Last year, when Alberto Gonzales was under pressure from Congress, he suddenly started spending a lot of time talking about stricter copyright laws. Perhaps it gave him a distraction from repeating "I do not recall" all day in front of Congress. His proposal was basically a laundry list of the entertainment industry's desired changes to copyright law, including making "attempted infringement" a crime. Despite the fact that copyright law is pretty clear that an actual violation needs to happen first, this would shift the standard so that if you just attempted to infringe, you could be found guilty of the full infringement itself. While Gonzales' efforts went nowhere, William Patry is pointing out that Congress may have backdoored in this "attempted" clause late last year through the Orwellianly-titled Criminal Code Modernization and Simplification Act. In that act, it notes that: "Unless otherwise provided by law, whoever attempts to commit an offense shall be punished as is provided for the completed offense." When it comes to copyright law in the bill, no exception is provided. Patry points to the recent story of the guy sent to jail for just clicking a link to give you a suggestion of where this new law will allow complaints to go. It's not a pretty picture.

Permalink | Comments | Email This Story

The winners of an auction for coveted wireless spectrum include wireless carriers AT&T and Verizon. Search engine Google did not win its bid, although the auction did trigger the open-access requirements it campaigned for.

A new study found that hypothalamic Deep Brain Stimulation performed in the treatment of a patient with morbid obesity unexpectedly evoked detailed autobiographical memories. While they were identifying potential appetite suppressant sites in the hypothalamus by stimulating electrode contacts that had been implanted there, the patient suddenly experienced a feeling of "déjà vu." As the intensity of the stimulation was increased, the details became more vivid. These sensations were reproduced when the stimulation was performed in a double-blinded manner.