"In a unique crackdown on illegal file-sharing, a Danish anti-piracy group mailed invoices to alleged pirates demanding compensation for downloading copyrighted materials off the Internet, an attorney for the group said on Tuesday."

"Cindy Cohn, a lawyer who represented Mr. Felten, says his suit emboldened scientists to forge ahead with their research into computer security, while it made technology companies more timid about going after them."

"The coders who gave us free software only cared about writing quality code, and never mind about politics and patent rights. Their own success has brought that era to an end. Whether free software can remain free is becoming an issue of national policy and, as Moglen said, 'we live in a place where policy discussion is conducted with money.'"

"In a recent column, I suggested that the technology industry find a way to reward its friends and, more importantly, punish its enemies. [...] I didn't know it when I wrote that column, but there's good news to report: Some efforts already are under way."

"Chernin encouraged a partnership between media and tech companies, saying that when the two industries worked together in the past--to encrypt content on cable, satellite TV networks and DVDs, for example--the result was met with success."

"In a timely reminder of who's really in charge here, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has mounted a daring raid on the US Navy. [...] For the RIAA, there are no half measures: you're either with them, or against them."

"A Los Angeles federal judge will hear arguments Monday as to whether record companies and movie studios can sue the parent company of Kazaa, the most popular online file-swapping service, in the United States."

A good rebuttal of Chernin's Comdex address.

"But more than anything else, digital copyright theft is wrong because it's destroying the ability of the technology industry to evolve. Without basic protections for digital content, and without some control over the casual crime that now rules the Web, the emergence of the next generation of digital businesses will be crippled as the promise of our Digital Revolution dissolves into petty theft."

"A new study found that almost one-quarter, or 23 percent, of today's PVR owners said they never watch commercials anymore. [...] Nearly four in five (79 percent) PVR viewers said, however, that there are commercials they will make a point of watching, rather than skipping."

"Officials at the Naval Academy have seized nearly 100 midshipmen's computers that allegedly contained illegally downloaded music and movies, sources said." A spokesman said that "punishment for illegally possessing copyrighted material ranges from a court-martial to loss of leave and other restrictions."

"Record industry attempts to stop the swapping of pop music on online networks such as Kazaa will never work. So says a research paper prepared by computer scientists working for software giant Microsoft."

"Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. (SME) will add a new function to music CDs early next year that allows users to store purchased CDs on PCs, while still preventing illegal music-copying, the company announced Wednesday."

"Questions from audience members suggested that support for technology that will allow individuals to legally purchase music online and suspicion about the intentions of media conglomerates exist in almost equal parts."

The RIAA violates the University of Chicago's copyrights: "The RIAA's anti-file trading PR website, otherwise known as MusicUnited.org, found itself with egg on its face yesterday as the site posted peer to peer disabling instructions belonging to the University of Chicago."

"Technology and entertainment lobbyists will sit down at the negotiating table Friday to seek a resolution to the long-running political spat over digital copyright. About 20 lobbyists are expected to meet at the Eye Street offices of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), just two blocks from the White House, to try to find common ground before the new Congress starts in January."

"As the fight to defend intellectual property rights continues we must continue to protect the property of artists around the world. However banning the technology is not the solution. Instead we must encourage the high-tech industry to develop symbiotic solutions that utilize these existing [P2P] networks and deliver the content in the way the end-user wants while at the same time offering reward and compensation for those who create."

"Throughout the $34 billion music industry, sales fell by more than 9 percent from January to June, according to industry figures. Much of the decline has been attributed to widespread unauthorized copying and downloading of music and burning of homemade or pirated CD's."

"BMG announced an overhaul of its accounting practices for royalties yesterday, a move that it said would assuage concerns that performers are being shortchanged on their earnings." BMG's COO said that "This will be part of a series of moves designed to change the relations with our artists — one where they will become our business partners."

"An RIAA spokeswoman said the organization is aware that illegal CDs are not the only source of loud noise in downtown Mexico City, but nonetheless believes piracy-related disturbances are a particularly pressing concern."

