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

1: Mobile Broadcast Ruling Prompts ALP to Consider Copyright Changes

First off today, in Australia the country’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has vowed to “urgently consider” changes to the country’s copyright following a recent high court win by the mobile carrier Optus. Optus was sued by various sports leagues and competitor Telstra over its DVR service that allows users to stream TV to their phone within minutes of it being recorded. The verdict calls into question millions of dollars in licensing paid by Telstra to the leagues for the sole rights to stream matches via mobile devices. The move has caused legislators on both sides to seek changes to the law to protect mobile streaming rights, though opposition leaders seem to feel that any legislation should be extremely narrowly-focused.

2: New MEP Appointed to Head up ACTA Dossier

Next up today, British Labour MEP David Martin has been called to serve as the European Parliament’s rapporteur for the upcoming report on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The agreement, which was signed by the EU, US, Japan and over 20 nations, seeks to harmonize enforcement on copyright and other intellectual property matters. However, the treaty has been the subject of massive protests in the past weeks, prompting three nations in the EU to put on hold their internal ratification process. Martin replaces French Socialist Kader Arif, who resigned last week after blasting how the treaty was negotiated and handled.

3: Silicon Roundabout Asks For Copyright Overhaul

Finally today, the UK’s equivalent of Silicon Valley has sent an open letter to it’s government asking for broad copyright reform. The letter, which was signed by Computing Society (BCS), Coadec (The Coalition for a Digital Economy), TechHub, Bootlaw and the BIMA asks for adoption of various proposed reforms including enabling format shifting, enabling the licensing of orphan works, working with the European Commission to craft cross-border licensing schemes and more. The letter follows on the heels of the Hargreaves Report, which made many of the same recommendations.

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.

With the holiday in the U.S. there wasn’t a whole lot of local copyright news to talk about but, fortunately for this podcast, other countries rushed in to fill the void and bring us yet another packed episode of copyright news, views and abuse.

This includes a major ruling in the EU on the issue of ISP filtering, a plan from Australian ISPs to tackle piracy and concerns that Spotify may be heading for a day of reckoning as labels start to back out. All of this and much, much more!

This week’s stories include:

• Grooveshark Emails Released, Show Company Aware of Infringement
• EU Says ISPs Can’t Be Forced to Filter Infringing Material
• EU Advocate General Says You Can’t Copyright a Programming Language
• Australian ISPs Propose Anti-Piracy Plan, Copyright Holders Unhappy
• New Anti-IP Infringement PSA Campaign Launches in U.S.
• 200 Labels Leave Spotify
• Bittorrent Defense Attorney Switches Sides

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

Show Notes

About the Hosts

Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey (@plagiarismtoday) is the Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today (Hint: You’re there now) and works as a copyright and plagiarism consultant. Though not an attorney, he has resolved over 700 cases of plagiarism involving his own work and has helped countless others protect their work and develop strategies for making their content work as hard as possible toward their goals.

Patrick O’Keefe

Patrick O’Keefe (@iFroggy) is the owner of the iFroggy Network, a network of websites covering various interests. He’s the author of the book “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online communities and social spaces. He maintains a blog about online community management at ManagingCommunities.com and a personal blog at patrickokeefe.com.

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

1: ISPs Can’t Be Forced to Monitor Traffic for Copyright Infringement, ECJ Rules

First off today, the European Court of Justice, the highest court in the EU on matters of EU law, has ruled that member nations can not force ISPs to monitor Web traffic for the purpose of filtering copyright infringing material. The case stems from SABAM, a Belgian rightsholder organization, which sued local ISP Scarlet over alleged copyright infringement by its users. A lower court ordered Scarlet to prevent its users from accessing SABAM’s library but Scarlet appealed and won at the European Court of Justice. SABAM has not decided what its next action will be in its lawsuit.

2: EU Advocate General: You Can’t Copyright a Programming Language

Net up today, the Advocate General in a European Court of Justice has issued a statement that a software language does not qualify for copyright protection. The case centers around U.S. firm SAS, which is suing UK-based World Programming Ltd. (WPL) claiming the compay built a programming language similar to one they developed. In 2007, in a similar case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that programming languages themselves don’t meet the qualification for copyrightability. However, the opinion of the Advocate General still needs to be ratified by the judges in the European Court of Justice to be legally binding. However, the position of the Advocate General makes that very likely to happen.

