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RIAA, MPAA, ACTA: Oh, my!
It's been an interesting few days. First, the full text of the working ACTA treaty is to be released on the 21st. All of the countries attending the conference in New Zealand were in favor of its release, saying that earlier release was premature. It has been leaked massively and those unofficial copies were not at all friendly to personal ( Read more... ) -
The government can't find a basis supporting RIAA/MPAA piracy claims
"'After spending a year studying how piracy and illegal counterfeiting affects the United States, the Government Accountability Office says it still doesn't know for sure.... The GAO said that most of the published information, anecdotal evidence, and records show that piracy is a drag on the US economy, tax revenue, and in some cases potentially ( Read more... ) -
An anti-trust case against the RIAA has been reinstated!
"After Starr v. SONY BMG Music Entertainment was dismissed at the District Court level, the antitrust class action against the RIAA has been reinstated by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. In its 25-page opinion (PDF), the Appeals court held the following allegations sufficiently allege antitrust violations: 'First, defendants agreed ( Read more... ) -
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss?
I can't imagine how many times that lyric has been, or will be, used to describe the Obama administration ( Read more... ) -
There's a fundamental flaw in the RIAA lawsuits for file sharing that anyone can exploit
The RIAA claims that they can link an IP address to a computer. Your computer is uniquely identified by a MAC address, it's a two-part hexadecimal address burned into your ethernet card. The first part is a code that identifies the manufacturer of the chipset, the second is sort of a serial number and is supposed to be unique to that manufacturer ( Read more... ) -
Leaked ACTA treaty would totally screw P2P among other things
A treaty is being circulated, in secret, that could have some pretty amazing ramifications. Among them: all P2P would be illegal, including trading works that are legally available, and region-free DVD would also go bye-bye ( Read more... ) -
U. Washington and the RIAA: how to frame a laser printer for illegal music downloads
Gotta love these people. The RIAA is sending out subpoenas to people alleging illegal file sharing based on IP address. The problem is, and anyone with a moderately advanced knowledge of computer networking can tell you, that IP addresses can (a) be forged and (b) are not normally constant. There is a fixed number of available IP addresses (you ( Read more... ) -
An interesting fight is brewing between the Nat'l Assoc of Broadcasters and the RIAA
The RIAA wants to make terrestrial broadcasters "pay to play", the thing that's destroying internet radio. Currently terrestrial broadcasters pay royalties to SONG WRITERS, not to the band doing the playing. So the NAB is countering by asking Congress to investigate modern recording contracts! music politics, riaaSome good P2P and RIAA news for a change!
The Canadian government comissioned a study of P2P users and found that they bought more music CDs than the rest of the population. I'm sure the RIAA will be happy to totally ignore it ( Read more... )HAH! EMI accused of selling music illegally!
I wanna see the RIAA sue one of its members!
Apparently Robert Fripp & King Crimson had no agreement to allow digital sales of their library, and EMI did it anyway.
"After the licence (with EMI) expired," writes Fripp, "King Crimson tracks repeatedly appeared on various download websites licensed from EMI. If this had happened during the licence ( Read more... )