boycott-riaa.com - Article: In The News

In The News - December 2007

Posted by Mike (Shmoo) on December 1, 2007 at 11:27 PM (printer friendly)

We are looking for links that are of interest to independent musicians, fans, and those who give a damn about copyright issues.

Please provide us with a quick link and brief summary of the article/item. Keep lengthy comments to a minimum in this thread.

User Comments (These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)


independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 3:26 PM Last month's "In The News" can be found here: http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/28377

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 3:43 PM MPA: "You better watch out, you better not try... This year the Motion Picture Association are getting into the Christmas spirit early with the news that �Operation Blackout� has begun with an offensive against camcording pirates in 13 countries. When the MPA starts constructing their slogans from songs, they must be serious. Watch out pirates!

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 3:45 PM iTunes to raise movie prices

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 3:46 PM Swiss DMCA coming - 50,000 signatures needed to unmake it.

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 3:50 PM MPAA's University wiretapping product taken down (get this!) ...for violating copyright The MPAA's "University Toolkit" (a piece of monitoring software that universities are being asked to install on their networks to spy on students' communications) has been taken down, due to copyright violations. The Toolkit is based on the GPL-licensed Xubuntu operating system (a flavor of Linux). The GPL requires anyone who makes a program based on GPL'ed code has to release the source code for their program and license it under the GPL. The MPAA refused multiple requests to provide the sources for their spyware, so an Ubuntu developer sent a DMCA notice to the MPAA's ISP and demanded that the material be taken down as infringing. lol

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 3:52 PM Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints. The so-called "kill switch"

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 4:00 PM MICKEY Mouse and Donald Duck will finally get their day in court if summons served by judicial authorities in Italy are to be believed. In what appears to be a bizarre bureaucratic blunder, the Disney cartoon characters have been named as witnesses in the trial of a Chinese man accused of peddling counterfeit toys and decals bearing the images of the pair.

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 4:06 PM Stuff pop stars demand backstage

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 4:15 PM Nokia's unlimited music offer turns market on head Nokia's plan to offer unlimited music downloads challenges the dominant pay-per-track sales model and is likely to upset carriers already worried that Nokia is poaching their customer relationships.

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 4:27 PM LimeWire Antitrust Claims Against RIAA Dismissed Damn. "The antitrust counterclaims imposed by Lime Wire against the RIAA record companies have been dismissed. In a 45-page decision (pdf), the Court relied principally upon the holding of the United States Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic v. Twombly that 'A party's obligation to provide the grounds of his entitlement to relief requires more than labels and conclusions, and a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do.' Ironically, the Twombly decision was the authority upon which the RIAA's copyright infringement complaint was dismissed in Interscope v. Rodriguez." --Ray Beckerman

independentm...	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 6:54 PM Rapper Pimp C found dead in LA hotel

pepe512000	Date: December 4, 2007 @ 7:24 PM Songwriters Assn. Pushes For 'Piracy' Fee Piracy fee eh? Not sure I like the new name, but the old concept of paying the isp is still an option which they're still trying for. In the bad news department.. DoJ Sides With RIAA On Damages Apparently paying the riaa a cazillion dollars for downloading per song is ok...bit of a deterrent to all the errant "thieving pirates" out there. What a crock!

gfmlcka	Date: December 5, 2007 @ 8:44 AM http://www.wired.com/entertainment/music/magazine/15-12/mf_morris They still can't wrap their tiny heads around the concept of infinitely reproducible at zero cost. There's even a Shmoo in the article.

gfmlcka	Date: December 5, 2007 @ 10:36 PM More from the Dickman: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071205-mpaa-head-content-filtering-in-isps-best-interests.html

pessimist	Date: December 6, 2007 @ 6:54 AM "AT&T and its publicly-stated plan to implement some sort of filtering system on its network." I'm not a copyright "pirate", but I still hate AT&T for several reasons other than this setting a bad precedent for isps. Verizon, Cingular, Qwest and some of the companies affiliated with parent AT&T. AT&T has become a bloated mega-corporation with all kinds of holding companies, and they even have Bell South as part of their system, too. Otherwise, they should have been disassociated from the name "Bell" since the de-monopolizing divestiture decision back in 1984, but they've skirted some of the intent of that action. . . thanks to some loophole-loving lawyers. In the long run, it's actually bad when corporations do that; it's one way they avoid having only one name that can remind people just how pervasive their tentacles are. Plus, when they spread themselves out, there are tax-avoiding benefits for them as well. Sadly, fewer taxes paid by lucrative corporations often means more taxes to be shouldered on the backs of others, including small businesses and private individuals. (I could even complain about Apple arranging for AT&T to be locked in with its iPhone.) Of course, there are other reasons to despise mega-corporations and conglomerates, but I won't take up any more space here.