"The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) asked a Chicago federal court on Wednesday to hold bankrupt Madster--formerly known as Aimster--and its founder Johnny Deep in contempt of court. Deep has made no effort to comply with a court order issued last month that required the company to block trading of music belonging to the major record labels, the trade association said."

"The reasonable answer that will protect the four Cs—content, commerce, connectivity, and consumers—will not emerge in the trenches of legislative warfare over a particular bill."

"A group of Microsoft researchers, including Paul 'Mr Secure PC' England, has delivered a paper which concludes that all efforts to stop content swapping/theft - possibly even including Palladium - are in the long term futile."

"Recent gunfire in offices at the center of the nation's pirate compact disc and DVD trade indicates that soaring profits are drawing violent criminals to the illegal, but once-placid business, authorities say."

"According to FatWallet owner Tim Storm, the retailers all cited the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act as the legal basis for serving FatWallet with "takedown" notices."

"Several national retailers, citing Internet and intellectual property law, last week threatened to sue consumer Web sites that revealed the retailers' sales prices in advance of their official unveiling. [...] Critics of the DMCA said that when faced with the prospect of a court battle with well-heeled opponents, Web site operators often will choose to censor their content."

"The Recording Industry Association of America engineered the recent split in the webcast community, engaging in what appears to be classic divide-and-rule tactics. That's what Susan Pickering, the former executive director of the International Webcasting Association says in an interview today."

"Several Internet shopping sites have removed information about post-Thanksgiving sales after major retailers including Wal-Mart and Target threatened legal action under a digital copyright law. [...] Some legal experts have voiced concern that the law provides little incentive for Internet companies to stand up for material that may be protected by the First Amendment."

"The bargain hunter site FatWallet.com has been given notices under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act by WalMart, Target, Best Buy and Staples claiming that their sale prices are copyright trade secrets."

"U.S. Appeals Court Judge Richard Posner, one of America's most prominent jurists, warned Tuesday of an "enormous expansion" of intellectual-property law, adding a conservative voice to a chorus of criticism that's so far come from the left."

"On Tuesday, the U.S. Copyright Office began accepting comments from the public on the law's "anticircumvention" section, which limits people's ability to bypass copy-protection mechanisms. Comments are due by Dec. 18."

"Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, on Wednesday announced it would make more than 43,000 song tracks available for download at retail outlets and music Web sites, opening a new front in the marketing of digital music."

"Chernin said it was time for media conglomerates and tech companies to work together, and that doing so could be beneficial for both industries. "The most powerful catalyst for growth is not piracy, but partnership," Chernin said."

The RIAA "has managed to persuade Congress that, to protect the intellectual property of musicians (and the bank balances of studios), US internet radio stations should pay additional, much larger fees in addition to the basic play charge."

"Publishers are in the business of expanding capital. The writers who supply them are in the business of expanding civilization itself. Tools for expanding capital are available in many forms. Tools for expanding civilization, on the other hand, are a limited commodity. They're resident in the books of Hemingway and Faulkner, the movies of Disney and Capra, and the songs of Kern and Berlin. Give 'em up. We need 'em. We've got work to do."

Ed Felten reports from a DRM workshop: "My main impression was that the speakers were more openly skeptical about DRM than at past conferences. I don't think this represents any real change in opinion. The real cause, in my view, is that industrial researchers are now starting to say in public what they would only say in private before."

"My main ray of hope is that the reason most of the software industry voluntarily gave up copy protection technologies - primarily that consumers hated copy protection - will rise again, but unless we speak out now, all of our content may be locked up in a trusted system protected by the DMCA."

"To meet the growing demand for digital music, labels have turned to streaming services because they offer the one thing entertainment conglomerates want most: control."

At Comdex, the CEO of the Fox Group "will propose that effective antipiracy technologies will pull the tech sector out of its economic slump, by encouraging more and different kinds of digital content." Gary Klein of the CEA says that Hollywood is "always looking for someone else to solve their problem."

