Rather than try to outwrite the law professors and pundits, I chose not to blog about the Supreme Court’s decision in Grokster right away. I agree that the Court has punted the hard decision of deciding how to apply Sony – the majority opinion avoids the issue, and the two concurring opinions take different stances….
The Legality of Fan Fiction on the Net
Fan fiction is prevalent on the Internet, but is it legal? It turns out that’s a really interesting question. For the great majority of what is available, the answer is no. ISP’s that distribute these files and the authors of unauthorized works can both be liable for copyright infringement. What is fan fiction? Well, fan…
Musings on DMCA Takedown Provisions
Ernie the Attorney started the recent brouhaha over the notice and takedown provisions in the DMCA. You can read Ernie’s take here, with Denise Howell’s original take here. There are some really interesting comments in the discussion to Ernie’s post. So what do these provisions do? If you know that someone is using your copyrighted…
Musings on backwards compatability for Windows
An interesting conversation with Joel Spolsky has been featured this week at IT Conversations. It’s from September 2004, but still relevant. The idea that remained with me is the fact that in order for Microsoft to have backwards compatability for users whenever it came out with a new version of Windows, Microsoft had to include…
I’m back!
I’ve been offline lately, with lots of work and home activities intruding into my blogging time. Well, I’ve come back! In the interim, I’ve had some good ideas for posts that I hope to get up in the next few days.
Apple’s secret is out: Apple switches to Intel chips
I’ve been a Mac user since college, but I’ve been an Apple user since 4th grade when I got my first Apple, an Apple II+. I now have both a Mac Powerbook and an Intel-based machine running Windows XP. Okay, enough about my credentials to be able to talk about this news. Today’s news out…
FBI shuts down BitTorrent server today – the first criminal action against BitTorrent
The FBI earlier today raided the “Elite Torrents” BitTorrent network, shutting down its core server. Anyone accessing the site now receives the message “This Site Has Been Permanently Shut Down By The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The site had been one that was sharing the new Star Wars release,…
FTC to urge ISP’s to take active role in policing the Net
An interesting article written by Declan McCullogh points out that the FTC plans to ask ISPs to take a more active role in policing the net. Basically, the plan is for the FTC to send a letter to ISPs pointing out steps these service providers can take to help reduce spam by finding and eliminating…
Blawg Review #7
My post on extortion by means of distributed denial of service attacks was listed among about thirty other noteworthy entries as part of Blawg Review #7. I encourage you to read the other entries, too. No. 7 is hosted this week at Jeremy Richey’s Blawg, check out what this law student has to say.
Comments expected
I have noticed the lack of comments, which may have been because for a while the software was set to only allow registered Blogger users to post comments. Well, I’ve fixed that – anybody can now. If that grows to be a problem with comment spam, well, then I’ll rethink that. The only comments I…