copyright

As expected, the Electronic Frontier Foundation plans to file a friends-of-the-court brief in support of TorrentSpy, the search engine accused of copyright violations.

The top motion-picture studios filed a lawsuit last year against TorrentSpy and other search engines that locate torrent files. The studios allege in their suit that these companies simplify the illegal sharing of copyright content.

The magistrate judge hearing the case recently ruled that computer RAM or random-access memory, is a tangible document that can be stored and must be turned over in a lawsuit. If allowed to stand, the groundbreaking decision may mean that anyone defending … Read more

YouTube may have removed pirated copies of the unreleased film Sicko, but apparently those operating sister site Google Video didn't get the memo right away.

As of 10:15 a.m. Monday morning, Michael Moore's soon-to-be released documentary was available on Google's video-sharing site in its entirety and was also available for download. This contrasts with YouTube, which restricts most videos on the site to be under 10 minutes in length. Google Video has no such restriction.

Update, 11:30 a.m. PDT: Google Video has removed Sicko.

Last week, bootleg versions of Moore's expose on … Read more

Friday marked the deadline for filing comments with federal regulators scrutinizing "broadband industry practices," and for the most part, they're familiar pleas for why or why not to impose strict Net neutrality requirements.

Not so for media conglomerate NBC Universal. Its general counsel, Richard Cotton, urged the Federal Communications Commission not to get bogged down in the question of whether it's wise to prohibit network operators from prioritizing content through making special deals. What's missing from the debate, he wrote, is acknowledgment of "a huge and rapidly growing proportion of Internet traffic consists of … Read more

The movie studios may have discovered a new and powerful weapon in their war on copyright infringement.

The courts have for the first time found that the electronic trail briefly left in a computer server's RAM, or random access memory, by each visitor to a site is "stored information" and must be turned over as evidence during litigation, according to documents seen by CNET News.com.

Jacqueline Chooljian, a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles, issued the decision while presiding over a court fight between the studios and TorrentSpy, the BitTorrent search … Read more

We already know that Webcasters small and large are outraged at the prospect of having to pay higher royalty fees to the music industry, particularly when compared with what is required of their satellite and terrestrial radio counterparts.

But the heightened royalty rates enacted by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board earlier this year and scheduled to take effect July 15 are not the only thing that's firing up leading Internet radio industry companies like RealNetworks, Yahoo, Pandora and Live365.

In letters distributed to various Capitol Hill offices on Thursday morning, the four companies' CEOs argue that the music … Read more

Last year, an attorney representing a woman sued by the Recording Industry Association of America claimed his client is innocent and asked a federal judge to levy sanctions against the association's lawyers.

Instead, in an unexpected legal twist, U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled on May 16 that it was entirely likely that the woman was violating copyright law via the Kazaa file-sharing program -- and ordered that her attorney be sanctioned for wasting the court's time with "frivolous" arguments.

"Frivolous motions for sanctions that harass the opposing party's attorney, chill that attorney'… Read more

YouTube just can't seem to keep those lawsuits off its back. The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has sued the massive video-sharing portal for copyright infringement concerning a widely-circulated video of car crash footage that was taped with an NJTA camera.

The crash in question took place on the N.J. Turnpike on May 10 and resulted in one fatality. The NJTA's complaint, a copy of which was obtained by CNET News.com, says that "the video serves no worthwhile purpose and shows a tremendous lack of common human decency towards the family of the victim." It'… Read more

Apple's legal team appears to have its panties in a twist over an unusual subject: sex toys. We all know that there are a few things that Apple likes to keep to itself. Its name, for example--remember that little Beatles spat?

Now, Macworld is reporting that Apple's not, shall we say, excited about an ad campaign for the "iGasm" from naughty-appliance manufacturer Ann Summers. (WARNING: You might not want to click on that link at the office.) It's a little $60 gadget that encourages open-minded consumers to "take your appreciation of music to a … Read more

The U.S. government has repeatedly extended how long works can be protected under copyright. Now, one author wants them to go even further.

In an op-ed piece for The New York Times this weekend, author Mark Helprin put forth a proposal for extending copyright protection essentially forever, arguing that releasing works into the public domain punishes artists and their families. Real property can be passed down for generations, he argues; why not intellectual property?

"Congress is free to extend at will the term of copyright. It last did so in 1998, and should do so again, as far … Read more