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Ruling is victory for supporters of free software

NY Times: Ruling Is a Victory for Supporters of Free Software. (Thank God.)

A legal dispute involving model railroad hobbyists has resulted in a major courtroom victory for the free software movement also known as open-source software.

In a ruling Wednesday, the federal appeals court in Washington said that just because a software programmer gave his work away did not mean it could not be protected.

The decision legitimizes the use of commercial contracts for the distribution of computer software and digital artistic works for the public good. The court ruling also bolsters the open-source movement by easing the concerns of large organizations about relying on free software from hobbyists and hackers who have freely contributed time and energy without pay.

It also has implications for the Creative Commons license, a framework for modifying and sharing creative works that was developed in 2002 by Larry Lessig, a law professor at Stanford.

That license is now used widely by organizations like M.I.T. for distributing courseware, and Wikipedia, the Web-based encyclopedia. In March,  the rock band Nine Inch Nails released a collection of musical tracks under a Creative Commons license. ...

Don't turn service providers into speech police

In today's San Jose Mercury News, Larry Magid has an interesting take on this issue: Painful as slander may be, don't turn service providers into speech police. Excerpt:

When Congress voted for the Communications Decency Act of 1996, most members thought it was just about pornography, says U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren. But one section of CDA had much broader implications, the San Jose Democrat told the Internet Education Foundation's second annual State of the Net Conference at Santa Clara University last week.

The CDA, which would have prevented the posting of material deemed "harmful to minors" was mostly struck down by the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. But the court let stand Section 230, which immunizes Internet service providers from being held liable for what their members post by stating that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider."

The section was designed to protect service providers — at the time mostly dial-up services like AOL and Prodigy — from prosecution under CDA for distributing content posted by their members. It's analogous to holding phone companies harmless for obscene phone calls made by their customers or shielding the post office from liability for illicit material sent through the mail.

But Section 230 has also been used to protect social-networking companies and other Web sites with user-generated content whose business plans weren't even on the drawing board when the law was written back in the mid-'90s. ...

Thanks to Section 230, Craigslist won its case against the Chicago Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights over housing ads that included such terms as "no minorities" and "no children." Even though such ads in some cases violate the Fair Housing Act, the judge ruled that Craigslist "is not the author of the ads and could not be treated as the 'speaker.'"

JuicyCampus.com also can rely on Section 230 to protect itself against lawsuits and prosecutions stemming from the potentially libelous statements that are all too common on this gossip site, according to Michael Fertik, CEO and co-founder of ReputationDefender. ...

Brewster Kahle gets FBI to back off

SF Chronicle: Internet Archive gets FBI to back off. Excerpt:

The FBI document, called a national security letter, told [Internet Archive founder Brewster] Kahle he could be prosecuted if he discussed the subject with anyone but his lawyers, and allowed him to speak with his attorneys only in person. ...

Kahle's case is one of only two other instances in which a national security letter has been challenged, his lawyers said Wednesday.

"National security letters allow the FBI to demand extremely sensitive personal information about innocent people, in total secrecy and without meaningful judicial review," said American Civil Liberties Union attorney Melissa Goodman.

"The big question is, How many other improper (letters) have been issued by the FBI and never challenged?" said attorney Marcia Hofmann of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. ...

Judge restores Wikileaks website

NY Times: Judge Says Wikileaks Site Can Have Its Web Address Back.

A federal judge in San Francisco said on Friday that he would withdraw an order that shut down the Web address for Wikileaks.org, a site that allows anonymous posting of documents to assist “peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.” ...

Crackdown on leaked papers backfires

Associated Press: Crackdown backfires. Leaked papers spread on Web after bank's bid to block them. Excerpt:

In federal court in San Francisco, the bank asked a judge to take down the site. Much to the outrage of free-speech advocates and others, the judge did.

But instead of the information disappearing, it rocketed through cyberspace, landing on other Web sites and Wikileaks' own "mirror" sites outside the United States. The digerati call the online phenomenon of a censorship attempt backfiring into more unwanted publicity the "Streisand effect."

