3 Count: MegaLawsuit

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1: ValCom Sues Megaupload for Millions over Copyright Infringement

First off today, Heather Kelly at VentureBeat is reporting that small media company ValCom has filed a lawsuit against Megaupload seeking between $4.5 million and $90 million in damages. ValCom is primarily a company that rents equipment and studio space to larger media companies but also has a small library of titles of its own. It’s suing the former cyberlocker service for alleged infringement of those titles. Megaupload was famously shut down in January by a joint police action by U.S. and New Zealand authorities. Megaupload’s funder, Kim Dotcom, is currently facing extradition to the U.S. The site was shuttered, its assets were frozen and seven other employees were arrested.

2: Copyright Violation Reporting Now Easier: Pinterest Updates Terms

Next up today, Cendrine Marrouat at Examiner.com writes that Pinterest has updated its terms of service with two major changes to address public concerns about the social network. The first removes a portion that gave Pinterest the right to sell user work, saying that it was never truly their intention. The other, however, is to streamline copyright infringement reporting by having filers use the “report” function to report a pin and then be whisked to a form to report infringement. Pinterest hopes that this will settle much of the heated rhetoric around the site’s handling of copyright issues.

3: Hotfile Deploys Vobile Technology to Protect Copyrighted Digital Content

Finally today, in a press release, Hotfile has announced that it is teaming up with digital fingerprinting service Vobile to scan files being uploaded to its service and prevent copyright infringing content from being placed on it. Hotfile, a prominent cyberlocker service, is currently embroiled in a series of lawsuits, one filed against them by the MPAA for alleged copyright infringement and another filed by them against Warner Brothers alleging that the studio misused the DMCA takedown process. There is no word when the system is expected to be online.

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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