MovieLink is Windows-only: "Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, dismissed the Movielink slight, saying it's premature to judge the market for Internet video-on-demand. He also made no apologies for the lack of anticopying controls on the Mac and in its QuickTime digital media format, which the movie service also declined to support. Schiller said Apple has not released much in the way of protective technology, known as digital rights management (DRM), because effective techniques for securing content without interfering with the experience of consumers have not yet been invented."

"Open source community in the US are worried by a court's approval of the Microsoft settlement with a few states and Justice Department. They fear that Microsoft will now be emboldened to begin patent infringement claims against open source software. Though their concern may not be unwarranted, it would not be easy for Microsoft to pursue such an attempt."

"The RIAA needs to stop trying to unfairly link college webcasting with the specter of students illegally downloading free music. And the RIAA should make the enlightened decision to compromise with small, non-profit webcasters in an agreement that will allow Internet radio to flourish for the benefit of both."

"This EULA thing has gotten out of hand. We are clicking-away rights that we shouldn't and sure it is because we are lazy, but even lazy people shouldn't be victimized."

"In the end, it will be up to technology companies to seriously consider ways to prevent their equipment from being the getaway car in the theft of creative works, be it motion pictures or music. It won't be easy, but America's technology leaders are up to the task." LawMeme points out that the author of this editorial is a member of the Intellectual Property Owners Association's Litigation Committee.

"Star Wars producer Rick McCallum told a Melbourne audience that the fight against P2P swapping of films was as important as the war on terrorism."

"Attempts by record companies to limit the time customers could listen to legally downloaded music have stirred stiff consumer resistance. But the studios believe movies will be different because customers are long accustomed to short-term rentals of video tapes and DVDs."

"The U.S. Congress approved a deal early Friday morning that would allow small Internet-based radio stations to pay lower royalty rates to the musicians and record labels whose songs they use."

"The legal issues [related to Kazaa] go far beyond music. A key question is whether there is liability in making it possible to infringe a law. That's a minefield. A decision along those lines might render car makers responsible for speeding fines or video camera companies liable to prosecution for child pornography."

"Record label EMI Group has significantly loosened the reins on how its music can be distributed on the Internet, striking a set of deals that expand what consumers can legally do with EMI tunes accessed via an online service."

"Could there actually be progress on the Internet entertainment front? Hope springs occasionally, despite the copyright fights that have stymied meaningful progress toward the ability to legally download movies and watch them on computers."

"321 Studios, a maker of DVD copying software, on Wednesday launched a new product called DVD X Copy that ups the stakes in Hollywood's ongoing battle against copyright pirates."

"Authors may well be better served, as may the public which supports research, by open access journals because of its wider readership and early indications of greater scholarly impact."

"Unfortunately, however, while harmony within the international community was the treaties' goal, it has not been their result. Instead, the new international intellectual property system has only enlarged the gap between developed and less developed countries, reduced cultural diversity, and widened the global digital divide [...]."

"Pressplay, the digital music service from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, has inked a content licensing deal with Warner Music Group, Billboard Bulletin reports. The pact gives Pressplay content from all five major labels. The only other subscription service to feature content from all five is Listen.com's Rhapsody."

Open-source developers fear that "Microsoft will now become more aggressive in competing with open-source software. And for Samba -- software that allows Windows machines to read files on Linux servers -- as well as other open-source projects that compete with Microsoft's products, that may mean dealing with patent lawsuits."

"In the days leading up to the film's release, and less than two weeks after its London premiere, file traders posted dozens of copies of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, the second installment in the popular series, on peer-to-peer networks."

"Roxio Inc., developer of CD-burning software, said it has reached agreement to acquire the intellectual property assets, including patents, of Napster Inc. for $5 million in cash and warrants on 100,000 shares of its stock." Also, MusicNet's relaunched service will allow users to burn songs to CD.

"EMI’s new online music service is the latest sign that the big record labels, shocked by the speed with which their market is being eroded by piracy and the illegal downloading of songs over the Internet, are determined to fight back."

