3 Count: Going Dark

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

1: Jay Z Doesn’t Want His Wealth Discussed at Copyright Trial

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that as the Jay Z Big Pimpin’ lawsuit is set to head to trial, the rapper is asking the court to block mentions of his wealth and his criminal past saying that they are simply attempts to bias the jury.

The lawsuit was brought by the heirs of an Egyptian composer Baligh Hamdi, which claim that Big Pimpin’ samples the song Khosara Khosara, not only infringing the copyright but using the song in a way they found offensive.

Attorneys for the plaintiff said that Jay Z’s wealth was relevant because it spoke to the willfulness of the infringement. The lawsuit is heading toward a possible trial but the judge is currently deciding what evidence will and will not be allowed.

2: Outage Slams Copyright Registration System at Library of Congress

Next up today, Adam Mazmanian at FCW reports that the U.S. Copyright Office’s online registration system is currently offline and has been offline for 5 days due to a malfunction in the system.

The Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) system was taken offline late August 29th for routine maintenance that involved powering it down. However, an equipment failure meant that the access to the system was not able to be restored after the window ended and, even as of this writing, the system is offline.

The Copyright Office said it does not have a timetable for restoring the system but is working to restore it as quickly as possible. In the meantime, it invites registrants to use paper forms but notes that the higher cost of using paper forms will still apply.

3: U.S. Government Denies Responsibility for Megaupload Servers

Finally today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that the U.S. government has denied any responsibility for more than 1,000 servers formerly used by the site Megaupload, setting the stage for them to possibly be erased.

Megaupload was a file sharing site that was shuttered in January 2012 due to a joint action by U.S. and New Zealand authorities. The case has dragged on over extradition issues but, in the meantime, Carpathia Hosting, one of Megaupload’s hosting providers, has held onto data stored on over 1,000 servers.

QTS recently purchased Carpathia and refiled its request to either erase the servers, offload the data or receive compensation for their storage. The US government, however, has said that it has all of the data it needs from the servers and says that requiring them to pay for hosting of the servers would be “unprecedented”. The MPAA has said that it has no interest in the servers other than ensuring that they do not fall back into the hands of Megaupload.

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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