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

1: Sacramento Man Sentenced to Prison for Copyright Infringement

First off today, a Sacramento man, Yan Akhumov, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for criminal copyright infringement. Akhumov was the owner of Music Land stores in West Sacramento, which rented and sold illegal copies of CDs and DVDs. The FBI had warned Akhumov against distributing pirated works in 2007 but in 2009 raided his business and confiscated some 80,000 discs worth between $70,000 and $120,000.

2: Copyright Alliance Recruits 14 Law Firms for New Advisory Board

Next up today, the Copyright Alliance, a non-profit organization that represents the interests of many copyright holders, including the RIAA and the MPAA, has launched a new advisory board and staffed it with some 14 different law firms, including one that worked on the famous Grokster case. The law firms are there to advise the Copyright Alliance on current issues and how the group can best “serve the needs of the creative community.”

3: Anti-Piracy FaceBook Competition Launches in Australia

Finally today, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Australia has launched a new campaign on Facebook. Entitled, “Capture a Pirate, Claim the Caribbean”, it gives those who report piracy a chance to win a trip to the Caribbean. The promotion is unique in that it is targeted at users, not IT professionals, but is part of the BSA’s efforts to expand its reach and its message.

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 6 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.

1: Redundant staff blow whistle on bosses for pirate software

First off today, it appears that the economic downturn is having a strange side effect as laid off workers are taking the opportunity to report their former employers to the Business Software Alliance both in a bid to exact a little revenge and, perhaps, collect a big reward.

The BSA has reported a sharp rise in the number of tips they have received since the economic downturn, now up 8% over this time last year with about 100 leads per week.

Make that a warning to companies going through layoffs, you’ll want to be up to date on your licenses before you pass out the pink slips.

2: Stealing Music: Is It Wrong Or Isn’t It?

Next up today Michael Arrington offers some commentary about whether or not downloading music is ethically wrong. In the end, Arrington concludes that, since you can stream music for free on some sites and even download it for free in China legally, that downloading over P2P is not ethically wrong.

Whether you agree with his logic or not, it is an interesting look into the mindset of someone who does file share.

3: Authors have lost the plot in Kindle battle

Finally today, Cory Doctorow offers some more thoughts on the Amazon Kindle and the text-to-speech controversy that came with it. Specifically, he sets aside the entire fair use/copyright issue and frames the dispute, quite correctly, as a contract matter between Amazon and the Author’s Guild.

But the point that is really interesting is that, obviously, either the Amazon Kindle came with the ability to disable the text-to-speech feature, which raises some false advertising issues, or users will be forced to downgrade the Kindle. An interesting problem that really seems to have been overlooked.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today, we’ll 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 Saturday morning for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Monday morning right here on Plagiarism Today.

Happy April Fools

Hope you got a good laugh at the link above. If you’re intersted in the real stories, they are linked below in order:

1. Story One
2. Story Two
3. Story Three

It was a slower week last week in copyright news but there was still plenty going on including a wide array of news from the EU, several new lawsuits and more than a few updates to old ones.

So, as always I sat down with Chris Matthieu from Numly to discuss those stories and more with our usual mix of news, views and abuse.

This week’s stories include.

• UK File Sharers Face Bans from ISPs
• EU Looks to Copyright Reform
• Business Software Alliance Settles Two Lawsuits
• iParadigms Lawsuit to be Dismissed
• Web Sheriff Recruits The Village People to Target The Pirate Bay
• And Many more…

You can download the MP3 file here (direct download). Those interested in subscribing to the show can do so via this feed.

Show Notes

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/plagiarismtoday/copyright20eps46.mp3]