Breaking Bad, Comics, Entertainment, Music; Games; Free to Play, Pay to Win; Tilt; NSA Spying, Surveillance and Privacy, Your Rights Online

Breaking Bad

• The Last Stand of Walter White—"A cancer-ridden science teacher transforms himself into a sinister meth lord. That's the story of 'Breaking Bad.' But it's also the story of how Bryan Cranston became TV's greatest leading man. As the show enters its final stretch, GQ's Brett Martin discovers why Walter White will always live on."
• 'Mythbusters' tests 'Breaking Bad'
• Walter White goes undercover as himself at Comic-Con
• Breaking Bad Jr – Afterwards They Will Explode
• With 2 Hit Series Ending, a Transformed AMC Is at a Crossroads NYT

Comics

• Interview: David Steward II on Founding Lion Forge and Getting into the Entertainment Business
• 'Batman' takes boy battling respiratory illness on Batcave tour
• Watch JOKER RISING - Full-Length Fan Film
• If Woody Allen Made Wolverine
• Hawkeye: Afternoon Stroll—Amazing fan-art.

Entertainment

• Five hundred new fairytales discovered in Germany—"Collection of fairytales gathered by historian Franz Xaver von Schönwerth had been locked away in an archive in Regensburg for over 150 years."
• JK Rowling law firm pays damages over pseudonym leak—The settlement goes to The Soldier's Charity, as well as the book royalties.
• Netflix, Studios Have Very Different Explanations for Widescreen Cropping
• Massive 'Simpsons' supercut features every movie reference in first 10 seasons
• Nate Silver ESPN: The eight sports problems that the FiveThirtyEight maestro should solve
• Portraits By Erika Saracino
• 33 Skeletor Affirmations To Get You Through Even The Worst Day

Music

• The Rock 'n' Roll Casualty Who Became a War Hero—Jason Everman is not your every man (Salon). NYT
• Jimmy Fallon, Robin Thicke & The Roots Sing "Blurred Lines" (w/ Classroom Instruments)
• Daft Punk Punks Stephen Colbert

Games

• Microsoft gives a damn 'bout your bad reputation on Xbox One—"Not living in the past—it's a new generation of Xbox Live community management."
• New Oculus Rift cover shooter is so realistic, players warned not to lean on virtual objects
• 10-year-old saves family in errant car, credits Mario Kart
• Greek Mythology Chess Set
• Blast from the Past: The Ages of Minecraft

Free to Play, Pay to Win

• Apple refunds $6,131 iTunes bill for 8-year-old's unauthorized in-app purchases
• In-app purchasing and $3,000 iTunes bill stun mom
• Why Free-to-Play is a fad —Or, is it here to stay?

Tilt

• Lawsuit Awards $11 Million to Original Madden Programmer—EA accused recycling code and features.
• Zynga loses $15.8M in Q2, nearly half its daily users year-over-year
• Kickstarter tabletop game collapses after bringing in $123K
• Video game suit can proceed—"A federal lawsuit filed against the video-game vendor GameStop Corp. alleges three South Jersey stores sold used games that sometimes cost more than buying new."
• Xbox Live Policies Are Blocking Cross-Platform MMOs like "Final Fantasy XIV" and "Dust 514"

NSA Spying

• Obama touts NSA surveillance reforms to quell growing unease over programs—"President to work with Congress to reform NSA's Fisa court and Patriot Act but made clear that mass surveillance would continue."
• Obama Promises Reform of NSA Spying, But the Devil Will Be in the Details
• Obama Administration Releases Previously Secret Legal Opinion on NSA's Associational Tracking Program
• Obama's Reassurances about Domestic Surveillance are not Reassuring
• Making You 'Comfortable' with Spying Is Obama's Big NSA Fix
• Obama's former adviser ridicules statement that NSA doesn’t spy on Americans
• WikiLeaks founder: Obama surveillance changes vindicate Edward Snowden—Warning: Has un-pausable, un-muteable auto-playing video advertisement. Turn off your speaker before clicking.

