The whole point of these monthly installments of "In the News" is to gather (via a HUMAN selection process) topical news and other items from the across Internet. Please keep comments and replies to a bare minimum here ...and be brief in your descriptions when providing a news item or link.

If you see a news story or other item below that you want featured with a DMusic/Boycott-Riaa article of its' own, simply say "front page please". (Or better yet, WRITE an opinion/observation about it and HIT THAT SUBMIT button!)

:)

Last month's edition of "In The News":

http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/27999

FCC Complaint Filed Over Comcast P2P Blocking

'"Comcast's defense is bogus," said Free Press policy director Ben Scott. "The FCC needs to take immediate action to put an end to this harmful practice. Comcast's blatant and deceptive BitTorrent blocking is exactly the type of problem advocates warned would occur without Net Neutrality laws."

Ozzy must have drunk the RIAA cool-aid

On battling lower record sales with his new album, "Black Rain":

"I've been suffering terribly from people downloading it. If they don't find something to stop it, people won't be able to make records. There won't be any new bands. How are they going to survive?

"I'm an old-timer, I've been doing it 40 years now, but new bands are going to suffer. It's ridiculous, you could be doing it for nothing.

"Sharon said I'd be astounded to find out how many bands are touring because you can download a record but you can't beat a rock show.

"I've never done in a long time as many live shows as I'm doing now. This year I've done 90 shows.

"I mean, I ain't getting any younger. Sharon says to me 'Just stand there'. I can't just f---ing stand there! I'm a moving target. People would aim their can of beer at my head!"

Obit: Linda Stein

Punk music pioneer found beaten to death in her 5th Avenue apartment...

Clear Channel issues edict not to play Bruce Springsteen's "Magic." Is it because: A) He's too old? B) His album's too unpopular? Or C) He's a Bush Adminstration critic and they're all whiny, pouty crybabies?

George talks about it at:
http://azoz.com

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2768030.ece

Cliff Richard is making download history with his new album before it is even released. Love, The Album can be ordered online with two extra tracks for two weeks before it hits the shops on November 12. The price starts at £7.99, but for every person who orders it, the price drops by a penny, to a minimum of £3.99. Everyone who signs up on lovecliffrichard.com will pay the lowest price the album reaches. Steve Davis of EMI, said: “The highest digital sale for Cliff Richard in the past is about 200, so if the price does go to £3.99 we will have doubled his digital universe.”

=======

WARNING!!! Cliff Richard is unfortunately still an RIAA slave. BOYCOTT THIS!

Milkshake fails to keep boys in the yard

Kelis was 'dropped' from her label.

Good news for her is that she was dropped from her label. Bad news is her manager says: "We're not opposed to another major label deal, but it would have to be non-traditional."

Maybe they aren't playing Springsteen because he hasn't done anything remotely commercial (i.e. popular) in years? (Has anyone noticed how terrible these anti-war movies are doing at the box orifice? People want entertainment, not a sermon.) In related news, do you think Cliff Richard can sell 200 albums? Maybe he could give them away... now there's a thought.

"Maybe they aren't playing Springsteen because he hasn't done anything remotely commercial (i.e. popular) in years? "

Remotely commercial?? What does that have to do with radios playing Springsteen. Have you even listened to some of his latest releases?? I have and his new releases have some outstanding material. As for the "i.e. popular" point, please note that "The Rising" was Billboard's No. 1 album between August17 and August 30, 2002. It was also the 2003 Grammy Award winner for Best Rock Album. His latest release has hit number one also. His concerts regularly sell out.

The material isn't "commercial" because many radio stations are this Clear Channel bullshit that have no idea how to run a radio station. Most have playlists they don't venture far from, unless it is a new YOUNG artist that an RIAA shrill record label is heavily promoting (meaning that the radio station gets megabucks to pay). I also suspect that this Clear Channel boycott has been going on for quite some time.

Bruces material on these releases isn't only anti-war. His latest hit tackles the nowhere land radio has become (aptlty title "Radio Nowhere"). While I agree that people prefer to be entertained, not preached at, it seems to me that, even at his advanced age, Bruce is still entertaining millions just fine.

Yeah, perhaps "Radio Nowhere" offended their darling little sensibilities (too close to home, too close to the truth)? The truth hurts, doesn't it.
So, avoid what hurts; avoid the truth!
(Avoid playing Springsteen.)

That could very well be their reaction.

I stand corrected. With a number one CD you'd have to concede he's popular, although number one doesn't mean selling that many CDs these days, necessarily. But Clear Channel is about making money. It is their call as to whether any particular music fits their plan to make money. If people stop listening, they will stop making money, and they will change their playlists. So Bruce is entertaining millions. But so is Clear Channel, it would seem.

Study Says P2P Downloaders Buy More Music

The authors believe this is the first ever empirical study to employ representative microeconomic data.

Napster sees that it ain't doing so well and thinks it needs a new business model.

Duh, Ya think?

is colbert seious about running for president? if he his his got my vote
!!!

no respone? theres your awnser!! bot?

World Change by Seb Miller judgment of humanity

http://news.dmusic.com/article/28234 This article contains mature language..

Colbert was as serious as Colbert can be - but he got turned down by the Democratic party. They basically said "campaign in South Carolina for 4 more years, and try again."

While I was reading what he wrote, I was trying to avoid focusing on how many people would be turned off by some of the things he was saying. Instead, I chose to apply a logic test on his stuff.
Not all of his ideas passed it.

Otherwise, I note he's in favor of an
"an all-encompassing one-world government when the time is right."
I could wish fewer folks wanted that to happen.

[My previous post was about Seb Miller's article.]

A one-world government would be suicide, especially given that current governments are inept at dealing with the real world issues. If it was all under one person's control, it would be a recipe for disaster...

"A one-world government would be suicide, especially given that current governments are inept at dealing with the real world issues. If it was all under one person's control, it would be a recipe for disaster..."

Watch ENDGAME, Blueprint for Global Enslavement. Meanwhile WHY ISN'T my post on the main page that I submitted a few days ago? It is extremely important and dwarfs anything else anyone could possibly be talking about here at this moment in time, period.

The only one-world that would work is the one where I am proclaimed God-Emperor.

A one world government could be dangerous.. world politics is ostrazised right now.. i envision a goverment with various political leaders from different countries.. when the time is right ofcourse.. it may take many decades

http://action.eff.org/site/Advocacy?id=321

If you haven't already done so, pick up the phone and
remind your Representative to take a stand against
procedural trickery leading to telecom immunity.

"If you haven't already done so, pick up the phone and remind your Representative to take a stand against procedural trickery leading to telecom immunity."

If you haven't already done so, pick up the phone and "remind" your "Representative" to let them know they are TRAITORS for STEALTH passing H.R. 1955 in the House under cover of the CA fires. H.R. 1955 EVISCERATES FREE SPEECH, and empowers the govt. to declare ANYTHING they deem an "extremist belief system", instantly make you a terrorist, resulting in stripping of US citizenship, torture, and/or execution, with no habeus corpus rights, no ability to challenge even in the US Supreme Court.

Contact your Senator and let them know they will be looking for another job if they vote yes on this bill, which is now intruduced into the Senate as S.1959 THIS BILL **MUST NOT** BECOME LAW, PERIOD.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1955
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1959
http://forum.prisonplanet.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=aa4c03300d353cf09c37a7a39aadc47b&topic=12001.0

If this becomes law, this website could be considered "promoting an extremeist belief system", and all they have to say is that you are using PLANNED OR THREATENED *FORCE* (DOES NOT HAVE TO BE VIOLENCE) --FORCE by exposing CORRUPTION, CRIMINALITY against "THE CIVILIAN POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES, *****OR ANY SEGMENT THEREOF" READ THE BILL MANY TIMES AND VERY CAREFULLY--YOU ARE THE TERRORIST (WHICH MEANS THEY CAN STRIP YOUR CITIZENSHIP, AND HAVE YOU TORTURED AND EXECUTED).

The US Govt. and DHS will start taking down ANY website they wish that exposes govt./coroporate corruption and REPLACE it with a nice official, IN YOUR FACE DHS/FBI LOGO, just like how the New World Order run RIAA/MPAA got in bed with the FEDS/DHS/Senators and shut down dozens of sites that violated their emerging ONE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWS.

If signed into law, the DMCA take-down notices will now enter the realm of free speech, the Bill of Rights, Constitution, and politics.

People better wake up, or it's all over folks. If S.1959 passes (because no DUH it will not be vetoed by Dictator-Puppet -in-Chief), the 2nd AMendment will be in grave danger next. merely owning a gun can fall under their ambiguous as hell definition of "PLANNED USE, OR THREATENED USE OF FORCE".."TO INIMIDATE OR COERCE THE US GOVT." GUN OWNERSHIP INHERINTLY INTIMIDATES THE GOVT. THAT'S WHAT ITS SUPPOSED TO DO, TO BE ABLE TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE FROM TYRANNY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Google ENDGAME, Blueprint for Global Enslavement, and watch it.

Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album

...However, the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6, according to the study by comScore Inc.

Eagles Black Out Britney

Britney Spears might sit at number one when the Billboard charts come out Wednesday, but according to Wal-Mart, it's the Eagles who truly soared to the top.

Obit: George Osmond, father and early manager of the singing siblings

Because of its exclusive arrangement with Wal-Mart, the Eagles' new album does not qualify for the Billboard 200.

---------

Billboard is becoming irrelevant anyways. (Thankfully!)

The ACLU thinks that REAL ID is doomed

(I hope so!)

from azoz.com

UPDATE -- On Nov. 6, Billboard revised its policies and decided to start counting WalMart's sales, just in time to give the Eagles the No. 1 spot. Imagine that.

I wonder what kind of deal the Eagles organization had to do behind the scenes with the RIAA and Billboard to achieve that?

Warning! The Billboard site has a malware pop-up.

AHAH!

"We would have preferred to make this decision earlier, but only became aware within the last 24 hours that Wal-Mart would be willing to share the data for this title with Nielsen SoundScan."

So, the RIAA (via SoundScan) gets a cut.

I was tempted to buy the new Eagles album because they were bucking the RIAA's standard business model.

...but the Eagles apparently just had to have that stupid #1 Billboard feather in their cap.

Damn. There's no accounting for spoiled rock star slaves suffering from battered wife syndrome.

Related story?

Major League Baseball has just strengthened the case against DRM. If you downloaded videos of baseball games from MLB.com before 2006, apparently they no longer work and you are out of luck. MLB.com, sometime during 2006, changed their DRM system. Result: game videos purchased before that time will now no longer work, as the previous DRM system is no longer supported. When the video is played, apparently the MLB.com servers are contacted and a license obtained to verify the authenticity of the video; this is done by a web link. That link no longer exists, and so now the videos will no longer play, even though the MLB FAQ says that a license is only obtained once and will not need to be re-obtained. The blogger who is reporting this contacted MLB technical support, only to be told there are no refunds due to this problem."

http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000327.html

The Network Neutrality Squad ("NNSquad") is an open-membership, open-source effort, enlisting the Internet's users to help keep the Internet's operations fair and unhindered from unreasonable restrictions. The project's focus includes detection, analysis, and incident reporting of any anticompetitive, discriminatory, or other restrictive actions on the part of Internet service Providers (ISPs) or affiliated entities, such as the blocking or disruptive manipulation of applications, protocols, transmissions, or bandwidth; or other similar behaviors not specifically requested by their customers.

http://www.nnsquad.org/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9aeKF-rOGA

Senator Dodd posts a video of interview with AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein.

Eisner tells striking writers to blame Steve Jobs, not the studios.

yeah, right.

Class action vs. Apple.

iTunes illegally tied to iTunes to create a monopoly?

YIKES! In Windows, a DRM flaw!

Microsoft has warned that attackers are actively targeting a security vulnerability in the SafeDisc DRM technology that ships as part of Windows. The problem affects the 'secdrv.sys' ...

Universal is putting Jazz and Classics online free of DRM in an "experiment"

More signs that DRM is a no-go!

"iTunes illegally tied to iTunes to create a monopoly?"

(I know you meant iPod & iTunes)

lol

...well, I actually TYPE most of this sh*t most of the time. (I still don't do well with "copy and paste")

Sue me.

Oh great, now the govt is going after filesharers at the RIAA's behest.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071108-pirate-act-dons-eye-patch-swashbuckles-back-into-senate.html

I'm very surprised, and disappointed in Leahy.

If this keeps up, they're likely won't be an riaa left anyway....

You Mean Wall Street Just Realized The Recording Industry Was In Trouble?

As usual, government intervention, too little too late....political grandstanding at best...

Leahy: "When we protect intellectual property from copyright infringement, we protect our economy and our ideas."

I didn't realize Leahy was that bad a shill for the content cartel. Hatch and Cornyn are known to be off the wall, but Leahy coming on that strong kind of took me by surprise.

"One would hope that with even Wall Street analysts telling them their strategy is wrong, the record labels might wake up to the opportunity they've thrown away, but (with the possible exception of EMI -- which was recently taken over by private equity folks who seem to realize what's going on) they have given no indication of any significant change in strategy."

Well, thanks to Leahy and Cornyn, Big Government is about to come to the rescue for the RIAA in regard to music "losses" sustained by file sharing, so it'll be interesting to see if that kind of enforcement helps the labels' bottom-line profit margins or not.

Did Leonardo Da Vinci use stenography and hide a music score in the Last Supper?

US Bot Herder Admits Infecting 250K Machines

Is 60 years behind bars enough?

the FCC is planning to unveil new regulations for the cable market that will lower barriers to entry for independent programmers. The rules would be aimed at stopping the growth of existing cable giants like Comcast and Time Warner, while seeking to encourage more small companies to get into the field.

Somehow, I am cynical. The FCC tends to act as if bought and paid for by the giants, just like the REST of our government.

Germany requires ISP's to store data for 6 months.

Washington salivates.

BPI says bit-torrents are now encrypted as much as %40 of the time.

Definition Changing for People's Privacy?
http://story.news.ask.com//article/20071111/D8SRGLCO0.html

Nov 11, 8:57 AM (ET)
By PAMELA HESS

WASHINGTON (AP) - A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy.

Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.

Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.

. . . . . . . . .

[In other words, Americans should embrace Big Brother and love the bomb, er, I mean passively accept the loss of their privacy???]

And, about "the government and businesses properly safeguarding people's private communications . . ."

Yeah, right. Would you care to know the confidence level we hapless peons could expect to have in their properly safeguarding? ROFL!!!

[expletive deleted]

garageband.com is phasing itself into iLike.com

=========================

"We’ve had major developments in the past year:

Breaking news: your music on Facebook. Working with our friends at Facebook, we’ve automatically created a new Facebook presence for all GarageBand artists! See below how you can control this presence and reach new fans.


iLike: reach 15 million music lovers. A year ago, we launched a new site called iLike which has already become one of the web’s leading music services and the dominant music app on Facebook, bringing GarageBand music to a massive audience. This led us to change our name to iLike inc, and we’re merging the best of Garageband into iLike.


Chart on Billboard through us. Billboard just launched new weekly charts for "most added on iLike," their first ever social media charts. This means your music could potentially go from GarageBand, through iLike, to the Billboard charts!


Reach your fans: post once, publish everywhere. We’ve recently launched the iLike Artist Dashboard, a single control center to post content and reach fans across Facebook and iLike.com. And last week, we announced with Google that we’ll soon also syndicate this to work on MySpace, Hi5, Orkut, and other social networks worldwide.

