p2pnet World Headlines: March 19, 2010
Copyright bill this spring; ‘our laws will trump ACTA,’ Clement says Wire Report
The Conservative government intends to introduce a copyright reform bill before Parliament’s summer recess, Industry Minister Tony Clement told The Wire Report. The government held national public consultations last summer on copyright reform. Over the past several months the industry and heritage ministers have been taking stock of the consultation submissions and working toward the production of legislation to amend the Copyright Act.
MySpace User Data For Sale PC World
Social networking just became a little riskier to your privacy. Information from MySpace is now for sale to third parties ranging from academics and analysts to marketers. The data will include any activity or information that is attached to an account. That includes blog posts, location, photos, reviews, and status updates-among others. InfoChimps, an Austin Texas company that collects and sells structured data, is selling the data. Of course, MySpace is perfectly within its rights to work with Infochimps, because it legally owns the data and the server logs. Users wave their right to privacy in exchange for free Web hosting and access to its social features. “Free” comes at a cost. Here’s snippet of what “they” know about you. This is exactly the type of scenario that Eben Moglen, a Columbia University law professor and founder of the Software Freedom Law Center warned of at a seminar about privacy in cloud computing last month. Except I wouldn’t have imagined that MySpace would be one of the really aggressive purveyors of personal data.
“Piracy” sounds too sexy, say rightsholders Ars Technica
For years, we’ve heard complaints about using the term “piracy” to describe the online copyright infringement—but most have come from Big Content’s critics. As noted copyright scholar William Patry argued in his most recent book, “To say that X is a pirate is a metaphoric heuristic, intended to persuade a policymaker that the in-depth analysis can be skipped and the desired result immediately attained… Claims of piracy are rhetorical nonsense.” That may well be true, but copyright holders have long preferred the term, with its suggestions of theft, destruction, and violence. The “pirates” have now co-opted the term, adopting it with gusto and hoisting the Jolly Roger across the Internet (The Pirate Bay being the most famous example).
New password-stealing virus targets Facebook Reuters
Hackers have flooded the Internet with virus-tainted spam that targets Facebook’s estimated 400 million users in an effort to steal banking passwords and gather other sensitive information. The emails tell recipients that the passwords on their Facebook accounts have been reset, urging them to click on an attachment to obtain new login credentials …
U.S. Official Blasts Google on Buzz Wall Street Journal
Citing the recent launch of Google Inc.’s social-networking service, Google Buzz, outgoing Federal Trade Commissioner Pamela Jones Harbour said technology companies are setting a dangerous precedent of publicly exposing consumer data, particularly during the rollout of new products. “Protecting consumer privacy is of utmost importance,” Ms. Harbour said during a Federal Trade Commission roundtable discussion about privacy Wednesday. “Unfortunately, many of the companies that consumers look to as leaders—and that we expect to be leaders—still have not taken this message entirely to heart.”
Viacom-YouTube secrets to be exposed in lawsuit Associated Press
A legal tussle pitting media conglomerate Viacom Inc. against online video leader YouTube is about to get dirtier as a federal judge prepares to release documents that will expose their secrets and other confidential information. The information expected to be unsealed Thursday will include some of the evidence that Viacom and Google-owned YouTube have collected to prove their respective points, but have kept under wraps so far during their 3-year-old dispute over copyright law. The sensitive material is emerging now because Viacom and YouTube are citing some of the documents as they try to persuade U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton in New York to decide the case without a trial. Stanton isn’t likely to decide on a so-called summary judgment for several more months. Each side will likely be pointing to things that the other might find embarrassing.
Conservatives launch protest against proposed iPod levy Canadian Press
Conservatives are Canada’s new iPod freedom fighters. Cabinet ministers and MPs are putting up a vigorous defence against the NDP’s move to have a levy applied to all new MP3 players, hard drives and laptops. The money would theoretically go into a fund for Canadian music artists the same way as the current 29-cent levy on blank CDs and cassettes. The proposal is New Democrat MP Charlie Angus’ private member’s bill. It’s unclear whether such a tax measure would go far because legislation that involves financial changes must be supported by the government.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
March, 2010
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