It was a busy week for copyright news as it seems all of the courts and litigators came back from their holiday vacations and began to make a huge ruckus. We have a controverial editorial by U2 rocker Bono, a head-slapping filing by Tenenbaum’s attorneys and even a little bit about androids.

All in all, there were thirteen stories this week including news from all over the copyright world including our “Weird Story of the Week”.

This week’s stories include:

• Bono Calls For Internet Controls to Stop Piracy
• Tenenbaum Claims His File Sharing Wasn’t His Fault
• Cybersitter Files a $2.2 Billion Lawsuit
• RealNetworks Suffers a Legal Setback for RealDVD
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Copyright?
• And Many more…

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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.

1: Solid Oak Files $2.2B Suit Against China, OEMs

First off today, we have a possible new record for largest copyright lawsuit ever as the software company Solid Oak has filed a $2.2 billion suit against Sony, Lenovo, Acer and, biggest of all the Chinese government itself.

According to the lawsuit, China’s “Green Dam” Web filtering software, which was for a time mandated on all computers sold in China, used thousands of lines of code reused without permission from Solid Oak’s Cybersitter filtering software. The suit alleges that manufacturers, including those listed above, sold computers with the infringing code installed on them even after they discovered that it was infringing.

The suit seeks the $2.2 billion amount based upon an estimated 56.5 million unauthorized copies of Cybersitter being sold at about $40 each. The suit also accuses the Chinese government of using various corporate espionage efforts to gain access to the code, including trojan emails.

2: Tenenbaum’s P2P Use: the Labels Made Me Do It!

Next up, it’s a Nesson story so you may want to sit down. Charles Nesson, the attorney representing Joel Tenenbaum, who was found liable to the tune of $675,000 for sharing some 30 songs, has filed a petition seeking either a new trial or a drastic reduction in the damages.

According to Nesson, the record labels are at least partially responsible because their selling of music, but not in the format Joel wanted, was an “attractive nuisance”, making the record labels partly to blame for his infringement.

Attractive nuisance is a legal term commonly used in homeowner disputes. In-ground pools are the most common example as homewoners are required to safeguard their pools from tresspassers as they might entice others to them where they risk harm.

According to Nesson, the record label’s selling of music in DRM-only format, such as with iTunes before the transition to DRM-free. constitutes such a nuisance and puts at least some of the blame on the labels. This is an argument somewhat in line with the judge’s suggestion that there may have been a fair use argument if the music had not been available for sale, but Nesson is taking it further by asking for such an argument until it was available DRM-free.

3: MP William McCrea Faces Copyright Breach Claims

Finally today, Rev William McCrea a DUP party member and an MP in his native Northern Ireland, is being sued by another gospel singer, Mark Carmichael, regarding the song “Just a Breath Away”, which Carmichael claims copyright in and that McCrea infringed upon.

The lawsuit is due to for a mention in a Belfast court this Friday, McCrea has said that he is defending the charges.

McCrea has a history of combining a successful singing career with a successful political career. Also named in the suit is his label, Daybreak recordings, which he is co-director of, and Ian McDowell, Daybreak’s other director.

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: Judges Tosses Pooh Copyright Claims Against Disney

First off today, a judge has tossed out a lawsuit by the heirs of Stephen Slesinger over the iconic Winnie the Pooh character.

Slesinger was a television and film producer who, in the 30s, purchased the merchandising rights to the character and then sold them to Disney in 1961 in exchange for a royalty. However, Stephen Slesinger Inc., a company that represents his estate, accused Disney of accounting trickery to lower the royalties paid.

The initial lawsuit was thrown out after thirteen years of litigation due to misconduct by a private investigator. However, the heirs sued Disney again, this time for copyright infringement, only to now have this suit thrown as well.

The litigation has been going on since 1991 and is actually continuing as the heirs still have a claim against Disney pending before the U.S. Patent Office.

2: Copyright Alliance Calls For Content Control

Next up today, The Copyright Alliance, a non-profit coalition of artists who support stronger copyright law, has created an online petition asking for President Obama to “pursue policies supportive of the rights of artists.”

The petition stops short of saying exactly what those policies are or would be, but goes to great lengths to portray copyright holders as “the essence of America” and contributors of $1.52 trillion to the GDP.

The petition currently has over 7,500 signatures from artists and copyright holders of all stripes and is growing rapidly.

3: Ignoring RIAA Lawsuits Cheaper Than Going to Trial

Finally today, something a bit different. If you’ve been sued by the RIAA and you’ve missed your chance to settle, should you: A) Defend yourself in court? B) Ignore it.

Well, according to a recent article by Nate Anderson, the answer is that you’ll come out much cheaper if you do the latter. Judges in four cases gave defendants who didn’t respond to lawsuits, and thus lost automatically, got the minimum amount per song $750. For ten songs that amount came out to $7,500 for the entire suit. Compare that to the per-song awards by the juries in the two Thomas cases, which were $9,250 and $80,000 respectively and the difference is clear.

Though the cheapest route is to still settle the case, which usually costs about $3,000, ignoring the case does appear to be cheaper than the alternative.

This is what happened to Joel Tenenbaum, who narrowly avoided a default judgment being entered against him when he showed up in court and the judge located attorney Charles Nesson “Help” him and wound up making him liable for $22,500 per song.

