enforcement
UK STUDY: 40% Unable to Name Legal Online Music Service
Consumer Focus also says that 85% can only name two, iTunes and Amazon, but UK music industry, in typical fashion, emphasizes that more than 35 exist and touts own study that found 96% awareness of iTunes and Amazon. Consumer Focus, the UK govt-backed consumer advocacy group, has long tried to illustrate the deficiency of the country’s copyright laws and the dramatic learning gap consumers have of them. In fact, just last month it found that almost 3/4 of the population doesn’t know what they’re legally allowed to copy or record, and that’s practically impossible to not infringe copyright laws as part of their daily lives unless they don’t use digital technology.
Continue reading »New Zealand Proposes Internet Suspension, $15,000 Fine for File-Sharers
Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment would provide new enforcement measures against the unauthorized sharing of copyright material on the Internet, including suspension of Internet access for up to 6 months and compensation to copyright holders of up to $15,000 ($10,422 USD). Last week Commerce Minister Simon Power introduced a bill in New Zealand that would amend the Copyright Act of 1994 in order to provide new enforcement measures against the unauthorized sharing of copyright material on the Internet. The Copyright (Infringing File Sharing) Amendment Bill repeals the controversial Section 92A and replaces it with a “three-strikes” regime deter illegal file-sharing.
Continue reading »US Government Consults Public On Illegal File-Sharing
The Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act was one of the last pieces of legislation passed by President Bush back in 2008. The purpose of the act is to toughen current anti-piracy measures. Among other things the act calls for harsher punishments, the creation of a dedicated FBI anti-piracy unit and a copyright czar who reports directly to the White House.
Continue reading »Obama admin: Mandated exemptions can strengthen copyright
The Obama administration has offered up a strange mix of copyright policies in its first year (both ACTA and Creative Commons , for instance), but it has at least made clear that “better copyright law” does not always mean “more copyright protection.” In the middle of December, for instance, the administration took a stand in support of a World Intellectual Property Organization treaty on copyright exceptions for the blind. The final bit of the US statement of support is worth quoting in full (emphasis added): We recognize that some in the international copyright community believe that any international consensus on substantive limitations and exceptions to copyright law would weaken international copyright law. The United States does not share that point of view.
Continue reading »Hackers Brew Self-Destruct Code to Counter Police Forensics
Hackers have released an application designed to thwart a Microsoft-packaged forensic toolkit used by law enforcement agencies to examine a suspect’s hard drive during a raid. The hacker tool, dubbed Decaf , is designed to counteract the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor, aka Cofee. The latter is a suite of 150 bundled, off-the-shelf forensic tools that run from a script.
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