"Assuming it is not resigned to milking all it can from its customers while awaiting inevitable demise at the hands of the pirates, the movie industry should rethink its business model. [...] Now the music industry is realising that often some of the downloaders it labels as thieves are actually trying out music before they buy it, and that controlled, legal file-sharing could be a marketing tool."

"Emily Somma, who has written a sequel to the public domain portions of the Peter Pan story [...] was threatened by the rights holders of the Peter Pan-related work still under copyright. The essence of their claim is that so long as anything Peter Pan related is under copyright/trademark protection, everything is."

"Kazaa Plus offers enhanced search, enabling people to start searches that run every 30 minutes for a 24-hour period that could yield up to 9,000 results. Customers will be able to download files from up to 40 sources at one time, up from only eight in the advertising-supported version."

Press release: "CS2ADC is the perfect balance between retaining consumers' 'fair use' rights, and the music industry need for a retail product that consumers cannot (re)create with a CD/DVD burner. Mass piracy and duplication of this format is not an issue for my clients."

"File sharers may invoke policy arguments, but actions speak louder than words: They are not interested in the good of the system, but rather in their own selfish advantage."

Satire: "The Recording Industry Association of America announced today it would be expanding its crackdown on copyright infringement by suing family members, hitchhikers and carpoolers. Lawyers for the RIAA maintain that the radio in each car was never meant to be listened to by anyone else except the original owner of the vehicle."

"The developers of peer-to-peer file-sharing program Kazaa launched Thursday a fee-carrying version of the software, a further step in their efforts to shake off Kazaa's reputation as a piracy haven and build a viable business around the software."

"An alliance of online music broadcasters sued the recording industry in federal court Wednesday, alleging major record labels have unlawfully inflated webcasting royalty rates to keep independent operators out of the market."

"Here are some of the anti-P2P programs and their industry codenames" -- "fester", "shame", "antinode".

"Fair use cases like Video Pipeline simply treat fair use as a solution to market failure. If you're making money that could be made by the copyright holder, it's not a fair use."

"Cem Kaner has written a Software Customer Bill of Rights. His general approach is to require that customers have roughly the same rights when they buy software as when they buy other products."

"A group of small Webcasters on Wednesday filed an antitrust suit against the Recording Industry Association of America, alleging that the trade association tried to push independent music stations offline."

"The recording industry is providing its most detailed glimpse into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign against online music swappers."

The Recording Industry Association of America leveled a full legal barrage at the sole Kazaa user fighting its attempts to identify file swappers, saying she was indisputably a major copyright infringer.

"Hollywood studios and record labels are getting allies in their quest to overturn a court ruling that said file-swapping software companies aren't responsible for the copyright infringement of their users."

Ed Felten: "A collision is happening between creativity and protecting intellectual property."

"Perhaps the most dangerous consequence, the ruling puts subpoena power in the hands of anyone willing to pretend to have a copyright claim. Without a judge's review, these fraudulent requests are impossible to distinguish from legitimate ones."

"The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld an order barring a Bay Area programmer from posting a program on his Web site that could be used to illegally copy DVD movies."

GrepLaw interview the attorney for the woman opposing the recent RIAA subpoenas: "What we are trying to do with Jane Doe’s case is intended to achieve more lasting results. We feel strongly that the section 512(h) subpoena process should be invalidated."

"Former online retailer Lik-Sang International has settled a case brought by Sony out of court, undertaking to cease trade in any copyright circumvention devices and paying an undisclosed compensation sum."

Lessig quotes a 1967 report where record companies argued that compulsory licenses have led to "an outpouring of recorded music, with the public being given lower prices, improved quality, and a greater choice."

"Congress is told by the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) that file trading is theft. In reality the P2P services bring balance to a system long unfairly tilted to favor the supplier. Records are still selling in a world where 60 millions US citizens file trade."

"Now that RIAA has called that bluff and announced it will in fact start suing some of the more swap-happy P2P pirates as soon as next week, civil liberties groups are less supportive of the idea."

"California's Supreme Court left both sides of a controversial DVD decryption case declaring victory Monday."

Australia: "The Full Federal Court has today upheld that Warner Music and Universal Music had breached section 47 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 dealing with exclusive dealing when responding to the parallel importation of music by small business."

"A new set of services aimed at giving independent music labels online distribution is springing up, hoping to reach companies like Apple's iTunes and the new Napster."

"The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a Web publisher could be barred from posting DVD-copying code online without infringing on his free speech rights. [...] Judges said that for now, property rights outranked free speech rights in this case, because DVD copy-protection technology was never meant to be public."

"[T]his Article examines the strategies used by the entertainment industry to fight the copyright wars: lobbying, litigation, and self-help. It also explores the impact of Eldred v. Ashcroft on these strategies, the decision's ramifications on future constitutional challenges to copyright laws, and recent developments in the international copyright arena."