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: Thomas judge bars Fair Use defense, OKs MediaSentry evidence

First off today, in a pair of major setbacks for the Jammie Thomas defense team, the judge in the case has barred them from offering any fair use defense and has decided to allow the controversial evidence from MediaSentry,

Previously, Thomas’ team had been trying to claim first that file sharing was a form of fair use. However, now they will be barred from even making that claim in front of a jury due to the fact that it is an affirmative defense, meaning it has to be raised before witnesses can be deposed, and the Thomas team only recently raised it.

Regarding MediaSentry, the judge denied all of Thomas’ claims against the evidence gathering company, saying it neither violated her privacy nor is bound by the Minnesota Private Detectives Act since it has no offices nor employees in the state. In short, he found that the MediaSentry’s activities, in this case at least, were legal.

These are two very big blows to Thomas’ case and leaves her with only the hope that the record labels can not prove their case against her with all of their evidence, something they were able to do in the first trial, but now face at least a slightly greater challenge due to a change in the jury instructions.

2: Record Companies Trying to Stop Music Sharing with New CD Security

Next up today, while we’re talking about the record companies, they are making another play with the DRM angle, this time using a new CD security technology that only allows a pre-packaged CD player to play music contained on the disk. This would effectively prevent ripping of the CD, including to put it on portable devices or into iTunes.

Warner Brothers is reportedly already using the new technology and Sony is supposedly next. Obviously this is going to upset many users, especially those who buy CDs primarily for the purpose of ripping them. For me, it’s just going to keep me buying my music from Amazon.

(Note: I am unable to get independent confirmation of this story, at this time I am treating this as a rumor)

3: Despite Piracy, The Sims 3’s Doing Fine

Finally today, in a more uplifting story, the Sims 3, Electronic Arts new highly-anticipated sequel, seems to be selling quite well despite being downloaded illegally over 2 million times via Bittorrent. The game, in its first week alone, has sold approximately 1.4 million copies making it EA’s biggest PC game launch in history.

Some of this may be due to the fact that no demo of the game is available, meaning some downloaders may be using it as a “try before you buy” system and it also appears that the pirated version is a pre-release build with many bugs still in it.

Either way, it appears that this is one case where piracy has not actively hurt PC games sales.

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: 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: Harvard prof tells judge that P2P filesharing is “fair use”

First off today, Harvard professor Charles Nesson, the attorney representing alleged file sharer Joel Tenenbaum, is back in the news. He has decided to continue with his theory that file sharing is fair use even though his colleagues, friends and even his own expert witnesses disagree with his decision to do so.

Nesson intends, at this time, to take his fair use argument to a jury and make arguments related to all of the four factors. However, most seem to think that this has a very low chance of success.

Fortunately for Nesson’s client though, he does have a backup plan, one where he challenges the damages that can be awarded in such such a case, saying that statutory damages, the bulk of most copyright awards, are only for “commercial” infringers. However, that strategy too has been called “bold” and doesn’t seem to jive with what is written into the law itself.

The trial is set to begin this summer.

2: Court turns away appeal over Steinbeck copyright

Next up today, The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the heirs of John Steinbeck, the author of “The Grapes of Wrath” saying that the copyrights to the work belongs to Penguin Publishing, despite a lower court ruling that awarded the rights back to the heirs.

The heirs, who currently receive royalties from the book, were obviously disappointed. Though, overall, it is a pretty ho-hum copyright contract dispute, it is rare for the Supreme Court to take up such cases and it is always news when SCOTUS rules on copyright-related matters.

3: The Official Unofficial Creative Commons Facebook Application

Finally today, the Creative Commons Organization has launched is “official unofficial” Facebook application. The app lets users add a Creative Commons badge to their profiles and license their Facebook content under the license of their choosing.

The application does have one drawback, in addition to being considered a “beta” release, you can only choose to license your content on the basis of content type (namely photos, videos and text) and not on a per-work basis, as with Flickr or other sites. That, according to the app’s creator, would require Facebook integrating CC into its photo service.

Still, if you are a Facebook user and make use Creative Commons, go install the app today!

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: Court jails Pirate Bay founders

First off today, in what could really be the only story in this column, the four founders of The Pirate Bay were found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail and were ordered to pay about $900,000 each.

The court found that the four men acted as a team and knew that illegal content was being shared on their service. The court did not grant the hefty fines and damages sought by the movie studios and record labels, but the judge still fined the foursome a combined total of well over $3 million dollars.

For their part, The Pirate Bay has promised to appeal the verdict and has expressed confidence that they will be vindicated later. Also, the founders have said that they can not and will not pay the fines.

2: UK ‘has the worst copyright laws’

Though Sweden is going to have its copyrights laws scrutinized very heavily today, a recent study by Consumers International put the UK in last place among 16 nation for having a copyright system that balances the needs of artists and users.

In a statement, Consumer Focus, one of the member groups of Consumers International, said that “UK copyright law is the oldest, but also the most out of date,”

The study specifically cites common user behavior, such as ripping a CD onto an iPod, which are currently illegal in the UK though very common in nature. It goes on to call for an update to British Copyright law in the face of new technology.

3: Court blocks webcast of RIAA file sharing case against Harvard student

Finally today, it appears that fans of courtroom drama are not going to be able to watch the Joel Tenenbaum trial on a webcast. The court of appeals sided with the record labels in reversing a district court ruling that would have allowed the trial to be broadcast over the Web.

Though, over the past few months we’ve been treated to a wide range of excitement in the case, much of it coming from Tenenbaum’s lead attorney, Charles Nesson. However, it appears this will not be a spectacle for the Web.

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.