shouting loudly

Google reports via its official blog that it’s hiring a lobbyist to help influence policy in such areas as “net neutrality,” “copyrights and fair use,” and “intermediary liability.” I have to hope this will be a good thing for most internet users, and people working with digital media in general. While I realize that Google [...]

BBC reports that Sony has just lost a four-year legal battle with a mod chip supplier, meaning that it’s legal for Australians to install such chips in the Sony PlayStation 2—and, presumably, this could set a precedent for modding other consoles, such as the Xbox. Game consoles like the PS2 can be “modded” by installing [...]

Normally, CNet’s News.com.com is the source for wonderful tech and tech law news. I link to them all the time. This time, however, I’m publicly dissing them, there and here. Read this article by Progress and Freedom Foundation VP Patrick Ross. His journalistic credentials are actually quite sound, but his reasoning is not. Next, flip [...]

Here’s yet another reason to support blanket licensing: format wars. Apple uses AAC at the iTunes store; most others use Secure WMA. Neither is playable on music players (ahem–MP3 players) designed to play the other. The Times actually a) covers this issue, and b) offers some useful tips to the uninitiated. Support blanket licensing. Apple’s [...]

Quick link to a Times story about how independent video producers are already starting to use the internet to escape the need to work with major distributors. Early adopters include Blair Witch co-director Dan Myrick with his serial, “The Strand of Venice”.

In what I believe is a first, I have scooped CNN on a story. (“You hear about this kind of thing all the time, but you never think it will happen to you…”) Two weeks ago, I posted a story about how the Christian band Switchfoot was teaching people how to hack their CDs. Tonight, [...]

The Video Game Law Blog links to a P2Pnet story about a single mother sued by the RIAA who decided to sue right back. Check out the P2Pnet article for the full story, which is summarized neatly by the Video Game Law Blog: The interesting part of this story is that the mother filed a [...]

I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but this piece from The Nation does raise some pretty interesting questions about New Orleans. (Link via Slacktivist.) The Nation piece is primarily concerned with the creeping suspicion that some people might have had quite a lot to gain from flooding poor people out of the city—but it’s [...]

The Authors’ Guild has sued Google over its massive book-scan, part of the larger project known as Google Print. I don’t have the time to write my own analysis on this issue, but let me revoke my previous non-vote and say that Google is engaged in fair use. Among others, Peter Suber and William Patry [...]