New tactic in the fight against the RIAA is to admit guilt, but challenge copyright laws and argue that compensatory damages greater than 9 to 1 violates the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. In the case of Elektra vs Barker attorney Ray Beckerman of Recording Industry vs the People is employing a new tactic in his longstanding tussle with the RIAA. He readily admits that his client did use the KaZaA file-sharing program and should be punished accordingly, but that actual damages should be limited to $3.50 per song she made available for a total of $750 if found liable. Beckerman challenges the constitutionality of the statute awarding damages for copyright infringement to the extent it could be construed as authorizing more than nine times the actual damages.

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Proves that British police are having a tough finding what charges to file in a case that the Crown Prosecution Service calls a “highly-complex” case.OiNK, the long shuttered music-oriented BitTorrent tracker site, made the headlines once again with news today that bodes well for cases against both the site’s former Admin, Alan Ellis, as well as the handful of “pre-releasers” who uploaded albums to the site well ahead of their official release date.This makes the 4th time that bail has been extended for Ellis. The initial deadline for them to finish gathering evidence and to decide whether or not to bring charges was December 21st of LAST YEAR.The case is centers around two charges: conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright.

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Offers a solution to criticisms of 4-5 month delays of PAL region games arriving in far off "down under" locales like New Zealand and Australia, even going so far as to suggest users "download PSP games, it’s up to you." Apparently Sony gamers "down under" in New Zealand and Australia are so far removed from their European cousins that they regularly experience 4-5 month delays in getting shipments of new PAL region game release titles.The experience has been frustrating for gamers trying to legally purchase copies of the latest and greatest games that are released each month and the issue was raised recently with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe CEO David Reeves at E3, the annual trade show for the computer and video games industry.In an interview with Buttonmasher he offers some solutions to this distribution lag that are so shockingly honest and realistic that it makes you wonder if there’s an ulterior motive at work here.He starts off by saying that there will continue to be a 4-5 month delay for Sony gamers in New Zealand and Australia.

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New tactic in the fight against the RIAA is to admit guilt, but challenge copyright laws and argue that compensatory damages greater than 9 to 1 violates the Due Process Clause of the 14th amendment. In the case of Elektra vs Barker attorney Ray Beckerman of Recording Industry vs the People is employing a new tactic in his longstanding tussle with the RIAA. He readily admits that his client did use the KaZaA file-sharing program and should be punished accordingly, but that actual damages should be limited to $3.50 per song she made available for a total of $750 if found liable. Beckerman challenges the constitutionality of the statute awarding damages for copyright infringement to the extent it could be construed as authorizing more than nine times the actual damages.

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Learns from RIAA mistakes, noting "would require ridiculous amounts of resources and probably would not accomplish a lot." Porn has long been one of the most widely traded types of content on P2P and file-sharing sites and thus, like the rest of the entertainment industry, it too has had to face the problem of how to effectively combat the problem. Enter the Pak Group, which was formed back in September 2007 during a meeting of major content producers. It was "was formed for the purpose of documenting, pursuing and bringing claims in the form of demand letters and lawsuits to the front door of pirates," but has come to the apparent realization that going after individual file-sharers is a losing proposition. I’m sure the RIAA’s nearly decade-long efforts was what ultimately convinced them.

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There is a new proposal that could further restrict copyright laws in the United States. With the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on the minds of many people around the world, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling the new copyright proposals potentially catastrophic.Copyright and surveillance laws have been the subject of much discussion in the last few months. While some are more specifically copyright related pieces and others are more surveillance and privacy related, they all could affect peoples digital lives. For some, it’s hard to imagine that copyright laws could get much worse in the United States, but that is exactly what could be happening if the latest proposals actually make it to law.

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There is a new proposal that could further restrict copyright laws in the United States. With the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) on the minds of many people around the world, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling the new copyright proposals potentially catastrophic.Copyright and surveillance laws have been the subject of much discussion in the last few months. While some are more specifically copyright related pieces and others are more surveillance and privacy related, they all could affect peoples digital lives. For some, it’s hard to imagine that copyright laws could get much worse in the United States, but that is exactly what could be happening if the latest proposals actually make it to law.

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Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) hasn’t been getting many headlines these days, but that could change - at least in Canada. The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC) is requesting the privacy commissioner to investigate major telecom companies in Canada like Rogers, Shaw and Eastlink who use DPI to profile their customers.Deep Packet Inspection has frequently been sighted as the solution to tracking and throttling users who use file-sharing applications - regardless of legality. The idea of DPI hasn’t been seen much outside of Sandvine claiming that 44% of all bandwidth consumption is P2P related despite counter-evidence that shows a different story.Bell, one of Canada’s largest ISPs have been under fire in the recent past for throttling its customers.

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Op-ed piece warns of government bureaucrats solving network traffic programs instead of engineers.With news that the FCC is close to punishing Comcast for throttling BitTorrent it’s worth mentioning that one of the dissenting commissioners, Robert M. McDowell, a Republican, wrote an op-ed piece in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal criticizing government intervention in the matter. So far three votes in favor of punishing Comcast come from Democrats Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, and Republican chairman Kevin Martin, ensuring a majority and that the FCC will take action.Comcast has acknowledged it slowed some traffic, but said it was necessary to prevent P2P traffic from hogging network resources.

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Calls plans to target suspected file-sharers "draconian measures" and warns that ISPs will inevitably target "vulnerable people who use shared Internet connections."Finally some UK politicians are starting to realize the folly in having ISPs target suspected file-sharers, especially when the evidence comes from the entertainment industry and NOT from independent law enforcement personnel. With reports that some 54% of UK kids are file-sharers along with the fact that the British govt plans to reduce P2P overall by some 80% is starting to raise eyebrows. For it means that large numbers of people will face sanctions from ISPs or more. Again, all without evidence obtained from unbiased sources.

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