Surveillance and Privacy

• Lawmakers say obstacles limited oversight of NSA’s telephone surveillance program
• Jennifer Hoelzer's Insider's View Of The Administration's Response To NSA Surveillance Leaks
• Don’t worry, NSA says—we only "touch" 1.6% of daily global Internet traffic
• Researchers say Tor-targeted malware phoned home to NSA—"JavaScript attack had a hard-coded IP address that traced back to NSA address block."
• A Call to Boycott U.S. Tech Platforms Over the NSA's PRISM Surveillance
• Lavabit's closure marks the death of secure cloud computing in the US—"Once Edward Snowden's use of the email service was public, it was perhaps a given that Lavabit would be targeted by the US."
• Mega to fill secure email gap left by Lavabit—"Kim Dotcom's privacy company Mega prepares 'cutting edge' email encryption service."

Your Rights Online

• Spy access to NZ used as bargaining tool—"The ability for US intelligence agencies to access internet data was used as a bargaining tool by a Telecom-owned company trying to keep down the cost of the undersea cable from New Zealand."
• Facebook used in worker dismissal—"A flight attendant was forced to let her bosses examine her Facebook pages and bank accounts in a stoush over what she was up to on sick leave."
• New tool monitors e-mail language to catch workplace thieves
• No, this isn't a scene from Minority Report. This trash can is stalking you
• Pirate Bay Releases 'Pirate Browser' to Thwart Censorship

Marriage Equality, International; Politics and Media; Scouts, Religion

Marriage Equality

• Rhode Island Becomes 10th State To Approve Marriage Equality
• Nevada: Gay Senator Comes Out As State Approves Same-Sex Marriage
• Anti-Gay Iowa Bill Would Reduce Pro-Marriage Equality Justices' Pay By 85 Percent
• Ninth Circuit Court judge: Oregon gay marriage ban is 'unconstitutional'
• Minnesota bill would institute universal civil unions, leave marriage to churches—"In the ongoing debate about equal rights for gay families, a Minnesota lawmaker takes a different approach." Salon
• TX Man: After 34 Years My Partner's Sister Forced Us Apart, Took Our Home Because We Weren't Married
• NOM Rebuffs Fourth-Grader’s 'Perfect Argument' For Marriage Equality

International

• New Zealand: Same-sex marriage legalised—Give it up for Maurice Williamson MP.
• Confused anti-gay marriage politicians accidentally vote in favor of gay marriage—And now let's hear from French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, one of the prime-movers of the bill. Salon
• Cook Islands PM rules out marriage equality—"The prime minister... says he respects the sanctity of marriage as provided for under Christian beliefs and faith."

Politics and Media

• Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now
• Ian McKellen on Margaret Thatcher
• Physical excercise prevents you becoming gay, claims UK councillor candidate
• Raymond Buys: 15 years old, dead for not being manly
• Flipside: Ex-Nebraska star sentenced for lying—"A former University of Nebraska basketball star convicted of lying to police about being attacked in her home by masked men who carved anti-gay slurs into her skin was sentenced Thursday to a week in jail and two years' probation."

Scouts

• Leaders of Boy Scouts endorse allowing gay boys but not adults
• Mormon Church approves of Boy Scouts proposal to end gay youth ban
• An Anti-Gay Scoutmaster Gets A Hard Life Lesson From A Straight Eagle Scout And A Gay News Anchor

Religion

• Watterson Teacher Wants Job Back: "That's All I'm Hoping For"—"Hale is gay. And she said that is the reason the Columbus Diocese fired her, for what it said was a violation of moral law."
• Another Christian Owned Business Uses Jesus As Excuse To Discriminate
• 'Ex-gay' leader says sorry for harm caused, he's still gay—"John Paulk, the former chairman of Exodus International, has apologized for saying religion will cure homosexuality."

EA's SimShitty; Phone Unlocking; Your Rights Online; Copyfight; Megaupload; News.Biz; Porn Trolling

EA's SimShitty

• SimCity players still reporting long server queues, some as long as 30 minutes—That's always-on DRM punishes legitimate customers even those who "start up a private region and play by yourself." It's gotten so bad Amazon pulled the game out of its virtual shelves.
• EA: No Digital Refunds for SimCity Players
• SimCity: The Backlash
• A Tale of SimCity: Users Struggle Against Onerous DRM
• SimCity Meltdown: What Always-Online Says About Game Ownership In The Digital Age
• EA Apologizes For SimCity Disaster, Says It Was "Dumb" And Offers Free Game To Players
• EA Employee Chastises Company Over SimCity in Public Letter
• Maxis: SimCity offline mode is 'just not possible'
• EA: SimCity server response time has improved 40-fold since launch—"Studio pledges to 'look into' offline mode as part of 'earning back your trust.'" With the money already plunked in, I'd be surprised if they did.
• Just Cause 2 Developer On Why It Won't Utilize DRM: 'It Treats Our Fans Like Criminals'