3: Copyright Holders Unhappy with Piracy Plan

Finally today, Australian ISPs have released a proposal for dealing with copyright infringement. The system works by having rightsholders forward information about potential infringement to the ISPs, which would then send “educational notices” to their customers. After 3 warnings, the ISP would then work with the rightsholder to help tackle the matter via the courts. However, rightsholders, through various groups, have come out against the plan saying that it doesn’t go far enough and isn’t “balanced”. Rightsholders, however, did not speak as to what their preferred plans were but one such group, AFACT, is currently appealing a ruling in their case against Australian ISP iiNet, in which it hopes to compel the ISP to disconnect repeated file sharers.

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.

It was frustrating as that podcast had some of the best conversation about SOPA I’ve heard to date.

However, the good news is that Patrick and I get a second chance at the topic and revisit it this podcast, re-raising many, if not most, of the points that were in the original podcast. So while Episode 218 might be no more, much of it lives on in this one.

But this week isn’t all about SOPA, we have a major revelation in the music industry’s ongoing war against Grooveshark, a surprising turn in the case revolving around Hollywood scripts being posted online and yet another blow to Righthaven.

Think of this as a two-for-one deal as this is one podcast you don’t want to miss!

This week’s stories include:

• Senator Threatens to Philibuster SOPA and PROTECT-IP
• Register of Copyrights Throws Support Behind SOPA
• EU Parliament Files Resolution Against SOPA, PROTECT-IP and Domain Seizures
• Universal Sues Grooveshark Again, Claims CEO Uploaded Music
• Righthaven Drops Case, Concedes Fair Use
• Lawsuit of Hollywood Scripts Dropped, No Explanation on Why

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

Show Notes

About the Hosts

Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey (@plagiarismtoday) is the Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today (Hint: You’re there now) and works as a copyright and plagiarism consultant. Though not an attorney, he has resolved over 700 cases of plagiarism involving his own work and has helped countless others protect their work and develop strategies for making their content work as hard as possible toward their goals.

Patrick O’Keefe

Patrick O’Keefe (@iFroggy) is the owner of the iFroggy Network, a network of websites covering various interests. He’s the author of the book “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online communities and social spaces. He maintains a blog about online community management at ManagingCommunities.com and a personal blog at patrickokeefe.com.

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

1: Senator Promises To Filibuster Internet Blacklisting Bill

First off today, Senator Ron Wyden has promised to filibuster either the PROTECT-IP act or Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) should they reach the Senate floor. The two bills are similar to each other in that they would allow copyright holders to get court orders to force ISPs to block access to foreign sites dedicated to infringement, or “rogue” sites as they are called, but have been the source of controversy online these past few weeks. Wyden has already blocked PROTECT IP in the Senate but a move to override his block may be coming up, thus prompting his attempt to filibuster the bill. Wyden has said that, if forced, he will read the names of all those who sign the petition against the bill on the floor, rather than reading from the phone book, as is more common.

2: EU Commissioner Slams Copyright Laws

Next up today, European Union Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes has said that copyright law, as a whole, needs to go “back to basics and put the artist at the center.” According to Kroes, copyright law has become a “straightjacket” for a single business model and that the rules require an overhaul to encourage “creativity” in business models. However, Kroes also said that the obsession over copyright may not be the most important element of the debat, adding, “”we need to stop obsessing about that.”

3: Photo Attorney Receives a DMCA Take Down Notice

Finally today, photographer and copyright attorney (and at least occasional PT reader) Carolyn Wright had one of her sites shuttered by GoDaddy following a DMCA Notice. Wright was able to quickly restore her site by contacting the filer and having them rescind the notice. Despite the response, her wilidlife photography site, vividwildlife.com, was briefly closed due to a DMCA notice centered on a photo she took herself. Wright did file a counter-notice but got in touch with the filer who apologized for the mistake and got the site restored more quickly. Wright called it an “interesting experience” and said that “all is well” on her end now.

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.

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

1: Strange Bedfellows: Nancy Pelosi, Ron Paul Join SOPA Opposition

First off today, as controversy about the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would allow U.S. Courts to order ISPs to block access to foreign “rogue” websites and also cut off payment processor and ad revenue to them, two Congressmen including Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul and House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, have come out in opposition to the bill. Another Representative, Darrel Issa, has said that the bill stands almost no chance on the House floor due to it being “too extreme”. The bill just finished a round of hearings and may be heading to for a vote soon.

