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TOP STORIES FOR FRIDAY, APRIL 02, 2004 File Traders Safe in Canada Second Judge Rejects RIAA's Group Lawsuits Feds Taking Tougher Stance on P2P Piracy Sun and Microsoft Reach Settlement Google Enters the E-Mail Fray FILE TRADERS SAFE IN CANADA A federal court in Canada has ruled that use of P2P networks to trade music files does not constitute a violation of Canadian copyright law. The Canadian Recording Industry Association had sought the identities of 29 individuals alleged to have illegally shared files over P2P networks. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein ruled, however, that the association did not prove that the individuals had in fact distributed songs or authorized their illegal reproduction. Simply placing the songs on their computers and granting P2P access to those songs to other users on the network does not prove copyright infringement, said von Finckenstein. An attorney for the Canadian Recording Industry Association said the group would appeal and suggested that Canadian laws are not keeping up with evolving technologies that allow digital piracy on such a large scale. Washington Post, 31 March 2004 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40398-2004Mar31.html SECOND JUDGE REJECTS RIAA'S GROUP LAWSUITS Weeks after a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may not discover the identities of multiple users from a single lawsuit, a judge in Florida has reached the same conclusion. After a court ruling that said the RIAA could not compel ISPs to disclose the identities of alleged copyright infringers without filing a lawsuit, the group began filing individual lawsuits against multiple defendants who share an ISP. That tactic has now been rejected by two federal judges, forcing the RIAA to file separate "John Doe" lawsuits against every individual it suspects of violating copyright law. The group can still sue alleged violators and learn their identities from ISPs, but it must do so on an individual basis, which will cost the group more money and take more time. Wired News, 1 April 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62915,00.html FEDS TAKING TOUGHER STANCE ON P2P PIRACY The U.S. Justice Department has formed an intellectual-property task force to look into how the department is dealing with the growing problem of piracy of music, movies, and software and to make recommendations about what steps the department should take to increase its role in the prevention of such piracy. Some members of Congress have been critical of the department's handling of electronic piracy problems. The task force will be headed by David Israelite, deputy chief of staff and counselor to John Ashcroft. Other members of the task force were not disclosed. Meanwhile, a House judiciary subcommittee gave unanimous backing to a bill sponsored by Reps. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) that would criminalize the use of P2P networks for trading copyrighted materials. Under the Piracy Deterrence and Education Act of 2004, those found guilty of trading copyrighted songs over such networks could face three years in prison, or up to six years for repeat offenses. Individuals who use camcorders or other recording devices in theaters to copy movies would also face jail time under the bill. Critics of the bill said the new penalties are unnecessary, given existing civil laws against copyright violations. Wired News, 31 March 2004 http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,62895,00.html SUN AND MICROSOFT REACH SETTLEMENT Sun Microsystems and Microsoft have reportedly reached a settlement over antitrust and patent issues. Under the terms of the agreement, Microsoft will pay Sun $700 million for the antitrust allegations and $900 million for patent issues. The two companies also agreed to make payments to each other for use of their respective technologies. The $1.6 billion settlement is Microsoft's latest with a competitor, after settling with AOL last year and with Apple Computer in 1997. A $1 billion lawsuit from RealNetworks is still pending. Officials from Sun and Microsoft heralded the agreement as the first step in an era of cooperation and peace between the two longtime rivals. The upbeat news was qualified, however, by an announcement that Sun's losses for the past quarter were larger than expected and that the company would lay off another 3,300 employees, or 9 percent of its global workforce, by the end of September. CNET, 2 April 2004 http://news.com.com/2100-1014_3-5183848.html GOOGLE ENTERS THE E-MAIL FRAY Search engine Google will launch an e-mail service, called Gmail, and take on companies such as Microsoft and Yahoo, both of which offer e-mail as well as search services. Yahoo and Microsoft have recently announced efforts to try to improve their share of the search market, currently dominated by Google. Google will start well behind Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL in number of subscribers; each of those three companies has more than 30 million subscribers already. The new Gmail service will reportedly offer users premium features, such as the ability to store large amounts of e-mail, for free. Current e-mail offerings from Microsoft, Yahoo, and AOL typically offer free e-mail accounts but charge users for storage above a relatively low threshold. New York Times, 1 April 2004 (registration req'd) http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/01/technology/01google.html ***************************************************** EDUPAGE INFORMATION To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change your settings, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ Or, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To SUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SUBSCRIBE Edupage YourFirstName YourLastName To UNSUBSCRIBE, in the body of the message type: SIGNOFF Edupage If you have subscription problems, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For past issues of Edupage or information about translations of Edupage into other languages, visit http://www.educause.edu/pub/edupage/ ***************************************************** OTHER EDUCAUSE PUBLICATIONS EDUCAUSE publishes periodicals, including "EQ" and "EDUCAUSE Review," books, and other materials dealing with the impacts and implications of information technology in higher education. 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