"The fight against online music piracy entered the realm of the bizarre last Thursday, when Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., proposed giving the recording industry sweeping new powers to do what, for the rest of us, would be illegal: hacking computer networks."

Siva Vaidhyanathan appeals to academics to help fight the imbalance in copyright law. "We make a grave mistake when we choose to engage in discussions of copyright in terms of 'property.' Copyright is not about 'property' as commonly understood. It is a specific state-granted monopoly issued for particular policy reasons. While, technically, it describes real property as well, it also describes a more fundamental public good that precedes specific policy choices the state may make about the regulation and dispensation of property."

"Digital TV sales have fizzled. About 3 million high-definition TV sets -- which can display crystal-clear pictures and cost from $1,000 to more than $7,000 -- have been sold. But only 12% of those buyers bought sets that include tuners or bought separate tuners to go with their digital monitors."

"Pressplay has removed the limitations that stifled growth of the paid service, introducing a new version that allows subscribers to stream or download music to their heart's content and buy tracks they can burn on CDs or transfer to portable players."

"Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system."

"A controversial initiative to standardize U.S. state laws on software licensing faces a crucial vote this week, as battle-weary consumer advocates and tech companies pin their hopes on a legal gathering in Arizona."

"A trio of federal lawmakers introduced a bill Friday that would eliminate potentially steep royalty payments for small Internet radio stations, many of which have said the fees would force them to close."

"If you or I asked Congress for permission to legally hack other people's computers, we'd be laughed off Capitol Hill."

"[Security experts] fear that approval of the [Berman] bill could result in a multitude of clumsy and ill-conceived 'hack' attacks that could have widespread, system-damaging effects on both file traders and those who have never downloaded a single song from a file-trading server."

"Given that the proposed law forbids only illicit authentication devices, and defines that term more narrowly than it has defined 'authentication feature,' I'm afraid I don't see problems others have seen."

"Biden's new bill would make it a federal felony to try and trick certain types of devices into playing your music or running your computer program. Breaking this law--even if it's to share music by your own garage band--could land you in prison for up to five years."

"The entertainment industry's campaign to rally Congressional support for new methods of copyright enforcement is yielding results. And it is raising alarm among some technology executives and consumer advocates who fear that proposed regulations would excessively limit how people consume information and entertainment in digital form."

"Edelman's suit also questions provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the ACLU says doesn't provide enough leeway for researchers to reverse-engineer software code. For that reason, the outcome of the case could have implications for other suits involving the deconstruction of programs designed to protect digital movies, music and the like."

"Balancing the rights of copyright owners with those of consumers, never a simple task, has become far more complex in the digital era. The ease with which digital content can be copied, stored and transmitted electronically [...] has produced a spate of legislative and technological remedies. In most cases, however, the proposed cures are worse than the alleged disease."

"The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Thursday in an attempt to overturn key portions of a controversial 1998 copyright law. The suit asks a federal judge to rule that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is so sweeping that it unconstitutionally interferes with researchers' ability to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet filtering software."

"On June 20, a copyright appeals board set a rate of seven-hundredths of a cent per song, per listener. For many stations, run by music fans for music fans, that works out to thousands of dollars more than they make."

"The legislation would immunize groups such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America from all state and federal laws if they disable, block or otherwise impair a 'publicly accessible peer-to-peer network.' Anyone whose computer was damaged in the process must receive the permission of the U.S. attorney general before filing a lawsuit, and a suit could be filed only if the actual monetary loss was more than $250."

"Hoping to end the online trading frenzy that has plagued the music business, the movie industry is hunting down digital film swappers and getting their Internet service cut off."

"[S]everal consumer groups have argued that any regulatory body acting on the copy-protection issue should first examine its impact on consumers. Under the system proposed by the studios, it is not clear, for instance, if someone would be able to record a show in the living room and watch it over a wireless home network in the bedroom, or retrieve it over the Internet to watch at a second home or a friend's house."

"'We're here to defend intellectual property,' said Jim DeLong, an economist at CEI. 'If you want balance, go to another session [of the conference].'"

"Jamie Kellner, chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, told the Television Critics Association this month that DVR users should pay an extra $250 a year for ad-free TV."

"Time Warner Cable will start letting some of its customers pause live television and digitally record programs through a new set-top box that is similar to those sold by TiVo and ReplayTV."

"The Recording Industry Association of America said Wednesday that it has begun pressing for anti-copying technology in future digital radio standards."

