3 Count: Brewing Storm

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

1: Hood Hits Google on Guarding Intellectual Property

First off today, Jeff Amy at the Associated Press reports that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has said that he is working to organize other Attorneys General to try and push Google to do more to protect copyright and other intellectual property.

Hood made the comments at a luncheon sponsored by the Capitol press corps and Mississippi State University’s Stennis Institute of Government. There he said that he’s sent letters to other state attorneys hoping to get signatures from 20 others.

The move follows the path of a recent effort by the state attorneys to pressure Google on the availability of illegal prescription drugs, which prompted Google to reach a settlement with them in 2011 that forced Google to make the process more difficult.

2: UK Police Orders Registrars to Suspend Domains of Major Torrent Sites

Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that the City of London Police new Intellectual Property Crime Unit has achieved it’s first victories, having suspended the domain names of SumoTorrent and MisterTorrent as well as one of the domains of ExtraTorrent.

The process was done by contacting the registrars of the site’s domains and informing them of suspected criminal activity. The notices, however, did not reference a court order. Instead, the organization focused on violations of the registrar’s TOS and policies from ICANN (the organization that oversees the domain registration process) that the registrar must follow.

Still, not all registrars are complying. At least one BitTorrent site, TorrentPond, was the subject of such a request but its registrar did not take it down. This story seems to be developing as still more registrars are receiving letters.

3: Universal Lost a Copyright Fight with this Charming Smiths-Peanuts Mashup Tumblr

Finally today, Fruzsina Eördögh at Vice reports that Tumblr users lauren LoPrete has scored a win against Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) and will likely have comics UMPG removed from her site restored.

LoPrete runs a Tumblr blog that specializes in mashing up Peanuts comics with lyrics from The Smiths. UMPG co-owns the rights to the lyrics and had previously ordered several of the comics taken down on copyright grounds. The case attracted some media attention and some pro bono legal help for LoPrete, which argued that the use of the lyrics was a fair use.

However, Morrissey, the lead singer of the band, gave his blessing to the project. Since he is co-owner of the songs, that means he has the right to license the work to LoPrete, which puts the threat of litigation to rest, prompting her to file for restoration of the comics.

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.

Want the Full Story?

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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.