It’s Friday and that means it’s time for another episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show!

It was a crazy week for copyright news and, to keep this show under an hour, we had to cut out a lot of good and important stories. However, what’s left behind is a collection of the most important and most interesting pieces of copyright news.

We have a ruling on Joel Tenenbaum’s appeal, an important update on the Google Book Search case and another possible nail in Righthaven’s coffin, just to name a few. We also have a major political reversal in the UK and a potentially large Pirate Party victory in Germany.

All in all, this is one episode you don’t want to miss.

This week’s stories include:

• Tenenbaum Loses Appeal, Original Damages Stay in Effect
• Google, Publishers and Authors Get More Time in Book Search Case
• Righthaven Faces an Asset Seizure
• SAP Settles Criminal Complaint in Oracle Case for $20 million
• German Pirate Party Wins Big in Berlin’s Local Election
• 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: German Pirate Party Elect 15 Members to Berlin State Parliament

First off today, the German Pirate Party, which supports extreme copyright reform, won 8.9% of the vote in a recent Berlin state election, which earns it 15 seats in the local parliament. The organization played down it’s copyright reform platform in favor of focusing on transparency in government and improvements to public transportation. The move worked as the party only got 3.4% in the last Berlin election. Though a local election that isn’t likely to have much bearing on copyright law, it is widely seen as the Pirate Party’s greatest success, especially out of it its native Sweden.

2: Song Download Damages Improperly Reduced, Appeals Court Says

Next up today, Joel Tenenbaum, a former college student who was sued by the RIAA for alleged file sharing, has lost his appeal. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston today rejected the lower court’s 90 percent reduction awarded to the RIAA. The jury in Tenenbaum’s case had awarded the RIAA some $675,000 in damages but the judge reduced those damages to just $67,500, claiming they were excessive. Both sides appealed the reduction, Tenenbaum wanting an even lower award and the RIAA wanting the original damages to stand. The RIAA won the appeal, meaning that the original verdict will stand barring further appeal. The U.S. government also appealed to battle Tenenbaum’s claims that the damages were unconstitutional. They also won.

3: Judge Extends Time for Google Digital Books Talks

Finally today, settlement negotiations in the U.S. Google Book Search lawsuit seems to be moving forward well enough for the Judge to grant both sides more time, nine months worth. The lawsuit, in which Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers sued Google over its Google Book Search project had been the subject of one settlement in 2005, which was shot down by the judge for being too broad and in violation of anti-trust laws. The two sides have since been working on a modified agreement that they hope will be accepted by the court.

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.

1: Boston Federal Judge Drastically Cuts $675K Penalty Against Student in Song-Sharing Case

First off today, the judge in the Joel Tenenbaum case has reduced the jury award by 90%, from $675,000 to $67,500, saying that the larger award was “severe” and “oppressive”. Tenenbaum had been accused by the RIAA of sharing songs over Kazaa and was found liable by a jury, which handed down the original verdict. Tenenbaum still is said to think the verdict is too high and the RIAA plans on appealing the reduction.

2: US Could Learn From Brazilian Penalty for Hindering Fair Use

Next up today, a proposed change to the copyright code in Brazil will make it unlawful to use DRM to block access to works in the public domain and would also allow circumvention of DRM for fair uses. This would be in stark contrast to the law in the U.S. and the proposed law in Canada, which make the circumvention of DRM, even for lawful uses, illegal.

Many question whether Brazil’s law will comply with the WIPO treaties, which set for the standards for DRM protection internationally, though, since Brazil’s legislation only affects legal uses of the content, it is unclear if and how it would apply.

3: ISPs Don’t Have To Block The Pirate Bay, Court Rules

Finally today, a commercial court in Belgium has ruled that two ISPs in the country are not required to block The Pirate Bay. The request came at the behest of the Belgian anti-piracy outfit the Belgian Anti-Piracy Foundation, who was disappointed in the ruling.

The court ruled that such blocking would be “disproportionate”, especially considering the site has existed for several years but the request only comes 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 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: Department of Justice defends constitutionality of $675,000 award against Tenenbaum

First off today, the Justice Department filed a brief in the Joel Tenenbaum case defending the jury’s $675,000 judgment against him for his admitted file sharing. Tenenbaum’s attorneys had submitted a brief challenging the constitutionality of the award and the Justice Department has now filed one in opposition to that. The plaintiffs, the record labels, have until the 24th to file their answer. The Justice Department has already filed a similar brief in the Jammie Thomas case.

