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1: Bob Marley’s Family Lose Copyright Battle

First off today, the Estate of Bob Marley has lost a legal battle with Universal Music Group after a court ruled that UMG is the rightful owner of Marley’s recordings he made for Island records between 1973 and 1977. The family had accused UMG of withholding royalties and ignoring earlier agreements but the court ruled UMG is the rightful owner of those tracks.

2: Hackers Target and Exploit Pirate Bay Ad Server

Next up today, attackers managed to exploit the advertising servers that run The Pirate Bay to make the site direct visitors to download malware, causing the site to be blocked in both Google and Firefox for being harmful to users. The ads were linking to external sites that would attempt to download and install malware on visitor’s computers though it is unclear what the malware was designed to do. The Pirate Bay was able to fix the hole and be restored in both Google and Firefox but there is no word how many, if any, machines were infected.

3: Behind the music: Moguls and Musicians Thrash out Filesharing

Finally today, Philly Byrne, the lead singer of Irish band Gama Bomb, wrote an open letter to U2′s manager Paul McGuinness saying that his strict views on file sharing were short-sighted. His band had recently been involved in an experiment to distribute an album for free via Rapidshare and found that the album sold almost the exact same amount to their previous release even though it was downloaded more than 40,000 times. The band, however, had expected a huge increase in sales but still believes the approach to be the correct one.

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: Talktalk calls Bono’s file-sharing remarks ‘outrageous’

First off today, U2 singer Bono’s comments in his recent New York Times column where he called for greater restrictions on the Internet to curb piracy has started to draw a great deal of negative attention.

The latest, and perhaps strongest, condemnation comes from UK ISP TalkTalk, which said that “Most people think that blocking access to sites that host child abuse images is a good thing… fewer than 10 per cent of us think that disconnecting alleged file sharers without a court hearing is a good idea.”

This comes after Bono called for the use of greater technological means by ISPs to reduce piracy and cited, controversially, China as proof such technology can work. TalkTalk went on to point out that, while some methods of obtaining illegal content can be tracked, such as P2P, there are other formats for viewing content that can not.

2: Bad Boy Films Sued Over ‘Notorious’

Next up today, Diddy’s Bad Boy films studio is the subject of a lawsuit from an unlikely source. Billboard model and actress Angelyne has sued the company over their movie “Notorious” as she claims one of her billboards was used in the film without permission.

According to the suit, the movie used a 12-second shot of one of her famous billboards and is suing for copyright infringement as well as other actions. She is seeking some $100,000 in damages.

In related news, I believe I have an early front runner for “Weird Story of the Week” on the Copyright 2.0 Show.

3: Decision Looms on iPhone Hack

Finally today, something of an update. Sometime in the next few weeks we are expecting a final ruling from the U.S. Copyright Office regarding whether or not “jailbreaking” an iPhone, or hacking the phone’s DRM to be used on other carriers or with unapproved apps, will become legal.

Currently such jailbreaking activity is a violation of the DMCA, which prevents circumvention of DRM controls to gain access to copyrighted materials. However, the Copyright Office, as it does every three years, is considering new exemptions to the law. A propsal that is on the table, one put forth by the EFF, would make such jailbreaking legal.

This ruling has the potential to drastically alter the way mobile phones are bought and distributed in the U.S. as well as have huge implications for other electronic devices that are currently locked in to one network or service.

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: Eddie Vedder Sued For Copyright Infringement

First off today, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is being sued by Canadian singer/songwriter Gordon Peterson for changing the lyrics to a song he wrote, entitled “Hard Sun.” Vedder recorded his version of the tune for the soundtrack to the 2007 Into the Wild and apparently altered some of the lyrics in a way that Peterson did not approve of.

Though this might not seem to be a copyright matter, moral rights protections, which are granted artists in nearly all other countries, permit them to object to uses of their work they find offensive and, without having seen a copy of the suit yet, I am forced to assume that is the cause of action of the suit.

Also being sued is Universal Media Group, who allegedly licensed the track without Peterson’s permission. The suit is seeking all profits from the recording, which Peterson calls an “act of infringement”.

2: Bono Calls for Internet Controls

Next up today U2 member Bono has used his weekly New York Times column to call for greater control over the Internet to prevent illegal file sharing and piracy. He said that the tools and technologies were available and cited, probably poorly advised, the controls placed on China’s citizens to prevent them from freely accessing the Web.

