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1: Apple Confirms Acquisition of Music Site Lala

First off today, Apple has confirmed its acquisition of the music streaming service Lala for an undisclosed amount. This has lead many to speculate what Apple plans to do with the service and how it might integrate into their market-dominating iTunes platform.

Lala has had a brief but controversial history, starting as a CD-swapping service and then dabbling in online radio before becoming a music streaming service that also sold songs for ten cents. Lala would scan user’s hard drives for music and then build a library of their music for streaming online. However, after deciding profitability wasn’t likely, they approached Apple about an acquisition and, according to reports, sold the company for a loss.

Though it’s bad news for Lala shareholders, this merger could mean big things for the online music industry, including, as some theorize, a streaming version of iTunes and/or cloud storage of music files. There is little doubt we’ll be hearing more about this merger in the weeks/months to come.

2: IFPI Use IPRED To Demand File-Sharer Info For The First Time

Next up today, Sweden’s controversial IPRED law, which allows copyright holders to petition the courts to force ISPs to identify alleged infringers, is getting its first workout from the music industry. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has filed a petition in a Stockholm district court to receive the identity of a file sharer who was using a “direct connect” service.

The law, which came into force on April 1st, saw surprisingly little use from the record industry. However, in September, record industry officials hinted that they were just biding their time.

The law also increases the penalties for file sharing and criminalizes large-scale infringement, which makes the choice of a direct connect file sharer interesting as it is easier to prove large scale infringements on such services.

The IFPI has said they have not decided what they will do with the information when they receive it, saying they could go for a lawsuit or just issue a warning.

3: Lawsuit Alleges Palm Pre Violates Copyright

Finally today, cellphone maker Palm is facing a lawsuit over its Pre model, which was billed as an iPhone competitor, claiming that the Pre violates the GPL.

Artifex is claiming that Palm is using their PDF rendering engine, muPDF, without completing the requirements of the GPL license. Palm’s instructions for the phone do make a mention of muPDF and its license, but no source code is provided. In cases where the application is not licensed under the GPL, Artifex requires a commercial license.

Palm declined comment on this lawsuit but this is far from the first time a hardware maker has been sued for allegedly running afoul of the GPL. Linksys, which is owned by Cisco, faced a similar lawsuit earlier this year on similar grounds.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.

1: iPods, First Sale, President Obama, and the Queen of England

First off today President Obama is in the United Kingdom but his present to the Queen has drawn the attention of copyright-minded people has he presented Her Majesty with an iPod loaded with famous U.S. show tunes.

Almost instantly this raised a lot of questions about the copyright implications of the gift. Though no one is planning on suing the President or the Queen for the gift, there are several potential legal issues including the fact the songs were copied onto the iPod (meaning a copy still exists in the U.S), DRM may prevent the songs from working with another iTunes, the fact the iTunes contract forbids distribution of the songs in this manner.

Needless to say, there are more questions than answers about the legal implications but I don’t think anyone is going to go against the President to get the answers, especially not over a small show tunes collection.

2: MPAA President to be Thrown Out

Next up, the current chairman of the MPAA, Dan Glickman, is out of a job at the moment or at least will be in 18 months when he will be removed from his office, allegedly for his poor performance.

The post typically is a long-term job, previous head Jack Valenti was in office for 38 years before a controversy over his screener ban in 2003. Glickman has barely been in the position just under five years as of this writing.

Whether or not this will signal a shift in strategy over copyright matters for the MPAA will remain to be seen, but it would stand to reason that copyright issues would have played at least some role in the decision by the MPAA to oust Glickman.

3: Piracy law cuts internet traffic

Finally today, Sweden’s new anti-piracy law, IPRED, which allows copyright holders to force ISPs to give over information of file sharers, has had a drastic effect already. In short, traffic into and out of Sweden dropped by approximately 33%, from 120 Gbps to 80 Gbps, virtually overnight.

The article goes on to say that turning away now may be too little too late for some file sharers as book publishers in Sweden began applying the law literally the day it took effect to obtain IP information of file sharers that swapped audio books.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.