No More Commercials!

The Supreme Court denied cert on an appeal by the entertainment industry to block Cablevision Systems Corp new DVR that saves the shows at the cable location, not the user location, making the DVR service more like download on demand than a DVR. Licensing rates for broadcast is different than download on demand. The entertainment industry claimed it violated their copyrights, but the Second Circuit differed.

Dowload Case

A Minneapolis jury awarded the RIAA $1.92 million against Jammie Thomas-Rasset for illegal file sharing.

Right to Privacy?

Applicants for jobs in the city of Bozeman are being asked for passwords to their social networking sites. It is suposedly designed to verify personal information. But I find it had to believe that there's anything on somebody's facebook or myspace page that could not be verified by other means. The city attorney is looking into alternatives, such as requiring the job applicant to friend the city.

Las Vegas Paper to Produce Online Records

The Las Vegas Review-Journal will comply with a Federal Grand Jury subpoena compelling the identities of two people who posted comments on the newspaper's website about a criminal tax trial that could be construed as threatening to the jurors and/or judge. The paper said there isn't much to produce given that most of their postings are anonymous.