pessimist	Date: December 6, 2007 @ 6:59 AM I meant to write: "Verizon, Cingular, Qwest, and some other companies are affiliated with parent AT&T." (I think we've just about given up on this website providing a helpful edit button, haven't we?)

independentm...	Date: December 7, 2007 @ 8:55 AM Nielsen To Offer Web Copyright Protection System According to Information Week, the system will provide 'a way to quickly discover unauthorized content on sites. To do that, the system would leverage Nielsen's existing watermark technology, which is used on more than 95% of TV programming distributed today. The watermarks are used by the meters installed in people's home to identify the programs they watch.

independentm...	Date: December 7, 2007 @ 8:57 AM Western Digital Service Restricts Use of Network Drives Via BoingBoing comes the news that Western Digital's My Book(TM) World Edition(TM) II, sold with promises of internet-accessible drive space, is now restricting the types of files the drive will serve up. 'Western Digital is disabling sharing of any avi, divx, mp3, mpeg, and many other files on its network connected devices; due to unverifiable media license authentication. Just wondering -- who needs a 1 Terabyte network-connected hard drive that is prohibited from serving most media files? Perhaps somebody with 220 million pages of .txt files they need to share?

brenthannah	Date: December 7, 2007 @ 3:58 PM Western Digital's new hard drives won't let you share any MP3s at all over a network, legally or not. RIAA, MPAA, Wicked Witch of the West cackle with delight http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/12/western-digital.html

autodidact	Date: December 7, 2007 @ 6:50 PM We can be expecting these Western Digital drives to show up on the closeout rack in about a year. LOL.

gfmlcka	Date: December 8, 2007 @ 6:38 PM $0.50 gets it: http://torrentfreak.com/50cent-file-sharing-doesnt-hurt-the-artists-071208/

independentm...	Date: December 9, 2007 @ 1:00 AM Rock band's lawsuit takes aim at videogame Cover bands and tribute bands have been a mainstay of the music scene for decades. When a company licenses a composition, it may find that licensing the original master recording is outside the budget or unavailable for licensing. Hiring the original band members to rerecord the song may not be an alternative because of contractual rerecording restrictions in the band's record deal... So when someone wants to record a cover version of a song, when does it violate the original artist's rights? Michael Novak, the Detroit-based personal lawyer for the Romantics, says he believes a violation occurs when consumers think they're listening to the original band.

independentm...	Date: December 9, 2007 @ 1:03 AM MySpace gears up for more music with Transmissions Hoping to broaden its relevance to the music industry in the face of increasing competition from other social networking sites, MySpace will roll out a suite of services and initiatives as part of what company officials are calling MySpace Music 2.0.

independentm...	Date: December 9, 2007 @ 1:20 AM Macrovision said it plans to combine its digital rights management technologies with Gemstar-TV Guide's vast library of entertainment programming listings

independentm...	Date: December 9, 2007 @ 1:25 AM Mobile Music A $11 Billion Industry By 2011

independentm...	Date: December 9, 2007 @ 1:33 AM Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Kid Rock "The works are not so strikingly or substantially similar as to preclude independent creation," U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon wrote in her ruling this week. Lemmon cited expert testimony from both sides, plus her side-by-side review of the songs from which she concluded "a layman would not view the works as substantially similar."