"A major record label will give music fans a chance this month to judge whether music DVD's might become the medium of choice over CD's. But listeners will need to make up their minds in a hurry: like the taped orders in "Mission: Impossible," the DVD's will self-destruct - or be rendered useless, anyway - soon after they are played."

"Dutch group Philips and Japan's Sony Corp, the parents of the compact disc, teamed up on Wednesday to buy InterTrust Technologies for $453 million -- a deal expected to speed up copyright security for digital media."

"The troubled music industry faces at least another two years of recession as internet pirates become more sophisticated and the threat of economic slowdown deters potential buyers, a new survey says."

P2P arms race: "A proposed US law permitting attacks on peer-to-peer file sharing networks to disrupt illegal copying could be undermined by research from two US computer researchers."

The MovieLink service can only be used with Microsoft Windows running Internet Explorer. MovieLink doesn't work on Macs or Linux, and it doesn't work with browsers like Netscape or Mozilla.

"Barlow's scenario is a world in which chunks of the net can be shut down by a content industry that has redefined its own computer crime as a social good."

"Executives at [321 Studios] believe that Hollywood, thirsting for all-or-nothing control, has wrongly lumped their 28-employee business in with the Napsters of the world."

"Everything seems to be roses and lollipops for TiVo and SonicBlue, maker of ReplayTV devices. The Silicon Valley rivals are allies now that they've decided to put their time and money into promoting digital video recorders (DVRs) rather than fighting each other."

"The industry’s antipiracy arguments are a smoke screen. Digital rights management is about strengthening monopolies, increasing revenues, and restricting our freedoms."

"Ross Anderson seemed deeply pessimistic, at least about the medium term. Trusted computing will happen, and it will not happen initially in a way that will be to the advantage of the user. The backlash (Zaba's "political level") will however tend to correct this."

"The burden must be on industry to comply, not for consumers to complain. Section XXX of the proposed changes to the Copyright Code should be altered to make clear that media companies cannot employ technology which does not allow for existing fair dealing rights, including time-shifiting, and that circumvention of that technology is permitted to exercise any exception to copyright."

"Like other DVDs, the [Superbit] disks do have tough digital copy protection, meaning only hackers can duplicate them with a PC. But Macrovision, a technology that prevents people copying by simply connecting the analogue output of a DVD player to the analogue input of a recorder, has not been used."

"Hollings is up for re-election in 2004. A well-organized effort to target him for defeat in the primary and general elections could make Hollings and other congressmen think twice before cozying up to Jack Valenti's Motion Picture Association of America and other groups clamoring for more government regulations."

"CDs that are enhanced with extra content such as access to private Web site, unreleased music, and ticket offers make buyers more willing to purchase the album, according to a recent Billboard.com poll."

According to this posting, a security guard at a Rolling Stones concert required an attendee to hang up their phone -- using the phone during the concert was a "copyright violation."

"What would you think if you had to get permission from the architect before you could have your house painted another color? How would you feel if the photographer had to agree with your selection of a frame for a favorite photograph? What if the director of a movie could decide when it was OK for you to fast-forward through a DVD you had rented? Sounds crazy? The last example is now the crux of a lawsuit brought by the Directors Guild of America against a number of companies that make DVD-playing software."

"Because all copyrights expire, all works eventually become available for anyone to copy, reuse, and transform without limitation. Disney's Snow White and Cinderella, for instance, are adaptations of Brothers Grimm tales in the "public domain," the group of works to which no copyright applies. Unfortunately, because of recent expansions of copyright law, "no one can do to Disney what Walt Disney did to the Brothers Grimm," said Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig at a recent conference."

"After nearly two years in production, Hollywood-backed Movielink is giving the green light to its online movie rental service."

"Online music swapping services like Napster, KaZaA and others have battered businesses in every corner of the music industry. But no group has taken it on the chin as much as the Internet's CD merchants, whose online turf is being increasingly overrun by free music."

