The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is fighting to protect the free speech rights of MoveOn.org Civic Action and Brave New Films after their parody of The Colbert Report was removed from YouTube because of a copyright complaint from media giant Viacom. Viacom recently asked YouTube to remove 100,000 video clips from Viacom-owned properties, including MTV [...]

HDTV pioneer and Dallas Maverick owner Mark Cuban thinks it’s time for media companies to start filling YouTube with spam. Cuban highlights the fact that YouTube may have received as much traffic from people viewing Oscar clips as Oscar.com, and asks “Do the Oscars benefit or are they harmed by their video being seen on [...]

U.S. Representatives Rick Boucher and John Doolittle have proposed the FAIR USE Act [PDF], which would remove some of the limitations on innovation and fair use that the entertainment has used (and many would say, abused) over the last few years. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is calling on people to tell Congress to help restore [...]

MySpace has joined YouTube, introducing tools for copyright holders to make it easy for them to remove material that they allege is unauthorized. The tool is being tested with FOX and MLB Advanced Media and will be expanded to include other verified copyright holders. The new tool will allow copyright holders to digitally flag any [...]

The MPAA has filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York, Paramount Pictures v. Load ‘N Go Video, suing a small business for loading DVDs onto personal media players (e.g., iPod Video) on behalf of customers. Load ‘N Go sells both DVDs and iPods and will load purchased DVDs onto iPods for customers who [...]

Some are speculating that Microsoft is abandoning its Plays for Sure partners, because the recently announced Zune media player won’t play protected Windows Media files. Audio and video files purchased or rented from Napster 2.0, Rhapsody, Yahoo! Unlimited, Movielink, Cinemanow and other Microsoft partners are sure to not play on the Zune. “The media that [...]