2: European Parliament ‘Opposes’ SOPA Copyright Law in New Resolution

Next up today, the EU Parliament, the lower house of the 27-member organization, has passed a resolution that opposes SOPA and domain seizures by the U.S. government for dealing with infringing sites. The U.S. government has seized domains in the past, including .com, .net and .org domains that are under U.S. jurisdiction, but SOPA would make that process easier and add other enforcement measures. The Parliament’s resolutions goes on to highlight the importance of safety and security online but say that it should “not be met at the cost of sacrificing core principles relating to civil liberties”.

3: Netflix Facing Copyright Hurdles

Finally today, Netflix is preparing to make its entrance into the UK and Irish markets for its streaming service but seems to be receiving some push back from movie studios over the issue. Studios, eager to abandon regular licensing in favor of “per transaction” licensing that would have Netflix paying per viewing of a film, are resisting signing deals with Netflix to allow them to stream to the region. Another issue is that there are already subscription-based services operating in the region and many studios are reluctant to license to another. Netflix is hoping to open its doors to the UK and Ireland in early 2012.

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.

This week’s news has a decidedly international flare but not before we cover some ground in the tech world, namely why it might be harder for your computer to get time and date information. Beyond that we have a major political party adopting the Pirate Party platform in the EU, an appeal of the Digital Economy Act in the UK and an update on how “three strikes” is working out in France. Just to name a few stories.

All in all, this is an episode that you do not want to miss.

This week’s stories include:

• Copyright Suit Caused Date/Time Database Server to Go Down
• ISPs Get Clearance to Appeal Digital Economy Act
• EU Greens Adopt Pirate Party-Like Platform on Copyright Matters
• HADOPI Posts Annual Report, Gives Numbers on “Three Strikes”
• Australians to See Mass Bittorrent Lawsuits
• Is It Legal To TiVO Radio?

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

Show Notes

About the Hosts

Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey (@plagiarismtoday) is the Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today (Hint: You’re there now) and works as a copyright and plagiarism consultant. Though not an attorney, he has resolved over 700 cases of plagiarism involving his own work and has helped countless others protect their work and develop strategies for making their content work as hard as possible toward their goals.

Patrick O’Keefe

Patrick O’Keefe (@iFroggy) is the owner of the iFroggy Network, a network of websites covering various interests. He’s the author of the book “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online communities and social spaces. He maintains a blog about online community management at ManagingCommunities.com and a personal blog at patrickokeefe.com.

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

1: European Greens Want to Legalize File-Sharing, Ban DRM

First off today, in the EU, the Green Party, the organizations fifth-largest political party, has adopted a copyright platform very similar to the Pirate Party’s that includes the legalization of file sharing, a shortening of the term of copyright to 5 years (with a possible extension to 20) and a banning of DRM (or decriminalization of circumvention of it). The party, which controls 55 seats in the 735 seat parliament, will be joined by the 2 Pirate Party members on this platform.

2: Chaos Feared After Unix Time-Zone Database is Nuked

Next up today, David Olson, the operator of the Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Database, announced yesterday that he is shutting down his FTP server following a lawsuit from Astrolabe a company that makes astrology-related software. According to the suit, the database publishes information that is protected by their copyright and is not in the public domain. The removal of the database could have a wide-spread impact as the database was the default used by UNIX operating systems to set clocks and adjust for daylight savings time.

3: Men at Work Lose “Down Under” Copyright Appeal

Finally today, the Australian rock group “Ment at Work” have lost their appeal regarding their 1980s hit “Down Under”. According to the lawsuit, the song uses a riff from the earlier work “Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree”, which is still under copyright by Larrakin Music. The lower court ordered the band’s label, EMI, to pay 5% of all royalties since 2002 (royalties farther back were not allowed due to statute of limitation issues). The band and label vowed to appeal but Australia’s High Court has now ruled against them, putting the matter to rest.

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.

We have a very “Supreme” themed episode this week with two stories focusing on the highest court in the U.S. Those stories include a case the Supreme Court will be hearing and one they won’t be taking (thus letting the lower court ruling stand).

We also have an update on the NinjaVideo admins and their criminal case as well as an interesting ruling regarding the DMCA and DVD ripping.

All of that and we end on this crazy question: Is Amazon’s new Silk browser is copyright infringing?

This week’s stories include:

• Supreme Court to Decide if Works Can be Plucked From Public Domain
• Supreme Court Says Digital Downloads are NOT a Public Performance
• Another NinjaVideo Founder Pleads Guilty
• Judge Says DVD Ripping OK if You Legally Own Them
• Canada Revisits Copyright Reform
• EU Fans Find Way to Watch Soccer Cheaply

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

Show Notes

About the Hosts

Jonathan Bailey

Jonathan Bailey (@plagiarismtoday) is the Webmaster and author of Plagiarism Today (Hint: You’re there now) and works as a copyright and plagiarism consultant. Though not an attorney, he has resolved over 700 cases of plagiarism involving his own work and has helped countless others protect their work and develop strategies for making their content work as hard as possible toward their goals.