independentm...	Date: December 10, 2007 @ 6:29 AM Canadian DMCA rally in Calgary -- photos, videos, reports

gfmlcka	Date: December 11, 2007 @ 9:22 AM So now mp3's ripped from your own CD's are unauthorized! I thought format shifting was a fair use. Too much. http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/12/riaa-files-supplemental-brief-in.html

brenthannah	Date: December 11, 2007 @ 9:50 AM Canadian grassroots movement put the brakes on CDCMA http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=a2d52e40-96cd-4329-abfb-45382e522363&p=2

independentm...	Date: December 11, 2007 @ 11:25 AM Pink Floyd go DRM-free with 7digital Hello, hello, is there anybody out there (still buying DRM-restricted music)? Pink Floyd is the latest band to have their back-catalogue knocked out as DRM-free digital tracks, thanks to a deal with UK etailer 7digital. The company claims it's the first UK-based online store to sell the Floyd's "entire albums repertoire as DRM-free downloads" - which is a crafty bit of marketing language, since some of those albums are already as DRM-free iTunes Plus files on the iTunes Store. Still, thumbs up to 7digital for its initial pricing, with several albums going for �5.49, and the rest (including the Echoes compilation) going for �6.99 - �1-2 cheaper than iTunes, and these are MP3s rather than Apple's AAC files.

independentm...	Date: December 11, 2007 @ 11:35 AM It's official. Ogg technology has been removed from the HTML5 spec, after Ian caved in the face of pressure from Apple and Nokia. Boo Hiss!

pepe512000	Date: December 12, 2007 @ 11:11 AM I love Christmas. But at last.... I cannot speak... Virgin Britney

independentm...	Date: December 12, 2007 @ 9:44 PM OBIT: Ike Turner :candle:

independentm...	Date: December 12, 2007 @ 9:59 PM Porn Giant sues over XXX YouTube clone.

independentm...	Date: December 12, 2007 @ 10:07 PM Best Buy sending C&D's over T-shirts ...and for even REPORTING about the T-shirts

independentm...	Date: December 12, 2007 @ 10:09 PM Someone on the Hill has been feeding propaganda into the 'invasion of Iraq' article on Wikipedia.

pessimist	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 3:08 AM I hope the folks over at Wikipedia learn about it and set the record straight. Words can't do justice to my disgust with the executive branch and the crappy politicians in our nation's capital.

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 12:00 PM China banning US Movies The Chinese action, those officials said, may be in retaliation for the U.S. decision last April to file an intellectual property rights case with the World Trade Organization. The filing was meant to pressure China to more strictly enforce its intellectual property rights laws and to give American companies greater access to the Chinese market.

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 12:04 PM Canadian ISP tests injecting content into web pages ISPs Injecting Their Content Into Websites

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 12:15 PM Behind the Scenes of the Swiss DMCA fight.

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 12:19 PM Microsoft rebrands PlaysForSure to Certified For Windows Vista, confuses world

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 12:20 PM Those of you with players from SanDisk, Nokia, and Creative among others, looking for compatible music from Napster, Real Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, Wal-Mart and such must now look for the "Certified for Windows Vista" logo, not PlaysForSure. Of course, Microsoft's Zune is also certified for Windows Vista, just not certified for Windows Vista so it won't play back the same protected files. Man, could DRM get any more consumer unfriendly?

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 12:22 PM Rogers Communications, the Canadian cable and telcoms giant, has slapped the Yahoo! name onto the Google home page. And Google isn't too happy about it. Nor SHOULD they be.

gfmlcka	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 5:48 PM From the "Awww, not this shit again" dept: http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/12/13/180255

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 7:22 PM Defective By Design The Kindle Swindle The Amazon kindle provides convenience, but at the cost of freedom. When you purchase a kindle, you must agree to use the Digital Restriction Management (DRM) system. Since all of the Kindle ebooks you purchase from Amazon are in their proprietary DRM format, you are also promising to not share them with friends. And, because you promise to not circumvent the DRM, there is no way to move them to another device or a computer. You are locked into the Kindle and you are locked into Amazon. If you try to move them to a new ebook reader or a computer, Amazon can end your service and remove access to the books you have already purchased. It seems that Amazon only cares to oppose DRM when they can profit from it, such as when they advertise their MP3's as "Play Anywhere, DRM-Free Downloads." The same is not true for Kindle ebooks. Perhaps if they were honest they would advertise their ebooks as "Play Only Here, DRM-Laden Kindle Ebooks."

independentm...	Date: December 13, 2007 @ 7:35 PM Tv Industry has been using "piracy" as a measure of success 'Broadcasters aren't posting their shows directly on PirateBay yet, but they are talking informally and giving copies of shows to a friend of a friend who is unaffiliated with the company to make a torrent ... it's partially an experiment, but the hope is that distribution of content this way will lead to new viewers that wouldn't have been reached through traditional marketing means.'" ----------- I hold a belief that the RIAA labels are themselves secretly responsible for uploading much of the RIAA stuff clogging the p2p nets in a similar way. For the promotional value and to drown out the indie competition.

