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1: Quarter of World Internet Traffic Involves Copyright Theft, NBC Claims

First off today, an NBC-commissioned study by Envisional found that nearly a quarter of all Internet traffic is copyright infringing. According to the report, 23.8% of all Web traffic is infringing, about half of which is from Bittorrent (11.39%) and another 5.12 percent comes from cyberlocker sites. Unlawful streaming, however, only made up 1.42% of traffic in the study. NBC is using the study to call for greater improvements in copyright enforcement online, saying that such levels of unlawful activity would not be allowed in other businesses.

2: Government to Rethink Digital Economy Act’s Web Blocks

Next up today, a provision of Britain’s Digital Economy Act will be getting a closer look by OFCOM, the organization in charge of oversight of it. Following a flood of complaints about the practicality fo blocking sites that are solely for copyright infringement, OFCOM has promised to evaluate how to best carry out that part of the law and see if they have the “right tools” available. No word on when that evaluation will be complete.

3: U.S. Resume Controversial File-Sharing Domain Seizures

Finally today, the U.S. government has seized the domain for Rojadirecta, a Spanish sports streaming and P2P site that was known for streaming games from popular U.S. sports leagues. The site is a controversial choice because Spanish courts had twice declared it to be legal and, other than the .org domain, there was no connection with the U.S. Still, the domain has been seized and is redirecting to a notice from Immigration and Customs Encorcement. The site is still up and running at other domains.

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: Justice Dept to Google Books: Close, But No Cigar

First off today the Department of Justice has finally made its opinion of the revised Google Book Search settlement known and, though it found a lot of improvements in the revised deal, it still expressed grave concerns, especially that the settlement goes far beyond the scope of resolving past actions. This casts the revised settlement into doubt and makes the future of this case very uncertain.

2: AFACT Demands Govt Curb Online Piracy

Next up, the Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has asked the government to step in following a recent court ruling which found that Australian ISP iiNet was not liable for infringement by its users and had no obligation to step in. Members of the government have said that they are monitoring the situation closely and are reviewing the situation.

3: Bruce Springsteen Sues NYC Pub for Copyright Infringement

Finally today, ASCAP has filed a suit against Connolly’s Pub in New York City saying that the pub had bands cover Bruce Springsteen songs but failed to pay the proper licensing fees. Springsteen however, though listed as a co-defendant, has said he had nothing to do with the lawsuit and has requested that his name be removed from it.

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 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.

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

1: Google Gets Till Friday for Digital Library Settlement

First off today, Google as well as the publishers and authors who sued it, are getting extra time to reform their settlement. Publishers and the Author’s Guild sued Google over their Google Book Search project and initially hashed out a settlement that would have allowed the giant to scan, display and sell copies of out-of-print but in-copyright works provided a portion of the revenue was paid to the authors and publishers.

That settlement, however, was stopped short after the Department of Justice raised antitrust issues with it and the two sides had until yesterday to come up with a new settlement proposal. However, that deadline has been pushed back to this Friday.

Once again, I’ll report on the details of the new settlement proposal once they become available.

2: Murdoch threatens to sue BBC

Next up today, even though the Web is still talking about Rupert Murdoch’s plan to remove his sites from Google and begin charging for his content, which includes the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal and many papers in both the UK and Australia, another quip from the same interview is also drawing some fire.

In the interview, which he had famously said fair use could be overturned with the right court case and that Google was stealing their content, he also threatened to sue the BBC.

That quote came after the interviewer, who was doing a report for Australia’s Sky News, asked how Murdoch planned to compete with the BBC and other free news outlets if he was charging. He then said that he felt most of their content was just taken from the newspapers and said he had plans to sue them.

This is rapidly becoming one of the most talked about and most memorable interviews by Murdoch in quite some time, this from a man known for big words and grand statements.

3: Appeals Court Backs Clinton over Lyrics

Finally today, if you ever wondered who owns the exclusive copyright to the words “bow wow wow, yippie yo, yippie yea”, well, now you do.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling saying that George Clinton, who famously used the line in his 1982 “Atomic Dog” sued, through a proxy, the band Public Announcement, who used the line in its 1998 song “D.O.G. in Me”.

The Appeals Court ruling upholds a lower court ruling. There is no word if Public Announcement or their label, Universial, will appeal the $98,000 judgment to the Supreme Court.

