An article from CNET today reports that an online retailer who is dedicated to selling out of date sewing patterns has been taken off of the net by his Hosting Provider (Digital River) due to complaints by pattern manufacturers Simplicity and McCall Patterns. Their claim is that he didn't buy …

A provocative article in Wired goes just a little bit too far in claiming that Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a "crime against humanity", but argues reasonably that the perfect enforcement brought by the proposals and technologies being pushed by the content owners would materially change the way people work …

A dubious article from Reuters and carried on ZDNET claims that P2P services consume "up to 60 percent of data traffic zipping around their networks is in the form of large music, movies and software files." I'm not sure that I agree, and I'm certainly not sure that it is …

An article from CNET describes a couple of new protocols for fast file sharing, including BitTorrent. At the very end of the article is a comment from the MPAA in which they describe the technologies as "a continuing threat". I don't understand what is next for them. Perhaps they would …

A victorious article on the EFF website announces that Colorado's Governor Owens has vetoed a state-level super-DMCA bill passed by the legislature. For those unfamiliar, the EFF has an extensive resource page on super- DMCA bills, but they are basically the RIAA and MPAA looking to extend the DMCA further …

It's official. A press release on the Roxio site indicates that they have purchased PressPlay from Sony and Universal Music for a $12.5 million in cash and 3.9 in stock. In addition, the company plans to pour at least $20 million into the venture just to get it …

Security Focus reports that an effort led by the ACM is attempting to get a security research exemption enacted for the DMCA. The idea is simple, since the "black hats" are going to violate the law anyway, the "white hats" should have a chance to legally locate, solve, and publicize …

The judge in San Francisco who is mulling over the 321 Studios case against the movie industry over their DVD copying software appeared to be trying to see both sides of the argument today. On some issues, such as whether the software is in violation of the DMCA, she seemed …

SCO claims that SuSE isn't immune from prosecution on copyright violations. SuSE claims their existing license agreements with SCO make them immune. However, SCO has yet to make any moves against the German manufacturer of Linux variants. An article from CNET provides some further detail and quotes from both sides …

Fizzer, a mass mailing virus that allows control of the recipient's computer over IRC has annoyed IRC operators to the extent that they are creating a more-or-less permanent standby communication mechanism for fighting future threats. The use of IRC by the software has drown some IRC channels and servers in …

If this isn't a public warning that handing police and judicial powers to corporations is a really bad idea (see the DMCA, which grants subpoena powers to companies without a judicial hearing), I don't know what is. According to a story on CNET, the RIAA now says it "mistakenly" sent …

The RIAA apologized to the Penn State department of astronomy and astrophysics after falsely accusing them of having illegal content on their FTP server. The original letter (according to this article on CNET) was received last Thursday and demanded that the institution take remove the site and delete the offending …

An article on SecurityFocus heralds the coming of the book Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering. What makes the self-publication of this book by hacker/author Andrew Shane Huang of interest to an audience broader than the hacker community is the fuss over whether Microsoft will attempt to …

A study published by research firm Jupiter Research is showing that adding copy protection to a CD cuts its sales by nearly 76%.

An insightful article from FindLaw about the recent court decisions on P2P file sharing and Apple's entry into the music market.

Another example of the DMCA hard at work can be seen today at MacOS X Hints. The author has wisely chosen not to take on the RIAA or Apple, by flouting the DMCA and publishing information on how to circumvent the copy protection scheme used on the tunes downloaded from …

Just in time to save the consumer from the changed ways of the RIAA, Methlab Productions has released their PeerGuardian software that blocks transmissions from IP addresses known to be haunted by the music industry. An article from Wired details the next salvo in the fight between the RIAA and …

The RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) is on the warpath and they are now preparing all sorts of "special ops" to attack their enemies (the consumer). An article on the New York Times site describes a set of technologies and techniques (many of them believed to be illegal under …

An article on The San Francisco Chronicle shows that the Motion Picture Association of America (industry organization) is outrunning the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a digital privacy and rights advocacy organization). This should be of concern to everyone.

The four students that were sued for hundreds of millions by the RIAA, have settled with the industry group for sums between $12,000 and $16,000 each, to be paid in installments over the next 4 years. For many of us who make electronic works (be it music, software …