In the New York Times. "Pursuing Growth, Microsoft Steps Up Patent Chase," and Apple Attacks RealNetworks Plan to Sell Songs for iPod."

More on Real/Apple Tempest. C-Net reports in "Is Real's iPod 'hacking' legal?"

Shows the Problem with Applying Trademark Rules to Non-commercial Websites. BoingBoing reports on "Penguin Putnam's racketeering domain-name scam."

EFF: Protecting Your Right to Call John Kerry a Liberal Weiner. BoingBoing reports that the EFF is on the case: "EFF defending creators of This Land is Your Land parody."

The Day the Music Blogs Died? BoingBoing reports that "Music blogs under the BPI gun."

Here it Comes. CNNMoney reports in "Apple: RealNetworks hacked iPod." From the article: "Apple said Thursday it is looking into Real's actions under various laws, including the Digital Copyright Millennium Act (DMCA), which prohibits the manufacture, sale or distribution of code-breaking devices used to illegally copy software." Reuters has this report, while the AP reports here.

RIAA Wins One. C-Net reports that "Judge: RIAA can unmask file swappers."

Add France to the List of Countries to Avoid if You Want Your P2P Fix. The AP reports that "French ISPs to Crack Down on Music Pirates."

Depends on What the Definition of "More" Is? Law.com reports that "Verizon, Yellow Book Square Off in Court Over False-Ad Claim." At issue are ads with claims like: More people choose Yellow Book, not the Other Book." Seems like an instance of deliberate ambiguity. "More people" as in numerically larger? or "more people" as in a greater number than previously. Interesting case.

Anime in Court. And this time it's not for violating community decency standards. Wired reports in "Eyes Wide Open Over Anime Piracy."

The Law of Unintended Consequences at Work. ZDNet UK reports in "Beware of open-and-shut cases." From the article, discussing the Lindows case: "What seemed like an open and shut case of trademark infringement ended with the smaller firm $20 million and a whole lot of publicity better off. Microsoft on the other hand has been left looking not just like a bully for instigating the lawsuit--but an inept one for losing. Not only that, but the company has left a big-fat question mark over the validity of its Windows trademark--not a great day in court by any means. I'd almost feel sorry for Microsoft if it wasn't so funny." Via The Trademark Blog.

Should Have Know the Parody Would Run into Trouble. BoingBoing reports that "Woody Guthrie's copyright used to defile his memory in lawsuit threat." If you haven't seen the animation yet, check it out. Marty weighs in here. More here.

Something Worth Tuning In For. Lessig announces guest bloggers for August: UVa law professor Tim Wu, Congressman Rick Boucher, and Judge Richard Posner. This should be interesting.

More SSRN Articles. David McGowann has an article entitled "SCO What? Rhetoric, Law, and the Future of F/OSS Production." From the abstract" "Using litigation between The SCO Group and IBM as an example, this essay relates the rhetoric that drives open-source software as a social movement to legal issues open-source production faces. The essay argues that social movement rhetoric creates noise that makes legal issues more difficult to understand and resolve."

Jean Nicholas Druey has an article entitled "Information Cannot be Owned: There is More of a Difference than Many Think." From the abstract: "Apart from technology, the information age has up to now badly served its idol. It has failed sufficiently to recognize specific features of information. This is shown with respect to the question whether legal rights on information can take the form of ownership. The answer is negative considering that communication by its very nature is free and constitutes a basic value, and furthermore that law is itself information and cannot systematically dispose of information flows."

Raymond Shih Ray Ku has an article entitled "Copyright, the Constitution & Progress." From the abstract: "This essay builds upon his existing scholarship, in which Professor Ku argues that the new economics of digital technology question the application of copyright's exclusive rights to file sharing because peer-to-peer technology eliminates the need for distributor middlemen. And, a system of levies and compulsory licenses would guarantee compensation for artists while providing the public with unlimited access to the collective works of humanity."

Fan Sites Are Now Worthy of Criminal Prosecution? Surely there are better uses of the FBI's resources right now. BoingBoing reports that "Stargate fan-site operator busted under anti-terrorism law."

Just Came Across This. Mark Lemley has an interesting article up on SSRN called "Ex Ante Versus Ex Post Justifications for Intellectual Property."

That Was Fast. BoingBoing reports that "30,000 anti-Induce Act letters sent to Congress."

Wonder if There's a DMCA Claim Here? The New York Times reports that "RealNetworks Plans to Sell Songs to Be Played on iPods." Via BoingBoing.

I Wonder if Tourists Have Different Potato Chip Preferences than Native Chicagoans? The Chicago Tribune reports that "Judge finds Lay's Jays ads 'unsavory, tasteless'." From the article: "The judge found that Frito-Lay couldn't support its claim that Chicagoans preferred its chips because testers hadn't screened out participants who weren't from Chicago." The Chicago Sun-Times has this report. Via How Appealing.

They Just Can't Win. The AP reports that "ACLU lawsuit against Ohio's punch card ballots first in nation to go to trial." From the article: "The ACLU wants all punch-card ballots in the state removed before November, saying the system is antiquated and causes errors that lead to undercounting of minority group votes."