In the News

["Amy Mata" <AMata@xxxxxxxx>]

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Pirate Bay Retrial Denied; Judge Declared "Unbiased."

By Nate Anderson, Ars Technica, June 25, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/mvbkzw <http://tinyurl.com/mvbkzw>

"After The Pirate Bay defendants lost a high-profile copyright
infringement trial in Sweden, they charged that the judge belonged to
pro-copyright groups and was therefore biased against them. A Court of
Appeals ruling today disagrees; there will be no retrial."

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Pirate Party Finds France Fertile Territory.

By Peter Sayer, PC World, June 25, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/qdh4su <http://tinyurl.com/qdh4su>

"Sweden's Pirate Party won 7.13 percent of the vote in elections earlier
this month. Its campaign for the respect of privacy, the reform of
copyright law and the abolition of the patent system earned it a seat in
the European Parliament, and it may yet gain another seat there, if
planned changes to the number of seats attributed to each country win
approval."

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RapidShare Fined $33 million for Violating German Copyright Laws.

Posted on Zeropaid.com, June 25, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/kj3hbw <http://tinyurl.com/kj3hbw>

"Court rules site, and others like it, are responsible for ensuring
copyrighted material isn't illegally hosted on their servers."

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Sirius XM Must Raise Prices to Pay Music Royalties.

By Greg Sandoval, CNET News, June 25, 2009.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10273078-93.html
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10273078-93.html>

"Satellite radio provider Sirius XM is preparing to raise prices. The
Copyright Royalty Board has raised music royalty fees and Sirius will
pass those costs on to customers starting next month."

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iPhone Jailbreak Out Amid Apple-EFF Tussle.

By Michelle Megna, internetnews.com, June 26, 2009.

http://www.internetnews.com/mobility/article.php/3827341
<http://www.internetnews.com/mobility/article.php/3827341>

"As yet more unsanctioned apps emerge to unlock and jailbreak iPhones,
Apple and a digital rights group fight ongoing battle over the issue."

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BPI Exec - Industry Shouldn't Have Fought Napster.

Posted on Zeropaid.com, June 27, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/noltmv <http://tinyurl.com/noltmv>

"It may have taken 10 years for one executive to come up with this
revelation, but the head of the British Phonographic Industry, or BPI,
has recently admitted that the industry shouldn't have fought Napster,
but rather, engaged it. Who knows? At this rate, maybe another executive
will think that the industry should consider a truce between it and
file-sharers by the year 2019."

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Brazilian President Shows Warmth to Pirate Bay Spokesman.

Posted by enigmax, Torrentfreak, June 27, 2009.

http://tinyurl.com/msjko5 <http://tinyurl.com/msjko5>

"Since 2005, a Brazilian senator has been championing new cybercrime
legislation which would include tough measures against file-sharing.
Yesterday, at the International Free Software Forum, the Brazilian
President openly criticized the bill, and then posed for pictures with
The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde."

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Pirate Bay Starts Video Streaming.

BBC, June 29, 2009.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8123989.stm
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8123989.stm>

"The world's most high-profile file-sharing website, The Pirate Bay
(TPB), has lifted the lid on its new video sharing website, The Video
Bay. Billed as a rival to YouTube, the service will offer unrestricted
video content, in violation of copyright law.

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Yet Another Plan to Change Copyright Law to Protect Newspapers.

By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, June 29, 2009.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090629/0302005398.shtml
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090629/0302005398.shtml>

"Last week, we wrote about Judge Posner's troubling idea that copyright
law should be changed to protect newspapers, and this week, a columnist
for the Cleveland Plain Dealer is backing the same basic idea as
proposed by two brothers, David and Daniel Marburger. One is a First
Amendment lawyer and the other an economist -- and I'm stunned that both
would get things so backwards."

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Automated Copyright Settlement Letters Apparently a Lucrative Business.

By Mike Masnick, Techdirt, June 29, 2009.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090629/1220345406.shtml
<http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090629/1220345406.shtml>

"We've covered a few different stories of companies that have been
involved in what certainly has a lot of similarities to extortion:
sending automated letters insisting that you're violating the law, and
demanding payment to prevent a lawsuit. DirecTV was one of the first
companies to put a big push behind such a revenue stream, but it was
eventually shot down by the courts. The RIAA, of course, has used such a
program for a while."

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Amy Mata

Graduate Assistant

Center for Intellectual Property

University of Maryland University College

amata@xxxxxxxx

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