3 Count: Sneak Peek

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1: France Examines Even Tougher Anti-Piracy Laws

First off today, Eriq Gardner at the Hollywood Reporter writes that France, already home to the world’s strongest “three stikes” law, may be looking to expand its law to deal with streaming and direct download sites.

In a new report issed by France’s Internet Authority, HADOPI, the organization suggests the use of content recognition tools by site owners (similar to ones used by YouTube) to prevent infringing material from reappearing on the sites. However, those sites that don’t comply risk having their sites blocked in France, being forced to block their site to French visitors or have their accounts with payment processors cut.

France’s HADOPI system was the world’s first “three stikes” system, which was ISPs sending copyright warnings to customers on behalf of copyright holders. Though some 3 million IP addresses have been issued a first warning, only 14 have been referred to a prosecutor after receiving their third warning.

2: Newspapers Back AP In Copyright Battle Against Meltwater

Next up today, Wendy Davis at Media Post News reports that Advance Publications, Gannett, McClatchy and the Newspaper Association of America have filed a brief expressing their support for the Associated Press in its case against content aggregator Meltwater.

The AP sued Meltwater for copyright infringement last year, claiming that Meltwater, which considers itself a clipping service, was infringing their copyright by making copies of news stories and sending out portions of them to subscribers who pay for the service. The AP claims that such a service needs to be licensed though Meltwater claims it has a right under fair use to share the clips, one similar to a search engine.

In the brief, the news organizations deny that Meltwater has a fair use argument, saying that Meltwater should not be considered a search engine because it is a “closed-end, commercial content delivery business”. The Computer and Communications Industry Association, which represents tech companies, previously weighed in on the side of Meltwater.

3: Here’s What an Actual “Six Strikes” Copyright Alert Looks Like

Finally today, Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica reports that Comcast has given them a look at what many of the alerts in the “six strikes” system will be, providing some cause for concern.

The system, which was announced in 2011, was launched this week and sees ISPs sending warnings on behalf of copyright holders to those suspected of sharing files on peer-to-peer networks. Comcast provided Ars with copies of their first, second, fourth and fifth alerts.

Worrisome to some is that the first alert is sent to the subscribers @comcast.net address, which many do not actually use. Others are concerned that the alerts, which ISPs claim are meant to be educational, do little to inform the customers of what is wrong and how to fix the problem.

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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