Phone Unlocking

• White House says it should be legal to unlock cellphones
• F.C.C. Backs Consumers in Unlocking of Cellphones NYT
• US lawmakers scramble to legalise phone unlocking
• Copyright reformers pan weak legislation on cell phone unlocking—"Consumer advocates say Congress should focus on reforming the DMCA."
• AT&T's Response to the Cell Phone Unlocking Controversy Insults Users—"Apologies in advance for the rant, but AT&T's response to the controversy over cell phone unlocking really gets under my skin."

Your Rights Online

• Tim Berners-Lee: The Web needs to stay open, and Gopher's still not cool.
• EFF: Hey Google, Can We Have Data About FISA Court Orders Too?
• Harvard Searched E-Mails for Source of Media Leaks—"The administration searched staff e-mails to try to root out the source of leaks to the news media in a cheating scandal, and the staff members were not told until months later." NYT
• How Facebook could get you arrested—"Smart technology and the sort of big data available to social networking sites are helping police target crime before it happens. But is this ethical?"
• Iran blocks use of tool to get around Internet filter

Copyfight

• US Trade Rep orders Canada to comply with the dead-and-buried ACTA treaty, Canada rolls over and wets itself
• NDP Calls It: Bill C-56 is "ACTA Through the Backdoor"
• Microsoft restores transfer rights for retail Office 2013 copies—"As part of its shift to a subscription model, Microsoft introduced a controversial 'no transfer' restriction with Office 2013. Now, after an intense outcry from customers, the company has reversed course and agreed to allow users to transfer retail Office licenses between devices."
• Oops: DKNY Admits Using Blogger’s Photos Without Permission—"A popular street-style photographer says the brand offered to buy his pictures for its store windows, but he refused. Then it used them anyway."
• Apple Patents a System for Second-Hand iTunes Sales

Megaupload

• Researchers: movie studios sold more after Megaupload was shut down—Was the study funded by the MPAA?
• U.S. Government Wins Appeal in Kim Dotcom Extradition Battle
• Dotcom wins right to sue

News.Biz

• Mainstream media meltdown!—"Newspapers will never be the same. But what happens to democracy if the Web business model can't fund journalism?" Salon
• Newspapers go all-in for copyright fight against clipping service
• Is This Canadian Newspaper Breaking Copyright Law?—"If someone wants to post a quote from anything written by the National Post, they are now presented with pop-up box seeking a licence that starts at $150 for the Internet posting of 100 words with an extra fee of 50 cents for each additional word (the price is cut in half for non-profits). None of this requires a licence or payment. If there was a fair dealing analysis, there is no doubt that copying a hundred words out of an article would easily meet the fair dealing standard. In fact, the Supreme Court of Canada has indicated that copying full articles in some circumstances may be permitted."

Porn Trolling

• Angry judge calls porn troll's bluff, orders entire firm to court—Which they're refusing to do.
• Porn trolling mastermind is the world's most evasive witness
• Enraged by abusive lawsuits, anonymous troll slayers fight back—"Growing community of online activists is making life difficult for porn trolls."

World Human Rights Day; Megaupload, Pirate Bay, Copyfight; Internet Freedom, Surveillance and Privacy, Tech Tracking; Patents; Online Gambling

World Human Rights Day

Megaupload

• New Zealand Government Admits That Order To Suppress Illegal Spying On Kim Dotcom Only Such Order Issued In 10 Years--"Signed by acting prime minister Bill English while Key was aboard."
• Dotcom can pursue case against police, GCSB
• Dotcom Announces Brand New "Lobbyist-Proof" Kiwi Domain for Mega--The original name, Me.ga, was taken away.
• Kim Dotcom posts screenshots of upcoming Mega site: key generator, registration, and file manager
• Kim Dotcom's Open Letter To Hollywood

Pirate Bay

• Pirate Bay Founder Released From Solitary Confinement
• The Pirate Bay Is The World's Most Efficient Public Library
• UK ISPs Unblock Pirate Bay’s Artist Promos After Protests

Copyfight

• Digital Rights Groups Shut Out of Secret TPP Negotiations--Why does it matter? Glad you asked.
• Staffer axed by Republican group over retracted copyright-reform memo--"Big Content doesn't like the GOP advocating for copyright changes."
• Dark dealings of 'The Hobbit'--What the New Zealand government did to ensure the movie production stayed there.
• How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the "darknet" would defeat DRM
• Blast fromt the Past: Get a Real DVD!--How convincing.

