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1: Judge Won’t Give Back Sports-Streaming Domain Seized By ICE

First off today, a judge has decided that the site Rojadirecta will not be getting its domain back. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seized the domain, along with dozens of others, over alleged copyright violation. Rojadirecta sued ICE, claiming that it was a violation of their free speech rights. However, the judge apparently disagreed with Rojadirecta, saying that the site was used primarily for copyright infringement, namely posting links to copyrights sports streams, and would not suffer “substantial hardship” due to the revocation. Rojadirecta has resumed business using it’s Spanish domain.

2: Rapper Lil Wayne Slapped With $15 Million Lawsuit

Next up today, rapper Lil Wayne has been sued by Done Deal Enterprises, a Georgia-based production company, which claims that he stole his song “Bedrock” from them. The song, which also featured Drake, Nicki Minaj and Lloyd, rose to number 2 on the Billboard charts last year. The suit is seeking $15 million in damages and lists Universal Music Group, Cash Money Records and Young Money Entertainment as defendants.

3: After Much Ado, a Google Book Deal in France

Finally today, in France Google has managed to strike a deal with publisher Hachette Livre that will allow it to scan and post online tens of thousands of French book as part of its Google Book Search project. The deal comes as a similar one in the U.S. was dismissed by a judge. However, the French deal does have a major distinction in that the publisher gets to opt in on which books they wish to allow, something Google has resisted in the U.S.

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: Songwriters: Piracy “Dwarfs Bank Robbery,” FBI Must Act

First off today, the Songwriter’s Guild of America made its wishes known to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in the White House, Victoria Espinel, as part of her public feedback request. According to the SGA online piracy should be a higher priority for the FBI and other enforcement agencies as the economic impact is greater than bank robbery and other crimes that the guild feels gets more attention. They are encouraging the FBI to go after heavy file sharers both criminally and civilly.

2: Fox News, Rupert Murdoch… All Pirates

Flickr user Orvatli is upset with Fox News after the news channel began using his photos taken of the volcanic eruption in Iceland on their site without permission or payment. Orvatli has sent Fox News an invoice for the use of his images, but has received no response. The follows a similar case involving misuse of Orvatli’s work by the blog Gizmodo, which paid him some for the use of his images, and as Fox News owner and media mogul Rupert Murdoch is taking an aggressive stance against infringement of his content on the Web.

3: Rapper Sues Lil Wayne For “Lollipop”, Claims Copyright Infringement

Finally today, Rapper Lil Wayne, who is currently incarcerated in New York’s Rikers Prison, has been sued by Philadelphia rapper Dirahn Gilliams, who claims that Wayne’s hit song “Lolipop” used elements from his song “Grinding Like A Goon”. The suit also names producers Jonsin and Deezle in the suit as well as Lil Wayne’s labels.

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.

1: Public Booted from DVD Copying Trial Over ‘Secret’ CSS Code

First off today, in a move that has many left scratching their heads, the judge the in RealDVD case, which pits the MPAA against Real over their DVD ripping software, booted the media out of the courtroom to protect the “secrecy” of the CSS encryption key used to protect DVDs from being ripped.

Though this seems to make sense as the key is technically a corporate secret, the CSS encryption key as well as software to rip DVDs has been publicly available even open sourced for quite some time. In fact, one of the CSS keys itself was the subject of a Digg user revolt when Digg pulled down an article that featured the key. This resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, or articles with the key being submitted and the key being printed on t-shirts, mugs and more.

The judge in the case said she did not wish to go through “bit by bit” and analyze what was and was not a corporate secret so she booted the media from the courtroom during the parts of the testimony dealing with the CSS system.

2: Rapper Lil Wayne sues song’s producer

Next up, in a story of local interest to me in New Orleans, rapper Lil Wayne is suing Rebel Rock Productions Inc., claiming that the company failed to clear rights for a sample he used in one of his songs, which in turn is why he was sued by folk singer Karma-Ann Swanepoel last year.

Swanepoel sued Wayne for copyright infringement after his song “I Feel Like Dying” sampled Swanepoel’s track entitled “Once”. That case is on going and, most recently, Wayne was forced by a judge to give up records related to album sales for the calculation of possible damages.

3: Italian Courts Target Pirate Bay

Finally today, an Italian prosecutor is targeting The Pirate Bay founders, who were just found guilty in a controversial court case in their home country of Sweden. The four men, who were sentenced to one year in prison and given a hefty fine, are facing identical charges in Italy.

However, the prosecutor makes it clear that there is no chance of extradition to Italy over these charges and, instead, focuses on seizing assets to repay copyright holders and to enforce a block of The Pirate Bay, which was overruled and overturned in October of last year.

The prosecutor in the case feels comfortable that he will be able to get a conviction and the local copyright lobbies have expressed confidence that they will be able to get the ban re-instituted.

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.