Paid music download prices may rise. The Music Cartel, pleased that its paid music download sales have been growing, is so happy, it may celebrate by hiking the wholesale price of songs . The current wholesale price, what the record companies charge online distributors, is about $0.65 per track. Th...

Point/counterpoint: Does the information want to be free? A Financial Times op-ed article by 2 contributors kicks around the idea that "public information 'wants' to be free." In the first article, James Boyle points out the the U.S. and Europe are much different about their protection of...

RIAA: "Math is hard." As long as I'm railing on The Music Cartel's quirky inability to accurately account for their so-called "losses," I might as well point you all to a cool new blog dedicated to finding some balance, somewhere, in our intellectual property system. It's IPac, ...

Debate over the Grokster case. This past Friday I had the unique opportunity to watch a lively debate at a luncheon seminar for attorneys. Two area copyright law professors debated the merits of each side in the upcoming MGM Studios v. Grokser case that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court March...

Lokitorrent: "thank you for your donations...we'll be going now." If you were one of the people who contributed money to Lokitorrent's legal defense fund, hoping that your kind donation helped them fight their battle against the big Entertainment Cartel, you're in for a disappointment. It...

RIAA appeals Charter Communications ruling. The RIAA has appealed a ruling by a 3-judge panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, asking for review by the full appellate court. The panel's ruling held that the RIAA cannot force ISPs to hand over customer information under the subpoena...

Claria exec named to federal privacy board. Just when you think you've heard the most ridiculous idea, along comes another one to raise the bar on stupidity. Now, the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security has, in its infinite wisdom, chosen to appoint an executive of Claria ( the notorious purveyor of po...

Steal this file-sharing book. Wallace Wang, author of the popular Steal This Computer Book series, has published a new one, Steal This File-Sharing Book . This book should scare the hell out of the coke-snorting execs in The Entertainment Cartel. Though I haven't yet read the book, the The Register...

Russian cops say "nyet!" to .mp3 download site. AllofMP3.com, a Russian site that has been offering .mp3 downloads for 2 cents per megabye, is now being targeted in a criminal copyright investigation by the Moscow city computer crimes division. The site has maintained that it had obtained...

Behind the scenes of a typical file-sharing lawsuit. An op-ed piece in the Daily Texan sheds some light on the course of events surrounding an RIAA file-sharing lawsuit. The author, pretending to be a new "John Doe" defendant, calls up the company retained by The Music Cartel that rakes i...

In the U.S., the site would likely be protected under the First Amendment. Calling MPAA executives "assholes" would be viewed as commentary/criticism and thus protected. The part about crack-smoking might be on the verge of defamatory, but if the MPAA wanted to sue for defamation, THEY bea...

Good tip, Quicksilver. Everybody mark your calendars! No CDs, no movies (including video rentals). If you have cable TV, shut it off, as that traffic may be measured for ratings. If you happen to be a Nielson or Arbitron ratings test subject, report no TV or radio use during that period. While we're...

Australia considers fair-use provision. The Attorney General of Australia is considering a measure that would allow consumers to make personal copies of media they have already paid for. Currently, fair-use in Australia only allows copying for academic research or for journalistic review. By giving...

College student gets jail time for sharing movies online. A student at the University of Arizona was sentenced to 3 months in prison after pleading guilty to felony "possession of unauthorized copies of intellectual property." Apparently, this is some Arizona state law, and not federal, a...

Moongirl said: it would be a good case for one of the "Law And Order" type shows to run with :lol: While this stuff might make interesting legal reading, it would make for boring television. Now if you added some murder and mayhem into the plot... Accused file-sharer strangles RIAA exec......