3 Count: Courtroom Massacre

Jonathan BaileyAugust 20, 2014

2 minutes read

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

1: U.S. Court Grants order to Wipe Pirate Sites from the Internet

First off today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that ABS-CBN, the largest media company in the Phillippines, filed a lawsuit in Oregon seeking a restraining order barring several websites from both distributing their materials and using their trademarks.

The judge granted what is known as an ex-parte order, meaning an order without one or more of the parties present (in this case the sites) to shutter the sites involved and prohibit their transfer or forwarding in the meantime.

The restraining order bars the site’s administrators from operating the sites and further bars any hosts, search engines or registrars from working with them, even ordering registrars to point to a copy of the complaint so the administrators would know why their sites were closed. The order also granted ABS-CBN access to Google Webmaster Tools for the sites to prevent any attempts to forward the sites to other domains.

2: Kim Dotcom Fights to Keep Fortune Secret

Next up today, Laura Walters at Stuff reports that Kim Dotcom, the figure behind Megaupload and its successor Mega, is appealing a judgment that ordered him to reveal all of his assets as part of an ongoing lawsuit against movie studios and record labels.

Dotcom was famously arrested in January 2012 in his native New Zealand has his site, Megaupload, was shuttered by a joint U.S. and New Zealand police action. While his criminal trial has ground to a halt on the issue of extradition to the U.S., a civil lawsuit has proceeded with the record labels and movie studios claiming over $100 million in potential damages.

While much of Dotcom’s assets were frozen following his arrest, concern has been raised that he is disposing of unfrozen assets including $4 million he put toward the Internet Party, his political party in New Zealand and a $5 million bounty for a whistleblower that could provide any information on “unlawful or corrupt conduct” by the U.S. government.

3: Brian Jonestown Front Man Wins One

Finally today, Matt Reynolds at Courthouse News Service reports that the former guitarist for the band Brian Jonestown Massacre is going to have try harder o make his case that he owns (or partially owns) the copyright to several of the bands’ songs.

The guitarist, Jeffrey Davies, is locked in a long-running legal battle with the band’s singer, Anton Newcombe over what Davies sees as unpaid royalties. However, Davies counterclaim was largely tossed after a judge ruled that the state claims of misappropriation and others were preempted by Federal copyright law. The judge also ruled that Davies did not provide adequate evidence to support his claims and, further, that even if he did, that the alleged misrepresentations were by Newcombe’s attorney, not Newcombe himself, making him not liable.

Davies, however, does have 14 days to rethink and resubmit his claims. However the judge has made it clear that Davies has a lot of issues to clear up.

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.