A new episode of my audio series, The Importance Of ... Law and IT, is up on IT Conversations.

This show, like my first one, deals with MGM v. Grokster, although this time we're not talking about some appellate court, we're talking about the Supremes (The Importance of ... Law and IT: MGM v. Grokster). Joining me for this show were two of the leading commentators on the net and elsewhere yesterday when the decision was released:

• Denise Howell - an appellate and intellectual property lawyer with the Reed Smith law firm and the author of Bag and Baggage
• Charles Petit - an advocate for artists, musicians, and writers concentrating in copyright and publishing law and the author of Scrivener's Error

Many thanks to my excellent guests.

Later this afternoon, I'll be recording a podcast for IT Conversations on the Grokster decision with Denise Howell of Bag and Baggage and C. E. Petit of Scrivener's Error. Use this post to submit any questions you have about the decision or topics you'd like covered. I can't guarantee that we'll answer all of them, but I'll make an effort to see that we cover the best ones.

The fifth and sixth episodes of my audio series, The Importance Of ... Law and IT, are up on IT Conversations.

The fifth show focuses on the terrible decision in Blizzard v. bnetd, which I originally wrote about on LawMeme (Analysis of BNETD and Blizzard). My guests were law Prof. Michael Madison and freelance DMCA expert Seth Finkelstein. Get the show here: Bnetd v. Blizzard.

The sixth show dealt with the recent DMCA decision in the Lexmark v. Static Control case. My guests were law student/copyfighter Joe Gratz, EFF staff attorney Jason Schultz and undergrad/copyfighter Derek Slater. Get the show here: Knock-Off Printer Cartridges.

Once again, I would like to thank my guests for two most excellent shows.

Comments, suggestions, etc. welcomed.

The fourth episode of my audio series, The Importance Of ... Law and IT, is up on IT Conversations.

This show focuses on the Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act of 2004 (IICA, née INDUCE Act), with some emphasis on the recent draft from the Copyright Office.

Get the show here: The INDUCE Act 2.0.

There was really not too much I had to do in this show except let two excellent experts and advocates explain what is going on with the INDUCE Act:

• Andrew Greenberg is an attorney with Carlton Fields and Vice-Chairman of
  the Intellectual Property Committee for the Institute of Electrical
  and Electronics Engineers.
• Joshua Wattles is past president of the Los Angeles Copyright Society
  and the former acting general counsel of Paramount Pictures
  Corporation.

During the show, Greenberg noted that there are also several other alternatives to the INDUCE Act. You can find out more about them here: 'Don't Induce Act' - an Alternative to the INDUCE Act (IICA) and Other News.

Read on for the letter Wattles sent to key Senators regarding the bill just days after the show...

Continue reading "The Importance of ... Law and IT: The INDUCE Act 2.0"

Episode the third of my new audio series, The Importance Of ... Law and IT, is up on IT Conversations.

This show focuses on the recent appellate decision on the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, Chamberlain Group, Inc. v. Skylink Technologies, Inc.. Previous coverage here: Landmark Federal Circuit Decision in Skylink Case Creates DMCA Balancing Test and Commentaries on the Federal Circuit's Skylink Decision.

Get the show here: Garage Doors and the DMCA.

Once again I had the pleasure of hosting experts on the issues:

• Ed Felten, professor of computer science at Princeton University and Freedom to Tinker
• Michael Madison, a law professor at the University of Pittsburg and author of the new blawg Madisonian Theory
• Wendy Seltzer, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, fellow Copyfighter and author of Legal Tags

Slowly, but surely, I think I'm getting the hang of this audio format. Suggestions, recommendations, etc., appreciated.

Well, the second episode of my new audio series, The Importance Of ... Law and IT, is up on IT Conversations.

This show focused on a mixture of legal, business and policy issues involved in the current online music store conflicts: Apple v. Real v. Microsoft.

Once again I had the pleasure of some excellent guests:

• Rafat Ali, a business and technology journalist and founder of the digital media news and analysis website, PaidContent.org.
• Mike Masnick, founder and president of Techdirt, a research firm focused on keeping business executives informed about technology issues that impact their businesses.
• Jason Schultz, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation
• Derek Slater, a Harvard University senior and affiliate of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School.

See also, Fred von Lohmann on EFF's Deeplinks (MSFT Offers Real "Freedom of Music Choice"). via Copyfight

Thanks to everyone for an interesting show!

Btw, suggestions for improvements, future shows, etc. appreciated.

As I noted in the previous post (Broadcatching on the iPod Platform), I've decided to start an audio show on IT Conversations. The shows will be available in both MP3 and AAC. More importantly, they will be available via RSS with enclosures.

The audio edition homepage: The Importance Of ... Law and IT.

The first show is, I think, a very interesting one, dealing with the recent Grokster decision (The Importance of ... Law and IT: MGM v. Grokster). What makes it interesting is not only the topic, but the most excellent guests on the show:

• Denise Howell - an appellate and intellectual property lawyer with the Reed Smith law firm and the author of Bag and Baggage
• Charles Petit, an advocate for artists, musicians, and writers concentrating in copyright and publishing law and the author of Scrivener's Error
• Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the man who argued the case for StreamCast
• Tim Wu, an IP and telecomm law professor at the Univ. of Virginia who is currently visiting at Columbia Law School and recently a guest blogger on Lessig's blog (you should keep blogging, Tim)

During the show, Fred mentions a white paper he has written on designing P2P filesharing programs while avoiding liability. Those interested can find it here: IAAL: Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law after Napster.

I've also added a new category to this blog to follow my audio shows: Audio Edition Archive.

For months now I have been touting the possibilities of RSS and BitTorrent, aka broadcatching, especially in regard to the distribution of video. However, audio is also an important distribution medium and there is plenty of opportunity to replace radio with broadcatching as well as television.

Adam Curry has been leading the way in broadcatching audio, providing a daily 15-20 minute audio program, Source Code, on what he (borrowing the term from Steve Gillmor) calls the iPod Platform.

Making MP3s available is easy. What is hard right now is getting those MP3s effortlessly onto other platforms, such as the iPod. Imagine being able to plug your iPod into its cradle at night and pick it up in the morning full of all sorts of audio goodness, or finding the latest news already downloaded into your car for the commute to work. That is part of the idea behind Curry's iPodder.

One of the companies that is taking advantage of the RSS method of distribution for audio is IT Conversations and recently they hosted an interview with famed innovator Dan Bricklin (Dan Bricklin - Memory Lane). Over on his blog, Bricklin talks about his interview and the great potential of this new media form (Interview by Halley on ITConversations and thoughts on online stored audio):

With this form of content there is no time slot to fill or miss as there is with traditional radio/TV broadcast. Word of mouth, blogs, and search engines can help build up an "audience" for a particular "episode" after the fact without needing to worry about how many people are tuned in at a particular time. A narrow-interest piece (in hindsight) only costs the production expenses and not wasted distribution since storage is cheap and bandwidth is mainly spent on popular pieces. Something less popular doesn't preclude something else that may be more popular in the same "time slot". A "hit" can last a long time. Digital music players (especially those with large storage capacities) make it easy to carry and save content for whenever you have time to listen, even days or weeks later. Being stored, you can pause the playback, repeat, listen in small chunks of time, etc. Because it can be done when mobile, listening to content that isn't really worth devoting scarce, sit-down, quality time (such as my interview) can be mixed with other activities compatible with listening, such as traveling, exercising, or doing household chores. Being available online, you can recommend a particular piece to others after listening.

In any case, I should note that I've become so enamored of this new media format that I've decided to start my own show, generously hosted by IT Conversations. More on the first episode in another post.