3 Count: Closing Lz0

Jonathan BaileyOctober 15, 2013

2 minutes read

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

1: SiriusXM Attacks The Turtles for Playing ‘Lawsuit Lottery’

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that SiriusXM has responded to a lawsuit filed by members of the band “The Turtlers”, saying that it wants to move the lawsuit from New York to California while also attacking the premise of the lawsuit, accusing the band of playing a form of “Lawsuit lottery.”

The Turtles sued SiriusXM alleging that the satellite provider did not have permission (nor pay them royalties) to stream many of their songs. However, since the band operated in the 60s, its work is not co covered under federal copyright protection, as are all pre-1972 sound recordings. Rather, it’s under a myriad of state laws, which the band says does not permit SiriusXM’s use of their music. The record labels followed suit shortly after, suing SiriusXM on the same issue.

However, SiriusXM fired back, saying that the band knew of the use for over 12 years but did nothing and that their lawsuit is an attempt to destroy decades worth of standard practice. Also, there is a legal question whether state misappropriation claims (so called common law copyrights) apply to performances of sound recordings, not just sale of copies.

2: Huge Software Piracy Group Calls it Quits After 30,000 Cracked Titles

Next up today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that the famous software piracy group LineZer0, best known as Lz0, is calling it quits after fourteen years and some 30,000 software and game releases.

The group decided to close after a leak from four years ago compromised their security, prompting them to post a farewell message.

The group had been known as one of the most prolific in the software cracking scene and was responsible for many popular titles being cracked and posted on file sharing sites. This was despite the fact the group said it was not their intention and they asked users to respect copyright holders by buying the software after testing it out.

3: EU Politicians Clash Over Copyright Levies

Finally today, Jennifer Baker at PCWorld reports that politicians in the EU are debating new copyright levies, ones that would be implemented on cloud storage services.

The levies were proposed by French MEP Françoise Castex, who proposed adding a copyright levy to cloud services that are used for the purpose of copyring and moving copyrighted works. This would result in such services being required to collect the fees from users, which would then be passed along to artists via licensing groups.

However, Christian Engstrom, an MEP from The Pirate Party, said that he opposed the levy and that Parliament should be looking to reduce or eliminate levies, not expanding them. Also, he claims that the levy would be problematic to implement if it is passed.

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.