October 2003 Archives

UberDMCA: we're big in Belgium

By george scriban on October 22, 2003 11:47 AM
Across the pond, the European Parliament is ready to give Big Content even greater powers than they have here in North America. It's a measure of how draconioan these proposed laws are that the normally copylock-happy Business Software Alliance and other technology companies think this proposal is crap.
Thomas Vinje, a partner in the Brussels law firm Morrison & Foerster, whose clients include Nokia, shares the concerns expressed by the academics. He said Fourtou's amendments make a bad situation worse. "She is putting a dangerous weapon in the hands of, among others, the big record companies," he said.

Continue reading UberDMCA: we're big in Belgium.

FCC, Reuters toe Big Content party line on broadcast flag

By george scriban on October 22, 2003 10:04 AM
Spot the Big Content party lines in this quote from an FCC official in this remarkably reporting-free story from Reuters:

"It will simply prevent consumers from illegal piracy, from mass distribution over the Internet, which is the problem with the music file sharing," Kenneth Ferree, head of the FCC's media bureau, said in a telephone interview.

Continue reading FCC, Reuters toe Big Content party line on broadcast flag.

EFF: Stop the "broadcast flag"

By george scriban on October 11, 2003 5:09 PM
Big Content's Washington shysters want to control what you watch (and listen to, and read, and play). They're going to ask the unelected bureaucrats at the FCC to prevent future thoughtcrimes, but the EFF has a plan to stop them.

Continue reading EFF: Stop the "broadcast flag".

Red-faced SunnComm goes DMCA on grad student's ass

By george scriban on October 9, 2003 5:20 PM
The pinheads at DRM vendor SunnComm (caution, site resizes your browser to fullscreen and is a garish Flashcrime) may be trading in the pink sheets, but they're hoping a $10 million DMCA lawsuit will help them get into the black. They're threatening civil and criminal legal action against Alex Halderman, a Princeton grad student who revealed the secret to defeating their MediaMax CD3 "copy-protection" system: hold down the "Shift" key while inserting a "protected" disc.

Continue reading Red-faced SunnComm goes DMCA on grad student's ass.

Times typist trots out tired IP contentions

By george scriban on October 5, 2003 7:37 PM
The NY Times' institutional contrarian Daniel Akst's latest 700-some-odd words, Where Nobody Knows You're a Music Thief, should be brought to the attention of the Gray Lady's accounting department: it's so fact-free, it barely qualifies as fiction, much less business news. Fortunately, I can bottom-line it for you far more economically.

Continue reading Times typist trots out tired IP contentions.
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