3 Count: Doh Does

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1: US Man Pleads Guilty to Music Piracy Charges

First off today a California man, Richard Franco Montejano, has plead guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement due to his involvement for over 5 years in a “warez” scene that specialized in releasing music before it was commercially available. Montejano was a member of the “Old School Classics” warez group, which achieved notoriety in 2007 for leaking Kanye West’s album “Graduation a week before it went on sale. Two accomplices of the group, the ones who obtained the CDs from the factories, have already plead guilty and were sentenced to three months each in prison. Montejano is due to be sentenced July 25.

2: Perfect 10 Sues Giganews for Copyright Infringement

Next up today, adult content company Perfect 10, most famous for its failed lawsuits against Google, Rapidshare and others, has now decided to file a lawsuit against Usenet service Giganews for copyright infringement. According to Perfect 10, they sent Giganews a DMCA notice with some 800 images but Giganews said that, based upon the information provided, it was unable to identify where the allegedly infringing images were. Perfect 10 also sued 100 “doe” defendants and Livewire Services Inc., a company that resells Giganews content. Perfect 10 is seeking a total of $25 million in damages.

3: IP-Address Is Not a Person, BitTorrent Case Judge Says

Finally today, a judge denied a subpoena request made by Canadian adult content company VPR Internationale preventing them from getting information from ISPs as part of their lawsuit against over 1,000 “Doe” defendants they accuse of illegally sharing their content online. According to the judge in the case, a computer’s IP address does not equal the person responsible for the file sharing and providing information about the IP address owner could prompt people to settle cases quickly to avoid embarrassment. There is no word if VPR plans on appealing the ruling.

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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