3 Count: Burning Anger

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1: How Olympic Cauldron Fanned Flames of Fury at American Design Studio

First off today, Oliver Wainwright at The Guardian reports that a U.S. design studio, Atopia, is “furious” over what it sees as plagiarims of its design for the Olympic Torch for the London Games.

According to Atopia, they presented their idea to the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) and introduced the idea of a group of smaller torches making up the larger one. LOCOG eventually went with designer Thomas Heatherwick’s work, which is very similar in both look and function.

Atopia said that it is a small shop and can not afford to take legal action. It also noted that the reason it waited over a year to express its frustrations is due to a non-disclosure agreement that was only recently lifted.

2: New Anti-Piracy Group Will Monitor File-Sharers and Block All Major Torrent Sites

Next up today, Andy at Torrent freak writes that a new law in Norway has paved the way for a new rights group to set up shop and start monitoring piracy in the country.

The law, which takes effect on July 1st, lifts restrictions on piracy monitoring, which previously could only be done by one group, and allows any rightsholder to do so. Record labels are taking the opportunity to set up a new rights group, similar to ones operating in Denmark and Sweden, that will investigate infringement online and take action that is available.

However, the organization won’t be able to send out “strike” notices to suspected pirates as that isn’t part of the law. One possibility is to try and petition ISPs to block infringing sites, such as The Pirate Bay, in hopes the new law can compel ISPs to take that action.

3: Pirate Bay Co-Founder Sentenced in Sweden Hacking Case

Finally today, Niclas Rolander at The Wall Street Journal reports that one of The Pirate Bay’s founders, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison for his role in an alleged hacking attack against both Swedish government agencies and a major bank.

Svartholm Warg, for his part, maintained his innocence saying that his computer was hacked by someone else who then erased traces of the activity. He had already been serving a one-year sentence for criminal copyright infringement related to his activities with The Pirate Bay. He would have been released in May due to his sentence being shortened but was held in custody to stand trial on the hacking charges.

Svartholm Warg will next be extradited to Denmark, where he faces additional charges of hacking.

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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