2: Independent Backtracks on Flickr Copyright

Next up, the British newspaper The Independent has apologized and offered to pay £100 to a Flickr photographer who had his image used in the paper after being lifted using Flickr’s API. At first the newspaper did not understand what they had done wrong, thinking that the Flickr API allowed such use, but backtracked when they realized their error.

3: Music chopped in Spanish Salons as Radio Tax Spells Silencio

Finally today, hair salons in Spain are rebelling against a €6 and €12 for playing the radio within their shops by turning off their music and asking customers to bring their own. This follows repeated demands by a group representing artists and songwriters to pay the fee and court cases on the matter.

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.

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…

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.

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.

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

1: Judge Affirms $675k Verdict in RIAA Music Piracy Case

First off today, the judge in the Joel Tenenbaum case, which saw the students held liable for some $675,000 in damages to the various labels after being sued for file sharing, has affirmed the verdict.

U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner has entered the judgement in her new ruling and has not reduced the verdict, as Tenenbaum’s team had hoped. The judge also took time in the verdict to strongly admonish the defense, headed by Harvard professor Charles Nesson, for its “chaotic” defense and said she had been willing to consider a fair use defense but that Nesson’s arguments were so broad and out of touch with the law that she had no choice but to prevent them from being heard at the trial.

The judge also granted the record industry’s motion to bar Tenenbaum from any further infringement but declined, on the grounds of free speech, to bar him from promoting file sharing and the Web as a means of obtaining music. The judge also deplored Congress to take a look at the copyright laws that made the verdict possible and expressed deep concern over the potential for “astronomical” damage awards.

A January 5 hearing is scheduled to discuss the constitutionality of the damage amount but, should that fail, Tenenbaum has already said that he will be forced to declare bankruptcy.

2: Record Industry Faces Liability Over `Infringement’

Next up today, Canadian record labels are facing a major class action lawsuit brought on by artists who are claiming copyright infringement over the labels’s practice of using a “pending list” when clearing rights for compilation and live CDs.

The practice was the result of a change in Canadian copyright law in the 1980s that did away with compulsory licenses to require labels to obtain permission for such albums. However, according to plaintiffs, the labels instead just printed the CDs and put the track names on a the pending list, which supposedly meant approval and payment was forthcoming. According to the lawsuit, that payment never came.

The labels admit they have not taken adequate steps to secure payment for artists on the pending list, which has now grown to some 300,000 songs and includes artists from all genres and across the globe, and have already said they may be liable for up to $50 million in damages. However, since the plaintiffs are seeking statutory damages, that number could go as high as $6 billion (Note: The original article says $60 billion but this is clearly a math error as 300,000 songs x $20,000 per infringement max equals $6 billion, not $60 billion).

The irony of the record labels facing suhch a large potential judgement against them is not lost on anyone, the least of all the plaintiffs, who wrote in a legal filing “the conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers.”

We will report more on the case as it develops.

3: Destiny’s Child Copyright Case Settled

Finally today, the former singers of Destiny’s Child have avoided a court date. The trio had been sued by Rickey Allen, who accused the band of infringement over their 2004 song ‘Cater 2 U’, whch he claimed was inspired by a track he had composed with the same title in the 90s.

Allen claimed that he had handed a copy of the song over to producer Maurice Joshua, who went on to work with the trio on the album in question.

However, after years of legan wrangling, the matter has been settled, only a few days before the singers were to take the stand. Both sides met behind closed doors to hammer out a an undisclosed agreement and the case is expected to be dismissed tomorrow.

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: Did Viacom Find Smoking Gun in YouTube Case?

First off today we may have a shocking turn of events in the Viacom v. YouTube case, which saw Viacom suing YouTube for $1 billion claiming the site infringed on their copyright. Sources close to the case are claiming that Viacom’s attorneys have found, as part of the ongoing discovery process, emails from YouTube employees that indicates they were aware of infringing material and did nothing to act and also that, in some cases, they may have uploaded the content themselves.

This could, if true, punch large holes in YouTube’s DMCA safe harbor protections that could open it up to being liable for at least some of the infringement that has taken place on its service. Though such cases likely only represent a small amount of the actual infringement that has taken place, it could still amount to a major and expensive defeat for the site.