Techdirt Chief Executive Mike Masnick coined the term on his popular technology blog after actress Barbra Streisand's 2003 lawsuit seeking to remove satellite photos of her Malibu house. Those photos are now easily accessible, just like the bank documents.

Masnick said the bank's lawsuit demonstrates the ineffectiveness of such legal actions in the Internet age, when anyone with a computer and online connection can thumb his nose at a judge's ruling and resurrect the "banned" information elsewhere.

"It's a perfect example of the Streisand effect," Masnick said. "This was a really small thing that no one heard about and now it's everywhere and everyone's talking about it."

The case has also become the latest anti-censorship cause celebre, drawing legal filings from the ACLU, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and several media organizations. Those arguments will be heard Friday when the bank presses on with its efforts to have Wikileaks permanently barred from posting the documents. ...

Sometimes, justice takes place outside the courtroom.

Judge shuts down Web site specializing in leaks

NY Times: Judge Shuts Down Web Site Specializing in Leaks.

In a move that legal experts said could present a major test of First Amendment rights in the Internet era, a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the disabling of a Web site devoted to disclosing confidential information.

The site, Wikileaks.org, invites people to post leaked materials with the goal of discouraging “unethical behavior” by corporations and governments. It has posted documents said to show the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq, a military manual for the operation of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other evidence of what it has called corporate waste and wrongdoing. ...

Settlement shuts down Think Secret

 

NY Times: Apple Rumor Site to Shut Down in Settlement.

SAN FRANCISCO — Apple on Thursday put to rest the last of a series of lawsuits it brought in a losing and costly effort to put a stop to Web leaks about its product plans.

The suits raised questions about whether independent Web publishers should be accorded the same legal protections as traditional journalists. They were aimed at the gaggle of Apple enthusiasts who have made both a sport and a business out of pre-empting Steven Jobs's big product announcements.

Nicholas M. Ciarelli, who operated a Web site for Apple rumors called Think Secret, was sued by Apple for publishing trade secrets in January 2005. In a brief statement Thursday on his site, Mr. Ciarelli said that he had reached a settlement with Apple and that he would stop publishing Think Secret. ...

Verizon's reversal on pro-choice messages

DailyKos: Verizon Reverses On Pro-Choice Messages.

"This is right at the heart of the problem," said Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan law school, referring to the treatment of text messages. "The fact that wireless companies can choose to discriminate is very troubling." ...

"No company should be allowed to censor the message we want to send to people who have asked us to send it to them," Ms. Keenan said. "Regardless of people’s political views, Verizon customers should decide what action to take on their phones. Why does Verizon get to make that choice for them?"

Looking for leaders in IP, IP and IP

PublicKnowledge.org is looking your help in recognizing leaders in the fields of Intellectual Property, Information Policy, and Internet Protocol. Email your nominations here.

Support iSummit

From Prof. Lawrence Lessig:

Two years ago, iCommons established the yearly iSummit conference as
a way to bring together the thinkers, innovators, and pioneers of the
"Open" movement.

This year's iSummit (taking place in Dubrovnik, Croatia from June
15th through 17th) will bring together more than 250 key players for
two days of intense discussion and debate about our digital freedoms
and the future of the Internet. It is critical to assure that a truly
global legal perspective is represented at this important conference.

Creative Commons International affiliates are crucial to the success
of the iSummit and of Creative Commons globally. The iSummit is the
one opportunity each year for these dedicated volunteers drawn from
universities and cultural institutes to learn from each other face to
face and plan for the challenges and opportunities facing the
movement in the next year. Enabling these volunteers to participate
in the iSummit is truly the most leveraged way to support Creative
Commons at this time.

In order for Creative Commons to provide affiliates with scholarships
to attend this critical conference, we need your help in raising
$50,000 within the next two weeks. This is a daunting task, but we
strongly believe that you, our community, will help us reach this goal.

Please visit http://creativecommons.org/support to give to the fund.
All of our usual cool premiums are available.

To help, Digital Garage, a major sponsor of iSummit 2006, is matching
the first $20,000 that is contributed.