3 Count: Happy School

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

1: New Zealand Outlaws Internet File-Sharing

First off today, as widely expected, New Zealand passed its new anti-piracy law yesterday, which opens up fines of up to $15,000 and can disconnect alleged file sharers for up to six months. The legislation was rushed through Parliament in under 48 hours and was only voted against by the Green Party and two independent MPs. The new law takes effect September 1st though it won’t apply to mobile networks until 2013.

2: YouTube Is Sending Copyright Offenders Back to School

Next up today, YouTube is sending those who receive copyright infringement notices back to school, requiring them to watch a four-minute video and pass a short test on copyright before they can upload more clips. The video, which stars characters from the Happy Tree Friends, goes over the basics of copyright and fair use in a comical, though still PSA-like manner. YouTube hopes that this will educate users on matters of copyright and reduce the number of infringing videos that are uploaded.

3: New Setback for Warner Bros. in ‘Superman’ Litigation

Finally today, Warner Brothers has suffered another setback in its legal fight against the estates of the creators of Superman, who are trying to reclaim the copyright in the iconic superhero. Specifically, Warner Brothers was wanting access to alleged agreements between the estates of Joel Shuster and Jerry Siegel, the creators of Superman who are seeking copyright termination, meaning they would control Superman moving forward. Warner Brothers wanted to force the plaintiffs to turn over alleged agreements they had made, which Warner claims to be in violation of copyright, but the court ruled that they were not discoverable as they were protected by attorney-client privilege. The case over who will own Superman in 2013 is currently in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

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 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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.