3 Count: Google Assault

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1: Celebrities Threaten Google With $100 Million Lawsuit for “Facilitating” Hacked Nude Photos

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Marty Singer, an attorney representing over a dozen of the celebrities who had their nude photos leak online in August, has sent a letter Google saying that the company is not responding timely to notices of copyright infringement and is at risk for facing a $100 million lawsuit.

Singer applauded the efforts of providers such as Twitter have handled the issue but said that Google has not only failed to remove infringements from its search engine, but has also failed to remove images and clips from YouTube, Blogspot and other services it owns.

It had been previously noted that Google was refusing to remove images that were not selfies, meaning the person in the image wasn’t likely the copyright holder, or situations where it felt issues of fair use were raised. However, Singer feels that Google has been intentionally enabling the distribution of these images, aiding both in the copyright infringement and the harming of the women involved.

2: Google Stops Displaying News Snippets from German Publishers that Sued It

Next up today, Liam Tung at ZDNet reports that, starting October 9, Google will only display a headline and a link to stories from German publishers that sued the company over the displaying of snippets in its search results.

Germany passed a “ancillary copyright” bill that is often called a “Google Tax” as it requires sites like Google to obtain a license to display snippets of text in search results. Several German publishers filed a lawsuit, including bild.de, bunt.de and hoerzu.de, all of whom will no longer have their snippets featured.

Google, in its blog post, noted that other search providers have dropped the publications altogether, which Google said it still might do. However, the publishers referred to that as “blackmail” saying that it was Google’s attempt to render the new law void.

3: SiriusXM Will Appeal Last Week’s Major Copyright Ruling

Finally today, Ed Christman at Billboard reports that SiriusXM has confirmed that it will appeal a decision by a federal court in California that determined the service must pay royalties for airing pre-1972 sound recordings.

Though the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) requires digital services to pay royalties for master recordings, SiriusXM had only been paying for recordings made after 1972, when such recordings were brought under the purview of federal law. However, the judge ruled that SiriusXM should have been paying royalties all along.

The lawsuit comes from Flo & Eddie of the Turtles, the band that made the 1960s song “Happy Together”. The federal ruling is in direct opposition to a California state court ruling, which found that no public performance right existed under California law. Since the two courts are at odds, the matter, according to SiriusXM, should be resolved by the federal court.

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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