3 Count: No Bonus Round

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1: Student ‘Not Guilty’ in First 3D Movie Piracy Case

First off today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that Birmingham student Ciprian Florea has been found not guilty of fraud after he was caught attempting to bring in a homemade 3D camera to see the movie Gravity.

According to prosecutors, Florea had attempted to sneak the camera in as a means of recording the film in 3D. Florea, however, claims that he is a film student and had the camera simply to to record his friends. Florea also denied the rig could record the film in 3D, though later tests verified it could.

However, since Florea was stopped before he made it into the theater and no copyright infringement took place, the prosecutor could only charge him with intent to commit fraud, which the judge did not accept, noting that there was no evidence Florea was interested in exploiting the film commercially. The UK also doesn’t have specific camming laws, which were another obstacle for prosecutors and another reason the judge dismissed the case.

2: Music Labels Pursue UPC in Commercial Court Over Illegal Downloads

Net up today, Silicon Republic reports that, in Ireland, the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) is taking local Internet service provider UPC to court to try and force it to implement a graduated response system.

In 2009, IRMA and competing ISP Eircom reached a settlement to implement such a system, through which Eircom would warn suspected file sharers and suspend accounts after repeated infringements. However, the next year UPC argued successfully that the deal with Eircom did not impact them and they had no obligation to follow suit.

However, the first lawsuit with UPC did result changes to Irish law that required ISPs to block certain infringing sites. Now IRMA is back in court saying that the efforts by UPC are inadequate and repeating demands that the ISP set up a graduated response system similar to the one Eircom uses. IRMA, however, has said that such a system is not required by law and it will not comply unless ordered by a court.

3: Aereo Employees Denied Bonuses Tied to Bankruptcy Sale

Finally today, Sara Randazzo at The Wall Street Journal reports that a bankruptcy judge has denied a push by Aereo to offer bonuses to its employees if the company’s assets were sold for more than $4 million.

Aereo was a TV streaming services that captured over the air television and streamed it via the Internet. It claimed that, since each user has an antenna of their own, the service is not a public performance and not copyright infringement. However, the Supreme Court disagreed and Aereo soon filed for bankruptcy.

Aereo had wanted to pay its employees a bonus if the sale of their assets reached $4 million but the bankruptcy judge denied that, expressing concern over the target amount. He says that the company’s assets were previously valued at over $20 million, making it a low bar. He left the door open to refile if it can justify the bonuses.

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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