Internet Freedom

• ITU Approves Deep Packet Inspection Standard Behind Closed Doors, Ignores Huge Privacy Implications
• House approves resolution to keep Internet control out of UN hands--397-0.
• The UN's Threat to Internet Freedom

Surveillance and Privacy

• Senator Al Franken revives debate on privacy act requiring user consent for location sharing
• Here We Go Again: Latest Draft Of White House Cybersecurity 'Executive Order' Is Leaked
• Appeals Court Holds Firm: The Government Cannot Be Sued For Violating Its Own Wiretapping Laws
• Cops to Congress: We need logs of Americans' text messages--"State and local law enforcement groups want wireless providers to store detailed information about your SMS messages for at least two years -- in case they're needed for future criminal investigations."
• New 25 GPU Monster Devours Passwords In Seconds

Tech Tracking

• Facebook: EU's 'Right To Be Forgotten' Will Enforce More User Tracking--War is peace. Freedom is slavery.
• How to get targeted ads on your TV? Try a camera in your set-top box.--"Verizon has filed a patent for a DVR that can watch and listen to the goings-on in your living room. In the application, the company proposes to use the technology to serve targeted ads appropriate to whatever you're doing in the, uh, privacy of your own home—fighting, cuddling, or hanging out with your cats."
• In Some Stores, the Mannequins Are Watching You

Patents

• In the High-Tech Patent Wars, an Inventor's Lament--"In high-tech industries, the patent system is tilted in favor of large companies that are mainly engaged in incremental innovation, according to Stephen Perlman, a well-known inventor and entrepreneur. That makes things increasingly difficult, he contends, for inventors who are pursuing longer-term breakthroughs."
• Numbers don't lie: Patent trolls are a plague
• America's dysfunctional patent system is stifling innovation--"Instead of rewarding invention, US patents just help corporations work monopolies and legal 'trolls' make parasitic profits."
• The Meteoric Ascent of the Patent Troll and the Devastating Consequences for Innovation
• Facebook, Google, Zynga Ask Courts To Reject Patents On Abstract Ideas That Plague Tech Innovation

Online Gambling

• Poker is game of skill, not chance, New York judge rules, upping Internet ante
• Kentucky reverses 141-site net casino land grab
• Why Republicans Should Favor Legalized Internet Gambling

Megaupload, YouTube and Content Ownership, Copyfight, Piracy, Music Business, Trademark

Megaupload

• Apple Founder "Woz" Defends Megaupload
• Dotcom judge quits the case
• Kim Dotcom Goes on Mega-Offense Against U.S. Copyright Case
• Feds: We Can Freeze Megaupload Assets Even if Case Dismissed
• Elite force in dark in Dotcom house raid--What really happened at the raid? Guess they found the video they lost.

YouTube and Content Ownership

• How YouTube lets content companies "claim" NASA Mars videos--Guys like Lon Seidman hit by copyright abuse.
• YouTube restores Obama videos, refuses to explain takedown policies--Maybe Republicans will finally see the light.
• Radiohead To Prince: Unblock 'Creep' YouTube Vids

Copyfight

• Trans-Pacific Partnership: The Most Important Trade Agreement That We Know Nothing About
• Leaked MPAA Memo Reveals TV-Shack Press Strategy
• Leaked: US proposal on copyright's limits
• Court Shelves Washington State Law That Would Turn Service Providers Into Criminals Based On Their Users' Behavior
• Canada: Supreme Court Entrenches Technological Neutrality as a New Copyright Principle
• Embedding copyright-infringing video is not a crime, court rules
• Good News: Craigslist drops exclusive license to your posts

Piracy

• Piracy witch hunt downs legit e-book lending Web site--"Several authors on Twitter mistook an e-book lending Web site for a piracy hub, a mistake that eventually took the site offline. As the dust settles, a disturbing picture of file-sharing hysteria emerges."
• Pirate Bay blocks did little to curb file-sharing
• Demonoid Busted As A Gift To The United States Government--Anonymous is vowing revenge.
• Top German court says RapidShare must monitor link sites for piracy
• Google must delete 'torrent' from autocomplete, court says
• Google alters algorithm as Hollywood lobbyists win latest copyright battle
• Politician pushes extreme anti-piracy bill in the Philippines--"Thought the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was bad? A similar bill introduced into the Philippines' House of Representatives would penalize people who illegally download with a minimum two-year jail sentence and fines of 50,000 to 150,000 Phillippine pesos. ($1,200-$3,600)."

