DMCA

Just what constitutes "fair use" of copyrighted material has always been hard to define. Now a new website, Mediaite.com, is using that ambiguity to build a business model on other companies' content.

Media giant Viacom has appealed a judge's ruling that threw out its $1 billion lawsuit against Google-owned YouTube for copyright infringement. Viacom called the decision, which said YouTube was protected by the "fair use" doctrine, "fundamentally flawed." This battle is far from over.

Thanks to the ubiquity of Kindles and iPads, the publishing industry must address one of the thorniest issues of digital readers: How do they protect their books from pirates without alienating loyal customers who just want to read their e-books?

iPhone and e-Book users may be feeling a bit more liberated, following an announcement Monday that loosens the Digital Millennium Copyright Act provisions. Basically, the ruling means folks can legally disable the restrictive software controls on devices like Apple's iPhone or Amazon's Kindle.

Viacom, the media giant suing YouTube for $1 billion, tried to buy the video site until the very last moment before Google snatched it in 2006. Viacom said buying YouTube would be a "transformative acquisition," according to court documents.

Viacom's legal brawl with Google's YouTube heated up as the case went public. Viacom claims YouTube has long flouted copyright law, while Google accuses Viacom of using YouTube as a promotional vehicle while suing the site.

In a court case that began last year, Apple (AAPL) charged the young upstart Psystar, which makes Mac knock-offs, with a host of copyright and trademark violations. The venerable computer and consumer electronics company said that Psystar had infringed its copyrights by selling PCs that looked like...