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 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.

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

1: Judge Delays Google Books Hearing

First off today, in a move that was widely expected, the judge in the Google Book Search case has postponed the fairness hearing scheduled for early next month. The settlement, which is between Google, the Author’s Guild and various publishers, would have allowed Google to display and sell copies of out-of-print but in-copyright works on their site. This included works of those not directly involved in the lawsuit.

Also immediately after it was announced the settlement came under sharp attack from authors not wishing to participate, then other companies feeling it would be an unfair advantage for Google, then from other nations worried about their author’s rights and then, in recent weeks, criticisms from both the U.S. Copyright Office and Department of Justice. This prompted all involved parties to ask for a continuance on the hearing so they could rework the settlement, a continuance that has now been granted.

What this effectively means is that the settlement, as written, is likely dead and will probably go through significant readjustment before being presented again.

2: Two More Pirate Bay Appeal Judges Accused of Bias

Next up today, two out of the three judges that make up the Pirate Bay appeal panel have come under scrutiny for potential bias.

One judge, Ulrika Ihrfelt, was previously removed from the bias investigation of the first Pirate Bay judge Tomas Norström, after it was found she was a member of several pro-copyright organizations. She faces similar allegations to Christina Boutz.

However, the more interesting case involves the planned “lay” judges (which is somewhat similar to a jury), who is an employee for Spotify, which is partly owned by the record labels. He may be barred from this case though the defense has not posted an objection, likely due to the fact he is also a programmer that co-hold a patent with the founder of uTorrent and has ties with a technical university that has strong support for Sweden’s Pirate Party.

The appeals court has two weeks to weeks set aside in November to hear the appeal in The Pirate Bay case.

3: Trial Against Apple Concerning Eminem Music Downloads Starts Up

Finally today, the trial between Apple and rapper Eminem’s publisher started yesterday and, in the opening arguments alone, there was already a revelation.

According to Eight Mile Style LLC, Eminem’s publisher, Apple did not have adequate permission to make available 93 of the artist’s tracks for download. According to Eight Mile Style, Aftermath Records, which was founded by Dr. Dre and is also a defendant in the suit, did not have clearance to offer Apple such a deal.

However, in the opening arguments it was revealed that Eminem and his publisher have been receiving royalties for their iTunes downloads, have been cashing the checks and continue to do so. This certainly puts the focus back on Eight Mile Style and how it has handled the alleged infringement and lead to accusations from Apple’s attorneys that they were attempting to both obtain their royalties and a share of Apple’s profits.

The trial is ongoing.

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 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.

1: DOJ Says Google Copyright Book Settlement Not Appropriate

First off today, the Google Book Search settlement, which would give Google the ability to scan and display out of print but in-copyright books on their site has made yet another powerful enemy for itself, the U.S. Department of Justice.

In a briefing filed with the court late last week, the DOJ said that the settlement “raises significant legal concerns”, especially in terms of copyright and anti-trust issues. Saying that the settlement seeks to create” forward-looking business arrangements” between Google, the Author’s Guild and the publishers involved in the original lawsuit, Furthermore, the DOJ does not believe that the lawsuit can adequately represent those who were not directly apart of the settlement, though, if they failed to opt out, their works may be copied freely under it in certain cases.

Without a doubt, the DOJ, along with the Copyright Office, who filed their objections previously, are two of the biggest and most powerful forces to have opposed this case. But they join hosts of other companies, including Microsoft and Amazon, as well as other countries, including France and Germany, in opposing the settlement, making it much less likely to be approved.

2: Heirs File Claims to Marvel Heroes

Next up today, heirs to Jack Kirby, who partnered with Stan lee in the creation of many of Marvel’s most popular heroes, have filed papers to have the copyright in many of his creations returned to the estate. Under current law, creators can seek to have the copyright of their creations returned to them after fifty-six years and can file an intention 10 years prior to that.

Kirby’s works include The Fantastic Four, The Hulk and X-Men, which will be available for transfer in 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.

This comes shortly after Marvel was purchased by Disney for $4 billion in one of the largest and most highly-publicized sales of its kind.

