] A federal judge in Los Angeles has handed a stunning
] court victory to file-swapping services Streamcast
] Networks and Grokster, dismissing much of the record
] industry and movie studios' lawsuit against the two
] companies.

] "Defendants distribute and support software, the
] users of which can and do choose to employ it for
] both lawful and unlawful ends," Wilson wrote in his
] opinion, released Friday. "Grokster and StreamCast
] are not significantly different from companies that
] sell home video recorders or copy machines, both of
] which can be and are used to infringe copyrights."

Wow! Good news!

Judge: File-swapping tools are legal | CNET News.com

http://www.cybercrime.gov/fastlane.htm

My name is Glendon, that link above should fill you in on what happened to me back in Nov of 2000. I'm posting this to answer questions i hope you would have about this case/trial. I used to be as deep in the scene as possible until that happened. I would like to warn you people who can be rather ignorant (as i was) to what is really going on around you as you 'happily trade warez'. I'm open to any questions you have, and please ask, because you really need to know, this is no joke and by far not worth the consequences!

[iSONEWS] I have been convicted of Copyright Infringement . .and its NOT funny.

The original post on the phpnuke.org site, for reference.

quoted:
===

What a shame!

This is the worse thing I saw in many time. A web site called LawMeme which topic is the LAW, copyrights and legal stuff (hosted by the Yale Law School at Yale University) that simply removed the PHP-Nuke copyright notices. I know that some people removes the copyright notice but to see this done by a LAW related site!?!?! This is a call to the those few PHP-Nuke's users that likes to remove the copyrights to think about it and try to respect the hard work that many people did for you. Not to mention that this great system is free. Nothing more... just an advice.

PHP-Nuke - What a shame!

The PHP-Nuke people mail the FSF, the FSF confirms that they are 'right' and Lawmeme is wrong.. huh. Doesn't this mean that any given linux system should have to display copyright notices to the user all the time?

I wonder if they'll send me a cease-and-desist for quoting their post without appending a copyright notice. . .

quoted:
===

MissS writes "Awhile back, questions were raised as to whether or not the copyright notice at the bottom of PHPNuke created pages could be removed. Now there is an answer to this question, straight from the GNU people.

The GNU website states that if you have any questions concerning licensing, you can simply email them for clarification. That is exactly what I did and what follows is my email to them...

(My email written to licensing@gnu.org on 9/19/2002 with their response indicated by '---gt'):

PHP-Nuke - PHP-Nuke GPL Copyright Removal Question Finally Solved

See, even open source authors can be dicks about copyright! (As if there were any doubt.. ;P)

quoted:
===

Lawmeme operates its website using PHP-Nuke, a GNU/GPL application used to maintain blogs. Ever since our inception, Lawmeme has used PHP-Nuke (since version 5) because it is rich in features, fast, and supported by the open-source community. However, some PHP- Nuke users and the author appear to have become angry at Lawmeme because we have removed a copyright notice from the footer of the page template.

PHP-Nuke's default setting is to display the following notice at the bottom of each page that it generates:

Web site engine's code is Copyright © 2002 by PHP-Nuke. All Rights Reserved. PHP-Nuke is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL license.

This default setting wasn't always so. When Lawmeme originally used PHP-Nuke, the footer was fully customizable via the administrator's interface. Naturally, we changed the footer to meet our site's needs. As PHP-Nuke was found to have numerous cross-site scripting vulnerabilities, we began to upgrade to the most recent versions of PHP-Nuke. With every upgrade came new features, and after heavily modifying PHP-Nuke's code to fit our needs, some of the upgrade scripts didn't work correctly. In fact, the most recent upgrade, where configuration settings are stored in a database, never copied the copyright statement.

Read on for more details.

LawMeme: Feature - PHP-Nuke's Copyright Notice

March 2003 issue - Some Rights Reserved

Cyber-law activists devise a set of licenses for sharing creative works

By Gary Stix

In a book published in 2001, Stanford Law School professor Lawrence Lessig decried the threat to the Internet from both large media interests and burgeoning intellectual-property laws. In Lessig's view, the Internet should serve as a commons, a medium that encourages creativity through the exchange of photographs, music, literature, academic treatises, even entire course curricula. Lessig and like-minded law and technology experts have now decided to go beyond making academic arguments to counter the perceived danger.

On December 16, 2002, the nonprofit Creative Commons opened its digital doors to provide, without charge, a series of licenses that enable a copyrighted work to be shared more easily. The licenses attempt to overcome the inherently restrictive nature of copyright law. Under existing rules, a doodle of a lunchtime companion's face on a paper napkin is copyrighted as soon as the budding artist lifts up the pen. No "©" is needed at the bottom of the napkin. All rights are reserved.

The licenses issued through Creative Commons have changed that. They allow the creator of a work to retain the copyright while stipulating merely "some rights reserved." A user can build a custom license: One option lets the copyright holder specify that a piece of music or an essay can be used for any purpose as long as attribution is given. Another, which can be combined with the first, permits usage for any noncommercial end. Separately, the site offers a document that lets someone's creation be donated to the public domain.

Scientific American: Some Rights Reserved

NOTE: The ISO news servers are still up, but currently have no nameservice. As soon as they do, I have a hunch the non-American servers will be back online, with nameservice. How pointless..

quoted:
===
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday it had seized a website that offered information on bootlegged video games and movies, but the site remained available to many Internet users.

The Justice Department said it had taken over the Iso News site after its owner pleaded guilty to selling computer chips that would enable users to play bootleg video games on Microsoft Xbox consoles.

Some visitors to the site found a warning against copyright infringement and a link to the Justice Department's computer-crime division, but others were able to reach a version of the original site, which serves as a meeting place for Internet users.

Wired News: Government Fails to Block Bootleg Site

This is insane. Notice that the content of the site seems to have little to do with the crime that he was arrested for. He was busted for selling Xbox mod-chips, not for publishing information about which IP is 'pirated'.. yet they want to take over isonews.com because of that publishing, certainly not because he was selling mod chips..

The fucking US DOJ is out of fucking control. Good to know they have resources to waste on bullshit like this. Guess that's what "justice" is all about. Your tax dollars at work. Go DMCA.

quoted:
===
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The leading public Internet site dedicated to online copyright piracy was
seized by the Justice Department today. Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff and Paul J. McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia today announced the seizure
of www.iSONEWS.com as part of a previous plea agreement entered into by a defendant convicted of violating the criminal copyright laws.

David M. Rocci, 22, of Blacksburg, Va., who used the online screen name "krazy8," pleaded guilty on December 19, 2002, in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to
conspiring to import, market and sell circumvention devices known as modification (or "mod") chips in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Mod chips are designed to
circumvent copyright protections built into game consoles such as the Microsoft Xbox and Sony Playstation 2, and once installed, allow the unlimited play of pirated games on those
consoles. As a condition of his plea, Rocci agreed to surrender to the government his public website, www.iSONEWS.com, which he used to facilitate his illegal activity.

The United States assumed control of the domain name and website this week. Individuals who now visit www.iSONEWS.com will no longer find the latest news on new pirated releases by
illegal software piracy (or "warez") groups. Instead, they will view information about the case of United States v. Rocci, as well as general information about copyright infringement
and the criminal prosecution of individuals engaged in online piracy. In addition to this information, the site now contains links to the website of the Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, www.cybercrime.gov, which contains further information on the Department's criminal anti-piracy efforts.

#118: 02-26-03 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SEIZES TOP INTERNET SITE INVOLVED IN COPYRIGHT PIRACY

... kids aren't interested in music anymore; "it's about gaming and PlayStation."

Twilight of the CD? Not if It Can Be Reinvented