Copyrights

Copyright Law Creates Crazy Business Models

Two recent court rulings exemplify the sometimes bizarre outcomes of a legal system that's often a couple of decades behind technology. No matter where you stand on copyright issues, you can't deny that the law as it stands is dysfunctional when it comes to dealing with the fact that owning a "copy" ... More >>

It Ain't Easy Being Google

As the dominant search engine, Google inevitably finds itself in the position of deciding for the world which information is important and which information is less so. Just as inevitably, this leads to controversy, and tough choices being forced on the Internet's dominant search engine. The latest ... More >>

Local Author Accuses Sony of Stealing His Book to Make Movie

It appears that Sony has gotten so comfortable making movies from stories derived from comic books that it now has allegedly moved onto bigger things: Adapting novels. And while Sony had the rights to put Spider-Man on the big screen, the media company had no right ripping off this Berkeley man's no ... More >>

Bear Seduction and the Copyright Conundrum

This will probably stand as the best story of the week: Ars Technica reports that Matthew Inman, creator of the web comic "The Oatmeal" has raised $100,000 from his fans to counter a lawyer's demand that he fork over $20,000 to a fifth-rate Website that Inman had complained was stealing his work. N ... More >>

Megaupload Users Demand Data Recovery

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a local organization protecting civil liberties in the digital world, will ask a federal judge to allow lawful Megaupload users to have their files back. A hearing is scheduled for Friday at the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Virginia where EFF staff attorney ... More >>

Copyright Owners Continue to Tilt at Windmills

​Given the intensity of the debates over digital piracy, you'd almost think that if one side or the other were to "win," the question would be decided: If critics of copyright holders were victorious, piracy would run rampant and the media industry would be brought to its knees; if the copyright o ... More >>

Porn Company Hunts for Illegal Downloaders of 'My Little Panties #2'

​As the tech and media industries slug it out over laws governing copyrighted material online, one original content producer has won a small victory in its effort to staunch intellectual-property theft. The California-based porn-video producer Digital Sin [NSFW] has won the right to obtain persona ... More >>

Hacker Group Anonymous Takes Up Arms in SOPA Battle

​The "hacktivist" network known as Anonymous has stepped into the fray in the battle among legacy media companies, Internet firms, and politicians over the federal Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).The controversial proposed legislation would make it more difficult for websites to display pirated cont ... More >>

Digital Statesman

Media Companies Outspend Tech Giants in Fight Over SOPA

Can content pirates be stopped?​The tech industry has been paying quite a bit of attention to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill wending its way through the U.S. Congress that would allow media companies to pursue legal remedies against online search engines and social networks that link to ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

The Stop Online Piracy Act: The Owner of San Francisco's Burning House Records Explains His Support

​You've probably heard some rumblings about the Stop Online Piracy Act recently. And in all likelihood -- especially if you watch major news channels like CNN -- it's probably all sounded pretty bad and pretty scary. Casey Shafer owns and runs Burning House Records -- an independent, San Francisco ... More >>

Google, Facebook, Others Fight Legislation to Stop Online Content Piracy

​A veritable who's who of major tech firms in San Francisco and the Silicon Valley are fighting federal legislation aimed at putting a stop to theft of original content online.The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would allow content creators to seek court orders barring internet service providers, se ... More >>

Copyright Fight the Subject of Juvenile Flamewars

​To the uninitiated, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce might sound like a larger version of local chambers of commerce: something like the Elks or the Rotary Club, where dull businesspeople get together for dull meetings to eat rubber chicken and to "network." But the U.S. Chamber is the largest lobb ... More >>

Woman Says 'Hipstamatic' iPhone Photo App Violates Copyright Law

A Hipstamatic photo​A photographer is suing Apple in federal court in Texas, alleging that the iPhone's popular Hipstamatic app violates copyright law by republishing her photos and those of others without permission.In a complaint filed against the Bay Area-based company, plaintiff Shanti Deva Ko ... More >>

Restaurateurs Beware: Michael Jackson Could Cost You $40,000

Claim: Limewire's Shutdown Reduced Music Piracy by 7 Percent

​The nationally-recognized market research nerds NPD Group just released their latest poll, which suggests the shutdown of the file-sharing application Limewire this past October reduced peer-to-peer-based music piracy in the U.S. by a significant 7 percent. Wait, that many of you were still ... More >>

We Weren't Really Expecting Any Fresh Thinking About 'Online Piracy' From Obama, Were We?

"This is a fundamental issue of America's economic competitiveness," Locke said of online piracy on Monday.​Commerce secretary Gary Locke issued a harsh condemnation of so-called music piracy in a speech in Nashville Monday. We'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that Locke seemed to r ... More >>

Apple Triumphs in Key Copyright Ruling in San Francisco Lawsuit

Robert Pedraza                      By C. Stiles ​In our cover story last week, Worms in the Apple, writer Tim Elfrink detailed the saga of the Rudy and Robert Pedraza, a couple of rogu ... More >>

Paley's Palace

Is Emily the Strange a Copycat?

By Lauren Smiley What if Emily the Strange -- the sullen girl-power icon from Berkeley-based company Comic Debris who claims her own clothing line, comic book series, and soon, a motion picture -- isn't all that odd at all? Accusations are flying around the blogosphere that Emily, whose emo pre-tee ... More >>

Matador Records Skips Important Credit on Cat Power's Jukebox

Some Rights Reserved! Creative Commons Turns Five

Ticketmaster Chases Roboscalpers to SF

Net Radio Royalty EXTRA -- UPDATES: David Byrne, Cover feature

Unfair Use

To what insane lengths will Sony go in its fight against piracy?

Art Bandits

What's stealing and what's not, in "Pirated: A Post Asian Perspective"

Letters to the Editor

Week of November 5, 2003

Sounds of Silence

ASCAP's legal threats kill a thriving local music scene

Raw Sue-age

Let us not squander the gift of mass lawsuits against average Joes: Fuck the RIAA!

Paying through the nose -- and the ears

Noncommercial radio versus the capitalist urge

Digital Wage

What a difference a year makes, to the country, and to the New Economy

Who Owns Your Clone?

A San Francisco firm thinks it's time people started copyrighting their DNA

Custody Battle

Marvel Comics isn't going to give up Captain America without a fight

Babes in Toyland

Two hackers piss off Mattel and spawn an Internet legal imbroglio

Silicon Valley Shakedown

A con man feeds on fear and paranoia in the software business

Thievery Corporation

The sample-minded artists of Detritus.net celebrate the fine art of cultural reappropriation

Rhapsody in Green

At the end of the Gershwin centennial, his trust benefits from new copyright laws. But are they protecting artists or merely bank statements?

Scarf Dance

Gary Bukovnik says his flowers are sprouting on Gucci neckwear, but that's not where they belong

Mix Masters

Inside the underground DJ mix-tape phenomenon