A Nevada judge has given copyright troll Righthaven until mid-December to explain why one of the law firm's targets wasn't exercising its right to Fair Use when it republished a newspaper article on its website.

"The court hereby orders the plaintiff to show cause why this case should not be dismissed under the 17 U.S.C. § 107 Fair Use exception," US District Judge James C. Mahan of Nevada told Righthaven on November 15. Mahan also issued a "show cause" hearing on the suit for December 15.

As an incident that we reported on last week shows, the Internet routing system isn't as secure as we want it to be. But how bad is it really?

In the ongoing struggle between broadcasters and online streaming services, Big Content has earned a temporary win against streaming service FilmOn. A federal judge has ordered FilmOn to cease streaming content from live, over-the-air broadcasts at least until it submits a satisfactory legal brief explaining why the court shouldn't grant the preliminary injunction sought by the four largest US broadcast networks.

Meanwhile, competitor Ivi—accused of the same copyright violations as FilmOn in a separate lawsuit—is wrestling with a contradictory legal framework to show that it is a legitimate business operating under the letter of copyright law. At stake is whether or not online streaming services should have the same benefits as satellite and cable—and more recently, FIOS and U-verse IP-based TV—since broadcasters are obligated by the FCC to negotiate retransmission contracts.

More than half of you reading this post right now will check your work e-mail on Thanksgiving Day, possibly in between helpings of turkey or slices of pumpkin pie. Almost as many of you will feel annoyed when you receive e-mail from your coworkers on that day, even though those people are pretty much the same as you.

A new survey conducted on 2,179 adults by Harris Interactive (on behalf of social media startup Xobni) says that many of us—42 percent, to be exact—feel that we have to stay up-to-date on work over the holidays in order to ease our own workloads. Fifty-nine percent will check their e-mail at least once on their holidays off, while 28 percent will check multiple times. If you're a man, you're more likely to check than your female counterparts, and the same goes if you live in the southern part of the US versus the north.

A full 10 percent of those surveyed admitted that they checked their e-mail during "inappropriate" times, such as when they were with friends or family, or even during holiday meals. However, there's another small group (5 percent of those surveyed) who said they used e-mail as a way to avoid awkward family commitments or situations—we can certainly relate to that.

Major broadcast networks are taking two online video streaming services to court in order to keep them from streaming free over-the-air broadcasts to customers. Both companies, FilmOn and Ivi, contend they should have the right to stream the content under a compulsory license attached to some forms of content in the US Copyright Act. The networks contend that the companies are "unjustly profiting" off of networks' programming.

ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC filed separate suits against FilmOn and Ivi in the US District Court of the Southern District of New York. A judge is considering a temporary restraining order against FilmOn while a similar hearing for a restraining order against Ivi is expected in the next few weeks.

The Wall Street Journal noted that the legal clash is just one of many as media companies seek to control how viewers access TV content online. FilmOn founder Alki David told WSJ that TV networks "have to deal with me or someone like me or be devoured by the pirates." FilmOn and Ivi both allow users to stream the same OTA broadcasts—with commercials intact—as they would be able to access for free with an antenna.

The networks have only recently (and begrudgingly) began offering a wider range of content on services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and iTunes. Still, many gaps exist from some popular shows and especially for live sports broadcasts and other live events. FilmOn and Ivi seek to fill these gaps for their users, but broadcasters won't offer either company licenses, unlike the licenses that must be offered to satellite and cable companies for rebroadcasting a live signal. Ivi CEO Todd Weaver told WSJ that he hopes the FCC will categorize his service as an "online cable company," in order to force the broadcasters to work out a deal. "The problem is we are left out of an even playing field," Weaver said.

Still, legal precedent is on the broadcasters' side. The Copyright Office has repeatedly said that the compulsory licensing for cable systems doesn't extend to online streaming. Last year the networks also successfully sued New Jersey-based VuiVision to stop the company from streaming their programming. 

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Google is taking one more step into Microsoft's territory by allowing Office users to sync and access their documents through Google—without having to leave the Office interface. The service is being called Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office, and already works with Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 (no word on the Mac versions of Office, though).

Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office used to be through DocVerse, a company that Google acquired in March of this year. DocVerse allowed Office users to edit their documents collaboratively on the Web, much like Google Docs. Office does (now) come with its own collaboration tools, but they work differently than Google and DocVerse, and some users prefer the real-time editing nature of Google's services.

Immediately following the acquisition announcement, Google rolled out a migration tool for Microsoft Exchange, showing that it was serious about going after Microsoft's customers. The reintroduction of DocVerse as Google Cloud Connect for Microsoft Office only furthers that goal—Google says it's meant for users who haven't yet migrated to Google Docs and prefer the Office interface.

"Once synced, documents are backed up, given a unique URL, and can be accessed from anywhere (including mobile devices) at any time through Google Docs," group product manager Shan Sinha said in a statement. "And because the files are stored in the cloud, people always have access to the current version."

Just like Google Docs, Office documents that are synced with Cloud Connect for Office can be shared and edited simultaneously among multiple users. It can be done within Office, too, so editing in a Web browser isn't necessary. Google keeps track of the revisions so that documents can be reverted if necessary.

Google says that the service is now available to "trusted testers" and for Google Apps for Business customers to preview. The company didn't give a date for when the final product will be available, but said that the product will be free to everyone (regular users included) when it launches.

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Netflix has finally introduced its long-awaited streaming-only plan. Netflix VP of Marketing Jessie Becker wrote in a blog post Monday morning that the new plan would cost $7.99 per month—$1 less than the old one-DVD-plus-streaming plan—and that those who only want to stream will get no DVDs by mail. Those who still want to stream and get DVDs will have to open their wallets, though, because the company is raising prices on all of its DVD plans.

Becker said that Netflix's selection of streaming TV and movies had "grown dramatically" and that the price increase on the DVD-plus-streaming plans would "allow us to continue to offer the popular plan choice of unlimited TV episodes and movies streaming instantly along with unlimited DVDs." That means the previous $8.99 1-DVD plan is now $9.99, the $13.99 2-DVD plan is now $14.99, and the $16.99 3-DVD plan is now $19.99, and so on.

"You might also wonder why we haven’t introduced a new plan that includes only DVDs by mail," Becker wrote. "The fact is that Netflix members are already watching more TV episodes and movies streamed instantly over the Internet than on DVDs, and we expect that trend to continue."

Netflix's streaming service has been available since 2007, but has always been an add-on to the traditional disc plans. Netflix has, however, been promising to roll out a streaming-only plan since early 2009 when the company's CEO said the company's goal for 2010 was to "be successful in streaming."

The new streaming-only plan is no doubt targeted at users who watch copious amounts of Netflix content on Rokus, Apple TVs, Boxee boxes, and Xboxes. Personally, I can go weeks without remembering to send back my one DVD to get a new one, but I will have a hard time deciding whether I want to save $2 per month and go all streaming. Some of the best movies are still DVD-only on Netflix (a long-standing complaint among prolific streamers), and the occasional DVD is sometimes nice to have. For those of you who subscribe to Netflix, will you cut discs out of your life for $7.99 per month?

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As the holiday season approaches, the Righthaven law firm has opted to give peace a chance. The scan-for-content-and-sue outfit has extended an olive branch to one of its latest targets—the Democratic Underground web site. Like the law firm's previous victims, DU posted some text from Righthaven's main client, the Las Vegas Review Journal, and was consequently sued for cash under the claim of copyright infringement.