Here's where I draw the line for free speech
NY Post article on the trademark abuse being propagated by Mike Moorby's Yankee Hater gear. The A-Rod is an A-Hole t-shirt is funny though. [article via Gothamist] Go Yanks!
Don't Mess with the Constitution
Just came across a very interesting site called Separation of State and Superstition [atom] edited by either David or AynRand, I'm not sure.
A self proclaimed, Republican Without Religion, Separation of State and Superstition asks the question "Has any country in the world ever been attacked by atheist terrorists?" and offers some other interesting posts:
If Bush is elected, here are some things likely to result from his modern christian crusade:Instead of 7 words you can't say on TV, who knows how many will be illegal.
We will waste money going to Mars.
All pornography will become illegal.
The wall between church and state will be eliminated.
What if every music consumer in America agreed right now to never again buy any music CD priced over $7? The big 5 music cartel would quickly be forced to lower prices to $7 per CD. They would have no other option if they want to stay in business. At $7 per music CD, the artists will still get rich. The music producers will still get rich. File sharing will become less significant. And we'll all have more music to listen to.
... internet is the ultimate medium of free speech ... The law before congress is HR 3754
Google Ad-Policy Change Highlights Trademark Debate
Free WSJ article: The fight is about companies' rights to create and protect their brands, says David A. Rammelt, an attorney representing American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc., which is suing Google for letting advertisers bid on keywords related to its trademark. "Can competitors step in and all of a sudden intercept consumers?" "That's bad for consumers." "We'll have to persuade a court that consumers are confused when these Web sites results appear."
Interesting trademark and initial interest confusion issues abound.
see also: Diverting Traffic On The Web: The Battle between Free Speech and Trademarks | 1-800-Contacts v. WhenU
prior posts: Google, Trademark and Keyword Ads | If Terri Welles can, why can't we?
Site Breaks Pentagon Ban on Pictures of Departed Soldiers
NYT: Pentagon labels grant of thememoryhole.org FOIA request for 'pictures of coffins arriving from Iraq at the Dover base in Delaware' a mistake. News orgs, including NYT, were quick to republish.
April 22, 2004
Global P2P Raids
Police Seize Computers in Global Piracy Crackdown: [U.S. Justice Department] seized 200 computers across the globe to break up online piracy networks that distribute copyrighted music, movies and software ... [Operation Fast Link ] carried out in 27 U.S. states and 10 foreign countries, targeted covert "warez" groups that distribute computer games and other works before they are officially released.
Schools raided by FBI in pirating crackdown: "Agents poured through data and records at a computer command center for the Deer Valley School District in the northwest Valley and blocked the office from the public. It was among other places in Arizona and "quite a few other states" where sealed search warrants were served, the FBI said."
See google news for warez.
Another Cyber Protest Decision
TMI Inc. v. Maxwell, (5th Cir. 2004) Non-commercial gripe site (no bad faith intent to profit) did not violate the anti-dilution or the ACPA or the Texas Anti-Dilution statute.
RIAA Remix Project
downhillbattle.org has just alerted me to the RIAA-mix project. Apparently the RIAA has taken some of the hottest songs out there and done their own cutting edge noise-pop remixes. I think some are even available for sale as compilations. I myself recently took a listen of the amazing RIAA remix of Incubus' Megalomaniac via Kazaa. Check out press release for more info.
April 21, 2004
Bad Faith Fair Use
Copyfight's Jason Schultz discusses a Second Circuit ruling that finds "republication on the Internet of quotes from an illegally acquired seminar manual can still be fair use, despite the fact that they were acquired in bad faith."
Software designed to block P2P song swaps
c|net: RIAA backed Palisade and Audible Magic dong filter software
What? This looks like a definite privacy violation? Where's Liz Figueroa when you need her!sits inside a network, rather than inside a file-swapping program. If installed in a university, for example, it could look inside students' e-mails, instant messages and peer-to-peer transfers, seeking audio 'fingerprints' that could be compared with information in Audible Magic's database.
If a match is found, the technology would block the transfer of the song midstream ... the identification process would not work on an encrypted network, such as is used in several newer file-swapping programs."
nomoreplagiarism.com
Google and MIT are going to make it harder for you to plagiarize your research papers. See why.
see also: publishers may start using plagiarism-detection software
April 19, 2004
I Am A Copyfighter
Donna notes that Erik Heels asks whether an IP lawyer can be a copyfighter.
Interestingly, Tech Law Advisor has the distinction of also being placed in the Copyfighters category on Copyfight.
Monetizing P2P
from Reuters Labels Peer at Pirates for Insights: "The [music] industry is already privately discussing how to eventually monetize [P2P] file traffic. That eventuality, however, will hinge on copyright litigation and cooperation among major labels, independent labels, publishers, software manufacturers, artists and Internet service providers." [via]
Campus File Swappers Beware
c|net: "Automated Copyright Notice System (ACNS) technology promises to make copyright enforcement easier on peer-to-peer networks ... allows them to automatically restrict or cut off Internet access for alleged infringers ... universities could instantly send notices of copyright infringement to students by e-mail and restrict their network access until they have removed the file." UCLA will implement a modified system that allows students to contest charges against them rather than being cut off immediately.
April 18, 2004
No Politics Are Local
In No Politics Are Local (NYT Mag, Apr. 18), Christopher Caldwell provides a more detailed analysis of the recent announcement that the DOJ will be launching a "prosecutorial assault on America's $10 billion pornography industry."
As well as broadening the discussion to local v. national politics and the role of the internet in McLuhan's global village.As readers of Adult Video News and the 2005 federal budget will be aware, Attorney General John Ashcroft is staffing up the Justice Department for a prosecutorial assault on America's $10 billion pornography industry ... While a local community can make its own rules, they say, prosecuting smut at the federal level is Orwellian overkill. But this localist view makes less sense in the Internet age ... One Ashcroft target is a company near Los Angeles whose films show simulated rapes and murders. You would think that would pass muster as obscene in any setting -- at least according to the Supreme Court's ''Miller test,'' which defines as obscenity anything that disgusts ''the average person, applying contemporary community standards.'' But Ashcroft isn't taking any chances. The Justice Department placed an order for the offending videos in Pittsburgh and will prosecute the company before a jury there. Now, suddenly, porn executives are changing their tune on localism. Pittsburgh is not the real community under which the Miller test should be enforced, they argue. The real community is the broader ''community'' of Internet users....
Kevin J. Heller, Esq.
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