3 Count: Conflicted Interest

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1: ACTA Suffers Major Setback; European Parliament Will Seemingly Reject Legislation

First off today, Zak at AKAscope reports that, in the EU, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has suffered a severe setback. The European Parliament’s rapporteur responsible for guiding the legislation related to the agreement has come out in opposition of it. The bill, which was an attempt to harmonize intellectual property enforcement between signatories, in particular related to copyright and counterfeit goods, has become the source of controversy lately. The agreement was signed by the EU but has not been ratified by the European Parliament. In the U.S., the treaty was signed as an executive agreement, one not needing Congressional approval.

2: U.S. tries to silence MegaUpload lawyers on issue of user data

Next up today, Greg Sandoval at CNet reports that today is a big day for Megaupload’s data. A Virginia judge will hear arguments from prosecutors and Megaupload users alike over what should happen to the data stored on some 1,100 of Megaupload’s former servers. The site, which was shut down in January following a joint action by New Zealand and U.S. authorities. Megaupload’s former host, Carpathia Hosting, is asking for permission to delete or resell the servers saying that it is too financially burdensome to maintain them where users want to have access to their old data. In an interesting twist, Megaupload’s own attorneys might not be heard at this hearing because prosecutors are trying to bar them saying both that it is improper fort hem to be heard before their client, Kim Dotcom in this case, appears and that at least one of them has a conflict of interest in the case, having represented YouTube in their dispute against Viacom (Note: Megaupload is accused of trying to copy all of YouTube’s videos to their servers.) A decision is not expected for some time.

3: Oracle Kicks Off Busy Trial Season Against Google

Finally today, Dan Levine at Reusters reports that Jury selection is slated to begin on Monday in San Francisco for the trial between Oracle and Google. The two giants are at odds over Google’s implementation of JAVA in their Android mobile operating system, which Oracle says violates both their patents and their copyrights. At stake is potentially billions in damages and a possible percentage of revenue from Android sales for Oracle in the future.

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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