In a Reuters article published yesterday, Yahoo Music general manager David Goldberg offers this choice quote: "The notion that a track I buy in DRM is protected and one without DRM isn't is a fallacy.... It's all nonsense. Music is never going to be protected, and anybody who tells...
Lost in the GooTube shuffle last week was some even bigger news for the scores of YouTube users who already enjoyed lip syncing (and hip shaking) to their favorite songs and posting home videos to the site. Deals worked out with Sony BMG, Universal, and ...
Today Judge Walker issued an order in our case against AT&T setting a case management conference on November 14, 2006. The case management conference is an important step towards opening up discovery and moving the litigation forward. Previously, Judge Walker had placed the case on hold. Case management...
Bloggers in California have scored another victory against baseless legal threats intended to chill free speech. In Tendler v. Does, Mordecai Tendler had tried and failed to unmask several anonymous bloggers who had written about his alleged sexual misconduct. Yesterday, a California State Superior Court judge ruled that he...
This week, the FTC released a report about municipal wireless broadband projects. Rather than taking a particular stance on the matter, "[i]t sets forth a framework that recognizes that the relevance of arguments for and against municipal involvement may vary depending on the particular factual circumstances." As Harold Feld...
Last year, TiVo users experienced glitches that auto-erased recorded content. The culprit was Macrovision DRM, and it's back and as bad as ever in TiVo Series 3 for HD. CNet documents brand new errors that prevented viewing and recording content. (Link via BoingBoing.) Unfortunately, glitches like this...
John Batelle over at SearchBlog was kind enough to invite me to do a short interview about a variety of Google and YouTube copyright questions. Among other subjects touched on, I opine that all the hand-wringing analysts fretting about the copyright implications of GooTube may have it backwards...
After a wait of nearly three years, Judge Hood in the Eastern District of Michigan finally ruled yesterday on the government's request that the court dismiss a lawsuit brought by a group of Muslim and Arab-American associations challenging the constitutionality of PATRIOT Act Section 215. As you may recall, ...
The New York Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security is funding the development of software to keep tabs on international publications expressing unfavorable views about the United States. According to the Times: The new software would allow much more rapid and comprehensive monitoring of the global...
Cory over at Boing Boing blogged last week about an online service that helps you manage bills and informal cash flows with your roommates and friends. The service, called BillMonk, is interesting, but what's even more interesting is BillMonk's privacy policy, which is the shortest, clearest, and...
Today, a federal court shot down yet another attempt by the government to use "national security" as a blank check for illegal surveillance. Refusing a claim that the government could not even confirm or deny whether it had listened in on calls between attorneys at the Center for...
The Washington Post reports a cautionary tale about a financial executive's mistaken attempt to censor a blogger. Not only did it not make the story go away, the blogger posted the request from his service provider, which in turn led to the story gathering prominence throughout the...
