3 Count: First Battle

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

1: Ofcom Starts Anti-Piracy Code Consultation

First off today, Ofcom, the government department that handles communication regulation in the UK, has already started the process of making its proposals as required under the Digital Economy Bill, which was passed last week. Ofcom has to generate a report on the best ways to apply the bill, especially in terms with how ISPs can best help fight piracy while protecting user’s rights. Ofcom has said their first order of business is building a robust appeals system for any graduated response system. Their initial report for public consultation is due in May 2010 with the final report due in September.

2: Syndicate copyrighted by EA, Starbreeze

Next up today, the much-anticipated follow-up to the 1993 video game Syndicate has had the lid blown off it at least partly from an unusual source, filings with the U.S. Copyright Office. Some of the papers filed there show that Electronic Arts and Starbreeze studios are partners in creating the reboot of Syndicate, hinting that a secret “Project RedLime” may well be the much-anticipated game.

3: On the First Copyright Suit Under the Statute of Anne

We talked previously about how the Statute of Anne turned 300 this week, marking the 300th anniversary of modern copyright law, but what about the first copyright lawsuit? Well, H. Tomás Gómez-Arostegui an Associate Professor of Law at Lewis & Clark, has posted an article about it. The case, Tonson v. Baker, pit one of the country’s biggest publishers against a group of well-known book pirates, creating the first copyright lawsuit of its kind and one the ramifications of can still be felt today.

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 Wednesday evening at 6 PM ET for the live recording of the Copyright 2.0 Show or wait and get the edited version Friday right here on Plagiarism Today.