3 Count: Conan the Downloader

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1: A Copyright Claim on Chirping Birds Highlights the Flaws of YouTube’s Automated System

First off today, YouTube and its Content ID system is under the microscope after a series of videos were flagged as copyright infringing after the system falsely identified the sounds of birds chirping as infringing music owned by Rumblefish. However, as more stories come out, it appears that Rumblefish itself has a hand in the claims, possibly by not validating that the videos are actually infringing. YouTube, which processes more than 48 hours of video every minute, automatically matches audio against known copyrighted sources for infringement, false notifications can lead to issues such as the removal of videos and, in some cases, the barring of users from monetizing content.

2: Crown Appeals Dotcom Decision

Next up today, back in New Zealand, the Megaupload case is heading back to court as prosecutors appeal the court’s decision on the 22nd to allow Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom out on bail. According to prosecutors, the Megaupload founder is a flight risk due to his wealth and the fact he has fled charges before. However, Dotcom claims that he has a pregnant wife as well as three kids in New Zealand and prosecutors have not been able to to locate any unfrozen assets of substance. In the meantime, Dotcom is at home with his family and is banned from using the Internet.

3: ‘Conan The Barbarian’ Chases 2,165 BitTorrent Downloaders in Court

Finally today, movie studio Nu Image has filed a massive “John Doe” alwsuit against some 2,165 alleged Bittorrent users who are accused of sharing the movie “Conan the Barbarian”. However, what makes the lawsuit unique is not the size, which is actually small for such a lawsuit, but that Nu Image appears to have learned from its previous defeats and only sued people who are likely in the juridiction of the court, which in this case is Maryland. Similar lawsuits by Nu Image were thrown out on jurisdictional grounds as most of the alleged file sharers were out of the jurisdiction but, with this one, Nu Image followed the court’s suggestion and checked the IPs against a geographic database that aims to only include local file sharers. This may make the lawsuit more likely to succeed in getting the court to compel ISPs to turn over the information of the alleged sharers, who are now just identified by IP address, leading to the sending of settlement demand letters and possible direct litigation.

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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