Tag: Copyright
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Computer Science Professors' Brief in Grokster
Today, seventeen computer science professors (including me) are filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court in the Grokster case. Here is the summary of our argument, quoted from the brief: Amici write to call to the Court’s attention several computer science issues raised by Petitioners [i.e., the movie and music companies] and amici who…
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More on Ad-Blocking
I’m on the road today, so I don’t have a long post for you. (Good news: I’m in Rome. Bad news: It’s Rome, New York.) Instead, let me point you to an interesting exchange about copyright and ad-blocking software on my course blog, in which “Archer” opens with a discussion of copyright and advertising revenue,…
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Can P2P Nets Be Poisoned?
Christin, Weigend, and Chuang have an interesting new paper on corruption of files in P2P networks. Some files are corrupted accidentally (they call this “pollution”), and some might be corrupted deliberately (“poisoning”) by copyright owners or their agents. The paper measures the availability of popular, infringing files on the eDonkey, Overnet, Gnutella, and FastTrack networks,…
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Copyright Education: Harder Than It Looks
This afternoon I’m going to lead a discussion among twenty-five bright Princeton students, about the basics of copyright. Why do we have copyright? Why does it cover expression and not ideas? Why fair use? The answers are subtle, but I hope to guide the discussion toward finding them. I can say for sure that a…
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Splitting the Grokster Baby
David Post at the Volokh Conspiracy predicts, astutely, the outcome of the Grokster case. He predicts that the Supreme Court will try to split the baby by overturning the lower court decision (which Hollywood is asking for) while upholding the Sony Betamax doctrine immunizing designers of dual-use technologies from secondary liability (which technologists are asking…
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Show Us the Numbers
Today brings yet another story about how Hollywood’s finances are better than ever. Ross Johnson’s story (“Video Sales Abroad Are Good News in Hollywood. Shhh.”) in today’s New York Times tells us that the studios are keeping their overseas DVD sales secret, so as not to interfere with the industry’s tradition of lowballing its revenue.…
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Review of MPAA's "Parent File Scan" Software
Yesterday the MPAA announced the availability of a new software tool called Parent File Scan. I decided to download it and try it out. Here’s my review. According to an MPAA site, Parent File Scan software helps consumers check whether their computers have peer-to-peer software and potentially infringing copies of motion pictures and other copyrighted…
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The "Pirate Pyramid"
This month’s Wired runs a high-decibel piece by Jeff Howe, on topsites and their denizens: When Frank … posted the Half-Life 2 code to Anathema, he tapped an international network of people dedicated to propagating stolen files as widely and quickly as possible. It’s all a big game and, to hear Frank and others talk…
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BSA To Ask For Expansion of ISP Liability
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a software industry group, will ask Congress to expand the liability of ISPs for infringing traffic that goes across their networks, according to a Washington Post story by Jonathan Krim. The campaign to modify the law is part of a broader effort by the BSA to address a variety of…
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MPAA Sues BitTorrent Trackers
The MPAA has announced lawsuits against the operators of P2P index servers, such as BitTorrent trackers, according to a Wired News story by Xeni Jardin. A BitTorrent tracker keeps track of who is downloading and/or uploading a particular file, and makes this information available to others who want to find the file. The suits will…