3 Count: Download This…

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1: Twitter Sued for Failing to Remove Copyrighted Photo

First off today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that photographer Kristin Pierson has filed a lawsuit against Twitter claiming that the site failed to fully remove one of her photos following a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notice.

According the the lawsuit, Pierson filed a complaint on March 4, 2014 with Twitter alleging that a user on the site had posted one of her photos, a picture of a musician playing guitar, without permission. While the account that posted the photo is no longer online, though it’s unclear if its removal was due to the notice, the image itself remains online on Twitter’s servers.

The lawsuit is seeking both statutory and actual damages. Twitter faced a similar lawsuit by photographer Christopher Boffoli, but that case was settled out of court.

2: RIAA and Other Groups Revisit Case Against Cnet Over Downloads in New Letter

Next up today, Andrew Flanagan at Billboard reports that various rights holder groups including the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) have sent a letter to CBS CEO Les Moonves criticizing the company’s Download.com site, which they say distributes software used for piracy.

Download.com is owned by CNet, which in turn is owned by CBS. According to the letter, the site makes several applications including the Free YouTube Downloader available for user download. CBS, however, claims that all of the apps on Download.com are legal, saying that the onus is on the user to not use the software in an infringing manner.

The letter comes four years after other rightsholders dropped a lawsuit against CNet over this issue. That case specifically looked at Download.com’s availability of LimeWire and other file sharing apps.

3: Pirates are Successfully Upgrading to Windows 10 for Free

Finally today, Emil Protalinksi at VentureBeat reports that, according to several threads on Reddit, users who pirated copies of Windows 7 and 8 are successfully updating and activating their copies of Windows 10.

Microsoft previously announced that Windows 10 would be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users. According to the threads, they did nothing other than download the freely available upgrade app and run it, without the need to use cracks or otherwise hack the software.

Previously Microsoft had said that non-genuine copies of Windows 7 and 8 would be able to upgrade to 10 but that they would not be able to activate their copies. Instead, they would be given an opportunity to pay for activation through the Windows Store. However, it appears that the process isn’t working as designed, with at least some pirates getting fully activated copies of Windows 10 for free.

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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