LimeWire loses copyright case in fight with labels
"A judge with the U.S. District Court in New York ruled this week that the company and its chairman, Mark Gorton, were liable for inducing copyright infringement."

"LimeWire CEO George Searle said in a statement that while it "strongly opposes" the court's decision, the company held out hope for a deal. The company sells an "Extended Pro" version of its free software for $34.95 a year, leaving open the possibility that a new business model could emerge in cooperation with the music industry."

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Three more Jenner copyright litigators to DOJ; who will be left to litigate for the labels?

This is a post from last year, but worth a revisit, lest we get our hopes up that things will ever change, at least as far as the copyfight goes.

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Obama's Supreme Court nominee might make the RIAA and MPAA see red

"According to The Hollywood Reporter, Kagan might actually understand the concept of fair use � a rare trait for anyone in Washington. Even more astounding, she might actually be on its side.

According to THR, when she was Dean of Harvard Law, she was �instrumental in beefing up the school�s Berkman Center for Internet & Society by recruiting Lawrence Lessig and others who take a strongly liberal position on fair use in copyright disputes.�

She also got involved in a video-on-demand fight. Back in 2006, Cablevision had this scheme where they were going to let their subscribers store TV shows on its servers, to watch later. There was no sharing of the video publicly � it was, essentially, a TiVo in the cloud idea.

The entertainment industry lost its mind. The whole thing wound its way up to the Supreme Court and Kagan actually argued on behalf of fair use, suggesting that the Court shouldn�t take the case.

So here we have a Supreme Court nominee who understands the Internet, actually knows and apparently likes Larry Lessig (who, by the way, I suggested would make an interesting nominee himself), and even seems to understand issues surrounding fair use and the basics of how DVRs work.

I�m starting to think Kagan could be a keeper."

And more here...
Should MPAA be Nervous About Supreme Court Nominee?

"Nominee Elena Kagan has a long history of taking a liberal �fair use� position on copyright debates, and even helped beef up Harvard Law School�s, best known for defending accused file-sharer Joel Tenenbaum."

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Obama to promote RIAA's favourite lawyer

"The prosecutor who spanked the World's Dumbest File Sharer, Jammie Thomas, is set to be the US' next Solicitor General.

The Solicitor General represents the US Government in Supreme Court cases, and there's a vacancy after the current incumbent Elena Kagan became the latest Court appointment.

Don Verrilli also led the successful prosecution of Grokster in a court case brought by MGM five years ago, and kicked off the ongoing GooTube litigation on behalf of Viacom. He's currently assistant Solicitor General."

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Slightly off the point, but you would think the RIAA and their sue-the-customers experience would serve as a model, negatively speaking. Movie company flip-flops. Big surprise.

'Hurt Locker' producers about to sue an army of pirates

"EXCLUSIVE: The war against movie piracy is getting downright explosive. We've learned that the producers of the Oscar-winning "The Hurt Locker" are preparing a massive lawsuit against thousands of individuals who pirated the film online. The case could be filed as soon as tomorrow. "

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ACTA and the Overblown Threat of Piracy

"In her analysis of the draft Gwen Hinze of the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote it would "facilitat[e] an ISP practice of Internet user disconnection on the basis of copyright holder allegations of copyright infringement." Allegations, not proof. The legal system is entirely circumvented here. No judicial review of the allegations, no proof needs to be offered, nothing. The complaint gets made, it counts as a strike. If a paranoid and trigger happy company that prefers to shoot first and ask questions later lodges an abundance of specious complaints based on sketchy, absent or incorrect data, too bad."

Big Bro is alive and well.

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Piracy: When Even a Penny Is Too Much

Interesting experiment here, and gamers may be more than a little interested.

"The MPAA, RIAA and other entertainment industry groups want people to believe that piracy is the result of people�s greed and refusal to pay. A recent experiment by Wolfire Games sheds another light on this argument, as they found out that even a penny can be too much."