independentm...	Date: December 15, 2007 @ 3:50 AM Pro Tools iPhone application

independentm...	Date: December 16, 2007 @ 11:38 PM RIAA Backs Down On "Unlicensed Investigator" "Texas grandmother Rhonda Crain got the RIAA to drop its monetary claims against her after she filed counterclaims against the record companies for using an investigator, MediaSentry, which is not licensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas. The RIAA elected to drop its claims rather than wait for the Judge to decide the validity of Ms. Crain's charges (PDF) that the plaintiff record companies were 'aware that the... private investigations company was unlicensed to conduct investigations in the State of Texas specifically, and in other states as well... and understood that unlicensed and unlawful investigations would take place in order to provide evidence for this lawsuit, as well as thousands of others as part of a mass litigation campaign.' Similar questions about MediaSentry's unlicensed investigations were raised recently by the State Attorney General of Oregon in Arista v. Does 1-17"

independentm...	Date: December 16, 2007 @ 11:58 PM OBIT: Dan Fogelberg :candle:

pessimist	Date: December 17, 2007 @ 12:07 AM Re: "unlicensed investigator" issue Yeah, too bad Jammie's lawyer didn't file that kind of countersuit. Jammie did not have an astute attorney, and as such, should not have pursued a trial by jury without more substance than that guy had going (which wasn't a whole hell of a lot). That case almost reeked of a set-up. The RIAA was salivating at the chance to get into court on it. And later, after the verdict, even the White House participated in the gleeful piling on, implying how the way it turned out was good for the intellectual property rights concept. [sneer] Well, I'm just commenting off the top of my head with this post, and without any reference material nearby at all. But that's how my memory recalls it. Feel free to add or modify at your inclination.

deskyrider	Date: December 18, 2007 @ 9:55 PM royalties for radio broadcasts: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071219/media_nm/radio_royalties_dc;_ylt=AgikpPMGrt3QsUXOnW14Nx1xFb8C new to this, hope the link shows up okay I guess the indies get shafted any way you look at it, don't they?

TrueAudio	Date: December 19, 2007 @ 1:31 PM NSA Gets Real Time Access to Your Email http://www.truthnews.us/?p=1327

3lite	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 8:45 AM TorrentSpy loses U.S. copyright court case to the MPAA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7153323.stm

independentm...	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 12:27 PM Striking Writers Guild members hope to launch venture-backed online entertainment startups as a way to bypass conventional entertainment... They thinking of going indie?

independentm...	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 12:29 PM Chicago police ask you to report people using maps or taking notes in public Big Bro on the march!

independentm...	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 2:56 PM A look at where the Presidential candidates stand on "geek" issues: http://www.popularmechanics.com/geekthevote08 (Pay particular attention to who is where on Digital/Internet/Copyright issues)

independentm...	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 2:59 PM Clickable grid here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/research/4237333.html

independentm...	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 3:06 PM Creative Commons Launches CC+ License Creative Commons has this week released their CC+ protocol, which provides a way for authors to allow other people to commercially reuse their work, and give them a pre-negotiated fee or percentage. It makes it easy for people to release the Material under CC-No-Commercial, and then have a way to charge for commercial use if companies are interested.

pessimist	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 8:15 PM Re: TorrentSpy loses U.S. copyright court case to the MPAA: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7153323.stm TorrentSpry crapped in their own nest by being untruthful and sneaky. They would have done better by just flat-out saying they can't comply because doing so would abridge privacy rights, and just let the chips fall where they may. At least that would have been a better basis, and a higher moral ground to take, than where they are now. Where they are now is certain loss, plus there will likely be a higher penalty because of sneakiness. Judges hate sneakiness and deception. You add deception to non-compliance, and your ass is grass in the courthouse.

pessimist	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 8:16 PM Bye-bye, TorrentSpy. Sorry, old chap, but all free rides come to an end.

independentm...	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 8:47 PM "You add deception to non-compliance, and your ass is grass in the courthouse." Unless you are the RIAA of course!

pessimist	Date: December 20, 2007 @ 10:00 PM Right; mega-corporations excepted. Our government -- ALL THREE BRANCHES -- thrives on catering to them.

