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Feb 03, `08 –This Slashdot article reports on a new Italian copyright law, in which the Italian parliament may have mistakenly legalized sharing music over P2P networks.

The new copyright law, passed by both houses of parliament, would allow Italians to freely share music over the Internet as long as it is free of charge, at low resolution or “degraded,” for scientific or educational use, and only when such use is not for profit.

Excerpts of the Slashdot article:
According to Italian lawyer Andrea Monti, an expert on copyright and Internet law, the new Italian copyright law would authorize users to publish and freely share copyrighted music (p2p included). As Monti says in the interview, those who wrote it didn’t realize that the word “degraded” is technical, with a very precise meaning, which includes MP3s, which are compressed with an algorithm that ensures a quality loss. The La Repubblica.it article in Italian, and Google translation is here. More at Slashdot.

Dec 30, `07 — This Slashdot article highlights the latest strategy of the RIAA to sue consumers who have ripped their legally purchased CDs on to a PC.

“With this past week’s announcement by Warner to release its entire catalog to Amazon in MP3 format with no Digital Rights Management, you would think that the organization that represents them, The RIAA, would begin changing its tune.

Instead, they are pressing on in their campaign against consumers by suing individuals who merely rip CDs they’ve purchased legally. ‘The industry’s lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argues in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files Howell made on his computer from legally bought CDs are “unauthorized copies” of copyrighted recordings.”

The Washington Post article further writes, “”I couldn’t believe it when I read that,” says Ray Beckerman, a New York lawyer who represents six clients who have been sued by the RIAA. “The basic principle in the law is that you have to distribute actual physical copies to be guilty of violating copyright. But recently, the industry has been going around saying that even a personal copy on your computer is a violation.”

The RIAA’s legal crusade against its customers is a classic example of an old media company clinging to a business model that has collapsed. Four years of a failed strategy has only “created a whole market of people who specifically look to buy independent goods so as not to deal with the big record companies,” Beckerman says. “Every problem they’re trying to solve is worse now than when they started.”" More at WashingtonPost.

Los Angeles, Calif — Dec 03, ‘07 — A federal judge on Monday threw out an antitrust lawsuit brought by the operator of the LimeWire online file-sharing service against a coalition of major record labels, concluding the firm failed to make its case that it has been harmed by the recording companies’ business practices, Alex Veiga of the Associated Press reported.

U.S. District Judge Gerard E. Lynch in New York ruled that Lime Group LLC failed to make its case that it has been harmed by the recording companies’ business practices, and he granted the companies’ motion to dismiss the claims.

Lynch also dismissed several claims brought under state laws “without prejudice,” which gives New York-based Lime Group the option to pursue the claims in state court.

Lime Group’s lawsuit was a counterclaim to a copyright infringement lawsuit brought last year against by record labels owned by the four major recording companies: Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group Corp., Britain’s EMI Group PLC, and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, a joint venture of Sony Corp. and Bertelsmann AG.

That case, which is still pending, was the first piracy lawsuit brought against a distributor of file-sharing software after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that technology companies could be sued for copyright infringement on the grounds they encouraged customers to steal music and movies over the Internet. More at Google/AP.

Nov 17, ‘07 — News.com is reporting on the US House of representatives passing an amendment to the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007 (in pdf), that should make folks in Hollywood, the RIAA, and the MPAA well pleased.

The House of Representatives education committee passed a bill on Nov 15, ‘07 that would set higher-education policy for the next five years — and despite the efforts of campus officials and lobbyists, the measure directs colleges to take steps to combat illegal file sharing.

In the House Education and Labor Committee’s mammoth College Opportunity and Affordability Act lies a tiny section, which dictates universities that participate in federal financial aid programs “shall” devise plans for “alternative” offerings to unlawful downloading, such as subscription-based services, or “technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity.” The committee unanimously approved the bill Thursday.

Supporters and opponents of the proposal disagree, however, on what the penalty would be for failure to comply with the new rules. The proposed requirements would be added to a section of existing federal law dealing with federal financial aid.

Some university representatives and fair-use advocates worry that schools run the risk of losing aid for their students if they fail to come up with the required plans.

“The language in the bill appears to be clear that failure to carry out the mandates would make an institution ineligible for participation in at least some part of Title IV (which deals with federal financial aid programs),” Steven Worona, director of policy and networking programs for the group Educause, said in a telephone interview Thursday.

Worona acknowledged that “there does appear to be a great deal of confusion with respect to what penalties would be involved in not carrying out the mandates in this bill.” Still, Educause, which represents college and university network operators, continues to “strongly oppose these mandates,” he said. More at News.com.

Guy Kewney writes a fine article on theRegister about a book “The End of Control” by Gerd Leonhard. In his words:

“Gerd Leonhard is an ex-muso, with a message for the recording industry. Judging by the RIAA’s triumphant win receiving $220,000 in damages for the downloading and sharing of 24 songs, it’s a message they aren’t ready to hear. But Gerd is sharing his ideas - free - in book form. There is (he says) a better way of getting money out of people’s wallets than going to court.

The book is “The End Of Control” and chapter one is already out. It follows his highly successful business title The Future Of Music which has been translated into several languages, including Japanese, since its publication two years ago.

When I spoke to Leonhard he was in the airport in Singapore on his way to the next stop of a consulting trip to the Far East, and he was anxious to make sure the world knew about the Radiohead venture - to allow fans to download their tracks for “as little as 1p - plus a mandatory 45p credit card fee”, and he was touting this as a sign of the times.

His message for the middlemen: “You are about to become squashed between hundreds of managers and artists that want to go direct, large retailers like amazon that re-write the rules of online music selling (think bundles… think flat-rate), telcos and operators that are getting fed up with the tedious and outmoded licensing practices, and search engines that are powering or becoming music communities and the next generation of radio.”

And, he told his blog readers: “If [the industry tries to] keep up the strategy of ‘you need us badly and therefore we make the rules’ you will lose the artists, their managers… and the audience. Another 12 months for this Radiohead experiment to become the default approach. Get engaged or get outmoded. And do it soon.”

His catchphrase seems to be “move the tollbooth further down”.”

More at theRegister…

USAToday reports, “  30-year-old Duluth, Minn., woman must pay six record companies $222,000 for violating copyright by downloading songs illegally and then sharing them through Kazaa, a federal jury has ruled in the first such lawsuit to go to trial.

The AP says Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two children, must pay each company $9,250 for each of 24 shared songs. The companies — Sony BMG, Arista Records LLC, Interscope Records, UMG Recordings Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and Warner Bros. Records Inc. — had alleged she shared a total of 1,702 songs. Thomas testified she did not have a Kazaa account, which allows peer-to-peer sharing.”

More at USAToday…