3 Count: Saving Face

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1: Harry Potter Plagiarism Case May Come to Trial

First off today, the Harry Potter vs. Willy the Wizard case may be headed to a trial. The judge in the case refused Rowling’s motion for dismissal, ruling that the plaintiff’s arguments were not so weak as to warrant it and could prevail at trial, even if it is unlikely. According to heirs of Adrian Jacobs, who published Willy the Wizard in 1987, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire takes many elements from the book and is an infringement of it. The court doesn’t seem optimistic about their chances at a trial, however, and is likely to make a conditional order that will require Jacobs’ family to put much of the court costs upfront before moving ahead with the trial.

2: Anonymous Plants Pirate Flag on MPAA Website

Next up today, hackers launched a DNS poisoning attack against copyprotected.com, a site operated by the MPAA to discuss DRM protections on Blu-Ray discs, to point it to a new page where they had placed a diatribe about file sharing and, eventually, redirected it to The Pirate Bay. The MPAA has since corrected the matter and has the domain redirecting to their own site, but it is unclear if this hack is a part of the larger Operation Payback, which is launching denial of service campaigns against various anti-piracy groups. Even though the hacked version bore the name, it may not have been directly affiliated.

3: Leading Anti-Piracy Outfit Sold To US Fraud and Brand Protection Firm

Finally today, trademark protection firm MarkMonitor has reportedly purchased anti-piracy firm DtecNet for an undisclosed amount. The two companies had a long history of working together, long-billed as partners offering a one-stop shop for brand and content enforcement. An official announcement is still being waited on though other sites have reported the merger as being confirmed.

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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