independentm...	Date: December 21, 2007 @ 10:21 PM Yahoo copyright troubles in China

pepe512000	Date: December 24, 2007 @ 3:25 PM This Is So Not In The News.... Just want to take this opportunity to wish everyone here at Boycott and D-Music a very Merry Christmas, and all the best in the coming New Year! ~~pepe~~

independentm...	Date: December 25, 2007 @ 11:35 PM Egypt to copyright pyramids You'd think this is from the Onion. But no, it's a legit story from AFP.

independentm...	Date: December 25, 2007 @ 11:37 PM Quiet Year for Tech on the Hill

independentm...	Date: December 25, 2007 @ 11:41 PM The Economist makes three upbeat predictions about tech in the coming year.

independentm...	Date: December 26, 2007 @ 6:45 PM Patriots' historic game to be available to all of America, after all Their game against the New York Giants, in which the Patriots could become the first NFL team to go 16-0 in the regular season, was originally scheduled to be shown only on the NFL Network. Fewer than 40 percent of the nation's homes with TVs receive the channel. ------------ Oh, sure, let the music monopolies run wild, but if you f**k with FOOTBALL the sheople get upset loudly enough for lawmakers to act.

independentm...	Date: December 27, 2007 @ 7:51 AM The over-analysis of almost every Beatles song every written. Musicians only :thumbsup: :cool:

pessimist	Date: December 27, 2007 @ 5:45 PM THE DEATH OF HIGH FIDELITY In the age of MP3s, sound quality is worse than ever ROBERT LEVINEPosted Dec 26, 2007 1:27 PM Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 � David Bendeth, a producer who works with rock bands like Hawthorne Heights and Paramore, knows that the albums he makes are often played through tiny computer speakers by fans who are busy surfing the Internet. So, he's not surprised when record labels ask the mastering engineers who work on his CDs to crank up the sound levels so high that even the soft parts sound loud. Over the past decade and a half, a revolution in recording technology has changed the way albums are produced, mixed and mastered � almost always for the worse. "They make it loud to get [listeners'] attention," Bendeth says. Engineers do that by applying dynamic range compression, which reduces the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a song. Like many of his peers, Bendeth believes that relying too much on this effect can obscure sonic detail, rob music of its emotional power, and leave listeners with what engineers call ear fatigue. "I think most everything is mastered a little too loud," Bendeth says. "The industry decided that it's a volume contest." Producers and engineers call this "the loudness war," and it has changed the way almost every new pop and rock album sounds. But volume isn't the only issue. Computer programs like Pro Tools, which let audio engineers manipulate sound the way a word processor edits text, make musicians sound unnaturally perfect. And today's listeners consume an increasing amount of music on MP3, which eliminates parts of the data from the original CD file and can leave music sounding tinny or hollow. "With all the technical innovation, music sounds worse," says Steely Dan's Donald Fagen, who has made what are considered some of the best-sounding records of all time. "God is in the details. But there are no details anymore." The idea that engineers make albums louder might seem strange: Isn't volume controlled by that knob on the stereo? Yes, but every setting on that dial delivers a range of loudness, from a hushed vocal to a kick drum � and pushing sounds toward the top of that range makes music seem louder. It's the same technique used to make television commercials stand out from shows. And it does grab listeners' attention � but at a price. Last year, Bob Dylan told Rolling Stone that modern albums "have sound all over them. There's no definition of anything, no vocal, no nothing, just like � static." In 2004, Jeff Buckley's mom, Mary Guibert, listened to the original three-quarter-inch tape of her son's recordings as she was preparing the tenth-anniversary reissue of Grace. "We were hearing instruments you've never heard on that album, like finger cymbals and the sound of viola strings being plucked," she remembers. "It blew me away because it was exactly what he heard in the studio." To Guibert's disappointment, the remastered 2004 version failed to capture these details. So, last year, when Guibert assembled the best-of collection So Real: Songs From Jeff Buckley, she insisted on an independent A&R consultant to oversee the reissue process and a mastering engineer who would reproduce the sound Buckley made in the studio. "You can hear the distinct instruments and the sound of the room," she says of the new release. "Compression smudges things together." "The excitement in music comes from variation in rhythm, timbre, pitch and loudness," Levitin says. "If you hold one of those constant, it can seem monotonous." After a few minutes, research shows, constant loudness grows fatiguing to the brain. Though few listeners realize this consciously, many feel an urge to skip to another song. "If you limit range, it's just an assault on the body," says Tom Coyne, a mastering engineer who has worked with Mary J. Blige and Nas. "When you're fifteen, it's the greatest thing � you're being hammered. But do you want that on a whole album?" To an average listener, a wide dynamic range creates a sense of spaciousness and makes it easier to pick out individual instruments � as you can hear on recent albums such as Dylan's Modern Times and Norah Jones' Not Too Late. "When people have the courage and the vision to do a record that way, it sets them apart," says Joe Boyd, who produced albums by Richard Thompson and R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction. "It sounds warm, it sounds three-dimensional, it sounds different. Analog sound to me is more emotionally affecting." . . . . . . . . . . [cut] . . . . . . . . . .

