Darknet

Entertainment companies settle with Kazaa

New York Times: Record and Movie Industries Reach a Settlement With Kazaa.

Clowns threatened with lawsuits

Front-page story in the San Jose Mercury News: No clowning around in threatened lawsuit.

Happy the Clown is sad -- and looking for a good attorney.

A New York law firm is threatening to sue Happy and other clowns if they don't stop dressing as purple dinosaurs or red dogs in their shows at children's birthday parties. Those characters, the firm alleges, are too much like Barney and Clifford the Dog.

And no more Mr. Conductor or Bob the Builder look-alikes either.

``I was crying,'' said Sari Mitchell, the person behind Happy the Clown, who's also president of Most Unique Parties & Ponies, based in Boulder Creek. ``One clown threatened suicide but we talked him out of it.''

San Jose Mercury News: Clowns: Send in the lawyers.

Clifford the Dog belongs at the library -- not at children's birthday parties, according to the company that owns rights to the big red canine.

Scholastic Inc., a $2 billion-a year publishing and media company, is one of the firms threatening to sue some small Bay Area clown companies for depicting Clifford and other characters at children's birthday parties without permission.

``It's important for us to protect our valuable property rights,'' said Kyle Good, vice president for corporate communications for Scholastic. ``If Clifford is being presented outside our guidelines, it can become a very uncomfortable position for children as well.''

The clown companies received letters recently from Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP, a New York law firm that represents Scholastic as well as the owners of other popular children's characters such as Bob the Builder, Thomas the Tank Engine and Barney the Dinosaur.

To settle without going to court, the letter says the clowns should stop using the costumes, surrender them, pay $100,000 and sign an agreement never to use the characters again. The firm says its clients could be awarded damages of up to $150,000 per character if it wins a court case.

I explored this topic in Darknet -- sad to see that nothing has changed.

Whose idea is it anyway?

Marc Porter Zasada in Sunday's Los Angeles Times: Just Whose Idea Is It Anyway? In the new "Age of Copyright," dynasties are founded on cartoon characters, lawyers play extreme sports, and we all break the law. It's never been easier to stake a creative claim — or jump one.

Sidebar: Defining the limits of intellectual property

As the "copyright economy" expands, lawsuits abound. Attorney David Nimmer keeps a file of some particularly creative efforts:

• In 2002, Fun Spot Action Park, an amusement park in Orlando, Fla., sued nearby Magical Midway, claiming the other park had wrongfully imitated the design of its go-kart tracks. Fun Spot won the first round of the legal skirmish.

• In 2003, photographer Penny Gentieu sued a stock photo house for getting other photographers to imitate her way of photographing naked babies against a white background. "Given the impermissibly expansive nature of Gentieu's claims," noted the court, "it is only surprising that she has not asserted a copyright in the universe of babies as well." Gentieu lost big time.

• A photographer whose work was used to sell plastic picture frames in retail stores sued a company in 2003 for copying his disposable paper inserts. The photographer lost.

• In course work toward a marketing degree, Noel Roque Rodriguez came up with a plan for " 'Rumba Caribbean Bar & Cuisine,' intended to capture Puerto Rican traditions and folklore through food, drinks, salsa music and dance." In 2003 he sued a restaurant in Miami for allegedly copying his idea. The judge gave his suit a failing grade.

• In 2002, a novelty company called JCW Investments Inc. sued Novelty Inc. for imitating its "Pull My Finger Fred" doll, which shakes, makes a crude noise and offers scatological clichés when its finger is pulled. For example, Fred says "Silent, but deadly" and "Did somebody step on a duck?" It turned out that neither plaintiff nor defendant developed the idea: Years earlier, someone else had gone on the radio with a sketch titled "Pull My Finger Charlie" showing a hypothetical toy doll that made a similar noise and joked, "Did someone step on a duck?" when its finger was pulled. Still, after a trial tracing flatulence jokes back to Emile Zola, the plaintiff won.

Jon Stewart on Net neutrality

Jon Stewart on The Daily Show on network neutrality.

India's government censors blogs

BoingBoing: Report: Indian gov blocks Blogspot, Typepad, Geocities blogs.

Edwards does BitTorrent

Former Sen. John Edwards does BitTorrent, Dave Winer reports. Nice.

Senator spoofed for description of Internet

San Jose Mercury News: Senator spoofed for lapse in lingo. Excerpt:

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is enduring no end of ridicule in the blogosphere for his recent explanation, in a Commerce Committee debate, of how the Internet works.

Snorting loudest are bloggers who are angry at Stevens for not adding a non-discrimination provision -- known as ``net neutrality'' -- to the communications bill that he wants Congress to pass this year.

``The Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes,'' Stevens said during a June 28 committee session.

``And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled. And if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material.''

At another point in his 11-minute discourse, he said he'd seen these delays firsthand: ``I just the other day got -- an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.''

Internet pundits greeted his explanations with a non-stop derision on sites such as boingboing, Daily Kos, MySpace and YouTube. ...

At the heart of the barbs is Stevens' stance on net neutrality. It's a polarizing, complicated issue that has, on one side, the corporations that bring the Internet into homes and offices -- such as AT&T, BellSouth and cable companies -- and on the other, companies that provide the services that people use on the Internet -- most prominently Google, craigslist, eBay and Microsoft.

The content providers say that without new laws, the telephone and cable companies will become self-serving Internet gatekeepers, letting traffic flow quickly to vendors with whom they have financial affiliations and slowly to their competitors.

Apple abandons legal fight over bloggers

San Jose Mercury News: Apple gives up blogger fight. Legal batle to reveal sources ends for Silicon Valley giant.

Senator Ted Stevens vs. The Ninja - Net neutrality mashup

John Aprigliano of the Diabeticfeed podcast has mashed up the instrumental version of Derek Miller's "Tell Me About Gnomedex Theme," Senator Ted Stevens' infamous "the Internet is a series of tubes" rant, and Ask a Ninja's similarly cogent explanation of the topic. Check out the mp3. And Digg it.

France approves law requiring music format compatibility

Associated Press: France approves law requiring music format compatibility.

Bad news for Apple. But good news for the public.