In a victory for the First Amendment rights of Internet users, jurors returned a verdict today acquitting University of Idaho graduate student Sami Omar Al-Hussayen of terrorism charges. Hussayen had been charged in federal court with providing "material support" to terrorists in the form of "expert advice and assistance,"...

Notes from the World Intellectual Property Organization's
Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights meeting, day
2, 8 June 2004.

Impressionistic transcript by Cory Doctorow (cory@eff.org), Wendy
Seltzer (wendy@eff.org) and David Tannenbaum
(davidt@public-domain.org)

Public-domain dedication:

On June 8, 2004, Cory Doctorow, Wendy Seltzer and David Tannebaum
...

Eric Grimm has a grim tale indeed over @ Dave Farber's IP list, describing in frightening, first-hand detail the over-reach that the USA PATRIOT Act currently enables. As Grimm points out, the law can serve as the ultimate blank check for the government -- due to "don't ask,...

Via Jim Tyre, Brenda Sandburg @ The Recorder, on what may be the stupidest copyright lawsuit ever (subs. req.):

How do you stop a charging porn thief? Take away his credit card. That's what a Beverly Hills pornographer is aiming to do in filing a copyright and...

Why offer technology that empowers people to do cool things when you can hobble it to force them to buy cool things?
So asks a report by Mako Analysis on SymbianOS phones, which are evidently too smart for their own good:

New mobile devices based on a...

On a panel a few weeks ago, I asked the head lawyer for Apple's iTunes Music Store whether Apple would, if it could, drop the FairPlay DRM from tracks purchased at the Music Store. He said "no." I was puzzled, because I assumed that the DRM obligation...

The most remarkable testimony at last week's DMCRA hearings was that of former Congressman Allan Swift.
Swift was testifying as a private citizen, as a "home recordist." Basically, he's been making "mix tapes" for 54 years:
In that time, I have given friends many tapes, cassettes...