pessimist	Date: December 27, 2007 @ 11:09 PM (the above excerpt courtesy of Rolling Stone� magazine)

MWolfe2212	Date: December 27, 2007 @ 11:45 PM "Prepare To Be Adapted: Pirates Of The Web" by MARX PYLE http://www.syfyportal.com/news424575.html This is my first article posting but after reading it at SyFy Portal, I thought it was worthy of sharing.

MWolfe2212	Date: December 27, 2007 @ 11:48 PM Four Steps for stopping piracy from SyFy Portal article. 1. Offer what these potential consumers are wanting. Digital high-quality versions of what they want, offered at a reasonable price and that can be conveniently downloaded for collection. The big argument for pro-downloaders for comic book files is that most publishers aren�t offering them and those that are, well, not as good of quality as the illegal versions and are not designed to be downloaded. Plus, offer it in all available countries as close together as possible. That way someone in one country isn�t tempted to download their favorite show�s season premiere that aired weeks earlier in another country." "2. Explore new ways to profit from this new media via new ad and sale models that are hopefully not too annoying. These should be affordable, a price that consumers feel is fair. Plus, make sure that you are fairly sharing the profits with the writers and other creators." "3. Once you have offered something that is of superior quality than what is being pirated, then take steps to make it difficult to easily distribute the files. This is the tricky part; you have to balance between security and convenience. If you make it too inconvenient, then piracy will look tempting again. But don�t worry, that is what Step 4 is for." "4. OK, you are now offering a superior digital version of your product. You have taken steps to make it difficult to copy and distribute. Now you can take legal actions against torrent sites with the understanding that it is best to target the sites, not the fans. Don�t worry about each individual. That is too time consuming and will only anger fans. Realize that taking on every site is also unrealistic. Instead write these illegal downloads off as promotional (which is what studios call their free streaming videos anyway) and as individuals that would most likely never have bought your product anyway.

independentm...	Date: December 28, 2007 @ 3:55 AM It takes 30 minutes of your time to cancel your Napster subscription.

independentm...	Date: December 28, 2007 @ 3:56 AM Warner starts selling DRM free mp3s on Amazon.

gfmlcka	Date: December 28, 2007 @ 8:53 AM also on Wired.. http://blog.wired.com/music/2007/12/warner-music--1.html

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 12:29 AM Ageing rockers outshine newcomers in 2007

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 12:56 AM Maine Law Students take on the RIAA http://www.p2pnet.net/story/14477

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 1:01 AM Japan's File sharing legislation will initially target illegal downloads, but, according to critics, may ultimately broaden to include streaming media from sites such as YouTube.

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 1:06 AM The WTO says Antiqua may ignore US copyright laws to the tune of $21 million. Because of US bans of online gaming.

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 1:08 AM Definitive evidence that Bell stole the essential idea for telephony from Elisha Gray?

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 1:43 AM Copyright's Path Some good comments following the article.

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 1:56 AM How to copyright Michelangelo Ultimately, it should not be surprising that a monopolist like Bill Gates discovered a clause in copyright law that allowed him to acquire a new monopoly.

independentm...	Date: December 29, 2007 @ 1:58 AM 2007's top p2p files according to Wired

independentm...	Date: December 31, 2007 @ 2:29 AM Foxtrot takes a swipe at the DMCA: http://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/2007/12/30/

independentm...	Date: December 31, 2007 @ 11:09 PM pfffthh... Someone at Discover says open source software stifles creativity.