Japan makes online music storage illegal!

You read it right, in Japan you can't store music online! This includes private personal networks, file sharing apps, servers??? In a day where more and more of our personal data is going on the web, are we still going to have to carry around hard drives full of our purchased intellectual property?

Ohio State Caves to RIAA

In a move typical of the Ohio state administration, they are now completely complying with the RIAA. There's not really a case where the university could be sued, much like an ISP, but the administrators seem oblivious to that.

Lawyer says: Microsoft, BRING IT!

This man is not impressed by Microsoft's attempts to enforce 235 patents, so he's starting a movement of Linux users saying "You think we're breaking your patent? Then sue us." This is quite a move from the old "hope the FBI doesn't raid my mom's house" Napster cases of yesteryear. Will Microsoft bite? Or are they just pounding their chests to scare away the guppies?

The Case for Intellectual Property

The New York Times is running a story on Intellectual Property must be treated as preciously as physical property.

Pirate Bay=Going for It

The world's most popular BitTorrent tracker Pirate Bay announced they will be opening a YouTube-like site, but with "no censorship" (read: no copyright enforcement). Pirate Bay has flaunted its "international immunity" in the past, but now we're going to see just how far a website can go by residing in a liberal nation.

International Immunity

No matter how hard the U.S. enforces copyright or threatens sanctions, some countries still facilitate piracy, and it ain't going away fast.

Latest DRM cracked a week before its release

In a move proving the futility of Digital Rights Management, the new HD DVD anti-piracy measures are well behind the mouse of piracy.

Gonzalez: Don't even Try.

Alberto Gonzalez is on some kind of intellectual property spree this week. He's now proposing The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007. If passed, the 1 to 10 years for copyright infringement would apply to people attempting to download copyrighted material, because, basically, it's the thought that counts.

You'd have thought Alberto Gonzalez was a bigger fan of stealing information, after all he's been accused of illegal wiretapping private residences, so he knows how intolerable it is to be left in the dark.

Alberto Gonzales=RIAA Puppet

Alberto Gonzales has lengthened prison sentences for copyright violators. As he says, "These crimes, as we all know, also have a direct impact on our economy, costing victims millions of dollars." Fortunately, the "victims" are very few corporations. And as we've seen in this blog, even they aren't actually losing that much. So the law gets harder while the software gets looser. Where will this crazy train end?!

Microsoft wants everyone's money!

Doesn't sound like news by the headline, but they're serious! In a major move against Free OSS (FOSS), a lot of open-source software developers have used not code, but 235 patented features of Microsoft products. In fact, Microsoft hopes to get money from both distributors and USERS of FOSS.