3 Count: Over Exposed

Jonathan BaileyAugust 23, 2012

2 minutes read

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

1: German Firm Threatens to Publish IP Addresses of Alleged Porn Pirates

First off today, Timothy Lee of Ars Technica reports that, a German law firm, Urmann and Colleagues, has warned on its website that it will begin publishing contact information for suspected bittorrent porn pirates on September first. The firm, which represents copyright holders in suing alleged p2p pirates, says it has a list of 150,000 people that it claims owe its clients money and will use public humiliation to as a means to get them to pay faster. The firm also warned it will focus on “touchy cases” first, namely “church rectories, police stations and the embassies of Arab countries” first. The firm also claims that the disclosures are compliant with German privacy laws, citing a 2007 ruling that lets law firms publish the names of their legal opponents for self-promotion.

2: Aereo’s Barry Diller sues to squash copycat BarryDriller

Next up today, Jeff Roberts of Gigaom writes that embattled Aereo founder Barry Diller has filed a lawsuit BarryDriller.com. Aereo, which is a service that allows users to rent individual antennas to record and play back broadcast TV via the Web, is currently the center of a copyright lawsuit filed by the major broadcast networks. BarryDriller.com is competitor that operates on the west coast (Aereo is only available in New York) and was named after Barry Diller, who also once ran Paramount and Fox. Diller has sued BarryDriller.com for trademark infringement, but that may be the least of BarryDriller.com’s problems as it is also being sued by Fox for alleged copyright infringement.

3: Award Winning Manga to be Freely Used by Anyone for Anything Anytime, Author Will Not Request Royalties

Finally today, Master Blaster from Rocket News 24 writes that, in Japan, Shuho Sato, the author of “Say Hello to Black Jack” manga will be no longer enforcing his copyright in the work and, instead, will not command royalties for any commercial or non-commercial use. Sato had previously split from the original publisher of the series in favor of founding his own publishing site. However, as of September 15, he will no longer be enforcing his copyright in the work, as part of his efforts to explore new business models to replace what he calls the “outdated” model of intellectual property. At an exhibit of Sato’s work, a copy machine will be available to let visitors replicate what they want. (Hat Tip: @kakapotrainer)

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.