COPYCENSE

"A federal judge has handed a preliminary victory to the recording industry by granting its request to unmask anonymous file swappers accused of copyright infringement.

"U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ruled  (.pdf) Monday that Cablevision, which provides broadband Internet access in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, can be required to divulge the identities of its subscribers sued over copyright violations.

"This ruling is the latest decision to clarify what legal methods copyright holders may use when hunting down people who are trading files on peer-to-peer networks."

Declan McCullagh. Judge: RIAA can unmask File Swappers. News.com. July 27, 2004.

"The Senate heard strong opposition from the technology industry on Thursday about a bill (.pdf) that would hold tech companies responsible for creating devices that could be used to pirate digital content.

"In its current form, the bill proposes to slap technology companies for making any device that could ‘induce’ or encourage buyers to make illegal copies of songs, movies or computer programs.  But technology companies say it would kill innovation and potentially outlaw some of the most popular devices, including Apple’s iPod.

"The Business Software Alliance surprised some observers, as the group initially supported the bill but is now asking for clarifications to protect innovation. Representatives of IEEE and NetCoalition, which represents Internet companies and Internet service providers, also expressed opposition to the bill."

Katie Dean. Techies Blast Induce Act. Wired News. July 23, 2004.

“A study (.pdf) released two weeks ago by the Business Software Alliance, which estimated the yearly losses from software piracy at $29 billion, has managed to stir real passion.

“The piracy study has become an issue because of a copyright bill, introduced in the Senate last month, that is strongly supported by the business alliance.

“In a letter last week to the Business Software Alliance, the heads of two other trade groups, who oppose the Senate bill, wrote that the results of the software piracy study were deeply troubling.”

Steve Lohr. Software Group Enters Fray Over Proposed Piracy Law. The New York Times. July 19, 2004.

(Editor�s Note: The Times allows free access to their stories on the Web for seven days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archive.)

"While legislators in Washington work to outlaw peer-to-peer networks, one website is turning the peer-to-peer technology back on Washington to expose its inner, secretive workings.

"But outragedmoderates.org isn’t offering copyright music and videos for download. The site, launched two weeks ago, has aggregated more than 600 government and court documents to make them available for download through the Kazaa, LimeWire and Soulseek P2P networks in the interest of making government more transparent and accountable.

"Steven V. Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, says the site answers a growing demand from the public to examine original source documents."

Kim Zetter. Downloading for Democracy. Wired News. July 19, 2004.

"Napster, in its latest guise as an ambassador for legal music on campus, said Monday that six universities have signed up to offer its digital song services to their students.

"By taking a lead in approaching college administrators to offer cut-rate subscriptions to its legal digital music service, it attempts to entice students away from popular file-swapping networks like Kazaa.

"Cornell University, George Washington University, Middlebury College, University of Miami, University of Southern California and Wright State University all are working to create their own on-campus version of the service, the company said. Pennsylvania State University and the University of Rochester have already started the service."

John Borland. Napster Makes Gains in Colleges. News.com. July 19, 2004.

See also Scarlet Pruitt. Napster Lands on Another Campus. PCWorld. February 5, 2004.