December 22, 2024

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What's That "Followups" Link?

September 5, 2002 by

You may have noticed the small “Followups” link at the bottom of recent entries in this blog. That’s a feature called TrackBack. (The link previously said “TrackBack” but I’ve changed it to “Followups” since that seems a more intuitive name.) Kieran Healy offers a nice explanation of the TrackBack feature.

If you’re a reader, the Followups link lets you read what other people have written (in their own blogs) about an entry.

If you have your own blog, you can use the TrackBack feature to add yourself to that list, so readers of my blog (including me) can find your commentary. If you use Movable Type, just turn on TrackBack and the rest is easy. If you use another blogging tool, ask your tool author to add TrackBack support.

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Preliminary Injunction Against Aimster

September 5, 2002 by

A Federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction against the Aimster file sharing service.

The judge found it likely that Aimster will ultimately (after all the evidence is heard) be found liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement. Based on a quick reading, it looks like this is based on Aimster’s involvement in promoting the available files, the use of infringing files as examples in its documentation, and on its failure to enforce its stated policy of kicking off infringers.

The opinion has some commentary on the Supreme Court’s Sony Betamax decision, hinting that Betamax established a standard based on the “primary use” of a product.

The exact terms of the injunction (i.e. what Aimster will be required to do or not do) are yet to be decided.

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Defense of Berman-Coble Bill Offered

September 5, 2002 by

In Politech today, Congressman Berman (through an aide) offers a defense of the proposed Berman-Coble bill. (This bill would legalize certain forms of hacking by copyright owners against users of file-sharing systems.)

The gist of the defense is that the bill would only shelter copyright holders from liability to the extent that they were actually preventing redistribution of their copyrighted works, but that any impairment of unrelated activities or legal file sharing would still be liable as under current law.

If that’s actually a correct reading of the bill, then the bill might not be as bad as people say. But it’s far from clear that that is the correct reading of the bill.

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Adobe Files DMCA Challenge

September 4, 2002 by

Adobe has filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaratory judgment that its Acrobat product does not violate the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions. (Here’s Adobe’s press release. I don’t have a link to the court papers yet.)

Here is the story, as far as I can tell at this point:
Any TrueType-compatible font can be labeled with bits saying whether permission is granted to embed the font into documents. Adobe Acrobat apparently does not always obey the bits’ commands. Adobe says they have good reasons for this, and that in any case Acrobat’s use of fonts does not infringe any copyright. The other party (International Typeface Corporation, or ITC) says that Acrobat is a DMCA-violating circumvention device.

It’s way to early to speculate about the merits of Adobe’s case. But there is some karmic justice in the fact that Adobe, which kicked off the Sklyarov/Elcomsoft DMCA mess, now finds itself on the other end of a DMCA threat.

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R.I.P. Napster

September 4, 2002 by

A judge has nixed Bertelsmann’s purchase of Napster. This looks like the end of the road for Napster. From now on Napster will be nothing but a cautionary example – though precisely what cautionary lesson it offers, and to whom, will be a subject of vigorous debate.

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