Digital Rights

British ISPs Agree To Landmark Copyright Enforcement Deal
Jul 24, 2008 | Following negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), six major Internet service providers Read More

Public Interest Groups File Opposition to MPAA Petition
Jul 23, 2008 | As we wrote about last month, members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are interested in making high Read More

EU Parliament's Telecom Reform Raises "Three-Strikes" Concerns
Jul 8, 2008 | According to BBC News, members of the European Parliament voted yesterday in favor of advancing new telecom reform legislation known Read More

MPAA Wants to Release Movies Earlier; Prevent Recording
Jun 9, 2008 | According to Ars Technica, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) filed a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) petition for "expedited Read More

FCC Hearing: "Don't Neuter the Net"
Apr 17, 2008 | Following Professor Lessig's remarks, the first panelist at today's FCC hearing was Rick Carnes, president of the Songwriters Guild of Read More

CDT: Roommate Ruling is an "Ominous Indicator"
Apr 7, 2008 | The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) is calling last week's Roommates.com court ruling "an ominous indicator of the threats Read More

UK's Three-Strikes Rule Against Piracy
Feb 12, 2008 | According to U.K. newspaper The Times, the British government plans to consider new copyright enforcement legislation that includes a tough Read More

Canada's Copyright Bill Raises Privacy Concerns
Jan 22, 2008 | The Canadian government is expected to introduce its DMCA-inspired copyright reform legislation soon and, while the details have yet to Read More

Copyright Cuts Both Ways
Jan 21, 2008 | Since we frequently write about efforts by content providers and software companies to protect their intellectual property against unauthorized usage, Read More

NYT's Copyright Mini-Series
Jan 17, 2008 | The New York Times' Bits blog has been hosting a weeklong debate about digital copyright between NBC's general counsel Rick Read More

DRM May Be Dying, But RIAA Warnings Live On
Jan 11, 2008 | By all accounts, it's been an active week on the digital music scene. No doubt spurred by the media frenzy Read More

Digital Music: Taxes, Filtering and Free
Jan 10, 2008 | "[It] was a bitter pill to swallow, but...the way things are, I think music should be looked at as free. It Read More

Comcast Resolves to Promote Open Standard
Jan 7, 2008 | Hoping to avoid regulation by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Comcast and other cable operators are finally planning to introduce Read More

Universal's Download Deal with Nokia
Dec 5, 2007 | In its latest digital music experiment, Universal Music Group will offer "free" downloads of its entire catalogue to customers who Read More

France's Plans to Give Pirates the Boot
Nov 23, 2007 | If you illegally download music or movies via the Internet in France, you may lose your Net access altogether. That's Read More

Student Blocks RIAA Subpoena
Nov 20, 2007 | Last month, News.com reported that a federal judge in D.C. granted a subpoena to the Recording Industry Association of America Read More

House Committee Passes Bill to Fight Piracy on Campuses
Nov 16, 2007 | As we wrote about on Monday, the House Education and Labor Committee held a markup session this week to review Read More

PK's Copyright Reform Proposal
Oct 26, 2007 | Gigi Sohn, president of nonprofit advocacy group Public Knowledge (PK), has long been outspoken about her organization's work to reform Read More

Radiohead's Digital Download Experiment
Oct 22, 2007 | Earlier this month, British band Radiohead made waves (and news) when they announced that they'd severed ties with Capitol Records Read More

Net Censorship in China
Oct 18, 2007 | There are several reports in the news today about China blocking, and in some cases unblocking, access to Web sites. Read More

I Don't Know But I Been Told...
Oct 15, 2007 | The Associated Press is reporting that Led Zeppelin is finally going digital. Starting November 13th, fans of the band will Read More

Universal's DRM Test Begins, Amid Watermarking Concerns
Aug 21, 2007 | Today is the day that Universal Music Group (UMG) starts its 23-week experiment of selling music without digital rights management Read More

Universal Tests DRM-Free Waters, Skips iTunes
Aug 13, 2007 | Since Steve Jobs' released his now-infamous "thoughts on music" letter in February, in which he called on the big four Read More

