Judge in Murdoch Hacker Trial Admonishes CEO - Via Threat Level:
A California judge overseeing the trial against a Rupert Murdoch company for allegedly hacking a competitor and helping pirates steal pay-TV content, admonished the CEO of the Murdoch firm for leaving the court without testifying. As a result of the CEO's action, the judge suggested that if his company loses the trial it could face shareholder lawsuits.
Multichannel News reports that U.S. District Court Judge David Carter made the comments on Friday after temporarily halting the trial in mid-testimony and dismissing the jury. read more... »
NFL Pulls Plug On Big-Screen Church Parties For Super Bowl - Via washingtonpost.com :
The NFL said, however, that the copyright law on its games is long-standing and the language read at the end of each game is well known: "This telecast is copyrighted by the NFL for the private use of our audience. Any other use of this telecast or any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited."
The league bans public exhibitions of its games on TV sets or screens larger than 55 inches because smaller sets limit the audience size. The section of federal copyright law giving the NFL protection over the content of its programming exempts sports bars, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. read more... »
Thou Shalt Not View The Super Bowl on a 56" Screen - Via Slashdot:
theodp writes
"For 200 members of the Immanuel Bible Church and their friends, the annual Super Bowl party is over thanks to the NFL, which explained that airing NFL games at churches on large-screen TV sets violates the NFL copyright. Federal copyright law includes an exemption for sports bars, according to NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, but churches are out of luck. Churchgoers who aren't adverse to a little drinking-and-driving still have the opportunity to see the game together in public on a screen bigger than 55 inches."
(Read Original Article - Via Slashdot.)
Debate on Copy Protection - Via NYT > Technology: This week, Bits will host a debate about copyright issues and technology between Rick Cotton, the general counsel of NBC Universal, and Tim Wu, a professor at Columbia Law School. See the entire debate here.
Monday’s Question
Should creators insist on technology that will restrict the copying and transmission of copyrighted works? Any lock can eventually be picked. Do these restrictions provide speed bumps to help keep honest people honest? Or do they create a permanent war between creators and users that may hurt everyone? read more... »
Why DRM on Video Will Persist: DVD-CCA Targets Kaleidescape (Again): "As we've said many times before, DRM is not about preventing piracy, it's about giving entertainment companies control over disruptive innovation. Here's the latest example: tomorrow DVD-CCA (the entity that controls the CSS encryption standard for DVDs) will be voting on an amendment to the CSS license that is designed to put a disruptive innovator, Kaleidescape, out of business (read Kaleidescape's letter about it here). read more... »
Apple Lays Foundation for DMCA Lawsuits?: "Apple's new product announcements this week may have laid the foundation for the next round of DMCA lawsuits. It sure looks like Apple is using the DMCA to block competition, rather than stop 'piracy.'
First suspect: ringtones on the iPhone. Just before the Apple announcement of its new ringtone offerings (that'll be 99 extra cents, please), Ambrosia had announced iToner, a new piece of software that allows iPhone owners to use any MP3 or AAC file as a ringtone. In other words, no more need to pay Apple for the privilege.
Apple's response? Well, apparently the latest 'upgrade' to Apple's iTunes software (v. 7.4) auto-magically erases any unapproved ringtones that iToner installs. read more... »
Watermarking to replace DRM?:
Watermarking has been in the news twice in the past week. First, Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk revealed that Universal will insert watermarks in the DRM-free files it's distributing through Rhapsody, Amazon.com and other online stores.
Then, Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it's licensing audio watermarking technology developed by its research division to a company called Activated Content. (Microsoft Research used to be devoted entirely to building technology that would later be incorporated into Microsoft products, but a couple of years ago it began to license technology through its IP Ventures program.) read more... »
NBC Universal Fight For Network Filters To Stop Copyright Infringement: "Last month, NBC Universal filed comments in the FCC’s
proceeding on ‘Broadband Industry Practices.’
NBC asked that the FCC require that ISPs institute ‘bandwidth
management tools’, code for network filters, to try to stop the
Internet infringing copyrights. read more... »