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

1: Copyright holders attack BT and TalkTalk for their continued resistance to DEA

First off today, as UK ISPs BT and TalkTalk prepare to take their case against the Digital Economy Act to the UK’S highest court, copyright holders and rights groups are blasting the ISPs’ continued opposition to the act. According to reps of both the Music Publishers Association and Warner Brothers, the time has come for the ISPs to stop trying to fight the law and start enforcing it. The law requires ISPs to pass along notification of alleged infringement to their customers and, after several warnings, sever Internet access to repeat infringers. The law also opens the door to the blocking of Internet sites deemed to be infringing, but the government has said they will not put that part into effect. Rightsholders applauded other ISPs, including Virgin and Sky for their cooperation with copyright holders.

2: ‘Copyright Trolls’ Unite to Prevent Downfall of BitTorrent Lawsuits

Next up today, a case in Virginia involving a mass bittorrent lawsuit has drawn the attention of at least two other law firms engaged in the practice. The system, which involves filing lawsuits against a large number of unnammed defendants to get their personal information via subpoenas to their ISPs, came under fire in the court when the judge dismissed all but one of the defendants and called the process a “shake down”. The judge also ordered the plaintiff to explain why the litigation should be allowed at all. Fearing a ruling that could harm the entire industry, Steele Hansmeier, a law firm that handles similar lawsuits, filed an amicus brief in the matter through another firm, Anderson & Associates, which are also involved with such lawsuits. This is a sign that the parties are taking this ruling very seriously and are worried about its implications nation-wide.

3: Justin Bieber is Behind Bars in New Campaign

Finally today, a new campaign by the advocacy group Fight For the Future depicts teen pop sensation Justin Bieber behind bars. The campaign is an effort to protest proposed legislation in the U.S. that would make streaming, in some circumstances, a criminal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. Bieber famously got his start on YouTube where his singing of various popular songs caught the attention of Usher, who signed the artist. According to Fight For the Future, that could now land other artists in jail if the law passes.

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: Spanish Court Rules That Linking to Potential Copyright Infringing Material Is Not Copyright Infringement

First off today, in Spain an Appeals Court has ruled that providing a link to a copyright infringing work is not an infringement itself. The case centers around indice-web, a site that links to various P2P files available for download. It was sued by the SGAE, a Spanish collection society, only to be ruled legal in a lower court. That decision has been upheld in the more influential Court of Appeals of Barcelona. Though the ruling only applies to Spain, it may draw more fire to the country, which many already see as having laws that enable infringement.

2: Broadcasters Get A Mixed Judgment Against TVCatchup

In the UK today, broadcasters won a mixed judgement against the TV streaming and virtual DVR site TVCatchup. A judge has ruled that at least certain elements of the site are illegal and is waiting for a related case to be resolved before ruling on other matters. On the subject of broadcasts, the judge ruled TVCatchup does not reproduce substantial parts of the station’s works, but ruled the opposite on the issue of movies. The judge also ruled that TVCatchup has the right to rebroadcast works over cable but also that its mobile service is unlawful. Finally, the judge is waiting for a ruling in a case involving the Premier League dealing with boxes that decode foreign broadcasts to weigh in on the above issue of broadcasts and a “temporary copying” loophole cited by TVCatchup.

3: 200,000 BitTorrent Users Sued In The United States

Finally today, according to Torrentfreak, the number of mass lawsuits filed agianst file sharers has reached 200,000 in the last year alone. Though many of those lawsuits have been dismissed or dropped, 145,417 are still in play at this time. The lawsuits, which find copyright holders filing suit agianst thousands of “John Doe” defendants in a bid to force ISPs to turn over subscriber information, primarily exist to send “settlement letters” that have the defendant end the case for a few thousand dollars and not go through the cost of a trial and risk a larger judgement.

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.

This is no April Fool’s joke, it is Friday again and that means that it is time for another episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show.

If you’re in the mood for a completely joke-free conversation about copyright law then this is the podcast for you (Well, a few jokes but none on you). We have a lot of news to go over including a major victory for those who want to mass-litigate against pirates, Amazon launches a new cloud streaming service and Righthaven manages to file a lawsuit over an article about one of their lawsuits, nearly causing the universe to implode.

All in all there were eight stories this week including:

• Washington Judge OKs Mass P2P Lawsuits
• Amazon Launches Cloud Music Streaming, Sans Label Permission
• Zediva Gets Creative with DVD Streaming
• Righthaven Embarrasses Itself
• EMI and Bluebeat Settle
• Much, Much 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

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: MPAA Sues Hotfile for “Staggering” Copyright Infringement

First off today, the MPAA has filed a lawsuit against the cyberlocker site Hotfile, claiming that the site actively encourages users to upload infringing content and even discourages personal use through a system that rewards users who have files that are heavily downloaded. The complaint includes allegations of direct infringement, inducement of infringement, contributory infringement, and vicarious infringement. Other cyberlockers, such as Rapidshare, have generally won legal battles and have earned protection under the DMCA safe harbors. The MPAA, however, hopes that Hotfile’s incentive system may remove it from such protections.

