It is Monday again and that means that it is time for another episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show.

Things are a little different this week. Patrick is off doing his conference thing so this week we have the original host of the Copyright 2.0 Show, Chris Matthieu, most famously from Numly.com. Because of the nature of the recording, the audio is not quite as good as usual but it’s nice to have him back for another recording and to get his thoughts on how little things have really changed.

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:

• Warner Music Returns to YouTube
• Amazon Settles Kindle Lawsuit
• Judge is Disqualified in Pirate Bay Appeal
• Verizon Pays Licensing for Ringtones
• Is Ignoring a RIAA Lawsuit Better than Fighting?
• 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.

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

1: Warner Music Videos to Return to YouTube

First off today, after a nine-month standoff, Warner Music’s videos are returning to YouTube. Warner and YouTube, which is owned by Google, had a falling out after the two companies could not agree on the amount WMG should be paid for users of their content on the site. This lead to many videos being removed or muted if they had WMG music, which includes artists such as Madonna and Metallica.

The two have resolved their differences and, in a statement, WMG even hinted at some new changes to YouTube including “an enhanced user experience on YouTube with a feature-rich, high-quality premium player and enhanced channels” whatever that may mean.

YouTube says it expects the WMG vides to be online by the end of this year.

2: Court denies preliminary injunction in constitutional challenge to Copyright Royalty Board

Next up today, a court has denied a preliminary injunction against the Copyright Royalty Board and the Copyright Office that was requested by music streaming service Live365. Live365 had sued the CRB claiming that the appointment of the judges was in violation of the U.S. Constitution, as they were not appointed by an appropriate government official.

This is an argument that has been raised before, including in a recent case involving SoundExchange, and there is a case on this topic in front of the Supreme Court currently. If it is found that the CRB is unconstitutional, it would almost certainly be stripped of its powers to set licensing and royalty rates while also endangering many of its recent rulings, including ones dealing with podcasting and music streaming over the Web.

The Live365 case is continuing. With the preliminary injunction denied, the case will now move on toward a trial.

3: Video Company Asks For $6.3M In Lennon Film Case

Finally today, we have a continuation in one of the strangest copyright cases in a long time. In 1970 Anthony Cox shot video of former Beatle John Lennon at home who, in turn, sold the rights to World Wide Video LLC in 2000 for $125,000. However, in 2002, it Yoko Ono, Lennon’s widow, claims to have bought the rights to the video for $300,000 from Anthony Pagola. The problem being that Pagola, by all accounts, had no rights to offer the footage for sale.

Despite this, the courts recently ruled that Ono is the rightsholder following a suit that saw World Wide Video file against both Pagola and Ono after Ono threatened a documentary produced using the footage. According to the judge, World Wide Video did was aware of Ono’s claim and did not act timely to resolve it. However, the court also found that Pagola, who did not respond to the suit, did not have the rights and now World Wide Video is asking for a judgment of $6.3 million against him. According to World Wide Video, this accounts for the value of the video, which is between $4-$6 million according to their attorneys, and the sale price of $300,000.

The judge has not ruled but did hint that she found the amount to be “speculative”. Ono has said that she has never cleared the work for any commercial use and that the value seemed inflated.

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: 12 nations top US list on copyright piracy

First off today, the United States announced its latest “priority list” of nations on copyright and piracy matters. This is a list of countries that the U.S. is most worried about on the intellectual property front and the nations are subject to additional scrutiny as well as possible sanctions.

Though most of the list wasn’t a surprise and included the usual suspects China and Russia, it included at least one new addition that caught many off-guard, Canada.

This is Canada’s first appearance on the list and, according to the administration, is prompted by lacking laws including no anti-circumvention regulations and difficulties with getting ISPs to remove infringing materials.

In addition to the 12 on the priority list, 33 nations were added to a lower level “watch” list including Egypt, Poland and Saudi Arabia.

2: update on Warner Music

Next up, we have an update to the ongoing Lessig/Warner Music situation.

The organization that had posted Lessig’s presentation, which is unnamed in this blog post, had received a notice from YouTube, where the video was hosted that WMG had filed a takedown notice on the talk since it included short sections of various WMG songs.

Today we have word that the group is disputing the claim and seeking the restoration of the presentation.

Indeed this is a predictable move, but an important one nonetheless.

3: Deeeeelicous!!!!

Finally today, the person who may well be the most DMCAed person on the Web, Perez Hilton, appears to have learned at least one thing from his battles with the photo agencies. He has filed a takedown of anti-gay marriage a video featuring him and Carrie Prejean.

The group he filed against, the National Organization for Marriage, has been notoriously aggressive themselves with DMCA notices, filing at least one over a clip made up of snippets of the audition tapes for their now-famous “gathering storm” advertisement.

The NOM ad remains available on their site and contains only a few brief seconds of Hilton, bolstering a fair use case. However, it seems pretty clear these takedowns, on both sides, have less to do with copyright and more to do with politics.

The Joke

For those who didn’t get the joke in the title, check out The Arrogant Worms. A band well worth listening too.

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: Music industry: licensing is a problem, but how to fix it?

First off this week, Ars Technica reports from Digital Music Forum: East, which was held last week, and covers the growing disagreement in the music community on how to handle the music licensing crisis.

