Big Music Says Google Isn’t Cracking Down on Pirate Sites, After All

Avast! Plenty of copyright problems in search results, says the RIAA.

Twitter, Google Get More Transparent With Information Requests

An updated set of sites to celebrate Data Privacy Day. Huzzah!

Rupert Murdoch Makes Peace with “Pirate” Google, Starts Selling Movies

Turns out the search giant isn’t so awful, after all. And 20th Century Fox has a lot of digital movies and TV shows it wants to sell, starting with “Prometheus.”

In Self-Imposed Alternative to SOPA, Google Will Ding Repeat Copyright Offenders in Search Results

Google said today that it will use the number of copyright-removal notices filed against a certain domain as a signal in its search results.

The Piracy “Problem”

If every TV show was offered at a fair price to everyone in the world, there would definitely be much less copyright infringement. But because of the monopoly power of the cable companies and content creators, they might actually make less money.

Holmes Wilson, co-director of Fight for the Future

Now I Wanna Sell This Record Directly to the Fans

What has a record company ever done for me but humiliate and torment and drag me down?

Iggy Pop, on why he decided to sell his new album himself

Anonymous Fails, Once Again, to Make Its Point

Big as they were, the attacks carried out in revenge for the Megaupload arrests accomplished nothing significant.

Public Education Matters

Our legal efforts served as an essential educational tool: Fans know far more now about copyright laws and the legal consequences of stealing music than ever before. Before initiating lawsuits in 2003, only 35 percent of people knew file-sharing on P2P was illegal; afterward, awareness grew to 70 percent.

Liz Kennedy, communications director for the RIAA, in response to an article in the Tennessean, which stated that the Association’s legal initiatives had failed because “the suits ultimately proved ineffective in ending systematic online piracy”

Voices

Tips for Mark Zuckerberg to Sleep Better at Night

Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears three times a week in the Voices section of this site. (Click on the image to see a bigger version.)

Music Sales Not Totally Terrible This Year

In which a 1.3 percent decline is the new up! And in semi-related news: Have you seen the new Beastie Boys video?

Mossberg Does Moby: Video and More!

RIAA.Change.Gov?

RIAA Announces Department of Precrime