p2pnet World Headlines – July 31, 2009
RIAA Seeks Up to $150,000 a Song in File Sharing Trial Wired
The Recording Industry Association of America is going for the jugular in an ongoing file sharing trial in Massachusetts, urging a federal judge to clarify jury instructions so panelists would award up to $150,000 in damages for each of 30 songs at issue. The move, made Thursday in the Joel Tenenbaum case, suggests the RIAA stands behind its $1.92 million jury verdict against Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the nation`s first defendant to take on the RIAA at a file sharing trial. [Comment: heh check the graphic when you read the opening lines...]
O2 claims £200 per GB excess data fee is simply a deterrent Mobile Broadband Genie
Charging the highest excess data fee of any of the UK mobile broadband providers , O2’s out-of-bundle fees are currently set at £200.70 for every GB. When it was asked to defend the data charge a spokesperson from O2 explained its tariff was used as a deterrent and to make sure that others using the network had a good experience.
Can You Copyright Algorithmic Output? TechDirt
A bunch of folks have been sending in Neil McAllister’s writeup at InfoWorld about how Wolfram Alpha, the incredibly overhyped “knowledge engine” (that, in my experience doesn’t work very well) is claiming copyright on all of its output, which raises questions about what would happen if others did the same thing: In other words, Wolfram Research is claiming that each page of results returned by the Wolfram Alpha engine is a unique, copyrightable work…
Live EFF Web event: How to make technology safe for use by dissidents in authoritarian regimes? BoingBoing
Rebecca from the Electronic Frontier Foundation sez, “Iranians protesting the results of the recent election found an outlet and a means of organizing with the Internet, and showed that new digital media can help free speech and fight repression globally. Join EFF for a panel discussion Monday Aug. 3 from 7pm – 9pm PDT. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/07/bayff-august-3-irani
New copyright bill will ‘affect every Canadian’ London Free Press
Thousands of Canadians are flocking to online discussion forums hoping to influence a new copyright bill the federal government plans to introduce this fall. The outcome of these consultations affect every Canadian, said Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, whose website, speakoutoncopyright.ca, is attracting thousands of hits a day. Geist said there is a growing realization that copyright affects the way we consume entertainment and information, engage in free speech and protect our privacy.
US doctors rely on Wikipedia The Inquirer
More than half of US doctors use Wackypedia to work out what is wrong with their patients, according to a study published by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
High School Student Sues Amazon.com Over Deletion of Summer Homework Trading Markets
A class action lawsuit filed today takes Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) to task after the company deleted George Orwell books from customers Kindles…. The suit is being brought by Justin D. Gawronski, a 17-year-old high school student who had purchased Orwells 1984 to complete a summer homework assignment. When Amazon deleted the book from his Kindle, it rendered the electronic notes he had taken worthless. We appreciate Amazon.coms new found contrition, but words are not enough, explained Jay Edelson, the lead attorney for the class action. Amazon.com had no more right to hack into peoples Kindles than its customers have the right to hack into Amazons bank account to recover a mistaken overpayment. [Comment: FUCK YEAH!]
Ottawa Roundtable [Canada's Copyright consultations] Fair Copyright
I`m an English professor at Queen`s University, and the coauthor, with Sam Trosow, of Canadian Copyright: A Citizen`s Guide. I have run the blog faircopyright.ca since 2003. I serve as the Chair of the Copyright Committee of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences…. Some of the basics I am looking for in copyright reform: 1. Add the words such as before the list of fair dealing categories so that, for example, artists can make better use of it; 2. Incorporate in some version the fair dealing tests laid out in CCH; 3. Never allow DRM to override fair dealing or access to the public domain; 4. Avoid picky exceptions for specific uses, instead letting fair dealing do the work.
Unauthorized charges getting WoW accounts suspended Ars Technica
The World of Warcraft forums are buzzing with complaints from players claiming that their accounts have been suspended because of chargebacks filed against them by a company that they have no connection with. The problem, though, is that the company behind the charges is unresponsive to complaints, and many players don’t know what to do in order to get their accounts re-authorized unless they pay these bills…. Two calls to PaymentOne seeking a comment resulted in being placed on permahold and then being disconnected.
Google Voice Ban Is Clear Network Neutrality Violation DSL Reports
The vast majority of executives at AT&T despise Google because the search giant represents their deepest fear: a future where companies like AT&T are just dumb pipes… [Comment: That summed it up nicely.]
eHealth spending mess deepens The Star
Government documents reveal troubled agency actually awarded $16M in untendered contracts – EHealth Ontario awarded $11 million more in untendered contracts than previously revealed, new documents show. The documents, released in response to freedom-of-information requests, also indicate board members have billed for travel expenses from as far away as Florida to attend Toronto meetings. They show the value of untendered contracts awarded by the agency is about $16 million more than triple the $5 million revealed this spring…. The $16 million in sole-sourced contracts were given to firms such as Courtyard Group, Accenture, Anzen Consulting Inc., and others from September 2008 to June 8, 2009.
