Free Republic

After a spate of bad publicity over winning a Goliath-versus-David lawsuit, Eric Clapton’s management has announced it does not intend to collect the money owed by a German woman who was sued for putting a bootleg CD of a 1980s Clapton concert up for sale on eBay.The woman had been ordered to pay approximately $4,000 after a judge ruled she had infringed Clapton’s copyright by trying to sell the more than 30-year-old CD, which her late husband had purchased at a department store, for 9.95 euros, or roughly $11.20. The illicit disc was removed from the site after a day...

Another American tourist died while vacationing in the Dominican Republic — bringing the recent spate of mysterious deaths to six and prompting an investigation by the FBI, according to a new report. Robert Bell Wallace, 67, of California, died after drinking from the minibar in his room at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino resort in Punta Cana, his niece, Chloe Arnold, told Fox News. “We have so many questions,” Arnold told Fox. “We don’t want this to happen to anyone else.” It is the same hotel where David Harrison, from Maryland, died last year, and his family is also...

Police said a bar in Maple Grove, Minn. was caught selling Spotted Cow, a beer that's only legal in Wisconsin. A Minnesota bar was busted for illegally pouring a Wisconsin exclusive. The owners of Maple Grove’s Maple Tavern could face felony resale charges for selling pints of Spotted Cow, a farmhouse beer brewed in Wisconsin and distributed only in-state, police said. The Minneapolis-area bartenders drove across the border and loaded up on kegs of the coveted New Glarus Brewing Co. ale before they were busted during a sting last week, KMSP reported. Undercover officers went to the Maple Tavern on...

German companies are ranked second in the world for industrial plagiarism, a global study released on Friday found. Just under a quarter of all plagiarized technical products examined were sold by a German company, the study by the Federation of German Machine and Equipment Builders (VDMA) has found. Germany was behind China, but ahead of Turkey and India in terms of the number of copies sold. Most German firms involved in plagiarism targeted competitors in the high-tech sector, in contrast to Chinese manufacturers, which usually copied low-quality goods. …

Ten of the world’s 23 most “notorious” pirate websites are based in EU countries, while another five are in Russia or Ukraine, the US government says. The report, published on Wednesday (12 February), by The Office of the United States Trade Department Representative, lists websites which “undermine critical US comparative advantages in innovation and creativity to the detriment of American workers” due to their “global … scale and popularity.” […] The sites mainly distribute movies, TV shows, music, books, and video games, many of which originate in the US. …

One of Bob Dylan's least-heralded periods will be revisited with the release of "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969-1971)" on Aug. 27 on Columbia Records. The two-CD set -- which also will be available as an expanded, four-disc deluxe box -- gathers outtakes, live cuts and other previously unreleased material drawn largely from Dylan's 1970 albums "Self Portrait" and "New Morning." And that wasn't a particularly well-liked time for the Minnesota native. Greil Marcus' Rolling Stone review of "Self Portrait" opened with the oft-quoted line: "What is this s---?" That echoed the sentiment of many fans who...

La Familia drug cartel is selling not just drugs, but also counterfeit Microsoft Office computer software, according the Redmond, Wash., tech giant. Microsoft showed off unauthorized copies of its Office 2007 software in Paris today which the company said it found for sale in Mexico. The pirated copies of Office were marked with La Familia cartel's rectangular "FMM" logo that the Microsoft says proves the link between the counterfeiting and the organized crime group, according to a Bloomberg report. "This is the real side, the scary side of counterfeiting and it plagues the world," said David Finn, Microsoft's associate general...

The ringleader of a bootleg alcohol gang which produced more than a million litres of illegal vodka costing the taxman £10 million in lost revenue was jailed for 12 years today. Harvey Conroy ran a 'determined and professional' outfit which produced fake vodka and tobacco without paying excise duty or VAT, defrauding the state of millions of pounds. Richard Christie QC, for the prosecution, said Conroy orchestrated the fraud in a bid to make massive profits, with the factories working 24 hours-a-day

American Gangster, the highly anticipated Denzel Washington-Russell Crowe film about former New York City drug lord Frank Lucas, pulled in over $43.6 million at the box office opening weekend, according to figures compiled movie monitoring services. While those figures are enough money to have most any movie producer crowing over box office receipts, Hollywood and the general public can only imagine how much more the film might have made if it hadn't been so heavily bootlegged —— and in this case as far as two weeks in advance of the film's opening. Across the nation, in Washington, New York, Houston,...

PEEKSKILL, N.Y. (AP) - He doesn't want to be an ogre about it, but the father of a fifth-grader thinks teachers are wasting time when they show movies in class - and if the film is a bootleg, he says, ''That's a really terrible lesson.'' Tim Trewhella, 46, said his 10-year-old daughter reported that her class watched the animated movie ''Shrek the Third'' on Tuesday and recognized it as the fairy-tale hit still showing in theaters. ''A friend hooked me up with it,'' teacher Lovell Quiroz said, according to the girl. Peekskill schools Superintendent Judith Johnson issued a statement saying...

