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1: Viacom Responds to YouTube’s Interpretation of Copyright Law

First off today, YouTube and Viacom both have filed papers with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals pitching their case for their interpretation of the law. At issue is specifically “red flag” takedowns, which are scenarios when a host must remove copyright infringing material despite a DMCA notice not being filed. According to YouTube, they only have to remove content when they are aware of an infringement that is obvious and doesn’t require investigation. Viacom says that interpretation is too broad and that an ISP must act if it is aware of an infringement, even if it is not aware of the specifics.

2: ‘Project Runway’ Copyright Suit Filed by St. Charles Photographer

Next up today, photographer Marcie Cobbaert has filed a lawsuit against the producers of “Project Runway” claiming that she took photos for one of the designers on the show only to have them used as part of the broadcast without her permission. The suit also accuses Lifetime, the network behind the show, of turning the photos into advertisements by including a watermark for the network over them when they were on air.

3: TalkTalk, Virgin and Sky Asked to Block Newzbin2

Finally today, UK IPSs TalkTalk, Virgin and Sky have all received letters from the Motion Picture Association (MPA) requesting that they block the Usenet service Newzbin2. The move comes after the MPA secured a legal victory against BT, a different ISP in the country, forcing them to do the same. Virgin and Sky have said they will comply with the order but TalkTalk has taken issue with elements of it, including who has to pay for the blocking to be applied.

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: EU to Assess Piracy Detection Software

First off today, Privacy International has filed a complaint with the European Commission on the ISP Virgin’s potential use of a deep packet inspection system named CView to detect illegal file sharing. According to the group, such traffic monitoring raises severe piracy concerns and the EC has said they will monitor the use of the program. Tests of the application have been put on hold while the EC investigates.

2: Rapper T.I. Sued For Copyright Infringement

Clifford Harris, also known as the rapper T.I., was recently sued for copyright infringement by rapper Motoe Blizzid, whose real name is Nathan Filby. According to Filby, Harris’ 2006 song “What You Know” lifts heavily from his 2004 song “Reverence”. Filby is seeking all profits from the song and has requested a jury trial.

3: Google Deletes Aboriginal Flag After Copyright Dispute

Finally, the doodle for the Google Australian site celebrating Australia day had to be modified before being used on the site. The artwork, which was drawn by 12-year-old Jessie Du and won a contest for the honors, featured the aboriginal flag, which its designer, Harold Thomas refused to allow the flag to be on Google’s home page without payment, causing Google to remove it.

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: Second verse of file-sharing case takes on music copyrights

First off today, the Jammie Thomas retrial begins today. Thomas, who now goes by the last name Thomas-Rasset, was accused in 2006 of file sharing by the record labels and was the first case to reach a courtroom. Her trial became an instant spectacle and ended with her being ordered to pay $222,000 in damages.

That case, however, was thrown out due to a fault in the jury instructions and the retrial is beginning today.

For this occasion, Thomas has an all-new legal team and they are presenting an equally-new legal theory, that the copyrights to the music allegedly downloaded belong to the artists, not to the record labels. They are honing their attack on the copyright registrations for the works in question.

It will be an interesting spectacle a trial for which we will likely have many updates over the next week.

2: Virgin Media, Universal to offer unlimited music

Next up, in the UK, ISP Virgin is looking to deliver a 1-2 punch to piracy via a strategy that may actually have a shot at working.

The first punch is that they are announcing a new partnership with the world’s largest record label, Universal, to create an unlimited access plan for 10-15 pounds per month that would give would-be file sharers unlimited access to Universal’s music library. Hopefully, other record labels will sign on to make this even more appealing.

The second punch is that they are promising to disconnect file sharers that skip on the service and continue to download music illegally. However, these disconnections will not be permanent, but will only last a few minutes to a few hours, enough to annoy pirates but not outright cut them off.

This combination of “carrot and stick” seems to have the best likelihood of success and given the nature of the disconnections, they are unlikely to ruffle the feathers of too many activists. It seems like a solid win-win.

3: Bloomsbury faces Harry Potter copyright claim

Finally today, here we go again. Bloombury press, a UK publisher, is being sued by the estate of children’s author Adrian Jacobs for copyright infringement over JK Rowling’s 2000 book “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”.

According to the estate, Rowling’s book borrows heavily from Jacobs’ 1987 book The Adventures of Willy the Wizard-No 1 Livid Land. Though we don’t have much information about the alleged similarities at this time, this isn’t the first time that Rowliing has faced such accusations. The last time, the plaintiff was ordered to pay $50,000 and costs for making the claim after her case was tossed out.

This will be another case to follow but, simply playing the odds on these types of accusations, it doesn’t seem likely to go anywhere.

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.

Chris makes it two in a row as he comes back to help me make through the week’s worth of copyright news and abuse including, the Canadian DMCA makes a return, RIAA running from the “making available” and a UK ISP sending out warning letters.

We also have updates to many ongoing copyright stories including the Redlasso story, Metallica’s ongoing drama, a look at the “Nays” for PRO-IP, the Promo CD Case and much more.

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:

• The Canadian DMCA Comes Back
• UK ISP Helps the Record Industry
• Fair Use and Selling Promotional CDs
• The RIAA Runs Away
• Police Get Busted By Copyright Copys
• 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/copyright20eps63.mp3]