3 Count: Mice & Men

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

1: US Copyright Group Drops Cases Against Thousands of BitTorrent Users

First off today, the U.S. Copyright Group has dropped some 97% of the John Does in its case over the alleged file sharing of the movie Far Cry. This includes some 4,437 that were dismissed without prejudice, leaving only 140 in the suit. The reason was personal jurisdiction, meaning that most of the people in the suit either couldn’t be identified or they lived outside of the court’s jurisdiction. However, since the suit was dropped without prejudice, the U.S. Copyright Group is free to file again, including in another district, which is likely the next step.

2: White House to Continue Copyright Crackdown

Next up today, White House “Copyright Czar” Victoria Espinel has announced that the administration will be taking additional action to close down sites of counterfeiters and pirates. This comes after the seizure of some 82 domains by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement last week, hinting at the possibility of additional seizures in the near future. Specifically, Espinel promised additional announcements in the coming weeks and appears to be working with payment processors and other parties in a bid to stop counterfeit goods.

3: Single Software Licence Shared 774,651 Times

Finally today, computer security company Avast has announced that it discovered a 14-seat license for its antivirus product, sold to a business customer, was pirated over three-quarter a million times and used in over 200 countries, including the Vatican. The company decided to watch the license spread and not close the key down and has since used popups and other notices to try to nudge those using the key to either switch to their free software or pay for a full license. Though there is no indication as to how many customers have signed up, Avast seems pleased with the result saying things are going according to their plan.

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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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

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