3 Count: Front Page

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

1: Murdoch Newspaper Accuses the Intercept of Copyright Infringement

First off today, Erik Wemple at The Washington Post reports that the UK newspaper The Sunday Times has filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice against the online publication The Intercept over the use of a thumbnail of the Times’ front page as part of a piece critical to the publication.

Over the weekend, The Times published a piece that alleged China and Russia had “cracked” files that were taken from the National Security Agency by Edward Snowden as part of his previous leak. The article went on to say that this cracking led to an intelligence disaster that resulted in many U.S. and British spies being outed.

However, errors in the article almost immediately began to surface with many alleging that the article was just an attack on the reputation of Snowden. The Intercept’s Gleen Greenwald wrote a piece critical of The Times’ reporting and featured a thumbnail of the paper’s front page. Now The Times’ has sent a DMCA notice to the site’s host ordering the removal of the image, though the use of the thumbnail is, most likely, a fair use.

2: European Parliament Committee Adopts Controversial Pro-user Copyright Reform Report

Next up today, Glyn Moody at Ars Technica UK reports that the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee (JURI) has adopted a report written by German Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda, which proposed several overhauls to copyright in the bloc.

Some of the ideas in the proposal include a single copyright valid across the EU, placing works by government employees in the public domain and allowing the circumvention of digital rights management protections for otherwise legal purposes.

While the committee voted to adopt the report, it voted to add about 550 amendments to it, including removing a right to panorama, which would have allowed photography of buildings without the permission of architects. The report now can be voted on by the full European Parliament in July, where further amendments can be added and it can be used as input for ongoing copyright reform efforts.

3: Man Pleads Guilty to Costing Film Industry ‘Millions’ Through Piracy

Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that a North Ireland man, Paul Mahoney, has pleaded guilty to operating a pair of sites, most notably Video-streaming site FastPassTV, bringing his prosecution to and end.

Mahoney was arrested in 2011 and had approximately £83,000 worth of computer equipment seized. In February of this year Mahoney was also arraigned and charged for his role in a link sharing site BedroomMedia.

Mahoney, however, has since changed his mind and pleaded guilty to four related charges. While there is no claim for compensation by copyright holders, Mahoney is expected to be sentenced in August.

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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