Copyrights

Could Independent Music Giant Amoeba Be Facing a Copyright Lawsuit Nightmare?

While the corpses of corporate music retail chains litter strip malls where outlets like Tower Records and Blockbuster Music once stood, Amoeba Music is an independent juggernaut with three California-based stores the size of supermarkets. They've been a celebrated shopping destination for music afi ... More >>

Hold That Pose: Federal Judge Rules That Bikram Yoga Cannot Be Copyrighted

Quietly, after more than ten years of contentious lawsuits, Bikram Choudhury's copyright on the specific sequence of Bikram yoga has been overruled by the federal court. For the past year Bikram and his lawyers, the media, and the yoga community, have been focused on the legal warfare involving Greg ... More >>

Tonight David Byrne and Author Chris Ruen Explain Exactly, Specifically, and Definitively Why Illegally Downloading Music Makes You A Huge Asshole

Tonight, in the main branch of the New York Public Library, the long-running conversation about artist copyright, piracy in the digital age, changing (and disappearing) artist revenue streams, and illegal downloading continues with two people who've added much to that discourse of late: Talking Head ... More >>

All Of The Arguments About Digital Music, Summarized

Piracy is theft. Piracy isn't theft because nothing physical is being stolen. You are taking money out of the hands of artists. Artists were already being ripped off by labels. Artists can make the money back by touring. Kickstarter.

Are Subtitles Illegal?

Here's an odd item from the file-sharing legal front: The guy who ran a subtitle-file sharing website has gotten in trouble with the law -- he's had to shut down Norsub.com and pay a Norwegian court 2,500 bucks for copyright infringement, according to TorrentFreak. This specific case provides some ... More >>

All Along The File-Sharing Front: Will New York Affect The Rest of America?

Good news, New York file sharers! Verizon has apparently decided to protect your privacy, despite demands that the internet service provider ID subscribers suspected of copyright infringement. And the company's decision -- as well as other recent developments intellectual property realm -- might ... More >>

Kim Dotcom: Has The US Already Lost The Case Against the Megaupload Founder?

Earlier today, news broke that Kim Dotcom, the larger-than-life Megaupload founder known for his love of sportscars and supermodels, won a key victory in the case against him. A judge just ruled that prosecutors had to turn over docs with evidence against him so he could defend himself against ext ... More >>

Is Google Censoring Links?

Not too long ago, there was talk that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry and the Recording Industry Association of America might sue Google, claiming that the web behemoth has used its search engine service to shape the online music market in a way trade groups do not like. T ... More >>

IP Address Does Not Even ID a State, Judge Decides in Landmark BitTorrent Lawsuit

Just a few weeks after a New York judge decided that an internet protocol address is not enough evidence for lawsuits against accused illegal file-sharers, a California judge has ruled that an IP address can't even pinpoint one's state. As detailed by CNET, the judge tossed out lawsuits against 15 ... More >>

Can You Get Sued for File Sharing on Your WiFi Network?

If you own an open WiFi connection, you might have worried whether you're liable for any copyright infringement taking place on that network -- even if you didn't do it. In a ruling that has caught the attention of lawmakers and attorneys worldwide, a Finnish court just ruled that owners of open Wi ... More >>

The Pirate Bay: Soon To Be Banned?

The Pirate Bay has taken some hard hits in the past few months. Though the file-sharing site announced in February that it would delate torrents and move entirely to magnet links, law enforcement has continued to mobilize against the operation. In March, for instance, a leaked doc suggested Swed ... More >>

Hunter Moore Makes a Living Screwing You

The hated revenge-porn profiteer says he wants to teach a lesson with his web site. How long before the 26-year-old learns one himself?

SOPA: Has It Returned?

In what's being called a "SOPA-style blackout," an Indian court has demanded that the subcontinent's internet service providers ban 104 websites said to feature "unauthorized" media -- bolstering similar efforts in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Chris Dodd, chair and CEO of the Motion Pictur ... More >>

Megaupload Co-Founder Mathias Ortmann Out on Bail; Kim Dotcom Still Jailed

Mathias Ortmann, who was arrested during the January bust of Megaupload, has been released on bail in New Zealand. Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to bring him to the States to stand trial for internet piracy charges, TorrentFreak reports. Ortmann was supposed to get out earlier -- he was actually e ... More >>

Feds Seize 16 More Domains as Part of "Operation Fake Sweep"

​A 28-year-old Michigan man named Yonjo Quiroa has been arrested and charged with criminal copyright infringement for running nine websites that streamed, among other things, licensed content from the NFL. Quiroa is the lastest in a string of highly public copyright-related arrests, following ... More >>

