3 Count: No Spanish News

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

1: Google to Shut Down News Site in Spain Over Copyright Fees

First off today, Eric Auchard at Reuters reports that Google has announced it will close its Google News operations in Spain ahead of a new copyright law in the country that would require sites like Google to pay publishers for the use of headlines and snippets.

According to Google, the new law makes Google News “unsustainable” and they will shut down operations in the country on December 16th, ahead of the legislation taking effect in January. However, the law only applies to aggregators, like Google News, and not search engines, like Google’s main search product.

In addition to not serving users in Spain, the move will also remove Spanish publishers from Google News entirely, including other countries. Google dealt with a similar law in Germany by temporarily removing snippets from local publishers until they agreed to allow Google to use it for free. However, the Spanish law makes the right to be paid for snippets inalienable, meaning that publishers can not waive them, even if they want to.

2: FCC on Verge of Giving Online Video Providers a Key Ruling

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the FCC may be poised to expand the definition of “multichannel video programming distributor” to be technology-neutral, meaning that companies like FilmOn and Aereo may be able to secure statutory licenses to rebroadcast televised content and find a path to legality.

Aereo and FilmOn both retransmit over-the-air broadcast television to consumers via the Web. Both have both also been sued by broadcasters and Aereo’s case was even heard by the Surpreme Court, which ruled against it, saying it was a copyright infringement. The courts have further ruled that neither qualify as multichannel video programming distributors, meaning they can’t obtain statutory licenses to rebroadcast the content legally without negotiating with the broadcasters.

However, if the FCC does as is predicted and expands the definition, they may be able to obtain such a license. Aereo itself recently filed for bankruptcy but put into place a plan to emerge from it should the FCC rule in its favor. FilmOn has said that it is confident the needed votes are locked up and that the decision to amend the definition may even be unanimous.

3: EZTV Slowly Recovers from Swedish Police Raid

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that BitTorrent site EZTV is coming back to life after a police raid in Sweden shuttered it along with The Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent sites.

Though the police raid appears to have been targeted at The Pirate Bay, the Swedish host also housed servers for other prominent BitTorrent sites, including EZTV, that also went dark in the raid. However, EZTV is getting their site back up and expect to be back to normal soon.

As for The Pirate Bay, other than a few unofficial mirrors with no updated content, the site still is not back online after more than two days of downtime.

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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