2: ACS:Law File-Sharing Cases To Continue, Judge Rules

Next up today, ACS:Law, despite trying to exit the P2P mass lawsuit market, apparently will have to continue its case against 27 suspected file sharers after the judge in the case found their discontinuation notice to be an abuse of court procedure. The case will, almost certainly, still be thrown out but at issue for the judge is the possibility of recovering wasted costs, which could come up in a hearing on March 16.

3: Elvis Presley – Presley Estate Targets Bootleg Dvd Bosses

Finally today, the estate of Elvis Presley has launched a series of lawsuits targeted at sellers of bootleg CDs and DVDs that is says are infringing. This follows on the heels of another lawsuit last mont against Joseph Pirzada, which the estate says source of a DVD featuring footage from a television special the estate holds the rights to.

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.

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

1: Megaupload Facing $5 Million Copyright Suit

First off today, porn company Perfect 10 has filed a $5 million lawsuit against Megaupload and its sister sites saying that the company has ignored cease and desist letters from Perfect 10 and continues to share both whole magazines and images from their various properties. The lawsuit, which is for copyright and trademark infringement, is also seeking an injunction against Megaupload that would prevent them from displaying Perfect 10 content.

2: Porn Copyright Troll Drops Suit Against 670 Nervous ‘Does’

Next up today, porn company Mick Haig Productions has dropped its case against some 670 “Doe” defendants it accused of unlawfully sharing their films. This came after the EFF and Public Citizen argued that the plaintiffs should not be able to obtain their subpoenas for the identity of the Does since they had filed the lawsuits together and in a jurisdiction not relevant to most of the defendants. Mick Haig Productions has not indicated if it plans on refiling the case but, the ruling mirrors similar outcomes in other jurisdictions as well.

3: Almost 100,000 US Torrent Users Sued in the Last 12 Months

Finally today, according to statistics compiled from an anonymous source, nearly 100,000 “Does” have been sued by various copyright organizations for sharing files online, mostly via Bittorrent. According to the data, some 99,924 Does were sued in 80 different cases. Of those cases, 68 are still active, impacting 70,914 defendants. Most of these cases are dropped after the plaintiffs get a subpoena for the identities of the defendants, at which point they turn around and send demand letters to them, seeking settlements up to several thousand dollars.

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.

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

1: Appeals Court Holds that Promo CDs Can Be Resold

First off today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that promotional CDs, which are often mailed out to reviewers prior to the release of an album, can be sold and given away even though the CDs often come with stickers and warnings that they are “not for sale” or “for promotional use only”. The court ruled that, since the CDs were given away freely, that there could be no license between the recipient and the record label. While this punts somewhat on the issue of whether one can actually strip the right of first sale through such notices, an argument that circuit has been at least somewhat open to, it does mean promotional CDs and copyrighted works distributed in a similar manner can not lose that right by the mere presence of such a notice.

2: ‘Expendables’ Producer Next To Sue Thousands of Online Pirates

Next up today, the U.S. Copyright Group, despite some recent legal setbacks, is seeing growth in its business as it picked up Nu Image Films as a customer for their mass litigation campaign against alleged file sharers. Nu Image’s best-known film, and the target of its first lawsuit, is the 2010 movie “The Expendables”. This comes as the group is planning on refiling thousands of lawsuits that were dismissed due to lack of jurisdiction and the company’s 15 partner law firms are preparing similar lawsuits in courts across the country. According the company, settlement rates have been very high, up to twice what their counterparts in Europe saw.

3: BitTorrent’s Wave Becomes a Tsunami with 100 Million Active Users

Finally today, BitTorrent, the company, has announced that it’s tools, which include uTorrent, Mainline and BitTorrent, the application, have reached some 100 million active users per month with some 20 million users logging in per day. This will certainly be bad news for those in the entertainment industry, which decry Bittorrent as the main protocol for piracy on the Web, those who support Bittorrent are going to be excited by the growth. The numbers, however, don’t count the many unofficial Bittorrent clients, many of which are more widely used.

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.

First, we have a major announcement from the RIAA regarding their lawsuit campaign, a lawsuit against the New York Times for deep linking, USA Today getting in a copyright tiff with Digg and much more.

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.

So, beginning this week, every Saturday I am posting a collection of links that I have gathered over the past seven days. Please bear in mind that this is a “raw” linkblog. This is the links as I find them and the specific links may change before I create my show notes for the Copyright 2.0 Show, others will be eliminated and there may be some duplicate stories as told on different sites.

Let me know what you think and how I can make this feature more useful in the future!

However, despite the obstacles, I did and I sat down Chris from Numly.com to discuss the week’s copyright news and views.

All totaled, the show had fifteen stories, including the following:

• OINK Gets Slaughtered
• TV Links Changes the Channel
• IMSLP Goes Down… For Little Reason
• An MPAA Hacker Tells All
• Hulu Debuts… Today!
• And Many more…

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

I want to thank everyone for their support and understanding this past week as I’ve had to be away from the site a bit more. The opening night of the haunted house went great. We processed about fifty people and plan to open again Halloween night, where we expect many times that.

I should be around more these next few days but I do have repair work and improvements to make between now and Wednesday. Hopefully we should be back to a full-on ordinary schedule by the end of this week.

Thank you again and, if any one is interested, I’ll post pics and video of it in my Divshare account after it is done.

Show Notes