Category: Uncategorized
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RIAA Saber-Rattling against Antispoofing Technologies?
The RIAA has fired a shot across the bow of P2P companies whose products incorporate anti-spoofing technologies, according to a story (subscribers only) in Friday’s National Journal Tech Daily, by Sarah Lai Stirland. The statement came at a Washington panel on the implications of the Grokster decision. “There’s definitely a lot of spoofing going on…
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Michigan Debuts Counterproductive Do-Not-Spam List for Kids
The state of Michigan has a new registry of kids’ email addresses in the state. Parents can put their kids’ addresses on the list. It’s illegal to send to addresses on the list any email solicitations for products that kids aren’t allowed to buy (alcohol, guns, gambling, vehicles, etc.). The site has been accepting registrations…
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Chess Computer Crushes Elite Human Player
Last week Hydra, a chess-playing computer, completed its rout of Michael Adams, the seventh-ranked human player in the world. Hydra won five of six games, and Adams barely escaped with a draw in the other game. ChessBase has the details, including a page where you can play through the six games. It’s time to admit…
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Posner and Becker, Law and Economics
Richard Posner and Gary Becker turn their bloggic attention to the Grokster decision this week. Posner returns to the argument of his Aimster opinion. Becker is more cautious. After reiterating the economic arguments for and against indirect liability, Posner concludes: There is a possible middle way that should be considered, and that is to provide…
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Book Club Discussion: Code, Chapter 5
This week in Book Club we read Chapter 5 of Lawrence Lessig’s Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Let’s discuss the chapter in the comments area below. For next week, we’ll read Chapter 6.
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GAO Data: Porn Rare on P2P; Filters Ineffective
P2P nets have fewer pornographic images than the Web, and P2P porn filters are ineffective, according to data in a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Mind you, the report’s summary text says pretty much the opposite, but where I come from, data gets more credibility than spin. The data can be…
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BitTorrent: The Next Main Event
Few tears will be shed if Grokster and StreamCast are driven out of business as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision. The companies are far from lovable, and their technology is yesterday’s news anyway. A much more important issue is what the rules will be for the next generation of technologies. Here the Court…
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Patry: The Court Punts
William Patry (a distinguished copyright lawyer) offers an interesting take on Grokster. He says that the court was unable to come to agreement on how to apply the Sony Betamax precedent to Grokster, and so punted the issue.
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Legality of Design Decisions, and Footnote 12 in Grokster
As a technologist I find the most interesting, and scariest, part of the Grokster opinion to be the discussion of product design decisions. The Court seems to say that Sony bars liability based solely on product design (p. 16): Sony barred secondary liability based on presuming or imputing intent to cause infringement solely from the…
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Business Model as Evidence of Intent
One interesting aspect of Justice Souter’s majority opinion in Grokster is the criticism of the business models of StreamCast and Grokster (pp. 22-23): Third, there is a further complement to the direct evidence of unlawful objective. It is useful to recall that StreamCast and Grokster make money by selling advertising space, by directing ads to…