Tenants are disliking the “Facebook addendum” posted on their doors last week.
Source: Apartment complex demands tenants give Facebook “like” within 5 days | Ars Technica
Category: Censorship
Sony Thinks It Can Charge An ‘Administrative Fee’ For Fair Use | Techdirt
When HVBA’s webmaster emailed Sony Music to explain that the use of music clips in the lecture videos was fair use, Sony’s representative responded that the label had “a new company policy that uses such as yours be subject to a minimum $500 license fee,” and that “if you are going to upload more videos we are going to have to follow our protocol.” Sony’s representative didn’t say that she believed the video was not a fair use. Instead, she implied that even a fair use would require payment, and that Sony would keep using YouTube’s Content ID system against HVBA until they paid up.
Source: Sony Thinks It Can Charge An ‘Administrative Fee’ For Fair Use | Techdirt
Hollywood Withdraws Funding for UK Anti-Piracy Group FACT – TorrentFreak
The UK’s Federation Against Copyright Theft has received a major blow after the Motion Picture Association advised the anti-piracy group it will not renew its membership. The termination of the 30-year long relationship means that FACT will lose 50% of its budget and the backing of the six major Hollywood movie studios.
Source: Hollywood Withdraws Funding for UK Anti-Piracy Group FACT – TorrentFreak
Self-Proclaimed ‘Badass Lawyer’ Loses Defamation Suit Against Parody Twitter Account | Techdirt
Another defamation lawsuit against a parody account has failed, brought on by a lawyer who should have known better but didn’t. Todd Levitt — self-proclaimed “Badass Lawyer” — has a verifiable history of bad decisions that perhaps made this sort of bogus litigation a foregone conclusion, however.Levitt tried to fire up his own reality show, which would have presumably covered such lawyeriffic behavior as singing karaoke with college students, inviting comparisons to TV’s sleaziest lawyer (Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad), creating a Top College Lawyers website solely for the purpose of awarding himself the title of “Top College Lawyer,” and somehow mistaking alleged defamation for a criminal offense.
Source: Self-Proclaimed ‘Badass Lawyer’ Loses Defamation Suit Against Parody Twitter Account | Techdirt
Vindication for Edward Snowden From a New Player in NSA Whistleblowing Saga
A former assistant inspector general at the Pentagon who was responsible for protecting whistleblowers became one himself when the process failed.
Source: Vindication for Edward Snowden From a New Player in NSA Whistleblowing Saga
Journalists Arrested In Ferguson Promise Not To Promote The Settlement | Techdirt
on Wednesdsay, it was announced that a settlement has been reached in which law enforcement officers will receive more training. While the official details of the settlement were “confidential,” the Huffington Post got a copy of the settlement using a FOIA request and found some interesting details, including an agreement that none of the four journalists in question will “publicize” the agreement in any way
Source: Journalists Arrested In Ferguson Promise Not To Promote The Settlement | Techdirt
House Science Committee claims free speech attacks in Exxon probes | Ars Technica
Republicans demand docs from attorneys general and environmental groups.
Source: House Science Committee claims free speech attacks in Exxon probes | Ars Technica
Fox ‘Stole’ a Game Clip, Used it in Family Guy & DMCA’d the Original – TorrentFreak
This week’s episode of Family Guy included a clip from 1980s Nintendo video game Double Dribble showing a glitch to get a free 3-point goal. Fox obtained the clip from YouTube where it had been sitting since it was first uploaded in 2009. Shortly after, Fox told YouTube the game footage infringed its copyrights. YouTube took it down.
Source: Fox ‘Stole’ a Game Clip, Used it in Family Guy & DMCA’d the Original – TorrentFreak
James Comey Still Trying To Blame Increase In Violent Crime On ‘Viral Videos’ | Techdirt
Save iTunes! | Electronic Frontier Foundation
I remember the launch of iTunes in 2001. Hurrying home from the MacWorld conference in San Francisco, downloading the app, making a stack of CDs next to my Powerbook, ripping them as fast as my machine would go. Rip, Mix, Burn, baby!