3: Jammie Thomas Lawyers File Suit Against Scribd

Finally today, Elaine Scott has filed suit against the document-sharing site Scribd claiming that the site enabled her book, “Stocks and Bonds: Profits and Losses, A Quick Look at Financial Markets” to be downloaded repeatedly. According to the suit, Scribd doesn’t qualify for DMCA safe harbor protection due to the nature of their site, something Scribd denies, and the site “shamelessly profits from the stolen copyrighted works of innumerable authors.”

However, the real story is not the suit itself, even though it is seeking class action status, but rather the attorneys behind it: Joe Sibley and Kiwi Camara. The two famously defended Jammie Thomas when she was sued by the RIAA, which they lost the district court retrial to the tune of $1.9 million. That case is still ongoing.

Though there is nothing unusual about attorneys arguing both sides of the copyright coin, given Camara’s standing in the anti-RIAA world, it certainly seems to be an odd case for his firm to take. The two had promised to take up cases for copyright holders if they “believed in the issue”, this apparently being a case they feel strongly enough about to take.

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 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.

1: Harvard Professor records proceedings in Jammie Thomas case; intends to seek Tenenbaum’s intervention

First off today, if you thought the Thomas and Tenenbaum cases were not enough of a three-ring circus already, you’re in luck! Professor Nesson, who is counsel to Joel Tenenbaum and whose protege is now lead council on the Thomas case, has pulled a one-two punch of drama first by saying that he intends to attempt to intervene in the Thomas case on behalf of Tenenbaum, at least on the ongoing debate over allowing the trial to be recorded or webcast, and by recording the conference call that this was taking place on, at least until the judge ordered him to stop.

What makes the latter part of that such a glaring case of fail is that, in Nesson’s home state of Massachusetts, it is actually a felony to record a phone call without first disclosing it. If a plaintiff attorney had not alerted the judge to the possibility that Nesson was recording the proceeding, the judge likely never would have thought to ask Nesson about it and then ask him to stop.

I agree with Ray Beckerman on this one, if you’re a budding attorney, don’t take any lessons from these cases… Please.

2: DOJ steps up Google Books settlement probe

Next up today the Department of Justice has sent requests for information known as “civil investigative demands” to many of the publishers who are parties to the Google Book Search settlement indicating that the department is scrutinizing the settlement more closely and may be opposed to it.

This could be a very serious blow to the settlement, which is still waiting on final court approval. The nature of the DOJ’s potential objection is unknown, but it likely deals with how the settlement treats authors that can not be reached, or orphaned works as they are often called.

3: Calls for united action at World Copyright Summit

Finally today, 500 delegates from 55 countries convened in Washington D.C. for the second World Copyright Conference yesterday for the first day of the two-day event. Senator Orrin Hatch, a well known supporter of stronger copyright laws, spoke at the event and praised France for its “Three Strikes” law and said that “a solid partnership between the copyright community and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is crucial” for the future of copyright.

The two day event brings together copyright holders of all stripes, including those from the movie, record, software, publishing and Internet fields as well legal experts and policymakers.

Needless to say, since you’re reading this, I didn’t go this year. My invitation clearly was lost in the mail.

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.

1: Justice Department sides with Cablevision against Hollywood

First off today, the Cablevision case has taken a somewhat unexpected turn as the Department of Justice has filed a brief with the Supreme Court asking them NOT to take up the case and let the lower court ruling stand. If that were to happen, Cablevision’s networked DVR, which works by having servers at Cablevision record shows as opposed to a set top box, would enjoy the same projections as VCRs and other similar devices.

While this is a definite turn for the DOJ, which under the previous administration had almost unabashedly tried to expand copyright, the DOJ does emphasize how narrow the appeals court ruling was, indicating that it does not provide a carte blanche for Web 2.0 companies that want to provide network TV services as the Cablevision DVR is limited to the one person that records a show.

The Supreme Court is expected to make its decision known soon.

2: Russian Police Make Arrests In First Ever BitTorrent Raid

Next up, Russia, once thought to be a safe haven for Bittorrent trackers, has executed its first police raid on a bittorrent site, temporarily shutting down the tracker Interfilm.

According to Russian officials as well as copyright groups, a famous loophole that allowed AllofMP3 to remain open for quite some time is no longer valid and they fully expect that charges will be brought against the trackers operators.

