The notion of a potential "e-mail tax" has haunted the online world since the days when people would ask you if you'd get charged by the phone company every time your 2400 baud modem started shrieking those sweet, sweet connection noises at the top of its digital lungs. Is some shadowy government agency or corporation finally buying up the internet and turning our (ideally) freely communicative world into a "pay-to-play" environment? Not exactly, but AOL has something up its sleeve in their little corner of the internet that could have a serious impact on free communication in the long run.

M.I.A., the artist who made it safe for indie kids to listen to dancehall, got absolutely huge without the help of mainstream radio or anyone huge players in the music biz. Her secret to out-manouvering the established pecking order of the music industry? Super hot beats, infectious choruses, and the internet.

It's no secret that Bill Cosby has lately generated more controversy than you'd expect out of a guy with such a fatherly demeanor and a sincere love for pudding pops. It's not Cosby's political stances that are shaking up the digital world, however. It's his lawyers, and their attempt to set the laws surrounding parody and satire back a good 50 years in order to protect the pristine, heavenly glow of the Cosby legacy.

New developments in the ongoing drama of Elisa Greubel, the Texan and Avril Lavigne fan who sent fanmail to Nettwerk Records artist MC Lars praising his anti-lawsuit "Download This Song" track as the RIAA began their attempt to extort her for file sharing, causing Nettwerk to back her case against the big guys. A motion has been filed, and it lays out quite simply, why the RIAA lawsuits are more akin to racketeering and extortion than any sort of reasonable legal action.

The courtroom machinations of the RIAA have begun to look even more sinister (did you think that was possible?)of the way RIAA lawyers are playing their case against Denise Barker, a woman they're taking to court for file sharing.

Thinking about releasing your band's live album? If Clear Channel has anything to say about it, you won't be able to do it without forking out money to them first.

The RIAA is trying to swing it so that you can't legally copy CDs you've purchased to your iPod. Huh?! No, seriously.

Digital Rights advocate and protector of all things awesome Lawrence Lessig was happily surprised to find that the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts are actually supporting the visual arts, rather than taking a nod from ostensibly art-interested businesses and going lawsuit crazy.

The EFF has taken a strong stance against Google's "Search Across Computers" function of its Google Desktop software. The feature indexes and stories copies of all the Word Documents, PDFs, etc., on a user's computer. Those of you concerned about being monitored, continue to be concerned.

A recent USA Today poll finds Americans torn on questions of minutae with regard to the file-sharing phenomenon. Many seem to agree, though, that the majority of the major label music being churned out today is overpriced and terrible.

Good news: The makers of MediaMax copy-protection software are removing the destructive bits. Bad news: the copy-protection itself will remain.

The RIAA is taking the Gruebel family to court for sharing Avril Lavigne songs on a p2p network. The Texan family has a surprising ally in their fight against the RIAA's now infamous anti-consumer, over-litigious policy - Nettwerk Music Group - Avril Lavigne's record label.

The MPAA wants you to believe that file-sharing is putting Joe Average out of work - you've seen the commercials. In the mean time, they've been making unauthorized copies of Joe Average's movies.

Splicing and re-engineering pre-existing movie footage and creating an ersatz music video or an absurdist parody can provide a whole lot of entertainment for viewers and a whole lot of exposure for budding young artists. Some copyright holders, unfortunately, aren't overly concerned with art. What suffers as a result? Only the future of the internet as a venue to express creativity.

On January 4th, the Electronic Frontier Foundation issued an open letter requesting that EMI Music publically state that they will not prosecute researchers interested in figuring out what makes the copy protection on CDs released by EMI-owned record labels tick. Hopefully EMI will come through on that one, as the idea that someone could get hauled into court for trying to discern if a CD is capable of opening a personal computer to hacker attacks is a little terrifying.