Up until recently, things looked very good for YouTube as a similar case involving Veoh had turned out in favor of Veoh, finding that the smaller video sharing service qualified for safe harbor protection. However, it appears that the YouTube case may turn out very differently.

2: BREIN Disconnects The Pirate Bay, For Now

Next up today, the Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN may have scored a minor win against The Pirate Bay, getting the site temporarily taken offline. This came after BREIN forced NForce, which in turn is a client of the famous former-bittorrent host LeaseWeb, to disable access to the site.

Though neither NForce nor LeaseWeb were hosting the site, which is currently located in Ukraine, traffic to the site was routed through NForce. The Pirate Bay admins have said that this is not a permanent outage and that they expect to be available tomorrow with four different transits. They also blamed at least some of the issue on their new host, which seems to be having problems as well.

Still, it appears to be a small, if short-lived, victory for BREIN in its fight against The Pirate Bay.

3: BREAKING: Supreme Court won’t hear Joel Tenenbaum’s webcast appeal

Finally today, we have the conclusion to one of the stranger issues in the Joel Tenenbuam case, the right to stream it via the Internet. Tenenbaum, who was sued by the RIAA for file sharingm had petitioned the court to be allowed to stream the trial over the Web.

The judge denied his request and his attorneys appealed twice, losing in the Appellate court and now having the Supreme Court decide not to take the case. Part of the reason may be that the case went on without a ruling (unstreamed) and resulted in a loss for Tenenbuam where he was found liable for damages totaling $625,000.

Most legal scholars don’t find this (non)decision very shocking, especially considering the Supreme Court does not allow cameras in its own court. This seems to put at least this issue of the case to bed, though many more remain.

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.

Did you miss us? It is Monday again and that means that it is time for another episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show.

We’re back from a 2-week hiatus as Patrick returns from his vacation and I from a two-week stint of not editing podcasts. We missed a lot of news while we were gone but we do our best to catch everyone up by bringing you the tops stories from the three weeks past and get a few laughs along the way.

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

This week’s stories include:

• Tenenbaum Loses… big
• AP Looks to Protect Their Content
• College Student Arrested for Hacking Video Game Consoles
• Dance Video Leads to a YouTube Payday
• Oprah and the $1.2 Trillion Lawsuit
• And Many 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.

1: Oy Tenenbaum! RIAA wins $675,000, or $22,500 per song

First off today, the Tenenbaum verdict is in and it is not pretty if your name happens to be Tenenbaum. The jury awarded the RIAA $22,500 per song or $675,000 for the entire settlement. The jury award could have been anywhere from $750 per song to $150,000, making the award on the lower end of the spectrum, but still very high in value.

Tenebaum was sued for sharing files over various P2P file sharing networks and admitted liability during the course of the trial. That left the jury only to decide on the damages awarded. The next step for Joel, most likely, is to ask the judge to reduce the damages and, according to him, if that fails, he’ll likely file for bankruptcy.

A donation campaign was started to help Joel pay his award but it has since then been altered, after an outcry, so that the funds will go to pay for defense expenses.

2: Day 26 Accused of Copyright Infringement

R&B Band Day 26 has been sued for copyright infringement, but this one is a little different than most musical plagiarism lawsuits. The band is not accused of lifting a riff or a few notes, but rather an entire song.

According to singer Kirby Shields, his song “I’m Just Getting Started” is identical to the bands April, 2009 release “Just Getting Started” and he has filed suit against the band and various labels affiliated with the group to prove it.

Day 26 was formed on Season 4 of MTV’s “Making of the Band” and “Forever and a Day”, the album that contains “Just Getting Started” is the band’s second release.

3: isoHunt Loses Appeal in Preemptive Strike Against CRIA

Finally today, bittorrent tracker ISOHunt, which had preemptively sued the CRIA, the Canadian answer the RIAA, lost its appeal to have the case decided on a summary judgment and that, in turn has set the case up to be presented to a full trial.

isoHunt had sued the CRIA in hopes of getting a declaratory judgment ruling that the service was non-infringing. However, the judge felt the issues were too complex and too important to not present at a full trial and the appeals court agreed.

isoHunt now has to decide if it wishes to proceed to a full trial or take some other action at this point. However, they did not seem very surprised by the ruling, which had been widely expected.

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.