Smartpunk Records is bringing their Smartpunk House back to the iconic South By Southwest fest (SXSW) for the fifth year in a row. It’ll run March 16 and 17 at the Empire Garage and Control Room in Austin, TX, and begin at noon local time. Music enthusiasts will not need a pass to enter the free showcase. The lineup is a blend of newer indie emo/rock with acts such as Winona Fighter, Proper., and Remo Drive to classic staples in the scene such as Spitalfield, Sparta, and Bob Nanna of Braid. With a label that’s been around since 2016 and… Read more »
Two court decisions considered victories for the film and music industries could deny U.S. citizens the same free speech rights in cyberspace that they have in the real world, according to copyright experts and civil rights activists. A federal appeals court in New York last week ruled that the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act – which bars creating or distributing technology that can be used to circumvent copyright protections – does not infringe on First Amendment free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution. The court barred Eric Corley, publisher of hacker Web site 2600 magazine, from posting or linking… Read more »
In a major victory for Hollywood movie studios, a federal appeals court on Wednesday barred a Web site from revealing how to make unauthorized copies of digital video discs (DVDs). The Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) does not infringe on the free speech protections of the U.S. Constitution. There were actions in two other DMCA-related cases on Wednesday. A federal judge in Trenton, New Jersey, dismissed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the DMCA filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In that case, a group of… Read more »