GPS jammer plugs into cigarette lighter BoingBoing
My favorite cheap spy-tech/weird cheap gadget seller, Brando, just announced a GPS jammer that plugs into a cigarette lighter. The description is sparse, but I am guessing it can be used to block navigation/tracking/logging systems that rental cars and company fleet vehicles sometimes use to keep track of drivers. http://gadget.brando.com.hk/car-cigarette-anti-gps-system_p00963c024d001.html
Cable fault cuts off West Africa BBC
The fault has caused severe problems in Benin, Togo, Niger and Nigeria. The blackout is thought to have been caused by damage to the SAT-3 cable which runs from Portugal and Spain to South Africa, via West Africa. Around 70% of Nigeria’s bandwidth was cut, causing severe problems for its banking sector, government and mobile phone networks.
UK’s national ID card unveiled BBC
Home Secretary Alan Johnson has unveiled the final design of the controversial national identity card. The card will be offered to members of the public in the Greater Manchester area from the end of this year. Ministers plan to launch the £30 biometric ID card nationwide in 2011 or 2012 – but it will not be compulsory… Opposition spokesmen said it was a “colossal waste of money” and civil liberty groups said it was “as costly to our pockets as to our privacy”.
Government of Canada Invests in Digitization of Canadian Multicultural Newspapers [Open Access] Canadian Gov
This project will digitize and deploy to the Web up to 20 multicultural newspapers on an open-access basis. In addition to making multicultural newspapers freely available to anyone on the Internet, it will include audio and video streaming of selected articles and teaching and learning activities that will be of interest to students, teachers, and researchers. A key driver of this project is the use of technology to facilitate access to the content, which will be PDA- or mobile-friendly.
YouTube wedding video sends Chris Brown to charts Reuters
In the same week that Chris Brown went to YouTube to apologize for assaulting former girlfriend Rihanna, a viral videoclip of a wedding party dancing down the aisle to Brown’s song “Forever” returned him to the charts…. The uptempo tune sold 50,000 downloads during the week ended July 26, up a hefty 1,721% from the previous week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It thusly re-enters the Hot Digital Songs chart at No. 21, its first time on the list since January. It’s also the best sales week for any of Brown’s songs since Christmas week of 2008, when “Forever” sold 77,000 downloads.
Marc – p2pnet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
July, 2009
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July 31st, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Nigeria has a banking sector???
July 31st, 2009 at 8:35 pm
LOL when I saw it and pasted it, all I could say to myself was: at least there will be a week or so of less Nigerian scams
July 31st, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Jury awards $675,000 to Cartels
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090731/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_music_downloading
Jurors ordered Tenenbaum to pay $22,500 for each incident of copyright infringement, effectively finding that his actions were willful. The attorney for the 25-year-old student had asked the jury earlier Friday to “send a message” to the music industry by awarding only minimal damages.
Tenenbaum said he was thankful that the case wasn’t in the millions and contrasted the significance of his fine with the maximum.
“That to me sends a message of ‘We considered your side with some legitimacy,’” he said. “$4.5 million would have been, ‘We don’t buy it at all.’”
He added he will file for bankruptcy if the verdict stands.
Tenenbaum’s lawyer, Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson, said the jury’s verdict was not fair. He said he plans to appeal the decision because he was not allowed to argue a case based on fair use.
(note, maybe it should be known that Joel showed love and no hate to the more than 1/2-million dollar award
) heh
July 31st, 2009 at 8:45 pm
LOL check this:
“Tim Reynolds, a lawyer for the recording labels, recounted Tenenbaum’s history of file-sharing from 1999 to 2007, describing him as “a hardcore, habitual, long-term infringer”
They make his sound like some kingpin drug distributor dealing pure uncut coke to kids: he is a hardcore, habitual, long-term…… “infringer”.
700-thousand dollar fine!
LOL
Damn, I think kingpins do get off less than that.
July 31st, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Italian lawyers file lawsuit agianst TPB
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2247110/pirate-bay-legal-trouble
File-sharing site The Pirate Bay suffered further setbacks this week, after Italian lawyers reportedly announced plans to sue the site’s owners, and a court in the Netherlands ruled that the site must block all access for Dutch users within 10 days.
Lawyers from the Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana and the Federation against Musical Piracy are reported to be seeking over â¬1m (£854,000) in damages from Pirate Bay founders Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg.