The Recording Industry Association of America found itself in an unusual position this week: opposing an anti-piracy bill that's gaining momentum in Congress. "The OPEN Act does nothing" to stop online infringement and "may even make the problem worse," the industry group says in a statement it is circulating on Capitol Hill this week. "It does not establish a workable framework, standards, or remedies[......]
An English court has sentenced a juror to six months in prison for contempt of court after she performed research on the Internet and forced the abandonment of a criminal trial. Psychology lecturer Theodora Dallas, 34, was a member of the jury in the trial of Barry Medlock, accused of causing grievous bodily harm. She looked up certain information related to the trial on the Internet, came across information concerning Medlock, and told her fellow jurors what she had found. [......]
IFPI's music map of legal services In order to protect itself from piracy, the worldwide recording industry needs a few favors from governments and corporations around the globe, and a major new digital music report (PDF) from the industry's worldwide lobby IFPI lays them out. [......]
The Megaupload takedown , and the arrest of its key employees, might seem to vindicate late 1990s worries about the Internet and jurisdiction. Does putting a site on the 'Net, though it might be hosted anywhere in the world, subject you simultaneously to the laws of every country on earth? Why would Megaupload, based in Hong Kong, be subject to US copyright laws and to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act[......]
Former speaker Newt Gingrich The swelling coalition against the Stop Online Piracy Act gained three new members on Thursday night: Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum. The fourth debate participant, Rep[......]
The Internet community is like one big Encyclopedia Brown, always solving mysteries with barely any information to work with. Just ask Eidos Montreal. [......]
This week, "call your Congressperson" is not just a cliché. It's one of the most important things you can do to make your voice heard[......]
Good news, gadget hounds![......]
It's hardly the sort of Internet policy statement one hopes to hear from judges in major democracies. "Like China, we can block all such websites [who don't comply]," Justice Suresh Cait told Facebook and Google lawyers in India yesterday. "But let us not go to that situation." No, let's not. [......]
Tomorrow's guest: the Internet "Tomorrow night," announced host Jon Stewart at the beginning of The Daily Show yesterday , "our guest will be the Internet." The odd intro came about thanks to a redditor , who showed up to a Daily Show taping yesterday with VIP passes. Knowing he would have a chance to ask Stewart a preshow question, the redditor pondered ideas and settled on SOPA, the hugely controversial Stop Online Piracy Act now being considered in Congress. "The Internet sent me to ask you what you think of SOPA and why you haven't mentioned it on the show," he said to Stewart. [......]
The Motion Picture Association of America doesn't like us. According to the MPAA blog on Tuesday, "Arts Technica" is a "tech blog with a long history of challenging efforts to curb content theft." (If so, we're the only such tech blog that actually encouraged a now-current MPAA lawyer to do copyright coverage for our site and that recommended the pro-rightsholder book Free Ride in this year's holiday guide.) One can see why MPAA staffers might think this way[......]
Someone check Trendnet's engineers for whiplash because the speed geeks in lab coats just unveiled a pair of super fast networking products, including a 1300Mbps dual band wireless router built around the new 802.11ac standard (TEW-811DR), and a 500Mbps Compact Powerline AV Adapter (TPL-406E and TPL-406E2K). [......]
I work on occasion from my local public library, a wonderful spot with huge glass windows overlooking an attached park. [......]
Under intense pressure from an Internet-wide boycott, domain registrar GoDaddy has given the open Internet an early Christmas present: it's dropping its support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. [......]
The cool thing about Mozilla's rapid release schedule for Firefox is that you never have to wait long for the next version to come out, which is a real boon if you want to play with the latest and greatest but aren't real keen on the thought of mucking around with beta code. And if you've been waiting around for Firefox 9 to go gold, your day has come. On the flip side, having a rapid release schedule inevitably leads to less dramatic changes in between most builds[......]
