Free Republic

A judge in New York revealed today that artist Shepard Fairey is facing a criminal investigation in connection with his admitted misconduct in the ongoing legal case with the Associated Press, according to reports... A spokesman for the AP said in a statement issued this evening that the news organization has received a grand jury subpoena related to Fairey's misconduct during the case. A lawyer representing Fairey did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In October, the L.A. artist admitted that he knowingly submitted false images and deleted others during the case in an attempt to conceal the...

CONTROVERSY: GOOGLE tries converting every book ever written to digital... Developing...

Back in the days when a presidential candidate hired someone to write a campaign theme song, the result usually was a silly, innocuous ditty whose significance was far more historical than artistic. In our enlightened age, by contrast, a candidate is now more likely to pluck a familiar song from the public domain in order to turn on the multitudes. The result, regrettably, can be a silly, innocuous lawsuit the implications of which go well beyond elections. That brings us to one of the more intriguing political sidelights of 2008. This past August, singer-songwriter Jackson Browne sued Senator John McCain...

A single bottle broke the calm, shattering in the late-afternoon sun. Then another...and another. :SNIP: Bob Tur, a pilot and photojournalist, hovered above the unfolding chaos in his helicopter, along with his copilot, his camerawoman wife, his lawyer, and a 9mm semiautomatic pistol... There was Larry Tarvin, who was pulled from his truck and kicked in the ribs, shoulder, and face. That's when the shots started. Tur's chopper began taking hits as the throng below pummeled another trucker, Reginald Denny, with a cement block, a tire iron, and a fire extinguisher.:SNIP: Over the years, he estimates, the Denny tape has...

In its running legal battle against unauthorized downloaders, five recording companies have sued an Augusta man in federal court claiming he illegally pirated and shared copyrighted music. Scott Hinds, 23, is a defendant in one of a number of lawsuits by Recording Industry of America affiliates seeking to halt illegal sharing of copyrighted songs -- a once-widespread practice some maintain was "fair use," encouraged by certain computer software. As artists attempt to regain control of their music -- and reap profits from sales -- recording industry spokeswoman Amanda Hunter said 18,000 individuals have been sued in similar lawsuits since September...

It's getting tougher and tougher to break copyright law on YouTube these days. The site now performs frequent purges of television shows and other proprietary content uploaded by users. But those forbidden files can still be had. They've largely migrated to DailyMotion.com, another video-uploading site that replicates YouTube's model of user-provided videos. DailyMotion, by contrast, seems to do little if any regulation of copyrighted material, nor does it limit the lengths of clips. At any given time, DailyMotion hosts hundreds of copyrighted television episodes, allowing users to watch the shows free of charge and without commercials. And try as they...

ahknight writes: "The United States Copyright office begins its required review of the effects of the anti-circumvention portions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act on November 2nd. This review period lasts until December 1, 2005. They will be accepting your well-thought-out opinions on the web and by mail. If you're reasonably ticked that you can't legally get around encrypted files to get at the media you've bought, start writing a coherent stance for the USCO today."

The US Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in Eldred v. Ashcroft this week, in which the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 will be challenged. The legislation, which extended existing copyrights an additional twenty years, was originally conceived by talent powerhouse Sonny Bono and is coplloquially known by his name, and also as the "Mickey Mouse Act" because of the intense lobbying pressure Disney brought to bear on Congress in getting it passed just as old Mick was set to pass into the public domain. The good fight is spearheaded by Stanford University law professor Lawrence Lessig, who...