Breaking: PIPA Senate Vote Postponed

PIPA might soon perish. The Senate planned to vote on highly polemic PIPA on Tuesday, but Majority Leader Harry Reid just announced that he would postpone action on the anti-piracy bill, according to the Wall Street Journal. And if the downward spiral recent trajectory of the bill is any indicati ... More >>

Breaking: SOPA, PIPA Lose Co-Sponsors, Might Be Stopped in Congress

After thousands of popular websites went offline today and many more individuals took to the Twitterverse to protest SOPA and PIPA, several co-sponsors of the anti-piracy bills have just withdrawn their support, telling reporters that they were worried about the legislations' impact on free speech, ... More >>

Lamar Smith: SOPA Author, Copyright Violator

​Have you heard of SOPA? Of course you have. Have you heard of Lamar Smith, the Texas Republican who in October filed SOPA -- which promotes harsher penalties and even jail time for people caught violating copyright laws, and is basically the reason that today you can't access Wikipedia and Re ... More >>

Should You Be Able to Trash-Talk Your Dentist on Yelp?

There's an interesting case in the news today involving New York dentist Stacy Makhnevich, who is facing a class-action lawsuit from Robert Lee, a former patient. Makhnevich, who calls herself "the Classical Singer Dentist of New York," treated Lee for a toothache, but not before he signed a contrac ... More >>

TRUE ORIGINAL

Sherrie Levine gets a major retrospective

Sports Fans Shut Out: Channelsurfing.net Owner Brian McCarthy Busted for Alleged Video Piracy

​To the dismay of sports fans, when they now click on channelsurfing.net for free, pirated NBA games and pay-per-view events, they'll find a long announcement that starts: "This domain name has been seized by ICE - Homeland Security Investigations . . ." The owner of channelsurfing, Brian McCarth ... More >>

Jeff Koons Sues for Balloon Dog Dominance

Metropolitan Museum of Art​Jeff Koons, the artist you may know for his reproductions of "banal objects" (like balloon animals), is now suing two companies who have allegedly reproduced his reproductions of said everyday objects. Which brings up a somewhat existential question: If you reproduce ... More >>

Catfish, the Other Facebook Film, Facing Lawsuit Which Could Reveal Hoax

​This year's movie about Facebook that has nothing to do with Harvard or a billion dollars is called Catfish, and follows a young New Yorker to Michigan to meet a family he's communicated with online. What follows in the documentary is a parable about the risks of connections made virtually, a ... More >>

Blogger Wars Heat Up: Google Explains Its Sudden Move Against MP3 Blogs

​"I get DMCA takedown notes almost every other week," Pop Tarts Suck Toasted proprietor Patrick Duffy told us on Tuesday, after Google's Blogger service, which hosted PTST, had summarily deleted the blog. "It's ridiculous, but I always remove the offending mp3's ... it seems that I hit the max ... More >>

Tech Dreck: iPhone Does Homework, AT&T Plays Big Brother, Twitter Celebs Fake It

"Parents have lost the war over buying cellphones for their children," says Saul Hansell in the Times. He must be talking about those parents, overrepresented in the Times' demographic, whose children can battle for the right to own expensive electronic geegaws without getting smacked. Hansell says ... More >>

Roosevelt Island Getting Crowded, Hard to Leave

Artist, Fan Clash Over What Constitutes Online Piracy

A sticky web of sale, resale, and photos of a Park Slope painter's work

Brooklyn Zipper Innovator Sues the Gap

Code Warriors

Free culture takes flight at NYU

Mondo Kim's Busted for Bootlegs

Meet John Doe

The RIAA runs its lawsuits as a volume business, and sometimes downloaders just gotta settle

A Touch of Grey

Unlimited supply, EMI, there is no reason why, if the label sues there's sure to be a fight

No Trust

Congress and movie star dance the anti-download bolero

Five to Three

Merger mania picks back up; a smaller Warner gives up

Wired to Wired

Dean Finds That Courting Blogocrats Means Answering Tough Questions

Music

Darknet Blues

The Music Industry Makes Peace With Big Software—at Dial-Up Speed

Dow v. Thing

A Free-Speech Infringement That's Worse Than Censorship

Workin' It

License to Ill

Other People's Property

Academics Square Off Against Hollywood on Internet Content

He Who Waits

Fate of Hackers’ Hero Now in Judge’s Hands

The Quiet Man

Hollywood Fights to Seal Jack Valenti’s Testimony

Letters

Down By Law

When Movie Moguls Wage War to Protect Copyright, the First Amendment Ends Up on the Cutting Room Floor

DVD Desperadoes

Are the Hackers Unfairly Prosecuted?

Fade to Black

The Motion Picture Association Shuts Down Crypto Research

The Digital Rights Dilemma

National Writers Union Wins Landmark Decision for Freelancers. Maybe.

Make the Music