In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Fashion Designers Realizing New Fashion Copyright Would Cause Serious
Harm to Business.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, June 8, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090608/0152355163.shtml

"For many, many years, we've pointed out how the fashion industry is an
example of a highly creative industry that has thrived without the use
of copyright. The industry itself is massively successful, incredibly
innovative, and involves plenty of competition. This should be seen as a
good thing."
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Bad Science's Ben Goldacre Rips Apart Bogus Study on File Sharing.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, June 8, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090608/0133295162.shtml

"Over the years, we've found that every single industry "figure" or
"study" on the harm done by unauthorized file sharing wasn't supported
by anything factual once you started to dig into the details. So, when
we saw yet another report claiming huge "costs" associated with file
sharing in the UK we dismissed it pretty quickly noting it made many of
the same mistakes as previous studies had. Apparently, it's even worse
than that. Ben Goldacre, known for his excellent Bad Science blog has
now taken the time to pick through the details of that awfully bad UK
report, and found it laughable."
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Swedish Pirate Party Wins Two One Seat in EU Parliament.
By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, June 8, 2009.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090607/1510285160.shtml

"In yet another sign that the entertainment industry's "winning" verdict
in the trial of The Pirate Bay was anything but a victory, the surge in
voters signed up to be a part of Sweden's Pirate Party was enough to
elect two one representative of the party to the European Parliament,
with 7.4% 7.1% of the vote (Updated as later results became public)."
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French Court Savages "Three-Strikes Law," Tosses it out.
By Nate Anderson, Ars Techinca, June 10, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/lyev9m

"France's groundbreaking "three strikes" law that would disconnect
repeat Internet file-swappers has been overturned by the country's
Constitutional Council."Innocent until proven guilty" still means
something in France."
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Lawyers Plan Class-Action to Reclaim "$100M+" RIAA "Stole."
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, June 10, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/n2vzny

"Lawyers in this year's two highest-profile file-sharing cases have
joined forces, and they plan to file a class-action lawsuit against the
recording industry later this summer to claw back the '$100+ million'
that the RIAA 'stole.'"
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Stern Letters from ISPs Not Enough to Stop P2P Use After All.
By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, June 10, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/mcd5xe

"A new UK survey finds that only one-third of P2P file-sharers would
change their behavior after receiving a warning letter alone. If ISP
disconnection remains on the table, that number jumps to 80 percent."
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Film, TV Music Composers Urge Copyright Law Change.
By Sue Zeidler, Reuters, June 10, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE5596VW20090610

"Nathan Barr has scored horror films like "Hostel" and the HBO vampire
series "True Blood," but what really keeps the composer up at night is
fear he will not get paid for music distributed online."
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French Council Defangs Plan to Crack Down on Internet Piracy.
By Eric Pfanner, The New York Times, June 10, 2009.
http://tinyurl.com/lvlwoh

"The highest constitutional body in France on Wednesday defanged the
government's plan to cut off the Internet connections of digital
pirates, saying the authorities had no right to do so without obtaining
court approval."
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U.S. Asking About Book Deal, Google Says.
By Diane Bartz, Reuters, June 10, 2009.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE55879V20090610

"Google Inc has received formal notice from the U.S. Justice Department
that antitrust investigators are looking into its settlement with
publishers that would help make millions of books available online."
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 Jammie Thomas Suffers Pretrial Setback in Copyright Case.
By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, June 11, 2009.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10262894-93.html?tag=mncol

"A federal judge dealt a serious blow to Jammie Thomas' defense on
Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis will allow evidence
gathered by MediaSentry, a security firm that once investigated illegal
file sharing on behalf of the music industry, to be heard by a jury in
Thomas' retrial, scheduled for Monday."
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Amy Mata
Graduate Assistant
Center for Intellectual Property
University of Maryland University College

amata@xxxxxxxx
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