1: Expect fireworks Thursday in Viacom vs. Google

First off this morning, today is expected to be a big day in the Google/Viacom lawsuit as the two sides have filed for a summary judgement and it appears that “embarrassing” secrets revealed during discovery may be released, potentially humiliating both sides. Though speculation about what that may be is rampant, definitely keep an eye open for tomorrow’s 3 Count for more details.

2: Canada’s $75 iPod Levy Returns (and Might Legalize P2P)

Next up today, Canadian MP Charlie Angus has proposed a $75 levy on iPods and other MP3 players in exchanged for the guaranteed right to format shift content, including taking content from CDs and placing it on an MP3 player. There is some speculation that this rule could legalize P2P file sharing in the country but that is a position the content industries have strongly denied.

3: Copyright Conviction Raises Privacy Concerns

Finally today, Gérémi Adam is the first man in Canadian history to be tried and convicted for copyright infringement under a new law. He was sentenced to two and a half months for camming a movie, this after he was arrested for sharing files online. Many privacy experts, on the other hand, have expressed concern over the conviction wondering how monitoring of illegal downloads is going toi be possible without monitoring all Internet traffic.

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: Music publishers: iTunes not paying fair share

First off today, American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) announced their plans to collect more royalties for authors and composers, but at least one of the sources is causing a great deal of controversy.

The groups wish to force iTunes, as well as other online music retailers, to pay for the 30-second samples that are provided free with most songs to help encourage sales. This would work by charing Apple a “performance” fee for every time the sample is played.

Such a plan would almost certainly lead to rate hikes within the iTunes store, which is still somewhat reeling from its recent price increases.

The groups also plan to go after downloads of movies and TV shows, which currently pay no performance or mechanical royalties, and purchases from iTunes itself, which don’t pay performance royalties either.

Needless to say, this will be a tough sell to the public, which is already wary of the music industry.

2: Cable: Let us lock down your TV (we’ll offer movies sooner)

Next up today, Time Warner Cable and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association both met with the FCC to throw their support behind the MPAA’s plan for selective output control (SOC), which would allow the movie studios to disable certain outputs on consumer equipment, thus, according to them, reducing the risk of piracy.

The movie studios hope this will enable them to distribute movies before they are released on DVD and the cable companies, obviously, would like to distribute those movies for them, likely for a fee.

Concerns have been raised by many advocacy groups that SOC could cripple existing TV hardware and cause headaches for consumers. The FCC has, in the past, rejected bids to implement SOC though clearly both the MPAA and cable companies are hoping for a change of heart.

3: SKorea prosecutors reject porn piracy charges

Finally today, an update to the South Korean porn filings. Earlier U.S. and Japanese porn studios filed some 65,000 complaints with South Korean prosecutors alleging that their copyright was being violated and that the content was being distributed to inappropriate audiences. This, in turn, followed a similar filing of 10,000 complaints, only 10 of which were acted upon.

Prosecutors did say that they would target several of the uploaders for the distribution of pornography, but not the copyright infringement issues. Prosecutors have said that this is to avoid putting juveniles in jail and, for that reason, the law firm representing the studios has said they will not appeal the decision.

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: Apple is sued after pressuring open-source iTunes project

First off today, Apple is being sued by both the EFF and attorneys representing OdioWorks, the company that runs Bluwiki over some alleged threats to the site. Bluwiki is a site that hosts many different open source projects, including iPodhash, which was discussing ways to make iPods and iPhones compatible with other applications, such as Songbird.

Apple pushed OdioWorks to remove pages that offered details on reverse-engineering iTunes, the Apple-approved player for those devices, including how to circumvent the DRM technology that ties iTunes tracks to the player. According to Apple, this was a violation of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention rules.

This is the first time, according to the EFF, where a company has sought DMCA protection over merely talking about reverse engineering-not actually performing any circumvention.

2: German Authors Outraged at Google Book Search

German authors are upset over the proposed Google Book Search settlement, which allows Google to continue scanning and indexing out-of-print but copyrighted books, saying that the scanning is not in their interest and that the 60 dollars offered per book is far too low.

According to the article, 1,300 authors have filed a petition with German President Horst Köhler, Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of Germany’s 16 federal states claiming that Google is infringing their copyright without any punishment and seeking the help of the government in taking any and all steps to rectify this issue.

“As I see it, the fact that an American district court has decided what happens with German books is a scandal and it just shows that politicians have fallen asleep on this matter,” said University of Heidelberg professor Ronald Reuss, who is also one of the signatories of the petition.

There is no word as to what Germany plans to do regarding this settlement.

3: Michelle Obama’s fashion designers want tougher laws to battle copycats

Finally today, though the first lady may be a boon to the fashion industry, namely having a prestigious woman other than a movie star wearing high-fashion items, she has also inspired copycats and this has her fashion designers miffed and seeking greater protections under the law.

Under current law, the name and brand of a dress or other fashion item is protected under trademark law but the actual design is not. This gives fashion designers very little recourse when it comes to fighting knock offs that do not use the same brand name, even if they use a similar one.

Fashion designers have been lobbying for this kind of change for quite some time though there is some belief that, with the new administration, there may be a chance of getting it passed.

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: iPods, First Sale, President Obama, and the Queen of England

First off today President Obama is in the United Kingdom but his present to the Queen has drawn the attention of copyright-minded people has he presented Her Majesty with an iPod loaded with famous U.S. show tunes.

Almost instantly this raised a lot of questions about the copyright implications of the gift. Though no one is planning on suing the President or the Queen for the gift, there are several potential legal issues including the fact the songs were copied onto the iPod (meaning a copy still exists in the U.S), DRM may prevent the songs from working with another iTunes, the fact the iTunes contract forbids distribution of the songs in this manner.

Needless to say, there are more questions than answers about the legal implications but I don’t think anyone is going to go against the President to get the answers, especially not over a small show tunes collection.

2: MPAA President to be Thrown Out

Next up, the current chairman of the MPAA, Dan Glickman, is out of a job at the moment or at least will be in 18 months when he will be removed from his office, allegedly for his poor performance.

The post typically is a long-term job, previous head Jack Valenti was in office for 38 years before a controversy over his screener ban in 2003. Glickman has barely been in the position just under five years as of this writing.

Whether or not this will signal a shift in strategy over copyright matters for the MPAA will remain to be seen, but it would stand to reason that copyright issues would have played at least some role in the decision by the MPAA to oust Glickman.

3: Piracy law cuts internet traffic

Finally today, Sweden’s new anti-piracy law, IPRED, which allows copyright holders to force ISPs to give over information of file sharers, has had a drastic effect already. In short, traffic into and out of Sweden dropped by approximately 33%, from 120 Gbps to 80 Gbps, virtually overnight.

The article goes on to say that turning away now may be too little too late for some file sharers as book publishers in Sweden began applying the law literally the day it took effect to obtain IP information of file sharers that swapped audio books.

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.

This wasn’t to say that this week was devoid of big developments. RedLasso gets hit with a big cease and desist, Mininova faces a lawsuit, a major new trade agreement on the horizon, Canada’s DMCA may move forward and linking to movies leads to a big fine.

Remember, as usual, this week’s linkroll is a “raw” link list. Some stories are duplicated, some do not point to their original sources and some may not be accurate. A great deal of refining goes into producing the show notes for the Copyright 2.0 Show.