Sincerely,

Ali Partovi
CEO, iLike, inc. (formerly GarageBand.com) "

==========================

Oh well.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police say they no longer hunt "personal use" p2p downloaders.

Write a Christmas song and trade it (not a recording of, but for the RIGHTS of copyright) for Sufjan's Song.

WTF?

http://xmas.asthmatickitty.com/index2.html

Doing a tour in China?

Billboard presents six things every artist manager and international promoter should know.

You're Invited! BayFF with Jonathan Zittrain: "The Future
of the Internet -- And How To Stop It"

WHEN:
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007 7:30 p.m.

WHAT:
Jonathan Zittrain speaks on "The Future of the Internet --
And How To Stop It: The Internet is primed for a meltdown -
and the most obvious cures are just as bad."

WHO:
Jonathan Zittrain is one of the world's foremost scholars
of technology law and technology policy. He holds the Chair
in Internet Governance and Regulation at Oxford University
and is a principal of the Oxford Internet Institute. His
research interests include battles for control of digital
property and content, cryptography, electronic privacy, the
roles of intermediaries within Internet architecture, and
the useful and unobtrusive deployment of technology in
education. He co-founded the Berkman Center for Internet &
Society at Harvard Law School, as well as the OpenNet
Initiative, which tracks Internet filtering worldwide.

WHERE:

CNET Networks Inc.
235 2nd Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

RSVP to: bayff-rsvp@eff.org

This event is free and open to the general public.

CNET Networks is accessible via BART. Get off at the
Montgomery station and use the exit marked 2nd and Market.
Walk south on 2nd Street until you reach the CNET building.

A Copyright Nazi on the rampage!

This should prove an interesting test case for fair use given that the lexicon contains mostly factual information about the series, not copies of the books' text. Of course, both sides seem a bit touchy about imaginary property rights, with Rowling's lawyers being miffed after being told to print it themselves when they asked for a paper copy of the lexicon's website, and the lexicon website itself using one of those insipid right click disabling scripts.

------------

God, I hate those "right click disabling scripts" - makes my job here MUCH harder.

lol

Russia is targeting political enemies with claims of piracy and copyright infringement.

No way that could happen here! (sic)

Ray Beckerman says the glass is half full.

"Much combat remains, but the RIAA's campaign is no longer a hot knife cutting through butter on the nation's campuses."

A stupidity filter?

http://stupidfilter.org/main/

Music fan threatened with eviction

A BUDDY Holly fan looks set to lose his home for playing his music too loudly on his guitar.

Bronfman eats crow:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/news/138990/music-boss-we-were-wrong-to-go-to-war-with-consumers.html

Just how the hell do you 'inadvertently' sue 20,000 people? Of course his own kids only got a talkin to.

A reply to Bronfman:

============
"Is this Eddie the Shipboard Computer, or Eddie Munster? At any rate, here's a message to Eddie:

Look, dude, you're glass. We see right through you and we're going to break you if you don't get the hell out of our way, and if you don't break yourself first.

We know you know that MP3s should be advertising for CDs. We also know that what you're afraid of isn't people downloading Lars and Gene's stuff, it's downloading your independant competitors' stuff. You control the FREE radio and you know it. You can't control the internet and you know it.

You're shaking in your boots over Radiohead. I'm afraid it's too late; you're cracked. It's too late, but I'll tell you what you should have done.

When Napster, the old Napster you bozos sued out of existance came along, you should have embraced it. You should have flooded it with 56k samples of every tune in your inventory, and gone on a PR blitz telling everyone how superior the CD was to MP3. It worked against vinyl when the CD first came out, despite the fact that there are pros and cons to CD and vinyl (each has its shortcomings) [kuro5hin.org], it would surely work with CD vs. MP3 and CD's vastly superior sound.

You blew it.