Music Business

• The Spotify Effect Shows Up: Streaming Music Boosts Warner's Bottom Line
• Another Music Service Shuts Down, Blames Ridiculous Licensing Fees
• Leaked Report Reveals Music Industry's Global Anti-Piracy Strategy
• Alex Day Sells Half A Million Songs By Breaking All The 'Rules'
• Anti-piracy group fined for stealing music

Trademark

• Courts Losing Patience With Clearly Bogus Trademark Claims; Dismissing Them Early
• Attaché Company Attacks Marvel, Alleging Avengers Infringement
• Jack Daniel's has a very nice trademark lawyer
• Anonymous Hits Back At French Firm That Tried To Trademark Their Logo
• Open-source movements butt heads over logo--Nerdfight.
• Judge Sides With Red Cross Over Trademark--Red Cross probes emblem 'misuse'
• Blast from the Past: Nissan vs. Nissan: Nissan Motor Sued Nissan Computer For Trademark Infringement, Trademark Dilution And Cyber-Squatting Seeking 10 Million Dollars In Damages

Corporations, Banks, Libor, Wall Street, Mortgages and Foreclosures, Big Food

Corporations

• Revealed – the capitalist network that runs the world--"As anti-capitalist protesters take to the streets, mathematics has teased apart the global economic network to show who's really pulling the strings."
• After 800 years, the barons are back in control of Britain--"The Magna Carta forced King John to give away powers. But big business now exerts a chilling grip on the workforce."
• Duke Energy CEO Bill Johnson resigns after one day, gets $44 million in severance
• Idle corporate cash piles up--"The Fed's latest Flow of Funds report showed that U.S. nonfinancial companies held $1.7 trillion in liquid assets at the end of March. But newly released IRS figures show that in 2009 these companies held $4.8 trillion in liquid assets, which equals $5.1 trillion in today's dollars, triple the Fed figure."
• Corporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes

Banks

• £13tn hoard hidden from taxman by global elite
• Was the petrol price rigged too?
• UK: Fees that can halve the value of your pension

Libor

• Libor fraud exposes Wall Street’s rotten core
• Deutsche Bank seeks deal in Libor scandal
• Libor arrests in US could be imminent, say sources

Wall Street

• The Stock Market IS Rigged: Big Investors Illegally Get Analysts' Info Before You Do
• Gaming the Electricity Markets, Wall Street Style
• Goldman Sachs and a Sale Gone Horribly Awry NYT

Mortages and Foreclosures

• California County Weighs Drastic Plan to Aid Homeowners NYT
• L.A. sues US Bank over blighted, abandoned homes
• The Whistleblower's Tale: Countrywide Investigator Fired for Doing Her Job While Rampant Fraud Was Concealed
• Banks nix "risky" loans--"Banks won't help Obama rescue the underwater homeowners who, a few years ago, they were eager to rip off." Salon
• Wells Fargo Will Settle Mortgage Bias Charges NYT
• Barofsky Book: Geithner Confirmed in 2009 That HAMP Was Designed for Banks to Spread Out Foreclosures

Big Food

• Has 'Organic' Been Oversized? NYT
• New food bill in New Zealand takes away human right to grow food
• Food price crisis feared as erratic weather wreaks havoc on crops

Trans-Pacific Partnership, Copyfight, International, Canada, Megaupload, TheOatmeal vs. Funnyjunk

Trans-Pacific Parternship

• TPP: Corporate Power Tool of the 1%
• Apparently The USTR Thinks 'Unprecedented Transparency' Means Hiding TPP Details From 98% Of Congress
• Wyden To Obama: Hollywood Shouldn't Know More About TPP Than Congress
• SOPA Supporters Urge White House To Use Secretive TPP Process To Insert Draconian New IP Laws
• Obama Trade Document Leaked, Revealing New Corporate Powers And Broken Campaign Promises
• Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement Pushes Corporate Sovereignty Over Environmental Law
• New World Order Blueprint Leaked

