Major copyright owners, unions urge Congressional support for ACTA
Major copyright owners, unions, and trade associations have sent a joint letter to Congressional leaders, urging support for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement:ACTA Joint Letter The letter, whose signatories include, among others, five of the six major movie studios, the MPAA, RIAA, ASCAP, BMI, AFTRA, DGA, IATSE, and the Software & Information Industry Association, follows a

MPAA's Glickman seeks Hill support for ACTA
After weeks of false charges that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement currently under negotiation would eliminate "DMCA-style safe harbors" or make it "impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger," copyright owners are finally fighting back. Today MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman sent a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and other congressional leaders on copyright issues, asking the lawmak

Debunking ACTA 'Fear Mongering and Misinformation'
Canadian IP attorney Barry Sookman has an excellent post debunking what he terms the "fear mongering and misinformation" regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA. As I and others have previously pointed out, the notion that ACTA (at least in its leaked draft form) will impose a mandatory, French-style "th

Court again rejects BlueBeat's 'psycho-acoustic simulation' defense; issues preliminary injunction a
After receiving additional argument and evidence on BlueBeat.com's "psycho-acoustic simulation" defense, federal judge John Walter today extended his ban on the site's streaming and sale of Beatles and other EMI songs, issuing a preliminary injunction after finding that the record label plaintiffs "have made a clear showing that they are likely to suceed on the merits" in their copyright suit. The court had previously issued a temporary restraining order against the site, which was offering free streams and 2

ACTA: time to calm down, and look at the facts
I'm no expert on international trade negotiations, so I've been reluctant to wade into the (entirely one-sided) "debate" over the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has recently come under heavy criticism from the copyleft on both procedural and substantive grounds. But I can read, and what I've been reading from copyright critics about the negotiations simply doesn't square with the known facts and law. So here goes...ACTA, critics say, is being negotiated under unduly strict conditions, and threatens radical changes in US law. Canadian activist Cory Doctorow ma