3 Count: Fair Oops

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

1: Righthaven Says It Will Stop Suing Over News Excerpts

First off today serial copyright litigator Righthaven, which has filed dozens of lawsuits against websites that have republished content from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, has announced that they will be scaling back their litigation efforts and will only target sites that use more than 75% of the original article. This comes after Righthaven suffered a defeat at the hands of an area realtor that claimed his use of only a few sentences was a fair use and a countersuit at the hands of the EFF on behalf of Democratic Underground, a case that Righthaven has now dropped and is hoping to have dismissed.

2: Warner Bros. Vows to Prosecute Deathly Hallows Leaker

Next up today, even as fans of Harry Potter begin to get ready for the release of the new movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part One, this Friday, those who want to watch it illegally are able to find a portion of the film on various bittorrent sites after what appears to be a DVD screener was leaked to the public. Warner Brothers, the makers of the film, have vowed to work on stopping the spread of the film and on tracking down the initial leaker for potential a potential criminal or civil case. The last Harry Potter movie was one of the most pirated films of all time and this one is widely expected to exceed that.

3: Bill C-32: No Crossing the Great Divide Over Creative Rights

Finally today, copyright reform in Canada isn’t finding many friends. Bill C-32 is being criticized from every angle with local television stars rallying to say that the bill doesn’t protect works enough and demanding the addition of a levy to iPods and other digital players and librarians saying the protection of digital locks may make it impossible to preserver cultural works. Copyright reform in Canada has had a long, difficult road since day one, having been repeatedly shelved due to other maters.

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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