3 Count: From Down Under

Jonathan BaileyJune 9, 2014

2 minutes read

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

1: News Corp Accuses Daily Mail Australia of Plagiarism

First off today, Amanda Meade at The Guardian reports that New Crop Australia has sent a cease and desist letter to Daily Mail Australia, a new online competitor that comes from a rebinding of long-time rival Daily Mail Online as Daily Mail Australia.

The letter refers to journalists at The Daily Mail as “copy snatchers and parasites” claiming that they have been lifting exclusive stories, including one feature about “the best dress that a woman can own”, which New Corp claims took 6 reporters, including a fashion editor to write.

The letter demands that The Daily Mail stop using copy and work from News Corp or face a potential lawsuit. News Corp content, which includes several tabloid publications, have moved to a paywall model while The Daily Mail makes its content available for free, likely exasperating the conflict.

2: Hollywood Studios, Dotcom Ordered to Negotiate

Next up today, 3 News in new Zealand reports that the movie and music studios have united in their battle to keep former Megaupload head Kim Dotcom’s assets frozen, a High Court in New Zealand has ordered them to negotiate with Dotcom about the conditions for doing so.

Kim Dotcom and his estranged wife Mona said that they were prepared to maintain the current freeze, which was put into effect by the ongoing criminal case against Dotcom, but said that the studios should be prepared to put up NZ$250,000 ($212,000) for each of them to cover hardships they will face. Dotcom claims such amount would be “peanuts” to the companies but the studios claim that there is no evidence the Dotcoms are suffering under the freezing of their assets.

The judge has asked both sides to negotiation the terms of the asset freeze and ordered them to return to court later this month, ahead of an impending July 30 hearing in the criminal case about whether Dotcom should get his assets back as the case drags on.

3: How Kim Dotcom’s 5M Whistleblower Bounty Will Work

Finally today, in other Kim Dotcom news, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that Dotcom has announced a $5 million bounty on anyone who is prepared to leak information about corruption or wrongdoing in the criminal investigation against him.

Dotcom, whose site Megaupload was shuttered in January of 2012 following a joint action by U.S., New Zealand and Hong Kong authorities, has long stated that the criminal prosecution against him was the result of illegal collusion between the movie and music studios and U.S. authorities.

Dotcom is encouraging anyone with evidence to come forward and leak the information to the media, even listing The Guardian’s Whistleblower Tool as a potential means for making the information public. Dotcom promises to pay the whistleblower the money once he gets access to his assets again which, as stated above, is frozen in the criminal investigation and may remain frozen due to civil proceedings.

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.