Nokia to Use Microsoft's DRM for Mobile Content
Aug 6, 2007 | At the same time that some companies like Apple and Amazon.com are taking steps to sell DRM-free music to consumers, Read More

CCIA's "Defend Fair Use" Campaign
Aug 2, 2007 | Know those warnings that you see at the start of a DVD or hear during an NFL game, informing you Read More

Belgian Court Requires ISP to Enforce Copyright
Jul 5, 2007 | A court in Belgium has ordered that an ISP named Scarlet Extended SA must install technology to prevent its customers Read More

ATT Partners With Hollywood on Piracy Initiative
Jun 13, 2007 | The Los Angeles Times (free sub required) and Red Herring reported yesterday that AT&T is partnering with Hollywood film studios Read More

Video Fingerprinting to Fight Piracy
Jun 5, 2007 | The Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) Web site states that the film industry lost $18.2 billion worldwide in 2005 Read More

Reaction to DOJ's Copyright Enforcement Plan
Jun 5, 2007 | A few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a proposal to Congress for new legislation, called the Read More

EMI and Google Announce YouTube Partnership
May 31, 2007 | According to News.com, EMI Group announced a licensing deal with Google that will allow YouTube to show videos and performances Read More

DRM-free Songs Debut on iTunes
May 30, 2007 | In an update to this post from last month, the Associated Press reports that Apple's iTunes Store has started selling Read More

Digg's DMCA Woes
May 4, 2007 | Digg is the latest, but unlikely the last, social media company to find itself walking the thin line between enabling Read More

EMI Takes the Plunge with iTunes
Apr 2, 2007 | Record company EMI announced that it will make its entire music catalog - minus any Beatles songs -available on iTunes Read More

MPAA's Efforts to Fight Piracy on Campus
Apr 2, 2007 | The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which represents the major film studios, issued a press release last week announcing Read More

Are Studios Stifling Video Download Biz?
Mar 30, 2007 | In his latest "Technology and You" column, BusinessWeek's Stephen Wildstrom writes about the "digital disarray" of the video download business. Read More

Mossberg Calls On Congress to Step Up on Copyright
Mar 26, 2007 | In his Personal Technology column last Thursday, The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg wrote about Viacom's $1 billion lawsuit against Read More

Elizabeth Corcoran on Immigration in Silicon Valley
Mar 9, 2007 | In her latest Letter from Silicon Valley column, Forbes contributing editor Elizabeth Corcoran writes about "Silicon Valley's Immigration Problem." Corcoran, Read More

Will Film Studios Go DRM-Free?
Feb 16, 2007 | Today's Wall Street Journal (subscription required) features an article titled "Hollywood Weighs Copyright Protections" that takes a look at the Read More

RIAA's Response to Steve Jobs
Feb 8, 2007 | Yesterday, we blogged about Apple CEO Steve Jobs' proposal that the four major music labels eliminate digital rights management (DRM) Read More

Jobs' Thoughts on Music
Feb 7, 2007 | Apple CEO Steve Jobs shared his "thoughts on music" in this letter posted on Apple's site yesterday, responding to those Read More

YouTube on YouTube
Jan 26, 2007 | YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley is among those attending the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland this week. And, Read More

Patent Reform Tops House Subcommittee Agenda
Jan 25, 2007 | National Journal's Technology Daily (a Tech Policy Summit media sponsor) is running a special series this week that looks at Read More

As China's Net Population Grows, Talk of More Regulation
Jan 24, 2007 | After reports yesterday that China's Internet population had soared to 137 million people in 2006, and could surpass the U.S. Read More

Court Rules on Copyright of Orphan Works
Jan 23, 2007 | According to Reuters, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled yesterday to uphold the copyright law on orphan works. The decision Read More

Sen. Sununu Proposes Broadcast Flag Ban
Jan 11, 2007 | Senator John Sununu (R-NH) announced plans earlier this week to introduce legislation that would limit the role that the Federal Read More

CBS' Love for Technology
Jan 10, 2007 | According to a PC Magazine report, during a keynote yesterday at CES, Les Moonves (CEO of CBS) talked about his Read More

