is so important is that the alternative - a model where any producer today needs an explicit license in order to incorporate prior work - would be stifling to creativity."

"Worse, by slowing technical innovation, the Hollywood studios may end up shooting themselves in the foot, since digital innovations have both lowered production costs and let new features and effects be included in modern TV and movies."

The new revision features changes apparently designed to prevent the legislation from criminalizing firewalls.

"The deal marks a significant step forward for Microsoft's bid to enter the young digital-cinema business. Landmark said it would install digital storage and projection equipment in 53 of its theaters, representing 177 screens across the United States."

"Hewlett-Packard is looking to repeat its early successes with CD rewritables in the market for consumer computers equipped with DVD-recording drives."

"Record companies plagued by steadily declining sales now face legislation, both in California and in New York, that will attack contract and accounting practices."

"The Digital Media Association and the Recording Industry Association of America agreed on Thursday to a proposal for royalty fees that Internet radio services must pay record companies for Webcasting their songs."

"The recording industry has stepped up its campaign against campus music swapping, filing suit against four university students who operated file-search services on their school's internal networks."

"The Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry's trade group, filed the lawsuits Thursday seeking to shut down the networks, which the group says are responsible for distributing illegal copies of songs by Avril Lavigne, Whitney Houston, Eminem and others. The suits also ask for maximum damages of $150,000 per song."

"In its ongoing, aggressive effort to stem Internet music piracy, the record industry filed suit today against four college students who run Napster-like file-sharing computer networks at three universities, including Princeton University."

RIAA press release: "Moving to combat a growing and alarming piracy trend on some college campuses, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) today filed lawsuits against the operators of four Napster-like internal campus networks that illegally distribute millions of copyrighted songs."

"In any case, I think the committee got the point. They know there's something wrong with the telecommunications and access device prohibitions. They know they have to study the issue more. They know they need to listen to more than just the MPAA."

"This is stunning in its overbreadth. Any device that is even capable of illegal uses is banned, and even information that could be used to build such a device is banned."

"With these economics, distributing music on flashy plastic disks one album at a time seems, well, like heating your kitchen with coal. And $250 is not too high a price for a marketer--even those outside the music business--to spend acquiring customers, especially those dedicated fans holding an ad-supported player in their hand 15 hours a day."

"In the end, consumers care about getting the content they want, when they want it, where they want it. The most successful DRM for a consumer is the kind you don't even know is there."

"So, even if we believe we can solve the peer-to-peer problem, we can take little comfort that this will stem the tide. A new approach is overdue. The music industry in particular must seize this opportunity now, four years after the fact."

"The state Assembly unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday condemning online piracy and the growing practice of free downloading associated with lost sales in the music and film business."

Honest Thief was a hoax: "An executive who claimed to have developed a file-trading service that intentionally flouted copyright protection laws revealed Wednesday that he made the whole thing up for a laugh -- and to sell a book."

"Copy-resistant CDs may still be scarce in the United States, but signs are growing that the technology is becoming increasingly mainstream elsewhere and may finally break into the American market this year."

"The money is to be shared equally between publishers and authors. Libraries will also pay an extra 6% when purchasing a book in order to cover 'borrowing benefits'."

"Today Landmark Theatres and Microsoft Corp. announced that they are equipping 177 screens in all 53 Landmark Theatres across the United States with digital cinema playback systems based on Microsoft® Windows Media® 9 Series."

"Academic-library groups are denouncing copyright-protection bills that legislatures in several states are considering. The groups say that the bills, if they became law, could erode fair-use rights even more than the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the controversial federal law that makes it illegal to bypass technologies designed to protect digital works."

April Fools: "We’d all like open access to the bookshelves. But that would mean you could hang around here for who knows how long reading to your heart’s content, wouldn’t it? What kind of library is that?"

"In the report released Tuesday, research firm In-Stat/MDR says developments in home networking will not only make it easier for people to play and share their own digital music, video and other content, but will also encourage emerging applications such as online gaming."

"The bottom line is that there is a potentially high price to pay for an illegally copied computer program, movie, or recording. Stealing is stealing and against the law, regardless of how you try to justify it."

"The Business Software Alliance is hoping to convince international governments, trade associations and companies that cracking down on piracy pays."

"People misuse guns to commit crimes, and people misuse circumvention technology to commit copyright infringement. [...] In the case of circumvention technology, Congress has banned such technology at the expense of public access to such technology for lawful purposes. In the case of guns, Congress has not imposed a ban precisely because it was concerned about preserving access to firearms for lawful purposes."

"In the face of ever longer and stronger copyright laws, Creative Commons has launched a suite of licenses—its first project of many—to help recreate a healthy public domain."

"A Norwegian court will retry in December a teenager whose DVD-copying exploits made him a hero to hackers worldwide, his attorney said on Tuesday, in a case that will be closely monitored by Hollywood."

"SONICblue and Japan's D&M Holdings failed to find common ground on the sale of SONICblue's ReplayTV and Rio MP3 units Monday, relegating the company's consumer electronics assets to bankruptcy court auction."

"It appears that the Bar Association believes that WiFi networks are essentially tools for infringing on copyright, with a grudging admission that offices find them useful sometimes."

"In proving actual damages, the complaining party shall be required to prove only that the violator manufactured, distributed or sold any communication or unlawful access devices, but shall not be required to prove that those devices were actually used in violation of this section."

Great summary of the state-level "super-DMCA" bills. As of today, 17 states have existing or pending legislation.

"The makers of a video game which features cyber babes playing volleyball have been angered by attempts to remove the women's digital bikinis. [...] 'We're watching you very closely! Please do not post things that infringe copyrights and other legal issues,' said the firm on its official website."

"Aiming to close a long-standing gap in digital rights management for MPEG-4, a streaming media consortium is seeking comments on an encryption specification slated for release in June."

"It's another 'cease and desist' letter from Disney's legal department. Those squares couldn't deal with that cover you drew of Goofy dropping napalm on Vietnamese orphans, it seems."