I always wondered if making music or other types of files would constitute piracy in the U.S. Well here is an answer from a Boston Judge:

“As we mentioned yesterday, a New York court in Elektra v. Barker gave a boost to the recording industry by ruling that an offer to distribute a file on a P2P network can infringe the distribution right, even if no one ever actually downloaded it from you. Well, on the same day, a Massachusetts court in London-Sire v. Doe ruled just the opposite, holding that “merely exposing music files to the internet is not copyright infringement” (we just received the ruling today).

EFF filed an amicus brief in this case (formerly known as Atlantic v. Does 1-21), and our arguments appear to have found a more receptive audience in Boston that they did in New York City (the judge thanks us for our participation on page 11). The 52-page ruling is the most extensive analysis yet of the recording industry’s “making available” argument, which claims that you infringe copyright merely by having a song in your shared folder, even if no one ever downloads it.” [EFF]

I bet that this fight is not over….

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The AP threatened to sue blogger Brian C. Ledbetter for reproducing their photos without authorization. But they didn’t ask permission before they grabbed Ashley Dupre’s pictures.”

Brian says, “The life of a blogger will occasionally resemble that of Buffalo Bill Cody’s stories of old. And, much like the lead-slingers of times long past, we sometimes get nicked.” [PajamasMedia]

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After Neil Gaiman’s novel, American Gods, Harper Collins continue its expriment. It has released the full text of Double or Nothing. You can read it for free online. It’s the story of how two friends risked it all to buy one of Las Vegas’ legendary casino.

“If Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn had come of age at the end of the 20^th century looking for an all-American adventure, they probably would’ve headed for Vegas.

They’d have been hard-pressed to go on a wilder ride than the one taken by Tom Breitling and Tim Poster to the top of the famed Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino.

Call them the Odds Couple.

Breitling is the kid who lives next door if you grow up in Burnsville, Minnesota. He never saw a hundred dollar bill or The Godfather until he went to college.

Poster comes from a family of oddsmakers who reach for the Doritos on football Sundays and scream for the point spread. He was whistling Sinatra and booking games at his Las Vegas high school.

Their unlikely friendship began in college over an $8 veal parmigiana sandwich that led to a partnership in a hotel reservation business. Starting with a desk, a chair, a pillow, and a telephone, Tim and Tom grew a company that they sold during the dot.com boom for $105 million. This allows Tim to pursue his childhood dream of owning a casino and bringing back the glory days of Vegas.”

Link to the online book

via boingboing 

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The federal NDP, wrote an open letter to Industry Minister Jim Prentice over the issue of his proposal to create a Canadian version of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. While arguing that Canada must meet its international obligation, Jim Prentice has consistently refused to allow any form of public consultation into his bill, and instead has drafted a kind of wish-list representing the fondest fantasies of US entertainment giants. In short Prentice proposes to criminalize the public who download music from the internet in order to pay the artists.

“As a follow-up to this Three Step approach I am offering Jim Prentice some thoughts regarding WIPO obligations. Minister Jim Prentice needs to come clean with the Canadian public over the fact that restrictive, U.S. style DMCA legislation is not synonymous with ratifying the WIPO treaty. Under international trade obligations Canada could ratify WIPO and still maintain a wide variety of choices of how to go about setting up appropriate copyright legislation for the 21st-century. We are in no way obligated to go down the same dead end road as the United States with their restrictive legislation.”[Charlie Angus]

Technorati Tags: DCMA, Canada, Copyrights

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