3 Count: Pi Problems

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

1: MPAA Wants Megaupload User Data Retained for Lawsuits

First off today, David Kravets at Wired Threat Level is reporting that the MPAA has filed a motion to order Carpathia, a hosting company that provided servers to Megaupload, to preserve some 25 petabytes of data used by the site when it was in operation. Megaupload was a cyberlocker site famously shuttered in January after raids by both U.S. and New Zealand authorities. Though the site went dark, the data remained on servers at Carpathia pending government investigation. However, the government has said that Carpathia is free to delete the data, prompting the MPAA to file its own motion seeking preservation so the data will be available if and when they seek to file a civil case against the site. However, Carpathia is claiming that it costs $9,000 per day to keep the data and is asking to be allowed to wipe it. The MPAA, however, has said that it will not use the data to target individual file sharers, only Megaupload and any other “intermediaries” it deems necessary.

2: Top Copyright Litigator Withdraws from Righthaven Cases

Next up today, Steve Green from Vegas Inc. is reporting that Dale Cendali, one of the best-known copyright attorneys in the U.S., has formally separated himself from Righthaven. Righthaven, the company which sued nearly 300 website owners over alleged misuse of content originally from the Las Vegas Review Journal and the Denver Post, has suffered from a string of legal defeats and has been unable to pay damages awarded to former defendants. Cendali was brought in last year, after the first few setbacks, to represent Righthaven and correct the legal problems. However, not much has been heard from him and Righthaven has not been responding to ongoing court cases and is in the process of having all its assets seized, including its copyrights.

3: Can you Copyright Music of Pi? Judge Says No

Finally today, Elizabeth Landau at CNN is reporting that a judge in Oregon has tossed a copyright infringement lawsuit dealing with music based on the concept of pi. The lawsuit was filed after musician John Blake created a YouTube video entitled “What Pi Sounds Like” that featured music based on the mathematical concept. However, Lars Erickson had done something similar decades before with “The Pi Symphony” and sued Blake for creating a derivative work. However, the judge tossed the case saying that pi is a non-copyrightable fact. To make matters more amusing, the verdict was handed down on Pi Day, 3/14.

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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