If the tales of XR2 aren't enough to spook you, this should be: Kazaa has demanded Google drop sites promoting 'unauthorized derivative works'.

It's the good old yankee imperialist DCMA attack:

As required under Sections 512©(3) and 512(d)(3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. ��512©(3) and 512(d)(3)), we are instructed to place you on notice ... following search results (the "Infringing Material") contain unauthorized copies of the KMD or unauthorized derivative works of the KMD ... Please immediately remove or disable all access to the Infringing Material.

Ok, kiddies. Time to retaliate: If you trade files over Kazaa, it's time to switch clients. The very best way to counter the DCMA, until the Americans can elect some competent politicians, is to vote with your pocketbooks -- works every time.

Will Kazaa suceed in gagging Google? First off, it's a dangerous precident that you'd need a pretty twisted judge to endorse, second it's a clear violation of the very basis of American philosophy, and third, as Chilling Effects notes, the requirements of the DCMA are considerably more precise than the vague statement that someone is using your stuff and in that respect, Sharman Networks is being about as dense as SCO

And if this wasn't enough IP madness for your Wednesday morning, consider this item on revisionist syndicated television where copyright royalty rule changes meant even the passing reference to an Elton John lyric had to be dubbed out!

Oh poor, poor Sir Elton (or is it Sir Reginald?) Are we afwaid of losing a fwew pennies off the late-night telly? Tut-tut, daddy's lawyers will maywk it awwl bedder.

Ironically, my earliest recording of Reggie Dwight Elton John (yes, paid for, in a store, to the One True Supplier) appears in the sidelines of one of my all-time favourite LPs, an excellent anthology of the Alexis Korner blues band called Bootleg Him!