3 Count: Mr. Roboto
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1: Class-Action Suit Says Rightscorp Makes Illegal, Harassing Phone Calls
First off today, Joe Mullin at Ars Technica reports that attorney Morgan Pietz has filed a class action suit against copyright protection firm Rightscorp, alleging that the company violated both federal and state laws in its efforts to settle copyright disputes on behalf of its clients.
Rightscorp is known for tageting suspected file sharers on line and working with ISPs to obtain the identities of those it believes are sharing infringing files online. As part of those efforts, it uses automatic calls, often referrred to as robocalls, to dial individuals it suspects of copyright infringement in an effort to get them to settle their cases.
However, according to Pietz, Rightscorp meets the standards for a debt collector and those automated calls violate both California and federal laws restricting the use of such calls by debt collectors. He has filed a class action suit and, with near-daily calls in some cases and damages of $500 or $1,000 depending on the law, he says the case could grow to become very expensive for Rightscorp.
2: Kim Dotcom Bail Hearing Adjourned
Next up today, David Fisher at The New Zealand Herald reports that Kim Dotcom will not be returning to jail but that new conditions put on his bail will remain in effect.
Dotcom was arrested in January 2012 over his role in Megaupload, what was then one of the most popular file sharing sites on the Web. The raid shuttered his site and began an extradition process, which has been repeatedly delayed and will be heard in June 2015. In the meantime, Dotcom has been out on bail but the prosecutor, citing several violations of his bail, sought to have it revoked.
While that did not happen, temporary restrictions placed on Dotcom in the runup to the hearing will remain permanent. Those include a requirement he says within 80KM of his home, that he not travel via helicopter and that he checks in with a local police station once per day.
3: Activision Targets Call Of Duty Glitch Videos For Take Down
Finally today, Nathan Grayson at Kotaku reports that Activision has been actively filing copyright notices with Google seeking the blocking or removal of videos of their latest game, Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, in particular videos that feature glitches from within the game.
According to Activision, they aren’t removing all videos that feature glitches, but rather, only those that feature bugs gamers can exploit to gain an unfair advantage. This is supported by the fact that many glitch videos remain online though reports of flagging and copyright strikes remain rampant.
Activision also claims that its policy regarding this game is no different than its policy from other games, but YouTubers are concerned as three copyright strikes can result in an account being closed and even one or two can harm their ability to monetize videos.
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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