Here's a neat twist in the copyright wars - Grokster has reported the record industry to the Office for Fair Trading in the UK for restraint of trade!

From Lisa Rein's fair and balanced radar, I learn that (and it's difficult to believe this but) Howard Berman, when talking about his latest proposal to criminalise peer to peer file sharing, actually said, on CNN, "The penalty would range from...eh up to eh five years in jail. Notice, no death penalty but eh it i..it's part of our effort to send a message that that which is already illegal and that which is criminal should be avoided..." I had to play it repeatedly to have it sink in. "...no death penalty..."? People in California elected congressman Berman. If you're interested in Californian politics, or even if you're just interested in the entertainment business, Lisa has another link to a political analyst with a funny take on the story of Arnold Swarzenegger running for governor.

There's an interesting apparent throwaway line in the Sunday Times article about Peter Gabriel's song downloading joint venture with Microsoft. A spokeswoman for the British Phonographic Industry says there are no plans to sue UK file sharers: 'It's not a hearts-and-minds winner,' she says, 'It's a PR nightmare.'