In case you were wondering what the deal is with Palo Alto High School alumnus and Oregon Senator Ron Wyden’s interest in Big Tech, maybe it’s this: Amazon, Rackspace, Facebook and of course Google, all have built massive data centers in Oregon that suck down Oregon’s hydroelectric power. Yes, according to The Oregonian: Data centers […]
[Editor Charlie sez, this article originally appeared in the Huffington Post.] Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) is holding a useful series of thought provoking hearings before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet reviewing the current state of the U.S. Copyright Act. The most recent hearing in this series was on September 18, […]
Google is making a big push to get colleges and universities to take their various Google Apps for Education For “free”, of course. And we all know who the product is on a “free” Google app, right? The product is you. These education apps appear to link the user to Google’s entire suite of products, […]
As Judge Jon Tigar recently held in another Northern District of California case, 9th Circuit judges must follow precedent on class action settlements (even in San Jose). When it comes to the shady business of using class actions to funnel money to the defendant’s favorite charity/lobbying group/alumni organization (aka the cy pres loophole), the rule […]
Spoken like a compulsory licensee–according to FMQB: Pandora has announced a new brand identity, using the slogan “Let There Be Music,” which the digital service says will reflect “the company’s mission to cultivate a better musical future for artists and listeners alike.” Whether the artists like it or not. This rebranding was launched the same […]
Here’s the way it looks like it works: Google or Facebook overreach in a way that allows them to be sued for potentially billions in a class action that has yet to be filed, but could be. Friendly lawyers come forward and offer a deal–we represent the class, we will do a settlement that pays […]
[The White Queen] “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll Google has released a self-study (How Google Fights Piracy). While hope springs eternal, the self-study falls quite short of both truth and reality. Let’s see why. The Context Even if you discount the moral […]
We’ve all seen lawyer email signature blocks get longer and longer. Lots of disclaimers about a variety of subjects, but in light of the Google involvement with the National Security Agency and the use of the “third party doctrine“, one disclaimer caught my attention in the email signature of an attorney who does not use […]
If you don’t live in the UK you may never have heard of the unlicensed file barter platform called Oink that was shut down in 2007 accompanied by a number of criminal prosecutions. The site’s grand poobah, one Alan Ellis, seems to have gone on to do something else following his acquittal for conspiracy to […]
Music Technology Policy 
You must be logged in to post a comment.