Patrick O’Keefe

Patrick O’Keefe (@iFroggy) is the owner of the iFroggy Network, a network of websites covering various interests. He’s the author of the book “Managing Online Forums,” a practical guide to managing online communities and social spaces. He maintains a blog about online community management at ManagingCommunities.com and a personal blog at patrickokeefe.com.

However, there’s nothing like the USCO in other countries. While, for the most part, that’s a very good thing, a USCO registration does provide other benefits. Those benefits include a public record of the work’s registration and prima facie evidence that the work belongs to you, thus making it harder to challenge your ownership.

The lack of a similar system is one of the key reasons why so many of the copyright verification services have come up from overseas including Safe Creative (Spain), Myows (South Africa) and DepotCode (Netherlands).

However, EasyTimestamping, which is backed by a company from Italy, Securo, aims to take things one step further by offering a legal protection that similar systems can’t provide, certified timestamps.

But does that make it worthwhile? The answer is a lot less clear, especially for bloggers and others with different needs than what the site is targeting.

What Is EasyTimestamping.com?

The basic idea of EasyTimestamping is similar to that of other non-repudiation services. Whenever you complete a work or otherwise wish to register it, you simply upload it to their servers and the service creates a hash of the file that also contains the date, time and author information of it.

But what makes EasyTimestamping interesting is where those timestamps come from. They are provided by I.CA, a credited certificate authority in the EU. This means that the certificates created by EasyTimesamping carry much more weight in court in the EU.

In fact, according to Marco Rucci, one of the founders of the company behind the site, this would provide similar protection in the EU to what a copyright registration does in the U.S. as far as Prima Facie evidence. While I’m not able to validate that particular legal claim, it would mean that the burden of proof would be on the person without the certificate to prove why the certificate was wrong rather than you proving ownership of the work.

However, that accreditation does come at a cost. Though a new account has five free registrations, additional ones cost between 0.50 Euros and 0.20 Euros, or approximately $0.66 to $0.33 per registration.

There is a beta limit of files up to 250 MB but, since you download the timestamp, they will last as long as you preserve them (though, obviously, the ability to verify them online will go away if EasyTimestamping closes) (Correction: According to Marco from EasyTimestamping, the hash will always be verifiable since they use an international standard, even if their company closes).

Is EasyTimestamping For You?

The choice to use EasyTimestamping is actually a tough one. From a feature standpoint, other than its certificate authority, it’s actually very lacking and its price point makes it almost impossible to use for routine registrations.

Though $0.33 isn’t much individually, if I were to register everything on PT for a month it would cost about $13 per month (40 posts x $0.33). That means it’s actually cheaper and more effective legally to just register my site every three months with the U.S. Copyright Office ($35) and use a different non-repudiation service as a stop-gap.

This is especially true since Safe Creative, Myows, Numly and even DepotCode have more features than EasyTimestamping, which just creates the timestamp and nothing more. There’s no case management, barcodes or even robust timestamp management, just a bare-bones interface that accepts timestamps and lists them.

That being said, EasyTimestamping does score a big win with ease of use. Signing up for an account is easy for anyone with a Google, Facebook, Twitter or OpenID account. It’s more or less just one click and you’re in.

The one ease-of-use caveat, however, is that there is no text input. You can only upload files and that could be frustrating for writers who do most of their work online.

Still, there’s a lot of appeal in the authenticated timestamps, especially if you are in the EU and think you might have to sue over the work. The extra legal support could be useful and the price for that peace of mind is very good.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend a photographer put every image they take or a blogger run every post through it, but if you have a few works that might need extra protection, it could be worthwhile if you live in the EU and, thus, don’t have a separate need for a USCO registration.

Bottom Line

At the end of the day, this is another “special use” non-repudiation service, best for protecting a smaller number of works that need extra support but not any management. I also wouldn’t recommend it to anyone not in the EU as the main benefit of it, the accredited timestamps, are lost.

Basically, EasyTimestamping is a single-function non-repudiation service that does its single function well. Though that limits its usefulness, a few will get at least some benefit out of it.

The only question is if that someone is you.

Disclosure: I have done paid consulting for both Safe Creative and Myows.