3 Count: Punctured

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1: Judge Won’t Allow ‘Mass-Suing’ of Movie Pirates

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a judge in Ohio has ruled that plaintiffs can not file mass lawsuits against Bittorrent defendants, most likely in hopes of issuing subpoenas to compel ISPs to turn over customer information, setting the stage for a settlement demand.

The lawsuit was brought by Safety Point Productions, Picture Perfect Corporation and Voltage Pictures regarding the 2011 film “Puncture”. The judge in the case called the practice “unseemly” and ordered that the lawsuits be refiled as separate cases, saying that it was unfair to allow them to be joined together.

According to the judge, if the cases were to be refiled as separate ones, it would result in $67,000 in additional court costs. Judges’ decisions on this issue vary from district to district with many potential plaintiffs seeking out friendly jurisdictions to file their lawsuits in.

2: Student Takes Former Employer to Court Over Copyright Claims

Next up today, Chloe Fedio at the Ottawa Citizen reports that Veldon Coburn, a PhD candidate and policy analyst at Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada, is suing the head of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) for allegedly plagiarizing his research and using it without permission or payment.

According to Coburn, he was approached by J. Kevin Barlow to help with a side project, a grant proposal to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF), and that Coburn would be paid only if the grant was funded. However, when he searching the Internet, he discovered that the grant had been funded and his research used without his name attached. Instead, Barlow was listed as the sole author.

CAAN admits that Coburn’s research was used but continues to say that the lawsuit is without merit, saying that Coburn is not the sole author and that they have the necessary rights to the work. However, Coburn has said he has not received the promised payment. Barlow has also posted the paper in question to his personal consulting website, saying that he researched and wrote it.

3: Movie Studios Want Google to Take Down Their Own Takedown Request

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that 20th Century Fox, in one of its Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices to Google, Fox has asked the search giant to remove at least one link that points to other DMCA notices they’ve sent.

The notice in question was hosting on Chilling Effects, a transparency site that Google submits its DMCA notices to for public viewing. However, the site has been somewhat controversial due to its publishing of the full links of content that was removed.

Still, most believe that the inclusion was accidental, likely caused by the automated nature of the report. Google has declined the DMCA notice on that URL and the notice in question remains available via Google.

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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Tune in every Wednesday evening at 5 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.

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