3 Count: Hired Gun

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1: French Publisher Group Strikes Deal With Google Over E-Books

First off today, Eric Pfanner at the New York Times reports that, even as the U.S. case over Google Book Search is heating up, the one in France may be heading to a close. The French Publishers’ Association and the Société des Gens de Lettres, a group representing authors, have dropped their lawsuit against Google after the search giant agreed to set up a framework by which they can sell out-of-print books online. The settlement, on the surface, is similar to one that had been reached in the U.S. between Google and The Authors’ Guild but was rejected by the court. The U.S. case was recently granted class action status and appears to be heading for a trial.

2: Megaupload Lawyer Not Buying MPAA’s Sympathy

Next up today, Zach Walton at WebProNews writes that the MPAA has filed a brief in the Megaupload case, saying that it would not oppose “legitimate” users of the service getting access to their data. However, Megaupload’s legal teams says that they are not buying the sympathy because, according to them, it would be impossible to meet the MPAA’s demands of filtering out illegitimate files. Megaupload was a file storage and sharing service but was shuttered following raids by U.S. and New Zealand authorities that also resulted in the arrest of many of the company’s employees, including the site’s founder Kim Dotcom. Dotcom is currently facing possible extradition to the U.S.

3: Pinterest Just Hired A Big Name Lawyer From Google To Deal With One Of Its Biggest Threats

finally today, Nicholas Carlson at Business Insider writes that Michael Yang has left his position as deputy legal counsel at Google and is headed over to Pinterest, where he will be head of legal. The move comes as Pinterest faces a series of legal challenges centered around copyright, namely accusations that the service is encouraging users to infringe copyright of photographers and artists through its service. Yang, previously, is best known for his work with controversies revolving around the Google Chrome terms of service and Google Buzz.

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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