You no longer matter. A musician no longer needs an expensive studio and even more expensive factory, he can rent a studio even in a small city like Springfield [kuro5hin.org], which has several. He can get his CD professionally mastered and copied with insert and jewell case for a couple thousand bucks, less than the price of a decent drum kit.

Now your only recourse to stay alive is to be a hitmaker.

You're stupid, Eddie, and I'll be glad when your twitching corpse stops kicking over the china and bleeding all over my government. Die, damn you, die, you worthles scumbag!

-mcgrew [kuro5hin.org]"

============

Wow!

Afraid of the Darknet by James Patrick Kelly

Writing at Asimov's against DRM

Infringement Nation: we are all mega-crooks

John Tehranian's paper, "Infringement Nation: Copyright Reform and the Law/Norm Gap," from a forthcoming symposium issue of the Utah Law Review on "Fixing Copyright," is a great, tight little essay on the way that the growing gap between what technology allows us to do and what copyright tells us not to do is turning us all into mega-crooks. Just by doing the normal, everyday stuff -- chatting with friends, sharing the moments of our lives -- we commit billions of dollars' worth of infringements:

PDF link

Famous names back music on social-media Web sites

Hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, AOL founder Steve Case, and former rap star MC Hammer are each backing a version of the latest media trend: building fans' music consumption into their social networks.

===============

Russell, I believe you are a good guy at heart, but if such is connected to the RIAA, no thanks. We are fine doing it "indie"

Canadian publisher's org sues Staples for "making available" photocopiers that customers can use to commit piracy of books, articles, comics, etc.

Will the madness never end?

http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2381/125/

Three cheers for John Doe #3!

RIAA subpoena about to be quashed.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071118-riaa-told-to-show-cause-why-edu-subpoenas-shouldnt-be-quashed.html

That case cited by gfmlcka could indeed spell the end of RIAA's action against college file sharers, but . . .

"New federal legislation states that universities must agree to provide not just deterrents but also 'alternatives' to peer-to-peer piracy, such as paying monthly subscription fees to the music industry for their students, on penalty of losing all financial aid for their students."

And that recent legislation above courtesy of a Congress which has the Democrats in majority!

In general,
"There's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans" -- George Wallace

(That's generally speaking about results over the long haul.)

I wish there was a ban on banner ads, period.

Leahy: "When we protect intellectual property from copyright infringement, we protect our economy and our ideas."

This is the BIGGEST LIE any politician could ever speak!!! The ONLY thing protected by copyright laws are the ability of the creators to MAKE MONEY. It does NOTHING for the economy. And since most creators are FORCED to surrender those copyrights to corporations over-bloated with executives in corner offices doing drugs with your hard earned money, I would think that our economy would be far better off with SHORTER copyright terms.

The Romantics Sue Guitar Hero

"Activision properly secured permission to use "What I Like About You," allowing it to record a cover version.

But they say by creating an imitation so much like the Romantics' original, the alifornia-based company infringed on the group's rights to its own likeness."

So the cover was TOO MUCH like the original?!?!? sounds like a washed-up band trying to make a cash grab...

oops... didn't link the URL properly...

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/11/22/guitar.hero.suit.ap/index.html

Well put.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071121-riaampaa-ask-presidential-candidates-for-more-restrictive-copyright-laws.html

Happy turkey day all!

Good thread at /. for non RIAA music:

http://ask.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/22/181242

Podcast: EFF and the RIAA square off on filesharing
litigation

From musicians speaking out about the effect illegal downloading is having on the industry, to college students being sued, the issue of illegal music downloading is all around us. Join co-hosts and Law.com bloggers, J. Craig Williams and Bob Ambrogi, as they turn to the experts: Attorney Richard L. Gabriel, from the firm, Holme Roberts & Owen LLP and lead national counsel for the Recording Industry Association of America and Attorney Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney specializing in intellectual property issues with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. On Lawyer 2 Lawyer, we will discuss the ethics behind downloading music illegally, copyright law, the lawsuits brought by the RIAA, the fate of the music industry and alternatives to illegally downloading music.

