RIAA now says ripping CDs to MP3s illegal
The U.S. recording industry’s trade group believes converting music CDs to audio files on a computer is unapproved and therefore illegal, based on a court document in an Arizona copyright-infringement case.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed the brief in support of a lawsuit filed by three record companies against an Arizona couple accused of illegally sharing copyrighted music online. In its filing, the RIAA contends that ripping CDs leads to “viral” copyright infringement; a single disc can result in millions of copies if shared through a peer-to-peer service, the brief claims. A story outlining the issue appeared on Reuters.
In previous court cases, the RIAA has not taken that position. In fact, in some cases, it has acknowledged it is perfectly legal to “space-shift” — move legally acquired digital content from a recorded disk to another digital format, such as a computer file. The court case, Atlantic Records vs. Pamela and Jeffrey Howell, is ongoing. The couple has denied any wrongdoing.
Denver first 802.11n airport
Denver International Airport could be one of the first airports in the country to offer a public hotspot based on the 802.11n standard, the travel hub’s telecoms chief Jim Winston said recently, quoted at online news site Electronista.
The airport is now using a mixed-mode network that supports the extra speed and range of the draft 802.11n specification, while still supporting legacy 802.11b and 802.11g users. The new standard also produces the side benefit of helping to spot unwanted networks that could be created by users hoping to compromise the security of nearby passengers using the Wi-Fi signal.
Group says Net censorship amounts to a trade violation
A California advocacy group is tackling Internet censorship in China by arguing that country’s restrictions on speech violate the World Trade Organization’s free trade rules. “We’d like all Internet censorship to be stopped,” said Gilbert Kaplan, a Washington, D.C., lawyer representing the public interest organization California First Amendment Coalition. He was quoted in an Associated Press wire story.
That group recently filed papers with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in Washington, urging the agency to file a WTO complaint against China.
The California organization’s theory, drawn from a 2006 law review article by Columbia University professor Tim Wu, is that China’s blocking of sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and Technorati constitutes discrimination against U.S. companies.
“China’s censorship of the Internet, while fundamentally an issue of free speech and individual liberty, is also a significant barrier to U.S.-China commerce and therefore, very much a trade issue,” said California First Amendment Coalition Executive Director Peter Scheer on Monday in a statement. “In infringing the rights of its 1.2 billion citizens, China is also infringing the rights of American companies to sell goods and services to consumers in China, via the Internet.”