DRM and Interoperability
Jan 8, 2007 | BusinessWeek ran an article Friday on the push - by some - for greater interoperability of digital rights management. The Read More

Sony Licenses Tunes for Podcasts
Jan 2, 2007 | The Wall Street Journal reports that music giant Sony BMG Music Entertainment has broken new ground by agreeing to a Read More

Startup Tries to Help Find Copyright Violators
Dec 21, 2006 | Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal wrote about a Silicon Valley startup called Attributor that is developing a tool Read More

EU to Leave Copyright Levies
Dec 13, 2006 | The Associated Press reports in Yahoo! News that the European Commission has withdrawn plans to eliminate copyright levies that are Read More

Copyright Office Changes DMCA Rules, For Some
Nov 24, 2006 | Starting Monday, certain groups of people will be exempt from provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) for a Read More

Universal Music Sues MySpace
Nov 17, 2006 | Reuters announced that Universal Music Group filed a lawsuit against News Corp.'s MySpace, alleging copyright infringement over use of music Read More

Does Silicon Valley "Get It?"
Nov 17, 2006 | The title of Adam Lashinsky's latest column in FORTUNE magazine is "Wake Up and Smell the Copyright," and he doesn't Read More

Study Examines Online Censorship Around the Globe
Nov 13, 2006 | Wired News has a story today about the work of the OpenNet Initative (ONI), a collaboration between Harvard's Berkman Center Read More

UN Meeting Addresses Net Governance
Nov 1, 2006 | As we mentioned in this post last month, the United Nations' Internet Governance Forum (IGF) is hosting its first international Read More

CEA and Others Launch Digital Freedom Campaign
Oct 26, 2006 | A number of groups have joined together to rally consumers against legislation - such as the audio flag bill - Read More

French Protests Over DRM
Oct 9, 2006 | According to The New York Times (free subscription required), protestors tooks to the streets in Paris to express their opposition Read More

Court Battles Over File-Sharing Continue
Sep 30, 2006 | Two different court cases involving file-sharing companies and the entertainment industry made news this week. In the first one, a Read More

Report Proposes DRM "Metrics"
Sep 11, 2006 | The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) issued a report on digital rights management (DRM) last Thursday called "Evaluating DRM: Read More

RIAA's Copyright 101
Aug 31, 2006 | The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents the interests of the major music labels like Universal and SonyBMG, Read More

China Enforces Tough Online Copyright Rules
Aug 21, 2006 | An AFP article in Yahoo! News reports that China's National Copyright Administration is cracking down on online copyright violations following Read More

Record Labels Sue P2P Company
Aug 8, 2006 | Reuters reports that major record label owners EMI Group, Sony BMG, Universal Music and Warner Music filed a lawsuit last Read More

Will Friendster Enter the Patent Fray?
Aug 1, 2006 | An article in News.com today takes a look at Friendster's recent patent award. On June 27th, over three years after Read More

New Service Allows Legal Download-to-DVD Burning of Films
Jul 20, 2006 | Several major film studios, including Disney, Universal and MGM, are participating in a new download-to-DVD service from CinemaNow that allows Read More

Q & A with Hilary Rosen, post-RIAA
Jul 11, 2006 | In this interview with Hilary Rosen, former CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Wired News asks her Read More

China Steps Up Monitoring of Blogs
Jun 30, 2006 | The Micro Persuasion blog points to a Xinhua news article about efforts by the Chinese government to control the content Read More

RIAA on Grokster, DRM and more
May 25, 2006 | In Declan McCullagh's Q & A with the Recording Industry Association of America's Mitch Bainwol (Chairman) and Cary Sherman (President), Read More

XM Satellite Being Sued by Record Industry
May 17, 2006 | According to an Associated Press article in Yahoo! News, major record labels filed a lawsuit  in New York yesterday against Read More

Stricter Digital Copyright Legislation is in the Works
Apr 24, 2006 | Declan McCullagh at CNET reports on proposed legislation called the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2006 that would expand copyright Read More