EMI: first step towards a non-DRMed distribution? Probably not.

Looks like record label EMI is doing some experimenting with their distribution formats, finally figuring out that 1) DRM is not good for the consumer and 2) DRM sucks if you're anyone but Apple, who, having the dominant hardware and software in the market, can lock in the consumers to their products. So EMI is distributing non-DRMed music files for 99 cents on Yahoo! Music.

However, this decision only affects a very limited number of artists and was done with "general resistance" from the executives at EMI. Don't expect this to be the first few cracks in the dam before it explodes...

MPAA exec's kid gets a talking to, you get sued into oblivion

Guess who is pirating copyrighted content and immorally depriving hard-working artists of their hard-earned money? Why, none other than the child of Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman. Rest assured, folks, the head of one of the MPAA members is no hypocrite when it comes to discipline: he gave his kids a stern talking-to!

Hey Edgar, why don't you hold your kids to the same standard as you hold all of those grandmothers, deceased persons, and red-blooded Americans? Looks like your kids just got a memorable lesson in favoritism and hypocrisy. I'm sure they'll always remember that one.

MPAA copies movies, then tells you not to

About a year ago, the MPAA admitted to copying a movie that they were specifically told not to copy by the owner. The article shoves the the-MPAA-are-hypocrites line down your throat, so I don't have to. Not that it shouldn't be obvious anyway.

Your cellphone is listening... even when it's off

The FBI is pulling some sweet new tricks on mob bosses. Cell phones can be made to listen in on conversations even when they are turned off. This is just another reminder, however, of how easy it is for law enforcement to monitor us with today's technology. Let's hope that mob bosses are the only ones that they choose to monitor, and not deploy it on a much wider, illegal scale...

Saddam's botched trial

There's a great article in today's New York Times Magazine (distributed weekly with the Sunday edition of the newspaper) about how Saddam was convicted for the wrong things at a convenient time, and that the whole thing ultimately failed to introduce any kind of closure to the Iraq situation, something that the war's supporters hoped the trial would do. Human Rights Watch, Saddam's lawyer and the UN's condemnation of the trial show that the trial does not have any legitimacy in the international community's eyes.

There is a 6.5% chance that you are a terrorist

According to CNN, every American and person travelling through America gets assigned a score when travelling corresponding to how likely they are to be a terrorist. Never mind that it's a massive privacy invasion, of questionable value to law enforcement, and according to an EFF lawyer " probably the most invasive system the government has yet deployed in terms of the number of people affected"... at least people will now have something to talk about at airports: threat score comparison! Mine is a .072, what's yours?

Our hero, the MPAA, opposes a ban on fraud

An anti-pretexting bill in the California legislature was defeated earlier this year due to the strong influence of the MPAA. The MPAA claimed that a ban on pretexting would interfere with their "anti-piracy" efforts.

You may remember "pretexting" as doublespeak for gaining personal information under false pretenses. The most recent and infamous use of this tactic was the HP Board Scandal.

At least someone is fighting the good fight, however. From the Wired article:

Ira Rothken, a prominent technology lawyer defending download search engine TorrentSpy against a movie industry copyright suit, says he didn't know about the lobbying, but can guess why the MPAA got involved. Rothken is suing (.pdf) the MPAA for allegedly paying a hacker $15,000 to hack into TorrentSpy's e-mail accounts.

"It doesn't surprise me that the MPAA would be against bills that protect privacy, and the MPAA has shown that they are willing to pay lots of money to intrude on privacy," Rothken said. "I do think there needs to be better laws in place that would deter such conduct and think that it would probably be useful if our elected officials would not be intimidated by the MPAA when trying to pass laws to protect privacy."