I hate to report on this, simply because Charlie is a good friend of mine and all, plus he bought me a Jaegermeister shot or two. However, I thought you might want to know that his laptop has been seized by the FBI. Apparently, he had something on there called "Linux" and some type of "open source" content.

InsideHigherEd.com reports that the music industry is engaging in something akin to preemptive strikes. The article Mysterious Multiplication of Copyright Complaints takes a look at the speculative reasons behind increase in complaints lodged with a variety of colleges and universities, both big and small, despite no evidence of an increase in illegally shared files.

The new complaints seem to be resulting in an increased reluctance to pursue alleged violations. For instance,

Indiana officials are now discussing whether they should continue to respond to complaints from the recording industry with the same aggressiveness. It’s not that university leaders have suddenly decided that illegal behavior isn’t wrong; instead, they are beginning to question the legitimacy of the notices the Recording Industry Association of America sends accusing network users of illegally sharing music.

One commenter in the discussion noted that the investigative arm of the RIAA is now referred to as a "contractor" rather than investigator.

Ars Technica reports on the PRO-IP Act, new proposed copyright legislation where copyright infringement in the case of CD albums would award statutory damages on each individual song:

The issue is compilations, which now are treated as a single work. In the RIAA's perfect world, each copied track would count as a separate act of infringement, meaning that a copying a ten-song CD even one time could end up costing a defendant $1.5 million if done willfully.

Hmmmm...I guess all those poor college students trading files aren't paying nearly enough in restitution.

But seriously, isn't it about time that any new, proposed copyright legislation reflected the interests of society rather than those of the content industry and their lobbyists? We should be reducing non-commercial copyright infringement damages and expanding fair use, not attempting to move the currently disproportionate intellectual property situation further in the wrong direction.

George Miller (D-CA), normally among the most progressive and sane of legislators, has sponsored an educational reauthorization bill, the ‘‘College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007," that in its 747 pages (yep, I read 'em all) puts forward plenty of good stuff.