3 Count: Who’s Next?

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1: Hollywood Takes OpenBitTorrent’s ISP to Court

First off today, now that The Pirate Bay’s tracker has shut down, though in its case to force users to use decentralized methods of downloading, the movie studios have turned their attention to other prominent trackers including OpenBitTorrent, which has had its hosting company receive a lawsuit from the various movie studios.

OpenBitTorrent is a different kind of tracker in that it is not connected to a site or search engine, but is rather just a service that connects peers based upon has values. The site also has a DMCA-style notice and takedown procedure that enables copyright holders to disable access to copyrighted files.

Their hosting company, Swedish outfit Portlane, was sued by Hollywood studios, who claim that it is merely a “rebranded” version of The Pirate Bay.

More to come on this lawsuit in the future.

2: Judge Sets February Hearing for New Google Books Deal

Next up today, the judge in the Google Book Search case has given tentative approval to the new settlement, which was unveiled last week, by laying out a schedule for the approval process.

The original settlement, which would have allowed Google to scan, display and sell copies of in-copyright but out-of-print works, was shot down following criticisms from the U.S. Department of Justice. The revised settlement, which loosens restrictions on scanned works, has greater consideration for international authors and changes to scope of the class action lawsuit, has done little to appease the harshest critics but still seems to have been widely welcomed.

The new timetable puts a deadline of January 28th to file objections to the settlement and sets a date for a final hearing on February 18. Those who wish to opt out of the settlement and retain their right to sue Google will need do so by January 28.

It is worth noting that these deadlines are much faster than the ones given the first time around, largely due to the fact that the case has been ongoing for so long.

3: Japan Set To Extend Posthumous Copyright

Finally today, newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has vowed to extend the posthumous copyright protection on compositions from 50 to 70 years, as he had promised to do during the campaign.

The announcement came at a speech to the Japanese composers and authors’ society during an event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the group

There was no timetable announced for passing this extension.

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.

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