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RealNetworks has agreed to kill its DVD-copying software and pay $4.5 million in settling a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by Hollywood studios. As part of the settlement announced Wednesday, the provider of online entertainment services also agreed to drop its appeal of a San Francisco federal court ruling that barred RealNetworks from distributing or supporting RealDVD or any other technology that enables the duplication of the studios' copyrighted content. The 2008 lawsuit filed by Viacom and the Motion Picture Association of America claimed that RealDVD illegally circumvented the anti-piracy technology embedded in DVDs. The DVD Copy Control Association, which licenses Hollywood-sanctioned copyright-protection technology, joined the suit later, claiming RealNetworks was also in violation of its DVD CCA license.

Article discussing the FCC's effort to help the trouble media business by relaxing the cross-ownership restrictions.

Video of Luge Crash raises interesting discussions about copyright and Fair Use. Google would not comment on the particular video but offered this general statement. "We approach each video individually, and we do not prescreen content. Instead, we count on our community members to know the Guidelines and to flag videos they think violate them. We review all flagged videos quickly, and if we find that a video does break the rules, we remove it, usually in under an hour." And, interestingly enough, regular TV broadcasters, with no licensing agreement with the IOC, are employing the fair use argument and airing the clip. Yet YouTube, and other online outlets are so terrified of the constant bullying from content creators that they're not going to take any chance and are taking the video down. In the end, nobody wins, people don't have access to the information, online video sites lose viewers and trust from their users and the IOC comes out as trying to hush up an unpleasant situation and (mis)using copyright law to do so.

2 large broadband providers are bringing out all the stops to fight open-Internet rules proposed by the FCC Chairman. It would unravel one of Genachowski's key initiatives.

"the court has dismissed RealNetworks' claims of antitrust violations on the part of the motion picture industry. The basis of the case, however -- whether Real or anyone will be able to market a product like RealDVD -- continues."

The music industry in Sweden has filed for the Stockholm District Court to enforce a ruling from last October that would require the founders of The Pirate Bay (a file sharing site) to pay a fine of 500,000 kronor (US$ 71,000) if the site was not shut down.

"The time is ripe for media vultures to make their move. In 2007, the court blocked the FCC's attempt to change the rules of ownership. Now it is reconsidering that decision. 'A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which had put the stay in effect…ordered the FCC and consumer groups to 'show cause' by mid January (2010) why the stay should not be dropped.'"

Buried in the language of the FCC's proposed rules for net neutrality is a loophole that states the the principles do not apply to copyrighted works. This clause would pressure Internet Service Providers to act as copyright police.

In the first case of its kind, an Australian court has ruled that an internet service provider cannot be responsible for illegal downloading. iiNet, Australia's third largest ISP, was taken to court by a group of 34 movie production houses. The group included the Australian divisions of Universal Pictures, Warner Brothers and 20th Century Fox. They claimed that iiNet was guilty of copyright infringement for not preventing illegal downloads of films.

Hollywood studios lost a landmark copyright court case against an Australia internet provider on Thursday, when a court ruled iiNet could not be held responsible for unauthorized downloads of movies using its service.

The RIAA argues ISP's should perform copyright enforcement, and claim Net Neutrality blocks such efforts.

Clear Channel has lost in appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals to challenge a 70 year old billboard zoning regulation in New York.

The Federal Communications Commission's proposed Net neutrality rules have caused a bit of a shuffle among advocacy and lobbying groups.

Television set-top box maker TiVo Inc. won an federal appeals court ruling expected to force Dish Network and EchoStar corporations to pay at least $300 million in damages for a patent violation.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian is entitled to half the advertising revenue of the rival SF Weekly to help collect $21 million in damages after a jury verdict of illegal price-cutting, a Superior Court commissioner ruled Tuesday.

Should the FCC change rules that prevent consumers from losing channels during fee disputes between broadcasters and cable operators?

Industry reaction to FCC ruling on Broadband Auction.

More specific legal language on the Net-Neutrality court decision.

Net-Neutrality sets precedent for online video traffic.

"A patent application by Google (GOOG), filed in August 2008 and only made public last week, shows that the company is working on an automated way to split printed magazines and newspapers into individual articles that it could then deliver separately. Although this could allow Google to convert stacks of periodicals into electronic archives, it potentially sends the company headlong into conflict with a famous Supreme Court ruling on media law."