3 Count: Bad Fortuny

Jonathan BaileyApril 20, 2009

2 minutes read

This is daily column on Plagiarism Today where the site brings you three of the days biggest, most important copyright and plagiarism news links. If you want to offer your feedback on the column, use the contact form or just follow me on Twitter at @plagiarismtoday.

1:
Internet Archive wants book copyright indemnity like Google

The Internet Archive, famous for the Wayback Machine, which displays old versions of Web sites, is hoping that it can receive some of the same protections Google has with its recent Google Book Search settlement.

Google was sued in 2006 over its book scanning project by the Author’s Guild. The two recently reached a settlement where Google paid out over $125 million for the rights to continue scanning and displaying out of print books. The suit also protects Google in cases of orphan works, works where the author is unknown, should the author come forward later.

It is the orphan works issue that has the Internet Archive worried. They have written a letter to a Federal judge asking to intervene in the Google case, saying that the lack of such protection for them would put them at a disadvantage.

2: $74k Judgment Against Craigslist Prankster

Next up today, Jason Fortuny, the famous Craigslist prankster, has been ordered to pay a total of $74,000 to one of his victims. This includes damages for copyright infringement, damages for invasion of privacy as well as court costs and attorney fees.

Fortuny posted personal ads on Craiglist in various cities pretending to be a woman. As men responded to the ads, he posted their responses, including images, on a site he had created.

Unsurprisingly, he was sued for this behavior and, with the default judgment being filed, it appears that this case is over.

3: CNN makes copyright claim on video critical of reporter’s ‘Tea Party’ interviews

Finally today, CNN seems to have become the latest to step in the “takedown to block unpleasant” speech mess on YouTube, taking down a clip of a reporter being combative with tea party protesters.

The clip had become very popular with conservative bloggers as many felt it showed CNN’s political bias. Though the clip was pulled it has been re-posted in several other places on YouTube as well as on other video sharing sites.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.