The Columbia Journalist covers our film remix contest

Saturday, 04. 8. 2006  –  Category: Links, Media, News

Inga and I recently sat down with Doree Shafrir, a reporter from Columbia’s Journalism School to discuss our upcoming film remix contest. Doree talked to some lawyers (including Mia @ CC) about our contest and wrote about it in her article:
[A]ccording to intellectual property expert Jane Ginsburg, a professor at Columbia Law School, Free Culture [...]

AOL and Yahoo to charge for e-mails

Tuesday, 02. 7. 2006  –  Category: Links, News

AOL and Yahoo! are to start charging for sending emails.
Both companies will still accept free emails but are offering the chance to pay to avoid their spam filters. By paying between a quarter [of a cent] and one cent per message companies will get preferential delivery of their messages.
The Register:
AOL and Yahoo! to charge for [...]

Village Voice writes about Free Culture @ NYU

Wednesday, 01. 11. 2006  –  Category: Links, Media, News, Photos

In case you didn’t hear, Carla Blumenkranz from the Village Voice interviewed Inga and I last month about our club. Check out her excellent article here, and make sure to pick up a copy of the Voice this week. The only correction is that my name isn’t really “Brian” (as the caption of Brian Kennedy’s [...]

Sony 'rootkit' settlement clamps down on DRM

Thursday, 12. 29. 2005  –  Category: Links, News

Remember that class action law suit filed against Sony here in New York? Well, looks like they’ve decided to settle! The court still needs to approve the settlement, but it actually looks pretty good on first glance!
Sony ‘rootkit’ settlement clamps down on DRM
In completely unrelated news, apparently 2005 is going to be one [...]

MS update disables Sony Rootkit

Tuesday, 12. 13. 2005  –  Category: Links, News

As promised a few weeks ago, Microsoft included patches in its monthly patch batch that disable the cloaking abilities of the Sony Rootkit. They have included definitions in its Malicious Software Removal Tool, which runs automatically when users download updates from either Windows Update or Microsoft Update, and can also be run manually from [...]

SunnComm MediaMax Vulnerability

Thursday, 12. 8. 2005  –  Category: Links, News

While not as bad as the Sony Rootkit, it has been revealed that the SunnComm MediaMax DRM software has a somewhat major security vulnerability as well that could allow for privilege escalation (or messing with the software’s files as an unprivileged user). The problem stems from the fact that the DRM software, when first [...]

Google BookSearch

Monday, 12. 5. 2005  –  Category: General, Links, Meta

The debate about the status of Google’s BookSearch Project (fair use or infringement?) is still raging.
Lessig’s blog has a great comment string discussing the various positions, both moral and juridical that can be taken on this case.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, who is offering a class this Spring called Copyright, Commerce, and Culture (E59.1405, call # 42699), [...]

Photos from our second demonstration

Thursday, 12. 1. 2005  –  Category: Events & Recaps, Links, Media, News, Photos

Thanks to everyone who came out for our second DRM demonstration! Richard Stallman and his friends from NYFairUse joined us. RMS donned the sacred-sandwich board, we witnessed a domestic disturbance, handed out over 700 flyers, met many interested and shocked consumers and only got a little cold. As Tom mentioned in his earlier post, a [...]

Premature Victory Declaration?

Thursday, 12. 1. 2005  –  Category: General, Links, Meta, News

Mark Russinovich, the blogger who first publicly disclosed the Sony Rootkit, has written a new post summarizing the current state of affairs. Even though Sony officially recalled the infected discs two weeks ago, there are reports that Sony hasn’t properly been notifying stores about the recall, and many stores still have the discs on [...]

Sony pulls rootkit DRM CDs

Wednesday, 11. 16. 2005  –  Category: Links, Meta, News

Sounds like Sony is officially recalling all the CD’s it has shipped with the rootkit, before we even got a chance to take action ourselves! They’re also going to have an exchange program for people who already have the infected discs, and it sounds like they’re going to provide a better uninstaller. Meanwhile, [...]