3 Count: Stepping Down

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

1: Hungary President Schmitt Quits in Plagiarism Scandal

First off today, according to BBC News, Hungarian President Pal Schmitt has resigned after a plagiarism scandal lead for many of the nation’s news media to call for him to step down. Schmitt had his doctorate revoked after it was discovered he had plagiarized portions of this thesis. Schmitt had previously said he would not resign from the largely-ceremonial posy but, over the weekend, announced he had changed his mind and would be stepping down. However, he also said he would be appealing the decision that revoked his doctorate. It is unclear when the resignation is effective.

2: Judge Rejects Copyright Trolls’ BitTorrent Conspiracy Theory

Next up today, Timothy B. Lee at Ars Technica writes that a judge in Illinois has shot down yet another attempt by copyright holders to compel ISPs to turn over contact information of users suspected in engaging in piracy over Bittorrent. The approach involved suing one person in a Bittorrent swarm and then subpoena the IP addresses of others in the swarm claiming them to be conspirators. However, the judge did not believe there was enough connection with the original defendant to claim that they were conspirators, noting that all users were anonymous to each other.

3: Kanye Hit With $500,000 Lawsuit Over Sample

Finally today, Grandmaster Grouchy Greg Watkins at AllHipHop writes that Robert Poindexter has filed a suit against Kanye West over a remix of Kanye’s song “Girls, Girls, Girls”. According to Poindexter, the song uses a sample from the song “Trying Girls Out” by The Persuaders, which Poindexter sang for. According to Poindexter, the sample was correctly cleared for the first version of “Girls, Girls, Girls” it was not cleared for the remix version, prompting the lawsuit. Poindexter said he attempted to resolve the matter out of court with West but West refused.

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.

Want the Full Story?

Tune in every Wednesday evening at 5 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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.