3 Count: Reduced

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1: Court Reduces ‘Shocking’ File Sharing Award

First off today U.S. Federal Judge Michael Davis has drastically reduced the damages award in the Jammie Thomas case, down to $54,000. This comes after the single mother was found liable for sharing some 24 songs and was first hit with a $220,000 judgment against her and then, in a retrial, a $1.92 million verdict. The judge has also said that the record labels may face a retrial if they do not accept the new award but Thomas has said that she can not afford to pay even the reduced amount.

2: Apple Pulls App After Competitor’s Copyright Infringement Claim

Next up Apple has found itself in a bit of a copyright pickle. After receiving a notice of copyright infringement from the developers of AppBox, a multi-application app for the iPhone, that the competing product AppVault had violated their rights, they removed the newcomer from the store, creating a controversy. According to the makers of AppVault, their application was not an infringement, but merely a similar app and has started a petition drive to have the app returned to the store.

3: O’Reilly Drops eBook DRM, Sees 104% Increase in Sales

Finally today, tech publisher O’Reilly has seen an increase of over 100% in the eighteen months since it dropped DRM from its eBooks, further damaging the notion that DRM is useful tool to increase sales. Though most of this increase is likely due to increased traction in the eBook market in general, it is very interesting to see a DRM-free eBook publisher doing so well.

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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