Lessig states that "the forces of absolute control are on the verge of deciding what kind of creativity and innovation will be allowed, and as a result, they're damping down progress."

"After the roundtable was over, a Commerce Department spokeswoman said that she could not recall such public outcry during a government roundtable. Security guards were called during the meeting, but stayed outside the room."

"Tauzin's group hopes to avoid the pitfalls other groups have hit while developing a standard Internet security system that protects intellectual property while serving the consumer's best interests."

"In its continuing summer campaign to underscore consumer interests in technology policy, the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) is calling for Congress to start over in its approach to dealing with the conflict between fair use rights and producer digital copyrights."

"The proposed bill would end that exemption, handing copyright owners substantial new control over the distribution of their works by curtailing copying rights granted to consumers under a doctrine known as 'fair use.'"

"Advertisers fear they will have an even tougher time reaching viewers as digital video recorders such as TiVo become more popular and easier to use. The devices allow viewers to skip traditional commercial breaks. [...] New advertising -- from product placements to pop-up ads -- are likely to be in addition to regular commercials, not in place of them."

"Tyler was nabbed by an automated program developed by Ranger Online Inc. The software cruises file-swapping networks like Gnutella to find copyrighted materials, hunts down the IP address of the poster, then discovers which Internet service provider is being used. Soon after, the MPAA sends its form letter to the ISP."

"Computer retailer Gateway Inc. plans to provide free classes to consumers on the do's and don'ts of online music, showing how to download music and burn CDs without violating copyrights."

"Industry execs have been preoccupied. Protecting intellectual property has overshadowed user's needs, and DRM has become an obstacle to customer service."

"Legislators are readying a bill that could sharply limit Americans' rights relating to copying music, taping TV shows, and transferring files through the Internet."

"Universal Music Group plans to put a large chunk of its vast music library online through a subscription service. Unlike most other initiatives announced during the last six months, UMG's (V) partnership with Emusic.com [...] gives customers the same ownership rights as if they had bought the music on a CD. But UMG is selecting the content it makes available selectively."

"Confronting such hostility, consumers are increasingly committing acts of passive resistance (flush often!) and forming organizations, such as DigitalConsumer.org, which is making the case that consumers have rights and interests in the negotiations that occur between media producers, technology companies, and policy-makers."

"Record industry executives and critics are trading barbs at an industry conference this week, with an outspoken legislator saying major labels' online subscription services may amount to a 'duopoly.'"

"Instead of instating the kind of royalty already paid to songwriters by both broadcast and Web radio -- about 3 percent of revenues -- the tariff on digital music is based on the number of listeners. So it’s possible for the fee to exceed revenues, especially in a fledgling business where ads are scarce."

"No participant in BPDG suggested that enforcement of copyright is wrong. However, consumer advocates participating in the BPDG do oppose efforts to force technologists to produce less-functional products, just as consumer advocates opposed the MPAA's effort to restrict the public's access to the video-cassette recorder."

"Digital-rights management can also reduce innovation. [...] Too much control can be a bad thing, particularly when innovation is a critical source of competitive advantage."

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation, the civil liberties group that represented Corley, pledged to challenge at a later date a controversial 1998 copyright law making it illegal to produce or distribute software that could circumvent copy protections."

"The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) announced today that online and print publisher 2600 Magazine will not seek U.S. Supreme Court review of a court order prohibiting publishing or linking to the DeCSS computer program."

"Major music companies are preparing to mount a broad new attack on unauthorized online song-swapping. The campaign would include suits against individuals who are offering the largest troves of songs on peer-to-peer services."

A musician speaks out against the RIAA. "Who gets hurt by free downloads? Save a handful of super-successes like Celine Dion, none of us. We only get helped. [...] By speaking out in our concerts and in the press, we can do a great deal to damp this hysteria, and put the blame for the sad state of our industry right back where it belongs -- in the laps of record companies, radio programmers, and our own apparent inability to organize ourselves in order to better our own lives -- and those of our fans."

"[It] looks for all the world like Microsoft is introducing technology which does not benefit the consumer, but which is designed to prevent crimes being committed. And in the process, consumer rights could actually end up being curtailed; it appears that limitations built into Palladium could redefine 'fair use' of digital media from a legal right, to a technological grant from a company."

"If PCs need a universal security architecture to protect critical business information, should Microsoft be its sole creator?"

"A Justice Department investigation into whether the five major recording companies are trying to control electronic music distribution may have spurred Universal's agreement with Listen.com, which took 16 months to negotiate."