Politechan

The constant source of litigation, aka Google’s Book Scanning Project, may be reaching a peace treaty of sorts over in Europe.  Under the terms of a proposed settlement with the EU and Google, Google will allow two non-Americans onto the review board that administers this program, and promises not to scan any books that are [...]

Pirate Bay supporters are screaming holy murder after it was discovered the judge in the case was a member of the Swedish Copyright Association, the same group that also counts as members the entertainment industry’s attorneys.  Regardless of the political feelings on this case one way or another, there may very well be a retrial [...]

This makes five if you lost count.
 
Monday’s naming of Ian Gershengorn, to become the department’s deputy assistant attorney of the Civil Division, comes more than a week after nearly two-dozen public interest groups, trade pacts and library coalitions urged the new president to quit filling his administration with lawyers plucked from the Recording Industry Association of America. 
Gershengorn, [...]

Yesterday was Hollywood day on Capitol Hill with many industry veterans telling Congress about the evils of piracy.  Coverage has ranged from the factual to the rather bizarre, with descriptions of the witnesses socks and the ‘top secret’ military solution available to thwart privacy, but we can only tell you about it in a cocktail [...]

That is the question the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is asking:
 
You know your copyright laws are broken when there is no easy answer to this question.
Traditionally, it has been the job of the “first sale” doctrine to enable gift giving — that’s the provision of copyright law that entitles the owner of a CD, book, or other [...]

Ok, file this in the WTF department?
The Obama administration is negotiating a new treaty to cover copyright infringement, a rather ominous act that is going to include a whole slew of provisions privacy rights advocates will like run from in horror.  A new twist was reported in Wired today
The White House this week declared (.pdf) the text [...]