« February 2004 | Main | April 2004 »
March 29, 2004
Patrick Leahy Rides to Aid of Copyright Cartel
Dan Gilmor has some wonderful insights regarding the claims of the Copyright Cartel and their entitlement mentality.
It's stunning, and disheartening, to see U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who has been one of the champions of civil liberties on Capitol Hill, become a water-carrier for Hollywood and the music industry. But there's no other interpretation for his co-sponsorship of what's being called the PIRATE Act, a chillingly bad bill that would give the copyright cartel a gift for the ages.
The basics of this legislation are fairly simple: In a time when there are truly serious things on the minds of law enforcement, such as terrorism, Leahy and his colleague Orrin Hatch would send the FBI and Justice Department (Copyfight) after file-sharers. If this passes, look for a crackdown that makes today's music-industry lawsuit frenzy look tame. And look for the end of most experiments in new media, because file-sharing networks are the only financially feasible way to distribute content for people who aren't trying to corner a market.
If I still lived in Vermont, I would call Leahy's office and ask anyone who'd listen how someone I've respected for years could do something so awful.
Posted by mikki at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2004
Who should govern the Net?
Once again, people are arguing who should govern the net, rather than the bigger and more important question: Who gets to decide?
A U.N. summit ends with a consensus that developing countries must have more influence on the way the Internet is run, but conclusions about what should be done are vague. [CNET News.com]
Posted by mikki at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2004
Letter from Ethan Katsh to ICANN
From DNRC Board Member Bret Fausett
This letter from Ethan Katsh of the University of Massachusetts is must reading. I agree with every word. How long can ICANN's failures continue to be failures of accountability? (To borrow a phrase from Esther Dyson, it's time for ICANN to starting making new mistakes.) [Lextext]
Posted by mikki at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2004
Did ICANN Over Regulate VeriSign?
From CircleID
CircleID recently interviewed Jonathan Weinberg, Professor of Law at Wayne State University to discuss legal and regulatory issues that have been raised against Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). VeriSign, the registry operator of the two most popular top-level domains .com and .net, filed a lawsuit against ICANN on February 26, 2004 complaining that the Internet regulatory body has extended "its authority beyond the scope of its contracts". Did ICANN... [CircleID]
Posted by mikki at 11:18 AM
March 18, 2004
California Bill Backed by Hollywood Attacks Internet Privacy
Once again, personal privacy and personal rights are being sacrificed for the convenience of corporate interests. Only this time, the personal identification information for CHILDREN would also be available to just about anyone who wanted it. All to protect property rather than people.
"These California anti-anonymity bills would force everyone - including children - to put their real names and addresses on all the files they trade, regardless of whether the files actually infringe copyrights," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Because the bills require Internet users to post personally identifying information, they fly directly in the face of policy goals and laws that prevent identity theft and spam and protect children and domestic violence victims." [EFF: Press]
Posted by mikki at 11:33 AM | Comments (0)
March 16, 2004
Privacy Safeguards Deep-Sixed
The "War on Terror" has been used quite effectively to scare Americans and Congress into believing that the more privacy is eliminated, the safer the United States will be. Hopefully, we won't have to deal with the dire consequences that will occur when they find out how wrong they are.
Without fanfare, the government dispenses with two projects aimed at protecting the privacy of American citizens from official snooping. The work on more sophisticated data-mining techiques continues, however. [Wired News]
Posted by mikki at 08:26 PM
March 14, 2004
Lessig Revisits Eldred
A soul searching analysis of Eldred v. Ashcroft has been published by Legal Affairs Magazine . This honest and insightful review provides useful background to the case, by Larry Lessig, it's chief advocate. It is well worth the read.
As you may recall, DNRC contributed to an Amicus Brief in this case.
Posted by mikki at 10:34 AM
March 12, 2004
New Mobile Domain Another Bad Idea
From CircleID. Interesting that it seems that specialized, industry pushed TLDs get a lot more notice from ICANN than the average schmuck who wants a new gTLD. Well, maybe not so surprising after all.
You may have seen a new proposal for a "mobile" top-level domain name for use by something called "mobile users" whatever they are. (The domain will not actually be named .mobile, rumours are they are hoping for a coveted one-letter TLD like .m "to make it easier to type on a mobile phone.) Centuries ago, as trademark law began its evolution, we learned one pretty strong rule about building rules for a name system for commerce, and even for non-commerce.
