Record Industry Plays Both Sides Music & MP3 3/17/2001; 6:35:59 PM '...Record labels are poised to conquer cyberspace with their own streaming and downloading services. 'Ironically, only one thing stands in the way: copyright. 'Record companies aren't the only ones that hold copyright on music recordings. Music publishers, who represent lyricists and composers, do too -- owning the rights to the piece of music itself. For every copy a record company distributes, the publisher gets a small cut.

Better Business Bureau tries to stop Web links Free Speech 3/14/2001; 9:09:35 PM 'The Better Business Bureau is demanding that an Israeli company's Web site take down its link to the consumer protection organization. 'The demand raises new intellectual property questions about how companies protect their names and logos online. A trademark expert said that the group has little chance to enforce its demand in court....' 'Zialcita said the bureau allows links from the news media, government agencies, schools and bureau members.

High-tech titans put the squeeze on privacy regs Privacy from Companies3/14/2001; 11:45:29 AM 'Aiming to halt the advance of dozens of privacy bills in Congress and in state legislatures across the country, the group Monday went public with four industry-funded studies asserting that privacy legislation would cost consumers billions of dollars annually.' 'Led by the Online Privacy Alliance in Washington, the loosely organized campaign is attacking legislative proposals on three fronts: identifying expensive regulatory burdens, raising questions about how any U.

Banner Ads Now Themselves Have Banner Ads Humor/Amusing 3/13/2001; 11:28:50 AM 'The basic problem," says Marcos, "is that banner ads are expensive to run. Organizations like DoubleClick whose business is to provide the public with banner ads are hemorrhaging cash. It just can't be done by hobbyists anymore. That's why we're stepping in and providing commercial sponsorship for banner ads, in the form of banner ads."'

Copy This! Can 'Military' Technology Beat Digital Piracy? Misc. 3/13/2001; 11:05:44 AM 'A small Austin start-up run by intelligence community alums is parachuting into the burgeoning, post-Napster, copy-protection market with a remarkably thin, invisible software product that claims to offer nearly invincible armor for music, video, film and e-books alike....' 'The InTether system consists of a packager, used by the originator of a file, and a receiver, used by the recipient.

Should Patents be Granted for Computer Software? (UK) Country Watch: Britain 3/12/2001; 9:58:13 PM 'The Government’s conclusion is thus to reaffirm the principle that patents are for technological innovations. Software should not be patentable where there is no technological innovation, and technological innovations should not cease to be patentable merely because the innovation lies in software.' 'However, the Government agrees with those respondents who said that at present the law is not clear enough, and that this is damaging.

German Court Finds AOL Guilty of Internet Piracy Country Watch: Germany 3/10/2001; 1:20:23 PM 'Restrictive online copyright protection may have been bolstered by a German appeals court, which has upheld a ruling against America Online (NYSE: AOL - news) that found the Internet giant responsible for pirated material swapped on its service... 'The Frankfurt district court ruling Friday upheld the determination of a Bavarian state court in Munich last April that Internet service providers (ISPs) are responsible for pirated material traded on their systems.

Users, vendors face off over UCITA law in Texas UCITA 3/10/2001; 12:01:45 PM 'A TITANIC STRUGGLE over the proposed new Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act -- one that pits large corporate users against a group of major technology vendors -- is under way in Texas and could become a key showdown for the controversial software licensing measure. 'The legislation, known informally as UCITA, was approved relatively easily last year in two states: Virginia and Maryland.

Law shelters AOL from child porn suit Misc. 3/10/2001; 11:56:38 AM 'The state Supreme Court said Thursday that federal law shields America Online from illegal transactions--in particular, the sale of child pornography--taking place on its service. 'In a 4-3 decision, Florida's high court said the Communications Decency Act gives the Internet service provider, a unit of AOL Time Warner, immunity from a lawsuit filed by a Florida woman, whose 11-year-old son appeared in a lewd videotape sold by one AOL subscriber to another.

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law after Napster General IP Issues 3/8/2001; 7:57:01 PM 'This piece is meant as a general explanation of the U.S. copyright law principles most relevant to P2P file-sharing technologies. It is aimed primarily at: 'Developers of core P2P file-sharing technology, such as the underlying protocols, platform tools, and specific client implementations; 'Developers of ancillary services that depend upon or add value to P2P file-sharing networks, such as providers of search, security, metadata aggregation, and other services; 'Investors seeking to evaluate the potential copyright risks associated with the various ventures listed above.