"Seeking to protect movies from the rampant online piracy that afflicts the music industry, five major film studios plan to begin offering today rental feature films that consumers can download from a Web site for a fee."

"Republican control of both houses of Congress, and the leadership changes it will bring about, could have the biggest impact on efforts by Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-S.C.) to bring "opt-in" privacy protections to online commerce as well as force hardware makers to build copyright protections into their products. Hollings' legislative efforts got the ire of the tech industry, which will be happy to see Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) return as chairman of the key U.S. Senate Commerce Committee."

"[R]ather than putting the burden of protecting copyrights onto the U.S. taxpayer, copyright holders should bear these costs themselves. For instance, media companies that think vigilante hacking is justified should go ahead and do it— but be prepared to accept the legal consequences. File traders will argue for their fair-use rights and counter-sue for criminal trespass. These issues are already part of the common and statutory law. Given that such remedies are already provided for, new laws establishing a positive right to hack would serve only to negate any legal liability for the hackers and remove incentives to make sure the hacking is targeted at actual copyright violators."

"Congress is considering laws that will affect the way Americans watch television, listen to music and use their computers for years to come. But with few members of the public taking note, the debate is largely one-sided."

"Martel's Life Of Pi won the £50,000 prize in October. It tells the tale of an Indian boy who is shipwrecked and has to share a lifeboat with a tiger. But Moacyr Scliar claims Martel has abused his 'intellectual property' in taking the ideas from his 1981 novella Max And The Cats and has considered taking legal action." Martel responds that ideas are not copyrightable.

"The future of digital television remains fuzzy. Even with one political party -- in this case, the Republicans -- set to control both Congress and the White House, the only foreseeable change in the arduous transition to digital TV is a new Senate committee chairman."

If this customer support response is real, it's pretty revealing. "[V]iew these two responses (and no doubt many others out there) as an example of how cuddly, responsive and customer-centric the music business will be when it has DRM. They really are looking forward to the day when you have no rights."

"Programmers who claimed to have cracked and copied DVD said that while they felt no guilt about duplicating Hollywood's products, they rarely bothered to spend the two or more hours necessary to do so. 'Dude, it's $12 to buy it,' one said. 'The soundtrack album is $18. What does that tell you?'"

"Music executives acknowledge they were late to the Internet game. Once they started to pay attention to the new medium and to Napster and other file-sharing services that let consumers trade music, it was too late to throw a lasso around online distribution. So they are determined to keep a tight rein on ring tones. [...] As more advanced phones are introduced that play higher-fidelity sound, and as the mobile network technology improves, they want to condition consumers to download entire songs."

"With an eBook, it is now conceivable that one could be charged for each reading of a text. With the next generation of CDs, a similar control over music listening could be developed. With the forms of technological alienation being developed today, the copyright holder is now able to exert a control over the process of experiencing that before ended at the point of sale."

"Two new digital audio disc formats touted by the music industry for their stellar sound are nowhere near as consumer-friendly as regular old CDs. They're engineered to be copy-proof. The proposition thrills digital piracy-fearing record executives. But many audiophiles are cool to the virtual padlocks, which could prove the undoing of one or both formats."

"A British dollmaker who turned a squeaky clean Barbie into a Dungeon Doll with the help of a rubber bondage dress and helmet did not appear to violate the copyrights of Mattel Inc., a judge says."

"Instead of just keeping hackers out, critics say programs like Palladium could also block computer users from certain data. For example, the technology could be used as a policing mechanism that bars people from material stored on their own computers if they have not met licensing and other requirements."

"When the new session of Congress starts in January, Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., will no longer head the Senate Commerce committee. Hollings drew the ire of the technology community after introducing a bill that would implant copy-protection technology into all PCs and consumer electronics devices."

"The technology built into some CDs to stop people copying them is futile, according to a computer scientist who has put today's antipiracy systems under the microscope. He believes the continual software and hardware upgrades issued by the makers of computer CD drives and audio CD players render copy protection systems pointless in the long run."