Nobody... [CircleID]
Posted by mikki at 10:28 PM
March 07, 2004
Good News for Free Speech
From the Detroit Free Press a story of how one person prevailed against a company, and helped us define domain names as more than identifiers for business. They can also be speech. While this concept had been pretty much universal, it had been eroded over the past decade or so. Fortunately, the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has attempted to clarify things.
Canton woman wins Web free speech case
She used a nursery's name for site warning potential customers
March 6, 2004
BY JEFF BENNETT
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Anyone who has thought about developing a Web site to gripe about a company owes Michelle Grosse some thanks.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled Friday that the Canton woman did not violate the law when she used the name of Lucas Nursery and Landscaping Inc. for a Web site she created to complain about the Canton nursery.
Paul Levy, staff attorney with the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said the ruling bolsters the fight by consumer groups to stop corporations from snuffing out free speech on the Internet.
"This is a very important case," said Levy. "This is a mainstream circuit court that said using the Internet and the name of the company to criticize a company is perfectly legitimate."
Grosse, who has spent $20,000 defending herself and who faced paying $65,000 if she lost the case, said Friday she was going out to dinner with her father to celebrate.
"I would probably do it again," said Grosse. "I knew I was right, I didn't like getting stepped on by them and I wanted to warn people, and I did." Grosse took down the site, www.lucasnursery.com, two years ago and said she doesn't plan on putting it back up.
Critics said the court decision hurts businesses trying to protect their trademarks and names. Companies such as Panasonic and Hertz have had to pay huge sums to people who snap up Web addresses with company names and hold them hostage.
Kevin Bennett, a Plymouth attorney who represented Lucas Nursery, said he was disappointed.
"Instead of pursuing proper legal remedies that are available to everyone who actually has gotten the short end of the stick, Michelle Grosse took it upon herself to steal the Lucas name and use it in an attempt to tarnish the good will that the Lucas family name has built up over 27 years in the landscape business," Bennett said. Grosse's lawn saga began in March 2000 when, as a new home owner, she hired Lucas Nursery to fix a dip in her backyard, lay some sod and build a retaining wall.
What Grosse claims she got for her $8,100 was shoddy work that left her backyard a mess, the runaround from Lucas and a $5,400 bill from another company she had to hire to fix the problems.
In August 2000, three months after trying to get Lucas Nursery to acknowledge its mistakes, Grosse decided to vent her anger on the Internet.
She bought the Web address for $35 and posted a few pictures of her yard and a warning to stay away from Lucas.
The nursery sued, claiming that Grosse's use of its name made her a cybersquatter.
In April, U.S. District Court in Detroit dismissed the suit, saying that Grosse did not violate the law because she was not acting in bad faith or trying to generate a profit from the Web site.
The nursery appealed, but the appeals courtreaffirmed that Grosse did not act in bad faith; she was not attempting to deceive consumers, she wasn't selling any products and she never offered to sell the site to Lucas Nursery.
"I think the case has broader implications than Michelle Grosse," said Jeff Wilson, attorney with Southfield-based Raymond & Prokop, who defended Grosse. "This paves the way for other consumer advocates to use the Internet to publicize their dispute without fear of retaliation from the business."
However, Levy advises site creators to explain on the top of the page that the site is not sanctioned by the particular company. He also advises adding a link to the company's own Web page and to stay away from selling any products through the site.
Although she owns the site name until 2005, Grosse said she is done. "I am so broke right now defending myself. . . . I defended freedom of speech but I don't want to open that can of worms again."
Contact JEFF BENNETT at 313-222-8769 or jbennett@freepress.com
Posted by mikki at 10:58 AM
March 02, 2004
Verisign vs. ICANN: More at Stake than Sitefinder
From CircleID. Definitely something to think about
It's easy to dismiss Verisign's antitrust suit as a ploy to push through Sitefinder. But whether one loves Sitefinder or hates Sitefinder, the complaint raises a much more significant issue that won't go away even if ICANN lets Verisign roll out Sitefinder. At the heart of Verisign's complaint is the lack of any definable process for decisionmaking, and its a complaint shared by others. A settlement between Verisign and ICANN that does not create a clear process for decisionmaking at ICANN... [CircleID]
Posted by mikki at 10:36 PM