Copyfight

• Capitalists Who Fear Change--"Digital technology is reinventing our whole world, in service of you and me. It's free enterprise on steroids. It's bypassing the gatekeepers and empowering each of us to invent our own civilization for ourselves, according to our own specifications."
• Supreme Court to Decide Application of First Sale Doctrine to Foreign-Made Copyrighted Works
• Congressional Staffer Says SOPA Protests 'Poisoned The Well', Failure To Pass Puts Internet At Risk
• Comcast Protests "Shake Down" of Alleged BitTorrent Pirates--"The ISP is now refusing to comply with court-ordered subpoenas, arguing that they are intended to 'shake down' subscribers by coercing them to pay settlements."
• DOJ Realizes That Comcast & Time Warner Are Trying To Prop Up Cable By Holding Back Hulu & Netflix
• Creator posts original film to YouTube, BMF claims copyright--YouTube's fault for flagging the film over the sound of wind.
• Letter to Emily White at NPR All Songs Considered

International

• Wikipedia's founder calls for Richard O'Dwyer extradition to be stopped--"Jimmy Wales launches campaign calling on Theresa May to stop extradition to US of UK student facing alleged copyright offences."
• ACTA rejected by committee in crucial blow before final EU Parliament vote
• The Pirate Party Gains Steam Overseas; Will It Catch in the U.S.
• Norwegian student fined for subtitle piracy
• Japan Passes Jail-for-Downloaders Anti-Piracy Law--They also want to "spy on all user activity."

Canada

• Big Content wants to bring SOPA-style policies to Canada
• The MPAA's Secret Lobby Campaign on Bill C-11 and a Canadian SOPA
• Copyright bill finally clears Commons--"Act hasn't been updated since 1997, now in Senate's hands to pass before summer."

Megaupload

• DOJ tries to block return of data to MegaUpload user--"U.S. files motion asking a federal court to deny a request from a former MegaUpload user for the return of his football videos," as doing so "would set a bad precedent."
• Retired Judge Joins Fight Against DOJ’s 'Outrageous' Seizures in Megaupload Case
• FBI told to copy seized Dotcom data--"The FBI has been ordered to start copying 150 terabytes of data - including 10 million emails - contained on the seized computers belonging to internet mogul Kim Dotcom."
• New Zealand's High Court Steps Into Extradition Fight Over Kim Dotcom
• Megaupload: U.S. Intentionally Disrespects Foreign Sovereignty

TheOatmeal vs. FunnyJunk

• FunnyJunk is threatening to file a federal lawsuit against me unless I pay $20,000 in damages
• FunnyJunk's Lawyer responds to the Oatmeal by trying to shut down the fundraiser--He continues to fail.
• The Oatmeal v. Funnyjunk: How The Court Of Public Opinion Beats The Court Of Baseless Legal Threats
• FunnyJunk's lawyer vows revenge on The Oatmeal and Matthew Inman
• FunnyJunk's lawyer sues American Cancer Society and National Wildlife Federation
• FunnyJunk lawyer to subpoena Ars and Twitter
• EFF Will Represent The Oatmeal Creator in Fight Against Bizarre Lawsuit Targeting Critical Online Speech

Hollywood, HBO, MegaUpload, Copyfight, International

Hollywood

• TV Networks Say You're Breaking The Law When You Skip Commercials
• Tell Old Media to Keep Their Hands Out of Your DVR
• TV Network Exec Argues That Anything That Causes Cable Subscribers To Cut The Cord Is Illegal

HBO

• Shut up and take my money, HBO: Website pushes for standalone HBO streaming service
• The Reasons Why HBO Doesn’t Want Your Money
• HBO Says No Go To "Take My Money, HBO"

MegaUpload

• Kim Dotcom wins right to FBI files
• MegaUpload asks U.S. court to dismiss piracy charges--"The cloud-storage service accused of piracy says the U.S. lacked jurisdiction and Justice Department lawyers 'should have known' that before taking down the service and throwing its founder in jail."
• Dotcom info not 'physical'--"FBI agents who copied data from Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's computers and took it overseas were not acting illegally because information isn't 'physical material', the Crown says."

