Overlawyered » RIAA and file sharing

Copyright and D.C. lobbying: that was fast

Walter Olson — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 12:46:15 +0000

The House Republican Study Committee calls for reconsideration of over-restrictive copyright law, then un-calls for it a day later [TechDirt, rueful update; Alex Tabarrok]

P.S. And check out this upcoming Dec. 6 Cato discussion of the newly published Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive To Excess (Mercatus Center; Jerry Brito, ed.)

Tags: copyright, RIAA and file sharing, U.S. House of Representatives, wayward Republicans

Great moments in damages calculation? Nope

Walter Olson — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:01:44 +0000

Update: That’s what we get for posting hastily on a holiday weekend. We — and a great many other sites from CBS News to Business Insider to The Onion — took the below report seriously, but per Mike Masnick at TechDirt, it’s both outdated — Judge Kimba Wood rebuked RIAA’s damage demand as excessive, and the LimeWire case settled for a far lower amount — and more broadly questionable (while the original demands might have reached trillions, and were justly subject to ridicule on that account, the jump to $72 trillion seems to be at best someone’s subjective extrapolation).

Masnick’s story is here. What follows is the original post.

“It’s no secret that LimeWire was once a hotbed of peer-to-peer music piracy, but the RIAA has now attempted to sue it for $72 trillion – more money than exists in the world today. LimeWire was shut down in October 2010, but litigation continues from music bodies around the world…” [Ultimate Guitar]

Tags: damages, music and musicians, RIAA and file sharing

Great moments in damages calculation? Nope is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Spanish professor says recording industry group violates antitrust law

Walter Olson — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 12:39:55 +0000

And the next thing you know, they sue him [Josh Wright, Mike Masnick] The blog post by Enrique Dans, who is professor of information systems at IE Business School, is here.

Tags: antitrust, bloggers and the law, copyright, RIAA and file sharing, Spain

Spanish professor says recording industry group violates antitrust law is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The gang that couldn’t shake down straight

Walter Olson — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 12:19:48 +0000

Scam pretend-lawyers pose as real Hollywood lawyers firing off nastygrams to shake cash out of illicit downloaders. [Above the Law]

Tags: copyright, fraud, nastygrams, RIAA and file sharing

The gang that couldn’t shake down straight is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

O lawmakers, heed not the mob’s wrath

Walter Olson — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:53:10 +0000

They understand not the wisdom of SOPA [Julian Sanchez, Cato at Liberty]

Tags: RIAA and file sharing

O lawmakers, heed not the mob’s wrath is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

After SOPA protest day

Walter Olson — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 17:54:57 +0000

What did the protests accomplish? [Image of one-day change in Hill opposition courtesy TechCrunch, PC World, Timothy Lee/Ars Technica]
Some of the best protests [Ad Age, earlier on Flickr's clever entry and others]
Going-dark site “strike” was a bit like Atlas Shrugged without the monologues [Greve] “So, nothing like #AS” [@nickgillespie] “…and fewer pirates” [@JohnPMcGuinness] “That’s a shame. I want to see Francisco’s money speech in binary code.” [@BenK84]
Speaking of Citizens United… [John Samples/Cato, Popehat, @joshgreenman]
Chris Dodd: we could turn off flow of Hollywood politibux if we don’t get this law [Politico] “Win/win!” [James Poulos]
Where next? [Julian Sanchez, Cato, Kotaku ("PIPA not as bad as SOPA" claims), roll call via Pro Publica]

Tags: campaign regulation, copyright, RIAA and file sharing, rogue site legislation

After SOPA protest day is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Websites go dark to protest SOPA/PIPA

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:46:12 +0000

Among those closed today are Wikipedia, Reddit and Twitpic [Mashable, Kravets/Wired; Mike Masnick; Dan Fisher on yesterday's player-piano threat; our SOPA/PIPA coverage; Cato event tomorrow on Capitol Hill via David Boaz]. Matt Sherman: “Please note that what Google, Reddit and others are doing today is corporate political speech.” Flickr’s protest idea is brilliant: it’s letting users censor each other.

Update: lawmakers have been jumping ship on the bills over the course of the day, including Senate co-sponsor Mario Rubio (R-Fla.). (Bumped to keep on top of page).

Tags: RIAA and file sharing

Websites go dark to protest SOPA/PIPA is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

SOPA on the ropes?

Walter Olson — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:57:51 +0000

Welcome news, if true: key members of Congress are said to be backing away from the rogue-sites legislation as currently written and in particular are willing to drop the hotly contested provisions on domain name blocking. [Timothy Lee, Sandoval/McCullagh, CNET, Mike Masnick/TechDirt] And suddenly the Obama administration is sounding skeptical notes too [Lee] As recently as last week the copyright enforcement bills were reported to be on a toboggan to quick passage [Industry Standard, earlier] More: Masnick.

Tags: copyright, RIAA and file sharing

SOPA on the ropes? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

SOPA’s Hollywood accounting

Walter Olson — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:52:14 +0000

Some advocates of the legislation cook the books when they count (and double-count and triple-count) the costs of piracy. [Julian Sanchez, Cato; Mike Masnick, TechDirt]

Tags: copyright, RIAA and file sharing

SOPA’s Hollywood accounting is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

SOPA fight heats up

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 05:54:34 +0000

Brad Plumer in the Washington Post summarizes the provisions of the bill as well as the state of play on it in Congress as of mid-month. Although much commentary has assumed that persons determined to visit blocked sites could readily find ways around the SOPA restrictions, David Post notes that the draft bill authorizes the Attorney General to seek injunctions against persons who assist in circumventing the law, which might include websites that publish “here’s how to evade SOPA blocking” information. Timothy Lee at ArsTechnica notes growing opposition to the bill among conservatives, while Joshua Kopstein at Motherboard reviews a comic markup session. Meanwhile, “Gibson Guitar & Others On SOPA Supporters List Say They Never Supported The Bill” [Mike Masnick, TechDirt] Earlier here and here.

Tags: copyright, online speech, RIAA and file sharing

SOPA fight heats up is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system