It has come to this… Universal Music was somewhat overzealous in filing a DMCA complaint with YouTube regarding the toddler who danced on camera to a ~20 year old Prince song. So the EFF responded with a lawsuit seeking damages (cash?) and relief:

“Universal’s takedown notice doesn’t even pass the laugh test,” said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. “Copyright holders should be held accountable when they undermine non-infringing, fair uses like this video.”

Offending 29 second video after the break… and let me warn you that while it may or may not infringe, it’s most definitely guilty of mundaneness.

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A survey from across the pond suggests that illegal music downloading has skyrocketed, at least in part because of the “democratizing” force of social networks. On the other hand, a survey earlier this year in the U.S. by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and Harris Interactive found just the opposite. According to the BSA, illegal downloading has decreased significantly among 8- to 18-year-olds over the last three years. Why? Fear of downloading a computer virus (62%), fear of legal trouble (52%), fear of downloading spyware (51%) and fear of getting in trouble with mommy and daddy (48%).

I certainly can’t refute the findings of either survey, having not spent the time interviewing thousands of Internet users. However, I can add an anecdote from a lunch discussion I had last week. My favorite financial analyst related a story about an associate of his, an author and copyright expert, who spoke with many college students about their music downloading habits. Apparently it was a point of pride among these students that most of their music had never been paid for. It was actually embarrassing for them to admit it when they purchased a song.

Are these just the morals of our misbegotten youth? Or is this a trend starting with a new generation? (And yes, I really just wanted to use the phrase “misbegotten youth”)

I’ve switched over to a new work laptop, and it’s significantly bigger than my old laptop. Yes, bigger. I decided I wanted a large, wide-screen device since I stare at it virtually all day long. The trade-off, of course, is that my new laptop is harder to carry around. Should I get a UMPC for portability purposes? (assuming I could afford one) Or would I just hate myself for complicating life with multiple, every-day-use computers? What do you think?

As you probably know, I work for Motorola - but until recently have had very little to do with the mobile devices side of the business. So it’s not shocking that when I traveled up to NYC last week for our press event in NYC, I was in store for some surprises.

Sascha Segan (gimpy from a broken toe, but witty as ever) has already covered the new IDEN phones, and I only have one minor point to add. Don’t knock the rubberized phone backing until you try it. Love the grip.

On the other hand, nobody has made much comment about the slew of Bluetooth accessories on display. When I say slew, I mean they almost equaled mobile phones in their proliferation. And, while the Bluetooth devices are first and foremost designed for wireless communication, their expanding functionality is quite interesting. Check out this little gadget to the right for streaming music from a PC, DAP or mobile phone to your mobile phone headphones. (It’s the piece plugged in to the bottom of the iPod -yes Motorola had an iPod on display) Sure, lots of devices do this kind of thing, but I love the idea of packaging this with your phone. Your earbuds theoretically go anywhere your phone does (i.e. everywhere), and if you take along the tiny little plug-in gadget, you can stream music wirelessly from virtually any device.

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A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs.

• Wii - Gaming Genius or Fitness Fad: TechLore
• Mark Cuban Kills The Internet: Connected Home 2 Go
• Belaboring the CableCARD Issue: Connected Home 2 Go
• Terayon and Targeted Advertising: Connected Home 2 Go

Sony and satellite television provider Sky have announced the formation of a company to bring video-on-demand to the 2 million UK and Ireland PSPs early next year. No details were given on the technologies or conditions (file format, download and/or transfer methods, expiry, etc), though more info will supposedly be revealed August 22 at the Games Convention. GameSpot UK has more:

Sony also claimed that discussions were ongoing across Europe to roll out similar services in continental markets, but made no mention of American or Australian plans.

I still haven’t ebayed my PSP… Bring us some video download love here in the US. Or at the very least - a POP mail client and keyboard accessory.

I was surprised to read on Engadget that the latest FairUse4WM may strip video (WMV) DRM too (citing the new BBC iPlayer), so I conducted an experiment (before rolling back Vista). We’d previously purchased three episodes of the second season of Weeds (while waiting for the DVD to be released) via Amazon Unbox for TiVo. Using Amazon’s PC player, I downloaded one episode and ran it through FairUse4WM. I took the resultant file over to my Macbook Pro via a USB key… Lo and behold, after a slow load (it’s a big file), it played back. Very nicely, I might add.

While I’m sure many will appreciate this updated utility, I worry that apps like these make content owners skittish - potentially slowing the delivery and adoption of digital media. Though, maybe more favorable terms for honest consumers would send fewer people down this path.

Now that I’m back home for a few weeks, the time has finally come to remove remove Windows Vista from my desktop. While I appreciate the rich GUI and new functionality (photo gallery), the computer is just too slow to be usable. Plus, my MCE <-> Xbox 360 connection has been unreliable. The media extender connectivity issues could be due to my network config, but the generally sluggish performance of Vista seems out of my control. I’m not entirely sure what the problem is… I know Vista is resource intensive, but I bought this PC last fall (Vista certified!) and the hardware specs are decent (the machine was blazing under XP). The final straw came last weekend when recording that TiVo animation. I couldn’t do it using Windows Movie Maker - the Vista edition has dropped analog recording. (I ended up capturing via BeyondTV and trimming the clip with WMM.) Bah! Back to XP…