3 Count: Early Closure

Jonathan BaileyOctober 22, 2013

2 minutes read

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

1: isoHunt Shuts Down a Day Early to Avoid Becoming Part of Online Archive

First off today, Cyrus Farivar at Ars Technica reports that the BitTorrent search site isoHunt has closed a day earlier than required to avoid being a part of an attempt to archive it.

The site was first sued by the movie studios in 2006 but, late last week, reached a settlement with the MPAA and agreed to both pay $110 million in damages and to close down in seven days. However, after a group named Archiveteam said they were preparing to make a backup of the site, isoHunt closed a day early to prevent that from happening.

According to isoHunt’s founder Gary Fung, most of the Torrent files on isoHunt are available through other sources, making the archive unnecessary, even though he was “honored” a team wanted to preserve the site for historical record.

2: Govt Mulls Blocking of Some File-Sharing Sites to Fight Piracy

Next up, Amir Hssain at TODAY reports that the Singapore government is considering blocking file sharing sites was part of a review of the country’s copyright act.

Currently, Singapore blocks some sites that contain objectionable content, mostly pornography, but does not take any action against copyright infringing material. This despite the fact that, according to the nation’s Law Minister, Singapore has one of the highest rates of piracy in the region.

The government is also looking ways to help educate the public on piracy-related issues, saying they want to “cultivate an IP-savvy and respecting population”. The government is also seeking ways to increase legitimate access to works.

3: Copyright Block Removed On TotalBiscuit’s Day One: Garry’s Incident Review

Finally today, in an update on a story we discussed yesterday, William Usher at Gaming Blend reports that Wild Games Studios has removed the copyright block on TotalBiscuit’s review of the game “Day One: Garry’s Incident”, which they had ordered removed after alleging it was infringing.

TotalBiscuit posted the video, which was a less-than-flattering review of the game, only to have it removed due to a copyright claim. Wild Games Studios ordered that removal saying that TotalBiscuit did not have the right to monetize the video but TotalBiscuit responded saying that he had received a free key to play the game exclusively for the purpose of creating the review.

The incident drew widespread media attention and has now resulted in Wild Games Studio backing off its claim. According to the studio, the incident was caused by a miscommunication where they felt that they had not given permission to monetize the review. Nonetheless, Wild Games Studios has apologized to TotalBiscuit and “Anyone else who felt that their freedom of speech was denied.”

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.