Though it is clear that music licensing is far too complex to be practical, Real saying they had to negotiate contracts with over 300 entities just to stay safe in the current legal climate, there is much disagreement about exactly how to fix it. This disagreement spilled out in two different sessions, the first on copyright reform and the second on “licensing 2.0″.

It’s good to hear the music industry admit that the licensing scheme not only harms their business but encourages companies that seek forgiveness rather than ask permission, but it seems they have a long way to go before they resolve these problems.

2: Supreme Court to hear freelance writers’ settlement

Second, the U.S. Supreme Court is to take up a case between freelance writers and a collection of newspapers and database services over electronic publication rights. At the heart of the case is that the companies involved published the works of the freelance authors on the Web though they did not have electronic publication rights.

The companies agreed to pay roughly $18 million in a settlement and the settlement was approved by one court. However, a small group of authors, upset at the size of the settlement, managed to get it through out on a jurisdictional issue (one involving the unregistered works) on appeal. The SCOTUS will now weigh in on that technicality, possibly reinstating the original settlement.

3: Neil Young: Failed Warner/YouTube Negotiations ‘Penalized’ Artists

Finally today, legendary singer/songwriter and Warner Music artist Neil Young has weighed in on the ongoing YouTube/Warner dispute that has left so many videos muted. Young supports his label in their actions but faults the company for rushing into an agreement with YouTube, causing it to sigh a deal worth less money than the other labels.

Young hopes for a “strong industry standard” on this issue so that royalties can be standardized across the board.

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: Lawsuits Galore: Songbeat Silenced For Now, Won’t Go Down Without A Fight

Controversial German music start up Songbeat has temporarily shut its doors. It was sued successfully by Warner Music last week and has closed its site, putting up a tongue-in-cheek message about how Songbeat has been sent away to “enter the 36 Shaolin Chambers of Software Kung Fu”. Songbeat says the move is temporary pending either an appeal or a relocation to a more friendly location.

Songbeat was a service that allowed users to search for, stream and download virtually any song from various sources on the Internet, thus letting users listen to any music whenever they desired.

2: Nintendo asks for help against biggest piracy offenders

Second, in a move usually reserved for national governments, Nintendo has issued a press release calling out entire nations for what it feels are issues with piracy. In particular, the nations Nintendo sites are China, South Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Paraguay.

Nintendo is asking the U.S. government to do more to thwart piracy in those nations and put pressure on their governments to pass new laws and more strongly enforce existing ones.

3: Music Labels Reach A New Low, Sue Developer For Using Seeqpod API

Finally today, EMI has followed the lead of Warner Music in suing music streaming service Seeqpod. While that is not a surprise in and of itself given the legal gray area of the service, which searches for MP3s on various sites and allows users to listen to music in a built-in media player, but what does make this suit interesting is that both one of the executives of the company personally and by suing a developer that used the Seeqpod API.

If this suit is successful, it could have serious implications for developers that build applications using the APIs of potentially infringing services.

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: Obama DOJ pick: RIAA lawyer who killed Grokster

Donald Verrilli yesterday annouced that he had been picked as Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice, making him the latest in a string of copyright industry-friendly picks Obama has chosen for the DOJ.

Verrilli is well known for his involvememt in many of the most important, and controversial, copyright cases including the Grokster case, the Jammie Thomas case and even the Viacom v. YouTube case.

No doubt Obama supporters who were hoping for radical copyright reform will be disappointed while the recording industries will breathe another sigh of relief.

2: 10 Questions for Mannie Garcia

Mannie Garcia is the photographer who took the now-famous photograph of President Obama has called into question much of the AP lawsuit over the image, mentioned in yesterday’s 3 Count.

According to Garcia, he was not an actual employee of the AP at the time the image was taken and had signed no agreemements. He was, a “temporary hire” and likely still owns the copyright in the image, not the AP.

Though he has not said whether he would sue for infringement, he did say that he was, “concerned about the usage of the photograph in a number of commercial ways that I’ve seen it on the street here in Washington DC.”

3: Warner Music Slaps Songbeat With Lawsuit

Finally, German music downloading service Songbeat has been sued by record labels in its native Germany. The service, which allows users to listen to and download tracks through an integrated MP3 search engine, seemed destined for a courtroom date since the beginning and it is unclear why it took the labels over a year to step in.

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 below or send me an email using the contact form above. 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, in the time since we recorded the podcast, some very important information came to light regarding one of the stories, the issue of cease and desist and copyright. I covered the issue in more detail above as part of my Blog Herald work and would encourage anyone to read that before listening to the podcast as the article is much more up to date.

Otherwise, it was a normal week as I sat down with Chris Matthieu from Numly to discuss the past week in copyright news, views and abuse. This week was probably the most complicated week I’ve seen so far, bringing to the table a total of sixteen stories.

This week’s stories include.

• Scientology is Under Attack
• Cease and Desist Letters Allegedly Retain Copyright Protection
• Warner Music Sues Seeqpod
• Starlite Goes Dark
• Author Claims Pirated eBooks Can Help Sales
• 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/copyright20eps43.mp3]

It seems that everyone is trying to take care of some last bit of business before the new year.

Remember, the linkroll below is a “raw” link collection. Some stories are repeated and others don’t point to their original source. I did a great deal of massaging and reworking to craft the show notes for the actual Copyright 2.0 Show.

The next episode should be posted on that site Sunday and will make its usual appearance here first thing Monday morning.

Hope you are having a great weekend!