RIAA Trains Anti-Piracy Guns on Universities
"We deeply regret that in view of his record we have had to fire the manager of our baseball team." Yup, sometimes the vote of confidence lasts exactly one day. As in this case. A day after the RIAA won the right to force Verizon to release customer names, but said it wouldn't impose the same requirement on universities, we see 175 specific students instructed by Indiana University (IU) to delete music and movie files from their computers. More...

US Tightens Net Copyright
"United States trade negotiators are pushing for Australia to sign up to a tough new copyright regime that could hold internet service providers liable for breaches." In particular, the U.S. would like to see Australia hold ISPs accounable for usage and to have Australia impose criminal sanctions against file sharing. More...

ISPs 'Should Pay' for Music Swapping
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is toying with the idea of asking for a tax on internet service providers (ISPs) that allow users to use file trading systems. More...

College Pact a Fresh Start For Napster
Students feel betrayed by Penn State administration, and with good reason. The university will begin offering the students free access to music through the revamped (and now commercial) Napster service. There won't be an extra cost (for now) - it will be paid for from the existing technology fee (begging the question: what was it being used for before?). More...

The Silent Five
More reaction today to the decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the copyright extension act. My own take is just what it was at the beginning of the hearing: the danger with taking a legalistic approach to such issues is that you are forced to rely on the law as it is written, and if the law contains inherent injustices, then these will be reflected in the court's decision. That's the case here. More...