News

Saturday, February 23, 2002

what's hot what's not

Once again Microsoft is jamming it's hands into your PC. If you are one of the folks who have Windows XP, and use the Windows Media Player 8, everytime you play anything, it tells Microsoft.

Microsoft Admits XP Media Player Spies on Users
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Source: NewsFactor Network

In an amazing turn of events, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel who okayed the injunction that shut down Napster, now wants the music industry to Prove that it owns the digital copyrights to the music that forms the centerpiece of this case.

"Despite Napster’s unclean hands, any balancing of equities must account for the fact that the Napster service is no longer functioning and thereby not infringing," Patel said in her written ruling. "When it became apparent to Napster that it could not comply with this court’s injunction, it disabled the ability of its users to share music files."

"In contrast, (the record labels') allegedly inequitable conduct is currently ongoing and the extent of the prospective harm is massive. If Napster is correct, plaintiffs are attempting the near monopolization of the digital distribution market. The resulting injury affects both Napster and the public interest."

Judge: If You Own Music, Prove It
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Source: Wired News

Judge Patel is giving the music moguls three weeks to produce.

Copyright is a big issue. Especially for the media moguls, who are undergoing a proctological examination as seen above. The CTEA is also known as the Mickey Mouse Extention as the copyrights for Mickey would have expired in 2003, putting Mickey in the Public Domain. You could have been a contender with your own Mickey movies and cartoons.

In 1998, the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act amended section 304 by substituting "67" for "47" wherever it appeared in subsection (a), by substituting a new subsection (b) and by adding subsection (d) at the end thereof. Pub. L. No. 105-298, 112 Stat. 2827. That Act also amended subsection 304(c) by deleting "by his widow or her widower and his or her children or grandchildren" from the first sentence of paragraph (2), by adding subparagraph (D) at the end of paragraph (2) and by inserting "or, in the case of a termination under subsection (d), within the five-year period specified by subsection (d)(2)," into the first sentence of subparagraph (4)(A). Id.

Eldred v. Ashcroft is going to the Supreme Court to hopefully overturn this law. Like every case of this type, it requires Time and Money. I Am Not A Lawyer, but I do have money. As soon as I figure out where to send it, I will let you know. I urge You to do the same.

Professor Lessig is looking for volunteers interesting in working on the pro bono challenge to the copyright term extension act in the Supreme Court -- Eldred v. Ashcroft. Send a resume to carinne.johnson [at] stanford.edu.

Stanford Law School Lawrence Lessig
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Source: Lawrence Lessig

Blogging, WebLogs, personal sites are blurring the lines of Journalism.

Online Journalism is a simple concept. Journalism Online.
JD Lasica does both extremely well.

p i x e l v i e w - JD Lasica
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