3 Count: London Calling
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1: Police Arrest Streaming Site Admin, Several Domains Suspended
First off today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unite (PIPCU) has arrested at 26-year-old man in York and has closed some four domains that were being used to illegally stream TV and movies.
The four domains all linked to streams for various sporting events with three dealing heavily with boxing and one for general sports. The sites now redirect to a page indicating that the site is under criminal investigation by the PIPCU while the suspect was taken to the local police station for questioning.
The City of London is a semi-autonomous state within the larger London metropolitan area. It functions more like a nation within the United Kingdom than it does a city. It’s police force has been very active on intellectual property issues, including creating a database of infringing sites and other attempts to disrupt online infringement.
2: “Copyright Troll” Prenda Law Completely Bombs at Appeals Court
Next up today, Joe Mullin at Ars Technica reports that Prenda Law’s date with the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals did not go as they had hoped. The law firm, commonly referred to as a “copyright troll” faced stiff questioning from judges during oral arguments as the justices expressed dismay that the firm’s lawyers could not provide basic information about the company and it’s practices.
The case actually centers around an alleged hacking attack that saw a person break into the site of Lightspeed Media, a pornographic film that Prenda represents. When Prenda Law failed to get the identities of some 6,500 Internet users that they claimed were connected with the attack, they sued the ISPs involved saying that they were aiding the hackers. The judge in the lower court quickly ruled in favor of the ISPs, ordering Prenda to pay over a quarter of a million in costs to the defendants.
Prenda is now appealing that ruling but the judges asked tough questions on familiar issues for Prenda. The company’s copyright enforcement efforts, which have involved massive lawsuits against file sharers, have been derailed due to allegations that Prenda lied about its relationship with its “clients”, namely that the clients were just shell companies for Prenda itself. The judges in the appeals court harped on those issues, asking the attorney defending Prenda to identify the relationship between various parties, something he was unable to do.
3: FOX is Issuing Copyright Claims, Blocking Videos, and Closing Twitch Channels of Anyone Playing ‘Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff’
Finally today, Eli Hodapp at TouchArcade reports that Fox is filing takedown notices for those posting gameplay footage of the upcoming iOS game Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff.
So far, these claims have resulted in one gamer having a video removed from YouTube and having their Twitch.TV channel shut down. This came after a representative from Fox sent the gamer a warning, asking them to remove the videos until the game’s official release on the 10th.
Fox stated that videos of the game were not allowed until its official release, however, the game had been legally downloaded from the New Zealand app store, which often gets games a day early due to time zone differences. Fox has since pulled the game from the store, saying it was a technical issue that caused it to be posted early.
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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