Copyfight

• Should Websites Charge A Fee To Process Copyright Takedowns?
• Undercover MPAA Agents Expose Alleged Movie Pirates
• Verizon Succesfully Defends Privacy of Alleged BitTorrent Pirates
• The Pirate generation: Are we 'unreasonable'?
• Study: Despite Tougher Copyright Monopoly Laws, Sharing Remains Pervasive
• Feds Urging Appeals Court to Reinstate $1.5 Million File-Sharing Verdict - against a Minnesota woman for sharing two dozen songs on Kazaa
• Bowing to U.S. pressure, Spain and Malaysia dropped from copyright blacklist--"After bowing to pressure from the U.S., Spain and Malaysia have been dropped from a high-profile copyright violations watchlist that officials use to pressure countries into changing their laws to align with U.S. intellectual property safeguards."

International

• The Game of ACTA: Mid-Battle Analysis, Next Actions--"After the well-received ACTA rejection by the three first committes in the European Parliament, things are looking hopeful to prevent this middlemen-regime treaty from ever becoming reality. But we’re not there yet; here’s where we are."
• Dead on arrival? Dutch Parliament kills ACTA before EU vote--"Dutch MPs have also ruled the government will never sign any such agreement."
• Germany increases USB flash drive tax by over 2000 percent
• Canada: Music played at public events to be subject to new copyright fees
• French court says YouTube not obligated to control content

Copyfight, ACTA, North America, Europe, ANZ, Movies, Music

Copyfight

• RIAA CEO Hopes SOPA Protests Were a 'One-Time Thing'
• RIAA (sort of) responds to SOPA critics, says copyright "offers little real protection"
• Copyright Math: The lies MPAA/RIAA are saying to convince politicians to pass their bills
• Copyright kings are judge, jury and executioner on YouTube
• The Pirate Bay's Peter Sunde: It's Evolution, Stupid

ACTA

• Dutch Parliament Rejects ACTA On Human Rights Violations
• Danish Trade Minister Apologizes For Using Bogus Industry Numbers To Support Pro-ACTA Argument
• Bulgaria Withdraws From ACTA, following Poland and Germany
• Michael Geist's magisterial ten-minute ACTA takedown
• European Commission Blames Social Networks For ACTA Failure; Worried About Its Imminent Directive On Copyright Enforcement

North America

• Verisign Seizes .com Domain Registered via Foreign Registrar on Behalf of US Authorities
• Uncle Sam: If It Ends in .Com, It's .Seizable
• American ISPs to launch massive copyright spying scheme on July 12
• Canadian Music Industry Wants Its Own Lawful Access: Subscriber Disclosure Without a Court Order
• Canadian Music Industry Takes Aim At Google, Facebook, Reddit & Tech Startups With Bill C-11 Demands

Europe

• Copyright wars heat up: US wins extradition of college kid from England
• SOPA, meet SOCA - British Police Take Down Website, Threaten Visitors
• BT and Talk Talk lose file-sharing appeal.
• Ireland Signs Controversial 'Irish SOPA' Into Law; Kicks Off New Censorship Regime
• Hactivistas protest brutal Spanish copyright law with flood of complaints

ANZ

• Australian Govt holds second secret anti-piracy meeting
• Blackout: Govt piracy meeting completely censored
• Megaupload Seizure Order "Null and Void" Says High Court

Movies

• MPAA: Ripping DVDs Shouldn't Be Allowed Because It Takes Away Our Ability To Charge You Multiple Times For The Same Content
• Stop innovating, please: Kaleidescape loses DVD ripping case
• BitTorrent doesn't hurt US box-office
• Fox, Warner want secure, high-def film players--DRM rears its ugly head.
• Heavy Hangs The Bandwidth That Torrents The Crown--"The Oatmeal made an unintentional point that was just as important as the first, however: The single least-attractive attribute of many of the people who download content illegally is their smug sense of entitlement."

Music

• UK Manager Says Major Labels Steal More Music Than Filesharers
• Massive Copyright Shitstorm Brewing, And iTunes Is Involved
• RIAA Insists That, Really, The Music Industry Is Collapsing; Reality Shows It's Just The RIAA That's Collapsing
• Paper Lions gets fed up with not being paid for their Album, Releases for free.
• iPass away – do my digital downloads die with me?