Free Republic

Own a Ford product? Ford doesn't agree. Once we've paid for a car and driven it off the dealership lot, most people believe that you own that car. You have all rights and privileges of ownership, nobody but you (and the bank, perhaps) can determine what you do with it. Or, so we thought. Ford Motor Company recently decided to go after two car clubs, the "Black Mustang Club" and the "Rice Haters' Club" for various trademark and copyright infringements. In both cases, the clubs had put out an annual calendar, featuring photos of members' cars, some of which were...

In the year ahead, a long-heralded revolution in wireless communications will finally come to pass. It may throw handset makers and service providers into turmoil, but over time it should be great for consumers. Fast, wireless data will become more widely available, the choice of data devices and mobile handsets will expand, and service just might get cheaper. The biggest driver of change is an event slated for February, 2009. It is, of all things, the shutdown of analog television broadcasting. The conversion to digital TV will free up space now occupied by UHF channels 52 to 69. A chunk...

In a case against an unrepresented defendant the RIAA has included a statement into the brief for summary judgment Defendant admitted that he converted these sound recordings from their original format to the .mp3 format for his and his wife’s use. (Howell Dep. 107:24 to 110:2; 114:1 to 116:16). The .mp3 format is a "compressed format [that] allows for rapid transmission of digital audio files from one computer to another by electronic mail or any other file transfer protocol." Napster, 239 F.3d at 1011. Once Defendant converted Plaintiffs’ recording into the compressed .mp3 format and they are in his shared...

In the aftermath of the $222,000 jury verdict that the Recording Industry Association of America recently won against a Minnesota woman who shared 24 songs on Kazaa, the U.S. Congress is preparing to amend copyright law. Politicians want to increase penalties for copyright infringement. It's no joke. Top Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced a sweeping 69-page bill that ratchets up civil penalties for copyright infringement, boosts criminal enforcement, and even creates a new federal agency charged with bringing about a national and international copyright crackdown. "By providing additional resources for enforcement of intellectual...

How many copyright violations does an average user commit in a single day? John Tehranian, a law professor at the University of Utah, calculates in a new paper that he rings up $12.45 million in liability (PDF) over the course of an average day. The gap between what the law allows and what social norms permit is so great now that "we are, technically speaking, a nation of infringers." Tehranian's paper points out just how pervasive copyright has become in our lives. Simply checking one's e-mail and including the full text in response could be a violation of copyright. So...

The House yesterday passed the most comprehensive patent reform in half a century, delivering a victory for computer technology and financial services companies and leaving drug companies, small inventors, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office bracing for a bigger fight before the bill hits the Senate floor. The bill, which passed 225 to 175 with strong bipartisan support, is meant to reduce the mounting number of patent infringement cases by changing the ways patents are awarded and challenged. Because much of the bill is perceived to be favorable to targets of patent-infringement suits rather than patent holders, it has...

BMW CEO Norbert Reithofer is not happy. In a case which proves that nothing is immune to the sleight of hand of Chinese manufacturers and their ability and willingness to clone any product on earth, BMW has been forced to threaten legal action over a cheap knock-off version of their popular X5 SUV. The Chinese-made SUV which ironically enough is called CEO is almost identical in appearance to BMW’s X5…especially from the rear. “We have already taken steps against the marketing of the CEO (SUV) in Europe. Should this car be presented at the IAA, we will look into taking...

SARASOTA -- The company that manufactures the state's drunken-driving breath-test machines must turn over the computer code that runs the machines or face stiff fines, a county judge has ruled. Defense attorneys have argued that having their experts examine the Intoxilyzer 8000's "source code" is the only way to ensure the machines correctly calculate a driver's blood-alcohol content. The Intoxilyzer 8000's first glitch was discovered in April, a month after it was implemented, when state officials realized it failed in certain situations. The state then upgraded the software in machines across the state. In Manatee and Sarasota counties, more than...

But then there is nothing run-of-the-mill about the case that Mr. Mendel, a Texan who was born and raised in Southern California, has been waging against his own government before the World Trade Organization, the body in Geneva that sets the ground rules for global trade. The dispute stretches back to 2003, when Mr. Mendel first persuaded officials in Antigua and Barbuda, a tiny nation in the Caribbean with a population of around 70,000, to instigate a trade complaint against the United States, claiming its ban against Americans gambling over the Internet violated Antigua and Barbuda’s rights as a member...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- Knockoff music acts that impersonate the real performers can face fines up to $15,000 under a new law in New York. "Music artists work for years to build names for themselves in the entertainment industry," Gov. Eliot Spitzer said Tuesday after signing the amendments to the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law. "We should not allow others to impersonate their work and profit from that deception." Called the "Truth in Music Advertising Law," it prohibits copycat performances that attempt to cash in through false and misleading representations like names, billings and promotions similar to the original artists....

