January 27th 2009
It seems that Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson has really put a bee in the RIAA’s bonnet. As part of the Sony BMG vs. Tenenbaum case, Nesson filed a motion to compel a deposition of Matthew Oppenheim, a legal heavy-hitter for the RIAA. As a result, the RIAA countered with the threat of certain sanctions under […]
January 23rd 2009
Some months back, the Monster Cable company (not to be confused with Monster.com) filed a suit against Monster Mini Golf of Rhode Island. It seems that Monster Cable (not to be confused with Monster Energy Drinks) felt that the public would become catastrophically confused between “stereo cables” and a “chain of glow-in-the-dark wicked-cool mini-golf courses […]
January 22nd 2009
Avatars may not be taxed directly yet, but their creators may soon be. China and Australia are already experimenting with taxation of sales in virtual worlds. Now, in the US, the IRS’s “taxpayer advocate” has encouraged the service to consider taxation in virtual worlds. The Washington Post suggests the IRS could improve voluntary tax compliance […]
January 20th 2009
It seems that only natural disasters happen suddenly. Man-made ones begin small. The EU is adopting policies that secretly allow the police to hack into personal computers anywhere, at any time, for any reason – all without any judicial oversight, which would be the start of a man-made disaster. According to the TimesOnline: The hacking […]
January 17th 2009
Web Videos of Oakland Shooting Fuel Protests “The devices people carry in their pockets give them the ability to turn what would normally be a case played out in the courtroom into one in which anyone with an Internet connection can serve as virtual judge and jury.” This both shows how online movements start, and […]
January 15th 2009
Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children’s Research Institute and Dr. Megan Moreno of the University of Wisconsin analyzed MySpace profiles of 18-year-olds. Better than half contained information about high-risk behaviors: 41 per cent mentioned substance abuse, 24 per cent sexual behavior and 14 per cent violence. Sex, drugs and violence on the minds of teens? […]
January 13th 2009
Tim Stanley, Carl Malamud, and the the team at Altlaw.org are tenacious, creative and on a mission. Individually, each is finding creative ways to make America’s vast quantity of legal documents available over the Internet at no charge to the public. Together, they are opening up America’s legal system to the public through the Internet. […]
January 12th 2009
Some time back, Usefularts reported on the failure of the RIAA’s “Making Available” Argument – which stated that simply having files that could be downloaded is the same as if they had been, ignoring any concept of intent. Well, the other shoe has fallen. The RIAA has filed for a voluntary dismissal for the first […]
January 7th 2009
The Consumer Law & Policy Blog describes a case of arguably false advertising, in which a “face lift” firm paid for keywords relevant to people complaining about their trademarked service, but connected them to a site singing its praises. Their apparent intent was to draw those seeking information for detractors to a forum which only […]
January 6th 2009
The RIAA has dumped one of its main enforcement units (and I mean “enforcement” as in “Frank Nitty“) by firing MediaSentry. MediaSentry was used by the RIAA to supposedly gather information on suspected illegal file sharers and report the data back to the RIAA. But the tactics used by MediaSentry have caused outrage from various […]
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