"Despite staunch legal opposition from Hollywood, a new package of DVD-copying software is headed for online and offline retail shelves."

"These points are basic. They should be fundamental. That someone who doesn’t understand them is at a high level of this government just shows how extreme IP policy in America has become."

"Open-source software has been embraced by some companies that are building businesses around it. But it is the bane of others, including the industry's most powerful player, Microsoft Corp. The world's largest software maker is lobbying furiously in state, national and international capitals against laws that would promote the consideration or use of open-source software."

"So there's hope that American copyright law will allow creators to control how their work is distributed. But any law that can be twisted the SCO way, enforced the RIAA way, extended the Disney way, or abused the Ziff-Davis way is a law that ought to be repealed. All it does is enrich lawyers and big companies, and they'd probably get along just fine without it."

"US trade officials have backed off from a tough line on music, movie and software piracy, admitting that shoehorning Australia into a copyright regime based on criminal law may be 'a bridge too far'."

"The U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday that it accepted a guilty plea in a criminal copyright case involving the former leader of a Net music piracy group called the Apocalypse Crew."

"With album sales slipping for an unprecedented third straight year — the first extended slump since the introduction of the CD in 1982 — labels and artists are beginning to wonder if the album is a thing of the past."

"An anonymous California computer user went to court Thursday to challenge the recording industry's file-trading subpoenas, charging that they are unconstitutional and violate her right to privacy."

In the UK: "Grokster, the US music-swapping network that came to prominence in the wake of Napster's collapse, has turned the tables on the major music labels by reporting them to the office of Fair trading."

"The recording industry's legal efforts may be putting a dent in file swapping, according to a new report from The NPD Group."

"Universal Music Group, EMI and a group of music publishers filed a motion yesterday (Aug. 18) in U.S. District Court in New York to deny Bertelsmann's request that the copyright-infringement suits be dismissed."

"That makes me nervous," said Rob, an avid user of the Grokster service who declined to give his last name. "If they (RIAA) are not going to say how much traffic is 'high,' I'm not going to say how much I've downloaded."

"The Canada Hole in the RIAA's strategic thinking is not likely to close. While Canadians are not very keen about seeing the copyright levy extended to other media or increased, there is not much political traction in the issue."

"Record labels and movie studios said Tuesday that they have appealed an April federal court ruling that held for the first time that some file-swapping software was legal."

"RIAA is in no way targeting 'de minimis' users," wrote Cary Sherman, the group's president, in a letter the subcommittee released Monday. "RIAA is gathering evidence and preparing lawsuits only against individual computer users who are illegally distributing a substantial amount of copyrighted music."

PDF file: The Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities has released this paper. The Joint Committee includes representatives from a number of universities, education groups, entertainment industry representatives, and the presidents of RIAA & MPAA. The paper provides an overview of copyright law relating to on-campus P2P file sharing and concludes that "(c)olleges and universities generally do not have a legal duty to control students' private conduct. Students therefore should not assume that their college or university will accept liability for them or provide them with legal representation."

Next week, incoming students at UC Berkeley will receive more than just campus maps and classroom tours: They'll learn about the perils of sharing digital music and movies files online.

A Massachusetts court has blocked several recording industry subpoenas that are aimed at college song swappers, saying the universities involved are not immediately required to divulge the alleged file traders' identities.

Commentary: A third of the way through the 54 pages, we’ve learned that piracy and counterfeiting is bad and that different states have different ways of dealing with it -- also bad. So far, who’s arguing? But the solution proposed is to criminalise many civil infringements and to back that up with thudding great powers spring-loaded in favour of the big guys

The Recording Industry Association of America's dragnet for people who illegally swap copyrighted music online is the story that just keeps on giving. And like any good epic about money, theft and greed, this one is gaining all sorts of new angles as it rolls along, from college students to senators to pornographers.

LA Times Editorial: While the music business is on this track, why not execute a few shoplifters? Or, instead, why can't the industry, artists and others recognize technology's march, take advantage of it and stop alienating their potential customers?

They used to say "home taping" was killing music, now it's meant to be internet downloaders. But the real pirates these days are crime bosses - and the rewards are plentiful.

Maybe most interesting was the results came from the 30 to 49 years old range, an age range that runs counter to the common stereotype of file traders being rebellious teenagers and college students. The results showed that 61% of Americans between 30 to 49 years old were unconcerned about violating copyrights.

Excellent article by Harvard Bermkan Center Professor, Jonathan Zittrain: "Bars can't have TVs bigger than 55 inches. Teddy bears can't include tape decks. Girl Scouts who sing "Puff, the Magic Dragon" owe royalties. Copyright law needs to change. "

Record-industry executives and online music companies are quietly working with colleges and universities to offer legitimate sources of free or deeply discounted music to students if the schools agree to take steps to deter piracy on campus networks.