3 Count: Pirate Haven

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1: Ofcom Creates Piracy Havens at Small ISPs

First off today, as the Digital Economy Act begins to ramp up, Ofcom, the agency charged with making many of the policies and decisions regarding the new act, has decided that only hardline ISPs with greater than 400,000 subscribers will be obligated to follow the act’s requirements, including sending warning letters to accused file sharers. Many worry that this could cause smaller ISPs and mobile broadband ISPs to become pirate havens, which in turn has led others to worry that Ofcom could broaden the scope down the road.

2: Did EFF Lawyer Cross Line in LimeWire Case?

Next up today, EFF lead attorney Fred Von Lohman received an admonishment in the recent LimeWire ruling, which found the service liable for infringement committed by its users. According to the judge, Lohman provided advice to LimeWire that resulted in them destroying evidence required for the case. Lohman has denied any wrongdoing and the EFF has requested that the judge rewrite that part of the judgment. At issue specifically is a document that should have illustrated LimeWire was aware of the need to provide filtering services.

3: Aussie Rightsholders Make Sweating to Oldies More Expensive

Finally today, in Australia, musicians have secured a 15x royalty increase from fitness clubs from the country’s copyright royalty board after successfully arguing that their music was crucial to the success of the clubs and they were not being paid adequately. The new royalties come up to AU$15 per class or AU$1 per attendee, up from just 96.8¢ per class. Several fitness clubs have already said they will not pay the new royalties, instead saying they will seek covers that fall outside of collection agency’s authority.

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.

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