3 Count: 50 Shades of Censorship

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1: US Court Bars Kim Dotcom from Fighting Asset Seizure

First off today, The New Zealand Herald is reporting that a U.S. District Court in Virginia has ruled that Kim Dotcom is legally a “fugitive” in the country and is ineligible to challenge the seizure of his assets in the country.

Kim Dotcom was arrested in his native New Zealand in January 2012 over his then-site Megaupload, which was shuttered in the action. However, Dotcom has since been fighting extradition, with a hearing on the matter scheduled for this summer. In the meantime, the United States and New Zealand both have seized a large amount of his assets preventing him from accessing his money.

Dotcom has been challenging the seizure of his assets in the U.S. but the court has now ruled that, since Dotcom has refused to appear before a U.S. court, instead fighting the extradition, that he is legally considered a fugitive and, as per U.S. law, can not make use of the courts to fight the extradition.

2: ‘Power Rangers’ Fan Film Returns After Copyright Dispute

Next up today, B. Alan Orange at MovieWeb reports that the dark and gritty Power Rangers fan film has returned to YouTube and Vimeo following a new agreement with Saban Brands, the owners of the franchise.

The film, directed by Joseph Khan and produced by Adi Shankar, caused controversy because it was a dark reboot of the kid’s series, complete with violence, sex and adult themes. Saban objected to the videos and filed notices that got it removed from both YouTube and Vimeo, the latter of which hosted the “not safe for work” version.

However, both version are back up but with a new disclaimer calling the video a “deboot” that is a “bootleg experiment not affiliated or endorsed by Saban Entertainment.” The video caused a divided reaction among those affiliated with the series, with some hating it and others enjoying it.

3: Censored Fifty Shades of Grey an HD BitTorrent Hit

Finally today Andy at Torrentfreak writes that pirates of the film Fifty Shades of Grey may have gotten an unexpected surprise as a recent high-quality release of the film was censored, with all of the sex scenes removed from the film.

Earlier pirate versions of the film were “cammed” copies and considered to be of low quality. However, it was widely anticipated that a higher-quality version of the film would soon released on piracy sites as the Chinese video on demand service QQ.com had announced it would be showing the film in late February. Shortly thereafter, DVD-quality copies of the film began to turn up on pirate sites, as expected.

However, the version that was aired in China was first reviewed by censors in the country, which removed nearly all of the sex and nudity. As a result, while commenters lauded the film’s quality, they bemoaned the lack of sexual content, one of the key reasons many chose to pirate the film.

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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