3 Count: 2010 Census

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

1: Class Action vs. Record Labels Over Peer-to-Peer Suits Hanging Bby a Thread

First off today, the lawsuit Andersen v. Atlantic Recording Corp, which saw a wrongly accused file sharer attempt to start a class action suit against the record labels for their legal practices seems to be circling the drain. Though Andersen won a $103,175 judgement for attorney’s fees, she attempted to counter sue. However, that countersuit is running into problems as the judge has already granted a summary judgement in favor of the labels on the issue of wrongful investigation and has denied the suit class action status, making it unlikely to move forward. An amended petition for class status is expected soon.

2: Reading Post Wins Landmark Copyright Battle

Next up today, British newspaper the Reading Post won a copyright battle with a photographer whose images were used in the paper without permission. The images, which were of graffiti and vandals in abandoned buildings, were given to the paper by the police hoping that their printing would generate leads. The court tossed out the photographer’s suit, refusing to enforce the copyright of the work on the grounds it “incites or encourages” others to act in a way that is “immoral, scandalous or contrary to family life.”

3: Census of Files Available via BitTorrent

Finally today, Sauhard Sahi, a Princeton senior, decided to perform a census of bittorrent files to see what kinds of content was being shared. He found that, based on his sample of 1021 works, that some 99% of the files were likely infringing. Though the results are somewhat mitigated by the fact he was looking at files shared, not downloaded, and could not determine the legality of every work effectively, it is an interesting glimpse at what is being swapped on the file sharing network.

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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