Student vs. RIAA? $675,000 in damages!

highnote — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:03:08 +0000

Oh my, Boston grad student Joel Tenenbaum lost his case against the RIAA. He was accused of downloading and sharing hundreds of tracks, but the case had focused on just 30. Of those 30, the jury agreed with the RIAA that Tenenbaum caused substantial damages and loss. But $675,000??? That’s sounds ludicrous. There’s no way he can pay this off.

This is also the case where the Harvard professor Charles Nesson said he would represent Joel Tenenbaum. Looks like it wasn’t helpful enough. Harvard’s law faculty is well known for being very anti-RIAA. I wonder what will happen now – the kid is going to go into bankruptcy probably.

iTunes freed from DRM

highnote — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 00:26:23 +0000

DRM is “digital rights management”, and is a label usually attached to music files like mp3s purchased over the internet at vendors like Napster, eMusic or iTunes. Music files with DRM are restricted in the sense that they cannot be easily transferred from one computer to another with playability intact. When it’s moved to a computer after being purchased, the file usually cannot be played. Well, Apple finally got rid of this restriction. Other vendors have already done so either completely or in a limited fashion. But Apple iTunes really is the 8 billion pound gorilla in online music sales, and their action portends a turning point in online music vending. What this means is that we’re free to copy, trade this music (in accordance with copyright law of course), principally this allows us to move these files around different computers and still retain the ability to play them. About time I think.

Polyester Bride » drm

Student vs. RIAA? $675,000 in damages!

iTunes freed from DRM