3 Count: Summer Blockbuster

Got any suggestions for the 3 Count. Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: Pirate Bay Appeals Postponed Until Next Year

First off today, if you were excited about the upcoming Pirate Bay appeal, it looks like you will have to wait until sometime next year, possibly as late as summer. The appeals trial has been postponed to allow the Swedish Supreme Court time to evaluate allegations of bias against two of the judges involved.

According to defense attorneys, two of the presiding judges members of pro-copyright organizations that could bias them against their clients, who were convicted of assisting copyright infringement earlier this year and sentenced to roughly a year in jail. Similar allegations against the district judge were fruitless for the defense and the appeals court also rejected by the appeals court. This seems to make the chances for success slim.

Still, the trial has been delayed and it doesn’t seem as if either side is going to budge.

2: SCO Fires CEO Darl McBride, Architect of Litigation Strategy

Next up, for those who have been following the multiyear saga between Unix vendor SCO and Linux, today offers a very interesting twist.

According to an SEC filing, the company has fired Darl McBride, the famous and often lampooned CEO of the company who designed the litigation campaign against Linux and was its public face. McBride, along with SCO accused IBM of inserting SCO Unix code into Linux and sued IBM as well as some major Linux using companies.

However, now SCO COO Jeff Hunsaker and CFO Ken Nielsen will take over operations of the company. The change is part of a restructuring plan under bankruptcy protection, which SCO is currently under.

3: Judge Allows EMI to Personally Sue Robertson

Finally today, in the ongoing case of EMI and MP3Tunes, the judge in the case has allowed the label to sue the MPTunes’ founder, Michael Robertson, in addition to suing the company. This came after new testimony from the company’s former president, Emily Richards, which indicated that Robertson had had a direct role in making decisions about the company’s direction.

The lawsuit stems from MP3Tunes’ use of “lockers”, which allow users to stream any music they upload from anywhere they have Web access. According to EMI, this is a violation of their copyright and are suing the company.

Another controversial element of this case is that Richards was reportedly paid up to $10,000 for her testimony, money the label says was to cover legal fees, attorney fees, etc., and that the testimony in June, upon which this decision was made, is different from her unpaid testimony, which was made back in April of last year.

Robertson, however, is no stranger to litigation. The founder of MP3.com, which was forced to pay hundreds of millions in damages over a copyright lawsuit, has been a regular target. However, he has called the attempts to go after his person assets “despicable” and plans to continue fighting the suit.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will 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.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.