On November 7th, 2011 Rhapsody/RealNetworks will no longer support certain music files you purchased before July 2008. These songs will continue to play after November 7th unless you change to a new computer or substantially update your current computer. However, we strongly recommend you back up these RAX tracks to audio CD to ensure you can continue to enjoy your music.

Once you take this small step, you can continue to play these tracks on your audio CD or rip them to any format you desire and play them on your PC.

Please don’t delay – after we shut off support for RAX files, you will not be able to play them if you move to a new computer or upgrade your operating system.

While Rhapsody is allowing its customers to back up and convert their music, it is not as easy as they claim. If you own a few tracks, it might by easy, but if you own hundreds or thousands of music tracks, it becomes a cumbersome and time-consuming task.

There is also a question of legality. While Rhapsody is telling people how to circumvent the RAX DRM, it may not legally be able to. According to US law, unless Rhapsody owns the copyrights to the songs that use RAX DRM, then they are actually aiding others in breaking the law.

Section 103 (17 U.S.C Sec. 1201(a)(1)) of the DMCA states:

Q No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

….

(A) to 「circumvent a technological measure」 means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(B) a technological measure 「effectively controls access to a work」 if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

In the closing of Rhapsody’s RAX DRM, we see, yet again, how the music industry is punishing those who wish to legally purchase digital music. There are so many of these companies that have shut down over the past ten years that it is difficult to fault those who turn to piracy. By doing so, users do not have to worry about the DRM. They also do not worry about making upgrades to their computers and risking the loss of their music. They also do not have to worry about the limits of how many computers they can keep their music on. They simply listen to their music where ever and whenever they want. After experiencing ten years of attempting to do the right thing only to be screwed over again and again, why would anyone want to return to unhelpful DRM schemes?

On June 2, 2010, the Canadian government introduced Bill C-32, new copyright reform legislation that would dramatically change the law. Michael Geist gave a lecture on copyright in the Canada the following day and this video is the portion discussing the implications of the bill.

Hitler loses his iphone is not on YouTube, but you can find it here.

Of particular note is that the producer of the movie enjoys all the clips himself and does not see a problem with the parody videos.

“Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one,” says the director, on the phone from Vienna. “I think I’ve seen about 145 of them! Of course, I have to put the sound down when I watch. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn’t get a better compliment as a director.” Some of Hirschbiegel’s favorites are the one where Hitler hears of Michael Jackson’s death, and one in which the Fuhrer can’t get Billy Elliot tickets

The video clip below is a rant about the DMCA itself, which was ordered to be taken down, but the creator of this clip has filed an appeal, claiming that it’s fair use.  So, for now, this video remains online.

Hitler, as “Downfall producer” orders a DMCA takedown from Brad Templeton on Vimeo.

Full details at http://ideas.4brad.com/hitler-tries-dmca-takedown – There are hundreds of parodies of this “Downfall” clip. The studio, Constantin Films, has ordered takedowns of some of them, and eventually even had this parody removed from YouTube. In this clip, Hitler is the producer, and his lawyers tell him why he can’t do a DMCA takedown and how the EFF could stop him. He desperately searches for other ways to protect the movie.

Made by Brad Templeton, an EFF board member (but releasing the video on his own.) This video educates about intellectual property issues and parodies the actions of the studio using the very clip they are censoring.