NEW COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT MADNESS

Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said at a hearing on Tuesday that he would favor legislation authorizing copyright holders to engage in wide scale destruction of computers that have downloaded music files or other copyrighted...

RIAA CERTIFIABLY INSANE

A quick followup to my item on March 1. You’ll recall that the RIAA had placed its heavily attacked web site in the hands of a disabled individual doing his first web hosting from his house. Not surprisingly, it was immediately taken out of commission by hackers. It’s...

RIAA v. VERIZON

The federal court decision in RIAA vs. Verizon on Tuesday was a very bad thing. Legal background: the DMCA has a very unusual provision, allowing copyright owners to obtain a federal court subpoena requiring ISPs to identify users who the copyright owner accuses of...

HILARY ROSEN STEPPING DOWN AS RIAA CHIEF

At the end of the year Hilary Rosen will step down as chief of the Recording Industry Association of America. She bears a great deal of responsibility for its reign of terror, but there’s no particular reason to think that it will behave itself any more after she’s...

MORE DMCA ABUSE

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed in 1998 after strenuous lobbying by Hollywood studios, record labels and other intellectual property holders. They argued that new copyright protections were necessary to prevent the Internet from becoming a forum for...

DMCA MADNESS

Everybody’s favorite legislation, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, got a workout yesterday. WalMart, Target, Best Buy, and Staples served notices under the DMCA on a bargain hunter web site, FatWallet.com, claiming that their sale prices are copyrighted trade...