3 Count: Legal Update

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

1: Pirate Bay Founders Granted Appeal Against Operating Ban

First off today, The (former?) Pirate Bay admins Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij scored a win in a Swedish court, though not regarding their recent criminal convictions. The Swedish appeals court has agreed to hear arguments in a district court ruling that would have barred them from administering the site, to the tune of $71,000 every day they were not in compliance.

Currently neither of the men reside in Sweden nor is The Pirate Bay hosted within the country (following a different court action that forced it to move). It is also unclear if the pair are working on the site in any way still, especially following their convictions.

Despite all of the legal setbacks, the site currently remains open and even discontinued its tracker to make it less likely to be shut down in the future.

2: Court Refuses To Order Shutdown of OpenBitTorrent

Next up today, in a somewhat related victory for the file sharing community, a Swedish court has refused to shut down OpenBittorrent, which movie studios had accused of being a “rebranded” version of The Pirate Bay.

OpenBittorrent is merely a tracker and does not host any torrent files nor is it connected with any particular site. It also has a DMCA-style takedown policy for removing infringing torrents. However, despite that, movie industry attorneys filed suit in Sweden against the company’s host, Portlane, demanding the closure of the site.

The Swedish court, in its preliminary ruling, rejected the request and has scheduled the matter to be looked at in depth sometime next year.

The movie studios were clearly disappointed, especially that the court did not address their alleged link with The Pirate Bay, but the case continues where, most likely, such elements will be given a closer look.

3: Judge Dismisses Plagiarism Suit Against Stephenie Meyer

Finally today, “Twilight” author Stephanie Meyer has had a plagiarism lawsuit against her dismissed. Jordan Scott had accused the author of copying her work “The Nocture” in Meyer’s “Breaking Dawn” the fourth book in the Twilight series.

However, the judge in the case has tossed the suit with prejudice, which prevents Scott from refiling, saying that the works were not similar enough to warrant such an accusation and further admonished Scott for “deceptive presentation of the alleged similarities.”

There were also rumors previously that Meyer was being sued for plagiarism by a former roommate, an accusation that had allegedly halted production of “New Moon”. But that allegation turned out to be a hoax.

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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