3 Count: Forced Teamwork

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

1: Cor Blimey! British ISPs Must Fund P2P Copyright Crackdown

First off today, in the UK, the Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills has answered the question about who should shoulder the costs for sending the piracy warning letters mandated under the Digital Economy Act. ISPs, who will be sending the letters to their customers at the direction of copyright holders, felt that copyright holders should have the sole obligation. Copyright holders, however, felt since ISPs gain some benefit from piracy they should take at least some of burden. The government seemed to agree more with the latter, splitting the cost 75/25 with copyright holders taking on the lion’s share. Both sides, however, seem to be equally unhappy with the ruling.

2: Why is Microsoft offering free software to Russian NGOs?

Next up today, Microsoft was accused earlier this week of helping the Russian police raid dissident organizations within the country by providing a pretext for enforcement, namely piracy enforcement. This came after a wave of anti-piracy raids against organizations in Russia with views critical of the government. Microsoft has responded by offering a free license to non-government organizations working in Russia so they will have a free license to use their software to avoid similar raids in the future.

3: Vivid Files $1.2M Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Against ICG

Finally today, porn company Vivid has filed a lawsuit against Phoenix-based Internet Commerce Group (ICG) claiming that the company has made many of Vivid’s videos available for download to its members without authorization. This follows a similar lawsuit by Falcon Foto. Vivid is seeking $1.2 million in statutory damages for what it says is a minimum of ten violations.

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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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.

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