FREEDOM!!!!!........ U.S. Copyright Office Takes The Shackles Off The Peasants

With the new ruling of the U.S. Copyright Office being handed down this week, I have to say that THIS IS A BIG DEAL!!! The fact that now "Jailbreaking" your iPhone is not considered illegal, and other rulings may really change how companies do business. Crunchgear has a rundown of all the changes that U.S. Copyright Office made.

Take a look:

1. Defeating a lawfully obtained DVD’s encryption for the sole purpose of short, fair use in an educational setting or for criticism

2. Computer programs that allow you to run lawfully obtained software on your phone that you otherwise would not be able to run aka Jailbreaking to use Google Voice on your iPhone

3. Computer programs that allow you to use your phone on a different network aka Jailbreaking to use your iPhone on T-Mobile

4. Circumventing video game encryption (DRM) for the purposes of legitimate security testing or investigation

5. Cracking computer programs protected by dongles when the dongles become obsolete or are no longer being manufactured

6. Having an ebook be read aloud (ie for the blind) even if that book has controls built into it to prevent that sort of thing.

So if you would like to back up your DVD so if your kid destroys the original, it's now legal to do so. Most of these rulings favor the big companies, but I think this is the first time in ages that a decision like this was made for the consumer.

Letting consumers use their property the way THEY want to......... What a concept!!!

Mother Told To Pay RIAA $220,000: WTF?

Jammie Thomas, the woman who lost her case against the RIAA was ordered to pay $220,000 for downloading 24 songs. The Minnesota woman said that the U.S. copyright laws are unjust and that the cost of proving her innocence was almost impossible. Check the quote:

"It says in the Constitution that there should be no undue fines, I was just fined (9,000 percent more) than the value of these songs." She goes on to say "I was basically forced into a situation where I had to prove a negative. How do you prove that your IP address was spoofed or hacked. If I could afford an FBI analyst I'm sure it could have been proven. But I don't have the money."

Thomas rejected the typical settlement of few thousand dollars and chose to defend herself, and she strongly denies sharing music files. But 12 jurors felt differently and ordered her to pay $9,250 for each of the 24 songs she's accused of downloading.

She is still deciding whether to file an appeal. I would think yes!!!

Does the punishment of $220,000 fit the crime of donwloading 24 songs? I think not!!! Regardless if she's guilty of file sharing, I don't believe that a mother of two should be brought to financial ruin over 24 songs. How the 12 morons on this case came to this conclusion is beyond me, but I hope that somewhere in their lives, they are judged just as harshly.

[Crave]

DVD Copying: You bought it, you don't own it!!!

There is a push for proposed amendment to current copy protection licenses that would ban any and all DVD copying, including for fair use. Want to rip your DVDs to a Media Center PC so you can watch movies without putting a disc in?

Too bad!!!

You want to rip a DVD to watch a movie on your laptop without the power draining DVD spinning constantly? That would be against the rules if this passes.

This has been brought up twice before only to be voted down, hopefully for the third and final time!!!

Read it all right here. [PC Mag]

Pirate Episodes of 24 and Jack Bauer Gets to Torture You

It seems the Feds have charged a man with a felony count of uploading copyrighted material, specifically, episodes of 24. What’s even more nuts about this guy is that he was uploading the episodes (to LiveDigital.com) well in advance of their network debut on Fox. This guy can now look for to three years of federal prison if convicted.

I'm curious how the guy got a hold of the shows before they aired (must have insider hookup), but I'm thinking it wouldn't be hard to catch him.

See, kids, piracy = bad.

Especially if your dumb about it!!!

Read the article after the jump. [AP/Yahoo!]

Hello..I'm an iTunes.....and I'm a hack!!!

The current version of iTunes, 7.1.1, has been cracked by the creators of QTFairUse6. This allows the user to strip the purchased songs from itunes of its DRM shackles. The software is only for Windows, so my Mac friends will have to wait until someone makes a version for them.

I'm sure Apple has already been informed and iTunes 7.1.2 will make sure to counter the hack.

So if you hate DRM and want to be a pirate, hit the jump for the hack.