Bono went on to say that the only difference between the movie and the record industries is the size of the files being swapped, hinting that once speeds catch up, the movie studios will be in the same boat as the record labels.

His article caused a great deal of controversy, much of it due to the reference to China, but also because his band has been doing very well, recently closing a $123 million tour. Bono, however, said that his statement was more to protect smaller, lesser-known artists who “can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us.”

3: ‘Sherlock Holmes’ Sequel Under Threat for Homosexual Hints

Finally today, though the recent Sherlock Holmes movie appears to be a success both financially and critically, the U.S. rightsholder in the Sherlock Holmes series, Andrea Plunket, has threatened to revoke Guy Ritchie’s rights the rights to make a sequel if he does not remain “true to the spirit of the books.”

The tiff arose from an interview given by the movie’s star Robert Downey Jr. on the “Late Show with David Letterman” in which he hinted at the homosexual overtones to the film and lead many to wonder if a romantic relationship between Holmes and his sidekick Dr. Watson may be a part of the almost inevitable sequel.

Though it is unlikely that this spat will actually result in any major changes, it is very rare to see a copyright holder to threaten withdrawal of permissions so close to the release of a successful movie.

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: Content Owners Force Hulu To Kneecap Boxee

Content owners who put their shows and movies on Hulu have demanded that Boxee stop carrying Hulu-based content. Boxee, a video conversion service that allows videos on the Web to be converted to a format usable by media centers and TVs, has removed the site from its list of compatible services as a show of “good faith”.

Though there is a lot of speculation as to why Hulu’s providers wanted Boxee cut off, it seems likely that the service’s function of moving content to a TV. Hulu has worked to be “TV for your Computer” and it is likely content creators worried that allowing Hulu to be shown trivially on TVs would make it a replacement for the original programs.

2: Judge reaffirms 1918 legal doctrine in AP lawsuit

A 90-year-old legal doctrine dealing with “hot news” has been upheld in a New York courtroom. In the lawsuit, the Associated Press has sued AHN claiming that AHN copies stories from legitimate AP subscribers and republishes them without permission or attribution. To help make its case, the AP cited a 1918 ruling, which it was also the victor in, that found companies can sue when others copy and redistribute timely or “hot news” without permission.

This is, of course, counter in many ways to recent changes in copyright law that have held facts can not be copyrighted. The judge, however, did not rule on the merits of the case and, instead, only allowed it to go forward in front of a jury.

This case is very similar to a 1997 case dealing with box scores from basketball games, where the “hot news” doctrine was also upheld.

3: U2’s New Album Leaks Early Despite ‘Private Hearings’

Finally today, despite serious security measures, private screenings where cell phones were banned and many threats by the band, U2′s latest album, slated for release in just over a week, has leaked out over Bittorrent. Though some of the music could be found on bittorrent for some time, the new recordings are said to be of end user quality and may actually harm the album’s sales.

According to TorrentFreak, the album has been downloaded some 100,000 times already with, almost certainly, many times the downloads to come.

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 week I make my triumphant, if jet-lagged, return to the Copyright 2.0 Show. It was a busy week for copyright news and we have a lot of information about the new EMI lawsuit, the fate of the EliteTorrent admins, the MPAA and “making available” and much more.

We also have some updates on ongoing stories including the blocking of Demonoid, Prince’s strange copyright behavior and, as usual, our “weird story of the week”.

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

This week’s stories include:

• EMI Sues Video Sharing Sites
• MPAA Weighs in on “Making Available” Claims
• EliteTorrrent Admin Faces Jail
• U2 Responds to Their Manager
• Naked Cowboy Takes Mars Candy to Court
• 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

NEW! Take a look at the newer, more advanced and now fully-embeddable audio player for the podcast!

Chris makes his return as the two of us go through the week’s worth of copyright news and abuse including, the PRO-IP act making progress, a new tirade from U2′s manager against ISPs, more on Comcast and net neutrality and more Oink admins being arrested.

We also have updates to many ongoing copyright stories including the Google/Viacom lawsuit, the Revision attack, the Yoko Ono/Ben Stein feud and the Pirate Bay criminal case.

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

This week’s stories include:

• PRO-IP Passes the House
• Comcast faces a class action lawsuit
• Google Sells Adds on Illegally Streamed Video
• More Copyright Holders Sue YouTube
• Selling a Shampoo Bottle Allegedly Copyright Infringement
• 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

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/plagiarismtoday/copyright20eps62.mp3]