"U.S. copy protection technology firm Macrovision Corp. on Tuesday said it bought the assets of Midbar Technology Ltd. and TTR Technologies Inc. to boost its anti-piracy offerings."

"Grokster, one of the world’s largest P2P networks, announced today that they have entered into an agreement with the "Platinum" recording group Insane Clown Posse (ICP) to launch an international merchandise giveaway in tandem with the release of their CD "The Wraith: Shangri-La", in stores today."

LawMeme interviews the CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association.

"The BBC reports that Disney is using a loophole in the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act to avoid over $1 Billion in liability for theft and piracy of Winnie-the-Pooh's copyright [...]. Disney is contesting a lawsuit for systematically under reporting the royalties they owe to the people who own Pooh's copyright - which has been leased to Disney since 1961."

"Tom Edwards, senior analyst at researcher NPDTechworld, questions the future of standalone PVRs. Yet as an embedded technology, the PVR could be on its way to mainstream adoption, with broad implications for TV and advertising."

"Faced with adverse publicity to copy protection on CDs, a year ago Bertelsmann Music Group bravely gave in and promised to replace a clutch of Natalie Imbruglia CDs which were protected by Midbar's Cactus Data Shield. But a year is a long time, BMG is at it again, this time apparently set on applying copy protection to all its music products."

"The file-sharing service Madster must keep a list of songs available through the system as part of a court order to block access to copyright works."

Maybe it's not all Napster's fault: "Hilary Rosen, the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, blamed rap's slump on its success: as its influence spread, fans could get hip-hop flavors from rock or pop albums."

"Copyright, even more than other areas of law, is a special priesthood with its own rituals and incantations, incomprehensible to the uninitiated. But since it has now become a major free-speech battleground, it behooves us to try to untangle the doctrine and translate the sacred texts."

"The major Hollywood movie studios are finally getting serious about delivering movies over the Internet, but their performances still could end up on the cutting-room floor."

"Peter Daboll, president of ComScore, acknowledged the quality of music might have played a role in the slumping music sales, as the popularity of Britney Spears and boy bands like 'N Sync has waned with no clear successors driving sales. But Daboll and record labels place most of the blame on illicit file-swapping services that have taken the place of the defunct Napster." Also, "Some large retailers said they have not seen any of the shrinking online music sales reported by Media Metrix, which compiles its research by monitoring the activities of 1.5 million representative Net users who have agreed to participate. ''We've seen strong increases in music sales this year over last. That category continues to grow,'' said Cynthia Lin, a spokeswoman for Walmart.com [...]."

"DRM is not an entrepreneur's world. Entrepreneurs take risks; they bring new things into being. DRM is all about eliminating all risks, about keeping anything unplanned from ever existing."

"Trusted computing from a convicted monopolist that would lock up mainstream content? Even if Microsoft had any credibility as a provider of secure systems (it doesn't), Palladium should worry us."

"The growing popularity of CD burning and illegal song-swapping over the Internet has caused online music sales to tumble this year, according to a survey to be released Monday."

"To thwart hackers and foster online commerce, the next generation of computers will almost certainly cede some control to software firms, Hollywood and other outsiders. That could break a long-standing tenet of computing: that PC owners ultimately control data on their own machines."

"Ben Edelman, a Harvard law student, is asking a federal judge to allow a legal challenge to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He argues that he has been prevented from carrying out his investigation into the flaws in Internet blocking software by legal threats from Seattle-based N2H2."

"The proposed Artistic Freedom Act [...] would limit to three years the length of recording contracts for artists without qualified legal counsel and seven years for those with representation."

"China's creative industry has been hit hard by the failure to enforce copyright laws. Artists and their lawyers say piracy has worsened since China joined the World Trade Organization late last year and pledged to meet international standards for protecting intellectual property."

"The recording industry on Thursday claimed a victory in its ongoing legal assault against online piracy after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against file-swapping service Aimster, which recently changed its name to Madster."