Actually, the statute you cited (17 U.S.C., sec. 504) is currently in force. The fines of up to $30,000 per work (or $150,000 if willful) are civil damages that can be awarded to a prevailing plaintiff (e.g., RIAA). There are also criminal penalties for certain cases of willful infringement for comm...

Actually it's based on an author's life and some other factors. And it depends on the country. In many European nations, copyright extends throughout the life of the author, plus 50 years. That was the case in the U.S. until about 7 years ago when Sen. Sonny Bono helped enact an extension. Mickey Mo...

More on LokiTorrent. The federal court order that gave the LokiTorrent site to the MPAA also handed over Loki's entire server logs . This gives the MPAA a vast list of people they could sue, with the group stating that it would provide "a roadmap to others who have used LokiTorrent to engage i...

LokiTorrent shut down by MPAA. The popular Torrent site was apparently shuttered by court order , and control of the site appears to be in the hands of the MPAA . Adding insult to injury, the site displays a gloating message from the MPAA, stating "you can click but you can't hide." Cheers.

Thanks for the heads-up, Quicksilver. Here is some info about WmvDown.A and WmvDown.B. Symantec has removal instructions for these viruses.

This underscores the need to scan all downloaded files before opening them.

Cheers.

Ad-Aware is a good, free anti-spyware app. While you're at it, download the free Spybot Search & Destroy . I use both. Spybot often finds things that Ad-Aware doesn't, and vice-versa. Between the two apps, you'll root out a lot of the adware/spyware on your machine. For purchased s/w, PC Magazin...

Our anonymous poster left out the link to get dBpowerAmp. The CD writing program is only a 30 day trialware, but the audio player and converter are true freeware. I use the converter quite a bit. The site also offers free codec plugins for most file formats.

Cheers.

The RIAA spin doctors at work. The Music Cartel is busy trying to sway public opinion in its war against the people. This is particularly coming to a head as we get closer to the Supreme Court's upcoming review of the Grokster case. While both sides are busy filing amicus (friend of the court) brie...

RIAA sues dead woman. As if suing 12 year-olds wasn't enough for The Music Cartel, the RIAA has dropped to new lows by filing suit against a defendant who turns out to have been dead since December . In fact, the 83 year-old decedent was known to hate computers, and didn't have one in her home. The...

French musicians speak out against recored industry legal actions. In a clear case of "strange bedfellows," French musicians, politicians, and intellectuals have stepped forward to criticize what they view as a "repressive" crackdown on file-sharing. This alliance between record...

Where are we going in the copyright wars? An interesting op-ed piece on CNET discusses how government, by way of the DMCA, has dramatically changed the way copyright enforcement has impacted the advancement of technology. No doubt, as we have watched this impact occur repeatedly over the past coupl...

French teacher fined for sharing music online. In what has become France's first major file-sharing case , a schoolteacher was fined 10,200 euros in the criminal action. The court ordered the defendant teacher to pay the fine to various copyright-holders. The defendant's PC was also confiscated and...

Senate passes movie theater anti-taping bill. The bill, which was unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate , provides penalties of up to 3 years in prison for anyone making wobbly, fuzzy camcorder video copies of motion pictures inside theaters. The MPAA, deeply concerned with the financial impact o...

Congressional committee proposes tax on all online services. The Joint Committee on Taxation is proposing that the existing 3% telecommunications tax be extended to cover all online data services. The committee has only proposed the tax as a possibility, and has not taken a position on it. So far, ...

Macrovision & Microsoft team up to prevent you from recording TV shows. The two companies have agreed to develop a new layer of anticopying technology that would make it more difficult for users to copy broadcast content. This DRM scheme aims to prevent users from dubbing TV shows using Windows...