Aaaaaarrrrrr-arrrrr-arrrrrrrrrrrr! (TM)

Tarzan's characteristic yell is not trademarkable in the
EU, court rules.

MPAA sends university's a request (here's the .pdf) to instal a 'university toolkit' to help identify students who were downloading/sharing movie files.

The Washington Post's Security Fix blog reports that any university that installs the software could be placing a virtual wiretap on their networks for the MPAA (and the rest of the world) to listen in on all of the school's traffic. From the story: 'The MPAA also claims that using the tool on a university network presents "no privacy issues — the content of traffic is never examined or displayed.' That statement, however, is misleading. Here's why: The toolkit sets up an Apache Web server on the user's machine. It also automatically configures all of the data and graphs gathered about activity on the local network to be displayed on a Web page, complete with ntop-generated graphics showing not only bandwidth usage generated by each user on the network, but also the Internet address of every Web site each user has visited. Unless a school using the tool has firewalls on the borders of its network designed to block unsolicited Internet traffic — and a great many universities do not — that Web server is going to be visible and accessible by anyone with a Web browser."

Apple, Burst Reach Settlement

Apple successfully voided 14 out of 36 Burst.com's patent claims in their iPod lawsuit. Apple would have gone after the remaining 22 claims. Today, Market Wire announced that the case was settled out of court: "Apple agreed to pay Burst a one-time payment of $10 million cash in exchange for a non-exclusive license to Burst's patent portfolio, not including one issued U.S. patent and 3 pending U.S. patent applications related to new DVR technology. Burst agreed not to sue Apple for any future infringement of the DVR patent and any patents that might issue from the pending DVR-related applications.

Sadly, I saw little or no mention of DMusic in that Slashdot article: "How Do You Find New Non-RIAA Music?"

http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/07/11/22/181242.shtml

Trent Reznor's plans to host a Web site of fan-made Nine Inch Nails remixes has hit a legal snafu. In a new message posted online, Reznor says that, "My former record company (Universal)... is currently involved in a lawsuit with other media titans Google (YouTube) and News Corp (MySpace). Universal is contending that these sites... are in copyright violation because users have uploaded music and video content that is owned by Universal. Universal feels that if they host our remix site, they will be opening themselves up to the accusation that they are sponsoring the same technical violation of copyright they are suing these companies for. Their premise is that if any fan decides to remix one of my masters with material Universal doesn't own... and upload it to the site... they will be doing exactly what MySpace and YouTube are doing. This behavior may get hauled out in court and impact their lawsuit. Because of this they no longer will host our remix site, and are insisting that Nine Inch Nails host it. In exchange for this they will continue to let me upload my Universal masters and make them available to fans, BUT shift the liability of hosting them to me... We have a cool and innovative site ready to launch but we're currently scratching our heads as to how to proceed. More to come�." NIN's remix album, Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D, was released today.

Red Hot Chili Peppers sue Showtime network over use of the name "Californication", say the show creates unfair competition with their album that came out 8 years ago

Anti-copying programs may slow piracy

Some clueless people still believe this.

Interactive web videos

Neat! (But just a gimmick.)

Sony ordered to pay $5M in logo dispute

Sony Music must pay the founder of a small record company $5 million for failing to put his company's logo on reissues of Meat Loaf's "Bat Out of Hell" album, a federal appeals court ruled.

Ha ha.

Amazon's MP3 Service a Hit

Amazon MP3 can save music lovers from having to use torrents and dodge the RIAA.

RIAA Ordered to Turn Over Expense Information in UMG v. Lindor

Can't wait to see how the riaa tries to dance their way out of this one...wonder if they will try to include production cost of the music on top of their "per download cost"

$0.03 for the song
$749.97 for the lawyers

btw Mike, I like the new site layout.
Haven't been here in a while.
feel free to delete this post.

pepe, don't forget "breakage fees" which afaik
apply to downloads too. lol!

