Users' groups must go to bat for their users

The traditional users' group has largely been a semi-informal, unstructured gathering of users of some particular technological or electronic development, particularly those developments which are computer-based or oriented. The earliest users' groups, and many current users'...

Student Joel Tenenbaum Fined $675,000 For Illegal KaZaA Downloads

PhD student Joel Tenenbaum was fined $675,000 after admitting to illegally downloading and distributing 30 songs using the file-sharing software KaZaA. Tenenbaum's attorney and Harvard Law School professor Charles Nesson stated that the figure was "bankrupting". Tenenbaum...

Stallman, the Swedish Pirate Party, and copyleft

A few days ago, Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation published an op-ed to the GNU project's website, in which he criticized the copyright views of the Swedish Pirate Party, which had recently succeeded in its endeavor to get a seat in Brussels' European...

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Leaked Months Before Release

In somewhat shocking news eagerly awaited upcoming sci-fi movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine got leaked on bitorrent portals months before the official release date of 1st May 2009, the leaked version of the movie is...

Norwegian Minister Wants to Legalize File-Sharing

It appears Norway has a mature attitude toward file-sharing, " Earlier this week the music industry, headed by the IFPI, gave Norway’s largest Internet provider an ultimatum; block access to The Pirate Bay...

MediaDefender Secretly Sells Porn to P2P Users

"MediaDefender Secretly Sells Porn to P2P Users Written by Ernesto on September 20, 2008  MediaDefender is widely known for their anti-piracy operations, spoofing and...

New REM album available first on Facebook

You can be the first kid on the block with the new REM album in March, a week before it hits stores.  And it's not due to the magic of MySpace this time--it'll be streamed on Facebook via iLike.With...

Clear discussion of property rights vs. copyright

Timothy B. Lee writes about how and why we need to distinguish between property rights and copyright, though some people equate them today. Clear and concise, this is a quick but useful read"The copyright system...

Pirate Bay Founders Under Legal Attack

As we reported previously, Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay has long been the target of legal attacks. I wonder if they'll be able to get out of this one."Four men who run one of the most popular...

War on Torrentism: PirateBay to be Prosecuted

BitTorrent sites like The Pirate Bay have long claimed that they could not be prosecuted for making files available for illegal download, "since none of the actual illegal files are hosted on [their] servers but...

FCC To Probe Comcast's Alleged Blocking Of File Sharing

"THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION WILL probe complaints that Comcast Corp. interferes with traffic to file-sharing sites as well as allegations that wireless companies prevent some groups from sending text messages to consumers, Chairman Kevin Martin said Tuesday. "Sure,...

Government study finds: P2P downloads increase CD purchase

"Among Canadians who engage in P2P file-sharing, our results suggest that for every 12 P2P downloaded songs, music purchases increase by 0.44 CDs. That is, downloading the equivalent of approximately one CD...

49 Canadians had STD, HIV Results Published on Web

Wow, nothing like getting bad news, then finding out everyone else knows about it too. "The Newfoundland and Labrador government said Monday it's trying to contact dozens of people whose confidential medical information, including test results for HIV and hepatitis, was...

YouTube link to deadly school shootings

Great...another link between YouTube and crime.  The new Al Capone of the modern era..."At least eight people were killed when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a school in Finland Wednesday, according to Finnish police. The shooting appeared to have been planned out...

Sony BMG's chief anti-piracy lawyer: "Copying" music you own is "stealing"

"When questioned by Richard Gabriel, lead counsel for the record labels, Pariser suggested that what millions of music fans do is actually theft. The dirty deed? Ripping your own CDs or downloading songs you already own."

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