3 Count: Transparent Takedowns

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1: Google Copyright Report Provides Glimpse at Online Piracy, Lists Microsoft as Biggest Target

First off today, the Associated Press reports that Google has launched a new site dedicated to compiling and displaying information about the DMCA takedown notices it receives. According to the site, Google has received over 1.2 million removal requests from some 1,300 copyright holders in the last month alone. The site, which has data going back to July 2011, shows that Microsoft is by far the most frequent filer with over 2.5 million removal requests in that time. That’s more than double the second-largest filer, NBC Universal, and more than all of the other top 5 combined. The report is expected to be updated daily moving forward but it only includes DMCA notices filed regarding Google Search and only those filed via the Web form.

2: Recovery of $267mln from Publisher For Copyright Violation Confirmed

Next up today, RAPSI is reporting that, in Russia, the publishing company Terra will be recovering some $267,826 in damages from Astrel following a copyright lawsuit. The suit followed Astrel’s publishing of several novels by Russian science fiction author Alexander Belyayev. Asatrel claimed that the books were in the public domain though Terra claimed they were the exclusive rightsholders. Terra had originally sought some $17.37 million in damages but agreed to the lower amount in a settlement. However, this is not the only lawsuit between the two companies as another one, which has Terra suing for $236.63 million on separate issues, is still pending.

3: Rickrolling Back After YouTube Take Down Rick Astley Video Due to Copyright

Finally today, Lee Taylor at the Herald Sun reports that the famous Rickroll video has been restored to YouTube after nearly 24 hours of downtime following a copyright complaint. The video had been taken offline following a complaint from “AVG Technologies”, which is the name of the company that makes the popular antivirus software. The video currently has over 61 million views and is the subject of a famous Internet prank where users are promised one thing but taken to a video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” music video instead. This was the second time in recently where the video was taken down temporarily, the last being in 2010 where it was also restored.

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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