Light Blogging Ahead

It has been quiet here at the EEJD over the last week or so, as I've been in transition on the job front. There will be light blogging over the next few weeks while I focus on finishing up a few summer projects. Postings will hopefully be back to a normal frequency soon!

File Sharing Legal in Taiwan

CoCo highlights a file-sharing victory in Taiwan yesterday:

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) in Taiwan had filed a lawsuit for copyright infringement against ezPeer, which offers unlimited donwloads to paying subscribers. Yesterday a District Court ruled that ezPeer "did not engage in reproducing or publicly distributing works of copyright holders," according to this news report.

Check out the rest.

More: About ezPeer (Google translation).

Microsoft, IBM Settle Antitrust Suit

Microsoft announces:

Microsoft Corp. and IBM today announced that they have entered into an agreement to resolve antitrust issues between the two companies.

Today's settlement resolves claims arising from the United States v. Microsoft antitrust case in the mid-1990s, where IBM was identified in U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's findings of fact as having been impacted in its business by certain Microsoft practices. Under the agreement, Microsoft will pay IBM $775 million and extend $75 million in credit towards deployment of Microsoft software at IBM.

In addition to addressing all discriminatory pricing and overcharge claims based on the findings in the U.S. antitrust case, the settlement resolves all antitrust claims, including claims related to the IBM OS/2 operating system and SmartSuite products, with the exception of claims for harm to IBM's server hardware and server software businesses. IBM has further agreed . . . that it will not assert claims for server monetary damages for two years and will not seek to recover damages on such claims incurred prior to June 30, 2002.

More: CNet News.

Prior posts:
    June 14, 2005 - Judge Dismisses Four Counts in Novell, Microsoft Antitrust Litigation.
    Apr. 12, 2005 - Microsoft Settles Antitrust Dispute with Gateway.
    Mar. 3, 2005 - Microsoft Litigation Strategy: Fighting Patent, Settling Antitrust.

Piracy Unpreventable. Plan B: Just Make Music Free

writes Mike Langberg at SiliconValley.com.

Pornographer Sues Amazon for Copyright Infringement

Forbes reports (AP):

An adult entertainment Web site has sued online retailer Amazon, accusing the company and its search engine subsidiary, A9.com, of copyright infringement for displaying thousands of the Web site's explicit images in response to computer users' searches.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills-based Perfect 10 Inc. is seeking an injunction against the Seattle-based retailer and unspecified damages.

Perfect 10 already has a pending suit against Google.

More: Agence France Presse (AFP) brought a similar suit against Google earlier this year.

Update: More at Techdirt ("Amazon Sued For Copyright Infringement... Despite Not Being The Offending Party").