Google has reportedly turned over information about a Blogger.com user to someone who filed a libel lawsuit over in Israel. Headquarters of Blogger.com is in California, where defamation is a civil not criminal offense. In Israel, defamation is a criminal offense.

An article published Tuesday on an Israeli news site said that Google had "agreed to supply the IP address" of a blogger sued for alleged defamation. That was quickly echoed in some headlines in the U.S. saying Google "voluntarily" divulged user data and "Google dishes out IP address of anonymous blogger."

This is a legal gray area of sorts, but critics hold that Google could have withheld the information because the law governing the location of the site of Blogger.com limits defamation to a civil penalty.

The most prominent news article available about the issue may not be reliable because its reporter has questionable ties of loyalty to Google (spouse works for Google).

I think I smell a rat, and the search company may be trying dodge bad p.r. over a questionable decision that appears to put Google in a position of unnecessarily divulging anonymous information. My question to Google is how did they arrive at their decision -- was it through the best legal advice, or was it a matter of caving in to Jewish pressure across the sea?

That's not to say the blogger involved isn't despicable or that he/she shouldn't face consequences (civil litigation, having account dropped due to violation of terms of use, etc.), but my major concern is that Google capitulating as they apparently did could set a very bad precedent. This issue should go beyond emotional reactions or on what side of the fence your sentiments may otherwise be.
If it's not in the terms of use, are we still going to let litigation from other nations open all doors to internet privacy just because their laws are stricter than the laws governing a given website?
Smacks of unnecessary internationalism (globalism) and breach of privacy, does it not? We should all have a real problem with that, I would think.

(Oops. I accidentally wrote that the blogger may deserve to face civil litigation without my mentioning a disclaimer of only if his/her personal information is available through other means than through the internet. We need to keep the internet confidential unless there's a compelling criminal matter.)

Evel Knievel, Kanye West settle lawsuit.

Knievel sued West and his record company last year. He took issue with a 2006 music video for the song "Touch the Sky," in which the rapper takes on the persona of "Evel Kanyevel" and tries to jump a rocket-powered motorcycle over a canyon.

gfmlcka, I think Tracy is behind the site redesign. (I like it a lot better too!)
I haven't had time to do anything ambitious like that. In fact, I am no longer "officially" the admin. I just happen to post the most articles because I am addicted to doing what little I can to fight the RIAA.

RIP : Quiet Riot Singer Kevin DuBrow Found Dead

"The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 1955) last month, by a vote of 404 to 6, that says the Internet is a terrorist tool and that Congress needs to develop and implement methods to combat it."

*sigh*

RIAA Ordered to Turn Over Expense Information in UMG v. Lindor

The Court has ordered UMG Recordings, Warner Bros. Records, Interscope Records, Motown, and SONY BMG to disclose their expenses-per-download to the defendant's lawyers, in UMG v. Lindor, a case pending in Brooklyn. The Court held that the expense figures are relevant to the issue of whether the RIAA's attempt to recover damages of $750 or more per 99-cent song file, is an unconstitutional violation of due process.

We recently found a great promotional site to use for my son's new keyboard work. Although Caden has his own indi site: www.cadenwelborn.com and he is self produced a true independant musician.

Please check these out and vote for Caden in December if you see his songs on:

www.Ourstage.com
Thanks!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071127.WBcyberia20071127170629/WBStory/WBcyberia

No fair use, AT ALL, for our friends in Canada.

http://pttbt.ca/2007/11/28/pm-blasts-critics-of-copyright-bill.html

".. just give up and use whatever the MPAA sends us"

Are you stark raving mad ?
Let a US corporation author your legislation?
Especially one as corrupt and insipid as the MPAA?

Jeebus in a lawn chair.

Re: The international WIPO treaties of 1996 demand technical protection measures be included in subsequent copyright legislation.

A pox on the intellectual property concept!

Time to shine some light on those cockroaches.

http://recordingindustryvspeople.blogspot.com/2007/11/oregon-attorney-general-files-reply.html