As for the site, it is back up and running, operating on the famous Dutch host LeaseWeb, which in and of itself has been the subject of bittorrent shutdowns in the past.

3: Downloading 3322 Copyrighted Movies is Okay in Spain

Finally today, a criminal court in Spain has acquitted a man who admitted downloading well over 3000 movies because he had not made any profit from his file sharing and had no plans to do so.

This has become something of a standard policy in Spain, where the law makes it perfectly legal to share files non-commercially and has helped to make Spain one of the most popular countries for file sharing.

On the flip side, bittorrent trackers, especially those who earn revenue from their file sharing, have been found guilty in Spain and have often moved to other, more bittorrent-friendly, countries.

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.

1: File-Sharing Site Admin Sentenced to 6 Months Jail

Thanks to a slightly slower news day and a brief outage at Diigo, we’re going to take the opportunity to play catch up on some of the news missed over the long weekend.

First off today, Adrián Gómez Llorente of Spain was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay almost 5 thousand Euros in damages for running a popular file sharing site. Though Llorente did not host any actual infringing material on his site, instead he linked to other locations where it could be found, his case fell apart since he profited from the infringement.

It is unlikely that Llorente will actually serve his jail sentence but the case raises questions about how other Spanish file sharing sites will be treated. Since the case against Sharemula fell apart due to lack of hosting infringing material, Spain was seen as a safe haven for torrent sites. That, however, appears likely to change.

2: The Pirate Bay’s Anonymity Service Signs 100,000 Users Pre-Launch

In other news, The Pirate Bay has announced that it has over 100,000 users queued up for its IPREDATOR anonymity service, which is due to launch publicly soon. IPREDATOR is essentially a VPN service that provides users protection from investigation for file sharing by making their public IP appear to be from The Pirate Bay’s servers.

According to The Pirate Bay, approximately 80% of of the people who have registered are from its native Sweden, likely due in large part to the new IPRED law (which IPREDATOR is named for), which allows copyright holders to force IPSs to give up information on subscribers suspected of infringement.

The service is currently in beta but a note on the site says it may be released this week.

3: Obama Taps 5th RIAA Lawyer to Justice Dept.

Finally today, despite pressures from various public interest groups to stop filling the Department of Justice with former RIAA attorneys, President Obama has filled a fifth DOJ position with just such a candidate.

Ian Gershengorn is due to become the department’s deputy assistant attorney of the Civil Division. Previously he represented the labels in the Grokster case.

Gershengorn will also head the DOJ Federal Programs Branch, which recently offered pleadings to support the current statutory damages system.

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.

1: DoJ supports RIAA in Sony v. Tenenbaum three-ring circus

First off today, the Obama administration’s Department of Justice, in its first public copyright-related act, has sided with the RIAA and others on the issue of statutory damages, saying that damages awarded by copyright law, which can be many thousands of times higher than the actual damages.

Recent Supreme Court rulings have called this into doubt, even though the damages awarded under copyright are written into the law itself, but the DOJ, in an RIAA file sharing case, filed a brief in support of such high damages, citing circuit court rulings.

This has caused a great deal of controversy among Obama supporters, many of whom had hoped the new administration would bring a new position on copyright.

2: Fox Breathes New Life Into Redlasso

Redlasso, the video sharing service that let viewers clip out portions of TV shows and embed them into their site, has inked a limited deal with Fox to allow Redlasso to stream their video.

Fox and NBC, two partners in Hulu, had sued Redlasso in July of last year, forcing them to shut down their public-facing service. However, now Redlasso has announced that they have “settled all pending lawsuits with the television networks” and the deal with Fox seems to indicate that a new service is not far away.

3: Sinking China’s Video Pirates

Finally today, a new company named Vobile is hoping to bring the fingerprinting and automated content detection technology we see on YouTube to Chinese video sharing sites. These sites, as YouTube has clamped down on copyright infringement, have become leading sources for copyrighted videos all over the world.

As part of their new deal with 56.com and Pomoho, Vobile will provide fingerprinting technology similar to what is used on YouTube to detect infringing material before it goes online and help copyright holders request removal.

This marks the first time that major Chinese video sharing sites have taken such direct action against copyright infringement and will undoubtedly be a welcome change for copyright holders, many of whom have seen infringement that once took place on YouTube or Google Video simply shift east to China.

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.