Copyright and Copying Wrongs: A Web Re-balancing Act Music & MP3 9/11/2000; 4:53:35 PM 'There is a large legal irony here. MP3.com may be thoroughly punished (the company is appealing the ruling), even though it has tried to ensure that people pay for copies of the music they want to listen to, said Pamela Samuelson, co-director of the University of California's Berkeley Center for Law and Technology. By contrast, Napster, another high-profile Internet music company being sued by the major record labels, has so far eluded any legal sanction for its activities, even though it exists to give people free access to the same music.

Poland Ready to Clear Electronic Signatures General IP Issues9/8/2000; 7:09:57 PM 'Polish financial institutions joined forces to enable local Internet users to use electronic signatures in e-commerce and e-banking after the appropriate law is approved later this year, the central bank said on Thursday.'Regretfully, the article does not make clear if these are electronic or digital signitures. Explanation from the Glossary.

C-SPAN 2 RIght Now Personal Notes 9/8/2000; 6:58:16 PM C-SPAN 2 right now is discussing "Privacy Act & the Presidency" right now, at 8:05 p.m. EST. Don't know if it's necessarily all that interesting overall, but technically Carnivore belongs to the President, so some issues I cover on this site might be covered.

RealNetworks, Streambox Settle Copyright Case General IP Issues 9/8/2000; 2:48:14 PM 'Streaming-media software company RealNetworks (RNWK) ended one of the first tests of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on Friday with an out-of court settlement with Streambox, a software rival it had accused of copyright infringement. 'RealNetworks' federal suit, filed Dec. 22 in Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington, accused Streambox of violating the DMCA with its Streambox Ripper and Streambox VCR products.

Metallica's Lawyer Asks 11 Major Institutions to Ban Napster Music & MP39/8/2000; 2:32:07 PM 'The lawyer for the rock band Metallica and the rap artist Dr. Dre has sent letters to 11 prominent universities asking the institutions to restrict students' access to Napster, the popular MP3 file-sharing service. Letters went out Wednesday night to Columbia, Harvard, and Stanford Universities, and the University of Virginia. The lawyer, Howard E. King, said he was sending letters Thursday to Boston University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of California at Los Angeles.

Downtime by Law Misc.9/8/2000; 2:21:42 PM 'With almost embarrassing enthusiasm, the American judicial system has recently taken upon itself the task of spanking the Internet, hard and with relish. Each day seems to bring another decision designed to leave the technically savvy sputtering with rage. But as galling as the verdicts have been, the judiciary — with every curt dismissal of every nerd-approved argument — is doing the plugged-in set an enormous favor.

Quiet after yesterday's burst Personal Commentary9/7/2000; 6:34:33 PM After yesterday's burst of news, a relatively quiet day. Amazon leaked some addresses to some people; it was attributed to a technical failure and from the description, I find that highly likely. Other then a reminder that there is always failure in human systems, not that big a deal .Carnivore will march on despite criticism... well, who expected anything else? The list of people and organizations the FBI has to answer to is quite short, and "

Point - Counterpoint: Digital Angel in your Children Personal Commentary9/6/2000; 10:27:09 PM You may recall the Digital Angel. Dan Gillmore engaged in a point-counterpoint debate with a collegue about whether or not they would put one in their child:Mike Langberg: I would do it in a minute as a way to protect my child. Dan Gillmor: Electronic leash would undermine our values.I side 1000% with Gillmore.The generation gap of the sixties is nothing compared to what this would cause.

Legal Puzzle UCITA9/6/2000; 9:34:45 PM Contracts between parties in multiple states can specify which state's laws apply to the contract, a necessary ability when you have 50 states. UCITA goes online in Maryland in less then a month, and companies will be able to specify that the click-through contract will be under the laws of Maryland, putting it under UCITA. The reason click-through contracts are legitimate contracts is that it is an explicit provision of UCITA.

Napster and DeCSS: Is it about free speech or free stuff? General IP Issues9/6/2000; 4:36:07 PM The single most balanced article I've seen on the topic. Sure to be ignored because it's too sane.(No good pull-quote. It's actually a two-in-one essay: If you want music to be free, make like the free software people and make some free music and distribute it, don't steal commercial music.The content owners shouldn't be cracking down on people making fair use, they should be cracking down on honest-to-goodness pirates.