dcma

DNC livestream on YouTube blocked on copyright grounds?

Those hoping to catch the livestream of First Lady Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention on YouTube or BarackObama.com can forget about it -- it appears to have been blocked.

The event's official stream was yanked due to copyright infringement concerns, according to a message that briefly appeared on YouTube:

This video contains content from WMG, SME, Associated Press (AP), UMG, Dow Jones, New York Times Digital, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), Warner Chappell, UMPG Publishing and EMI Music Publishing, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds. … Read more

Google defends hosting site under attack by MPAA

The battle of Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood continues.

Google filed a brief earlier this month in federal court in Florida defending Hotfile, an Internet locker service that the Motion Picture Association of America accuses of acting as a clearinghouse for pirated films.

The MPAA filed suit against Hotfile a year ago, arguing that the cyberlocker has made a business out of offering a stash box for people to store their pirated movies. At the time, the MPAA said, "In less than two years, Hotfile has become one of the 100 most trafficked sites in the world...That is a … Read more

'Psychic' Uri Geller reaches copyright settlement

Controversial "paranormalist" Uri Geller has settled a lawsuit claiming he misused copyright law to squelch criticism. But much like Geller's mysticism, the legitimacy of his legal dispute remains rather ambiguous--the terms of the settlement are mostly confidential.

The legal battle began when Brian Sapient, a longtime skeptic of Geller's, used footage from a NOVA documentary to create a 14-minute video on YouTube debunking Geller's powers. Geller's company, Explorogist, sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notice to YouTube because some of the NOVA material--about 8 seconds--was under copyright owned by Explorogist. YouTube suspended Salient'… Read more

Free George Hotz!

Well, the 17-year-old boy genius with a soldering iron and a lot of heart isn't in trouble yet, but it does appear that while doing it yourself isn't an issue, there is some question about whether or not informing others how to hack an iPhone to use with another service is exactly legal.

Personally, the horned one thinks a better use of the beloved DCMA would be saving the Internet from the scourge of Russian pirate music.

He doesn't know about you, but the thought of t.A.T.u.'s version of Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Rum … Read more