Major studios charge Google suggested keywords such as 'bootleg movie download,' and 'pirated.' Search engine execs pledge reform. Internet search leader Google is facing criticism from major media companies for reportedly working closely to help two Web sites accused of film pirating. The Wall Street Journal reported that Brandon Drury and Luke Sample, who are accused of promoting film piracy in a suit brought by major film studios, got significant support from Google between 2003 and 2005. The two men had Web sites - EasyDownloadCenter.com and TheDownloadPlace.com - which the paper said enabled users to search for movies on the...

UPDATE: Looks like Bill is going to need a case of Pepto, email from overseas, guess what “bootleg” movie is showing up? Told you, can’t stop the flood. Look for the “Berger Cuts” to show up on You Tube any day now.

In the land of bootleg merchandise, fake management books by fake authors flourish. Times Headlines Wall St. Ignores Boeing Profit Slip Panel OKs Appointee to Workers' Comp Post Sony's Loss Widens as Revenue Falls Former Tyco Chief Denies Stealing From Company De La Hoya Turns Eye to Real Estate Projects more > Most E-mailed A Society That Throws the Sick Away Jesus Was No GOP Lobbyist Pot Laws Pain Some Elders > more e-mailed stories -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CHINA PUBLISHING INDUSTRY BOOKS FRAUD FRAUD CHINA BOOKS PUBLISHING INDUSTRY By Don Lee, Times Staff Writer SHANGHAI — The five-volume "Executive Ability" book series...

Fahrenheit 911 was apparently shown last week on Fidel Castro's Cuban state run TV!According to Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences rules, a motion picture feature is disqualified for documentary Oscar if it airs on TV or over the Internet within nine months of its bigscreen run..

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A recent broadcast on Cuban television of Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" has raised questions about the Oscar eligibility of one of America's most talked-about and critically acclaimed movies of the year. Under Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (news - web sites) rules, films are disqualified from competing in the Oscar race for best documentary if shown on television or on the Internet within nine months of their theatrical release. However, an unauthorized or pirated display of a film would not render the movie ineligible, academy spokesman John Pavlik said on Tuesday. "If somebody...

<p>SAN JOSE, Calif. Just as Prohibition drove drinkers underground in the roaring'20s, the music industry's crackdown is pushing many song swappers away from the open Internet and into what amount to cyberspace speakeasies.</p> <p>These high-tech Cotton Clubs usually require users to be trusted or at least know someone inside. The files, instead of out in the open, are encrypted - the 21st century equivalent of hiding bathtub gin under a fake floorboard.</p>

"We distort. You comply"Even in a down economy, there are some business models that still work -- selling T-shirts comparing Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly to Hitler, for example. - - - - - - - - - - - -By Katharine MieszkowskiJune 26, 2003  | Nothing boosts lefty T-shirt sales like an officious, bullying cease-and-desist letter from Fox News. Agitproperties.com in Austin, Texas, sells "Faux News Channel" T-shirts that mock the Fox logo with the slogan "We distort. You comply." The company is an equal-opportunity network mocker -- it also sells "Pentagon News Network" T-shirts parodying the CNN logo....

The little web site that has Fox News fumingLegal threat over spoof T-shirts rouses $ support By Jim Jazwiecki    As a TV news operation, Fox News Channel prides itself on the give and take it offers viewers. But that can't be said for its legal department when the cable news network is the subject of some of the jabbing its on-air talents relish in. Recently, the people behind Agitproperties.com, an Austin, Tex.-based activist web site, received a letter from Fox lawyers insisting that the site stop selling T-shirts making fun of the News Corp.-owned channel. One shirt reads “Faux News:...

<p>NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A New York teenager alleged on Thursday that teachers violated her civil rights when they suspended her from school for wearing a "Barbie is a Lesbian" T-shirt.</p> <p>Lawyers who filed a lawsuit on her behalf in Manhattan federal court said 14-year-old Natalie Young is openly lesbian and that a teacher laughed at her, calling the garment and its reference to the popular Barbie doll "inappropriate."</p>

It's rampant. The new P2P systems, such as KaZaA and Morpheus, have picked up where Napster left off, and blank CDs now outsell prerecorded discs. The trend is clear: concern not for the law but for economics. This happens with disruptive technologies. If you had a machine that could make a new Lexus for $1,000, then why would you buy one from Toyota for $50,000? Because you had a moral obligation?You'd wonder why Toyota wouldn't use the same machine to make the car for $1,000. Where is the morality in keeping the price jacked up? Likewise, too many people are...