3 Count: Arch Rivals

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1: Cisco Systems Sues Networking Rival

First off today, Don Clark at the Wall Street Journal reports that Cisco Systems has filed a lawsuit against startup competitor Arista Networks alleging that Arista has built much of its business off of violations of its copyrights and patents.

Arista is headed by Jayshree Ullal, who worked at Cisco for 15 years and was a former senior vice president. Also, one of the engineers credited to some of the patents the Cisco is claiming is infringed.

On the copyright side, Cisco claims that Arista copied several portions from manuals, including typos, and also several programming commands. However, regarding the programming issue, the debate of whether or not APIs can be copyrighted is a key issue in the Oracle v. Google case over the Java programming language, a case Google is asking the Supreme Court to hear.

2: Darrell Issa to Chair House Subcommittee Overseeing Copyright & Internet

Next up today, Glenn Peoples at Billboard reports that Representative Darrell Issa has been named the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Internet, Courts and Intellectual Property. However, the announcement also said that the subcommittee will not be hearing matters of copyright and, instead, those will be handled by the full House Judiciary Committee.

The full House Judiciary Committee, headed by Bob Goodlatte, has been overseeing a complete review of U.S. copyright law. However, to date, the hearings have been held by the subcommittee, leaving the location of the future hearings in doubt.

Issa was a strong opponent of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) and became popular online following their defeat. However he has supported other legislation sought by industry groups, including the Performance Rights Act.

3: Google Removes Piate Bay Apps from Play Store

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Google has removed several apps from its Play Store that provided access to The pIrate Bay.

The apps involved were not official ones from the site’s admins, but rather, were apps that created mobile-optimize version of The Pirate Bay or helped get around various ISP-level blocks.

The apps were removed under Google’s policy forbidding apps that engage in the violation of intellectual property. However, at least one of the app creators has said he will appeal the ruling in hopes of getting his app restored.

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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