piracy

Scholastic, the publisher of the popular Harry Potter series of children's books, is taking unspecified legal action against several peer-to-peer sites, a book distributor and an online retailer over the unauthorized release of digital and print versions of the latest book, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh book in the series, is scheduled to go on sale on Saturday, but already there are pirated versions available for download from file-sharing sites, and as many as 1,200 print copies were mailed to eager fans beginning on Tuesday, the newspaper reported.

Scholastic … Read more

About a month ago, we reported that media conglomerate NBC Universal has asked federal regulators to require that broadband providers do more about piracy on their networks.

As the Federal Communications Commission weighs whether to impose so-called Net neutrality requirements on companies like Verizon and AT&T, NBC general counsel Richard Cotton urged the regulators to issue a statement that "broadband service providers have an obligation to use readily available means to prevent the use of their broadband capacity to transfer pirated content."

On Monday, which marked the last day for reply comments to issues raised in … Read more

So here are a few tidbits from my notebooks that didn't make it into our stories from Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver.

In addition to talking about some potential new business models for Office, corporate VP Chris Capossela also noted that Microsoft is planning a fall launch for its Office Communications Server business telephony product as well as its PerformancePoint business intelligence software.

The company still hopes to finish the code for both products by late summer, he said. Speaking of launch dates, as spotted by Mary Jo Foley, the next version of SQL Server won't be ready … Read more

The Wall Street Journal yesterday had an interesting piece [Sub. req'd] on the value of piracy to the music industry. No, not in Tim O'Reilly's classic 'Piracy is progressive taxation' sense, but rather in figuring out what people actually want to hear.

Earlier this year, Clear Channel Communications Inc.'s Premiere Radio Networks unit began marketing data on the most popular downloads from illegal file-sharing networks to help radio stations shape their playlists. The theory is that the songs attracting the most downloads online will also win the most listeners on the radio, helping stations sell more advertising. In turn, the service may even help the record labels, because radio airplay is still the biggest factor influencing record sales....… Read more

Fortune Magazine has a great article on Microsoft's growth in China. Gates is apparently a rock star in China, with government officials and groupies clamoring to meet him. He owns China, as the article suggests.

Gates says he's certain China will eventually be Microsoft's biggest market, though it may take ten years. Projected sales this year are already three times what they were in 2004, yet still less than annual revenue in California. (Microsoft will not disclose figures, but Fortune estimates China revenue will exceed $700 million in 2007, about 1.5% of global sales.)

Why? How did Microsoft get to this point in China? Well, funny enough, by acting very much like an open source vendor, despite its best efforts :… Read more

A software industry group that has become well known for its high-profile antipiracy campaigns and crackdowns is now offering up to $1 million to tipsters who divulge the juiciest copyright infringement incidents in their workplaces.

The Business Software Alliance announced on Monday that between July and October, it will be multiplying fivefold the maximum incentive currently offered through its almost 2-year-old "rewards" program. The effort is designed to encourage whistleblowers to report unlicensed software use by their businesses--which, BSA reminds us in its press release, can carry as much as $150,000 in fines and cost the United … Read more

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales created quite a stir last month when he called for an aggressive rewrite of criminal copyright laws, including prison time for "attempted" copyright infringement, life behind bars for pirated software use, and more expansive wiretap authority in piracy investigations.

If anyone doubted his seriousness about that dramatic plan, look no further than the text of a speech the official delivered in Seattle on Wednesday.

"IP (intellectual property) theft is not a technicality, and its victims are not just faceless corporations--it is stealing, and it affects us all," Gonzales said, according to those … Read more

We could soon learn more about whether illegal file sharing is a friend or foe to a movie debut.

Sicko, the documentary about the health-care industry from director Michael Moore is due to be released on Friday. To several thousand fans of YouTube, Google Video and The PirateBay, the movie's opening came a week earlier. That's when bootleg copies began cropping up at those places.

Any studio exec will say each illegal download represents a lost ticket sale. That's food out of the mouths of cinematographers, actors, costumers and best boys, the studio suit will huff.

Not … Read more

I doubt it will replace the CD anytime soon, but some record labels are experimenting with distributing music on portable USB flash drives. The latest in this occasional trend is The White Stripes, whose Icky Thump album is available in both traditional CD form as well as in a limited edition USB thumb drive format.

Now, the flash drive version sells for $57, well more than the $15 price tag of the CD. That means that only die-hard fans will likely buy the drive versions, which depict the band's Jack White and Meg White as Russian dolls. (Those who … Read more