Counterfeit prescription drugs are a $35 billion-a-year business, and it's growing; by some estimates, 50 percent of prescription drugs in Africa, including those used to treat AIDS and malaria, are fake. Americans have long considered themselves immune, but a huge proportion of the prescription medications and devices used in the United States are now manufactured overseas, and the risks are escalating for Americans, too. It's no surprise; last year alone Americans spent $275 billion on their prescriptions. Consider: • Last fall, counterfeit diabetes test strips from China flooded the U.S. market. The fake blood glucose monitoring strips first came to...

SHANGHAI (AFP) - Two Chinese shoemakers and French retailer Auchan have been ordered to pay Nike 350,000 yuan (46,000 dollars) in compensation for making and selling fake sneakers, state media said Tuesday. The two shoemakers based in southeast China's Fujian province made runners bearing logos identical to Nike's Air Jordan -- a silhouette of former basketball star Michael Jordan slam-dunking, the China Daily reported. A Shanghai court on Monday ordered Jinjiang Longzhibu Shoes and Jinjiang Kangwei Shoes to pay 100,000 yuan and 90,000 yuan in compensation to Nike respectively. Auchan's Shanghai outlet was ordered to pay 160,000 yuan for selling...

Maybe it's from listening to all that rap music. But if any organization has acted like original gangstas, it's the RIAA. And now, it seems, someone's about to bust a cap in their assets. Last week Tanya Andersen filed a class action suit in Oregon accusing the RIAA, the Big 4 record companies, and digital snoops Media Sentry of a range of criminal racketeering charges not seen since the John Gotti trial. (For those of you not closely following the whole RIAA saga, Tanya is the disabled mother of 10-year-old Kylee, whom the RIAA deposed as part of its unsuccessful...

In extraordinary coordination, the judiciary committees of both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in the same week approved a bill, which, if it becomes law, will spell the end of America's world leadership in innovation. Called the Patent Reform Act, it is a direct attack on the unique and successful patent system created by the U.S. Constitution. Before 1999, the U.S. Patent Office was required to keep secret the contents of a patent application until a patent was granted, and to return the application in secret to the inventor if a patent was denied. That protected the legal...

Back in May, the Justice Department issued some proposed legislation to tighten US intellectual property laws and to criminalize some forms of "attempted infringement." Now, legislation based on the proposals has been introduced in Congress by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH), complete with stiffer jail terms for violaters and the controversial "attempted infringement" clause. H.R. 3155, the Intellectual Property Enhanced Criminal Enforcement Act of 2007, aims widely. Everything gets a section: unauthorized recording of films in theaters, circumventing copy protection, trafficking in counterfeit goods. The bill even directs the Attorney General to send federal prosecutors to take up permanent residence in...

Music copyrights will remain fixed at 50 years after the British government decided against extending their term to as much as 95 years. In May, the Parliamentary Select Committee on Culture, Media, and Sport had recommended that the term be lengthened to bring it more in line with copyright terms in the rest of the world (95 years in the US). Related StoriesBeatles music to start entering UK public domain in 2012? Gowers: I took the "politically prudent" course on copyright in IP report Compulsory music licenses to get Congressional overhaul courtesy of "Mr. Hollywood" Court declines to postpone Internet...

SEATTLE — Microsoft Corp. is once again on the defensive against hackers after the launch of a new program that gives average PC users tools to unlock copy-protected digital music and movies. The latest version of the FairUse4M program, which can crack Microsoft's digital rights management system for Windows Media audio and video files, was published online late Friday. In the past year, Microsoft plugged holes exploited by two earlier versions of the program and filed a federal lawsuit against its anonymous authors. Microsoft dropped the lawsuit after failing to identify them. The third version of FairUse4M has a simple...

Net radio's woes made their way to the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business today, where the looming crisis that could kill diversity in Internet radio was met with a lack of ideas how to stop it. (Background on the rate hike.) There were clear signs of frustrations among legislators, however, and those frustrations stem from the fact that in the eyes of many, this issue should have long been settled. "The recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to increase royalty fees may jeopardize the mutually beneficial relationship [between webcasters and copyright holders]," co-chairman Steve Chabot (R-OH) said....

The globalists are making a new attempt to circumvent and weaken a right explicitly recognized in the U.S. Constitution: Americans' exclusive ownership of their own inventions. Fortunately, Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., have exposed this mischief and called on Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., to slow down and discuss the proposed legislation before making costly mistakes. As we've learned with "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," we should all be on guard any time politicians patronize us with pompous talk about "reform." The so-called Patent...

(CBS) NEW YORK -- When the band Clap Your Hands Say Yeah packaged and shipped its new CD, called "Some Loud Thunder," they released it without a record label. And this was after their first self-financed album had sold more than 200,000 copies, prompting plenty of offers from the big labels, which they turned down. When asked why, Sean Greenhalgh, the band's drummer, told CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason, "The question that we asked record companies was essentially, 'What can you do for us that we can't do for ourselves?'" Billboard magazine made the band the poster boys of a...