3 Count: A New Record

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1: Verizon Asked to Share “Six Strikes” Alerts for BitTorrent Lawsuit

First off today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Malibu Media, an organization well known for mass-filing BitTorrent piracy lawsuits, has filed a subpoena requesting that Verizon turn over any “six strikes” records it has on one of its customers.

Malibu Media has filed lawsuits against multiple “Joh Doe” defendants in the past, seeking information so they can attempt to procure settlements. However, now the company is seeking to litigate against one person who did not settle with the company and is asking his ISP for more information, including whether or not he had received any “six strikes” warnings on his account.

The Copyright Alert System, which is commonly referred to as “six strikes” is a joint effort by ISPs and copyright holders to warn Internet users of suspected piracy. The system was designed to avoid litigation but may feared that the evidence gathered by it could be used to file lawsuits, as this subpoena seems to indicate.

2: Copyright Clash Over Textbook Rentals

Next up today, Catherine Armitage at the Sydney Morning Herald reports that Australian textbook rental service Zookai may be facing a legal challenge as the Australian Publishers Association (APA) has announced it’s looking into alleged copyright breaches by the company and is considering legal action.

The announcements from the APA’s chief executive Maree McCaskill, who claims to have turned the mater over the organizations lawyers. Zookai, which rents college textbooks to students so they do not have to purchase them, has said that they have faced stiff opposition from publishers, who have routinely refused to sell to them or will only do so on very unfavorable terms.

However, it is unclear what copyright violations Zookai is alleged to have made, considering that renting legally-purchased copyrighted goods is legal in Australia.

3: Game of Thrones Pirates Break BitTorrent Swarm Record

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that the season 3 premiere of “Game of Thrones” has set a new piracy record, having been downloaded by over 1 million BitTorrent users in the hours after it aired. The BitTorrent swarm, which started shortly after the show ended, reached over 160,000 simultaneous peers at one point, smashing an earlier record set by the TV show “Heroes”.

According to the analysis done by Torrentfreak, the United States was the leading country in the swarm with over 12% of all users, followed closely by the UK and Australia. London, followed by Paris and Sydney were the biggest cities.

The show was viewed by an estimated 6.7 million viewers on television, making it a large success with legitimate viewers as well.

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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