3 Count: Showing Restraint

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1: RIAA Obtains Restraining Order Against Aurous

First off today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that the record labels have obtained a temporary restraining order against music streaming site Aurous, often referred to as the “Spotify of piracy” that has prompted the site to stop offering downloads of its software.

Aurous is a music streaming application and service that lets users listen to streamed music from a variety of sources, many of them unlicensed. The major record labels sued the people behind the project within days of it going into public alpha and have already secured a restraining order against them.

As a result of the order, Aurous is no longer offering downloads of its application. However, the company did say that it plans to defend the lawsuit and that they want to be around for “a long time.”

2: Here’s Warner/Chappell’s Plan to Save the “Happy Birthday” Copyright

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the case over Happy Birthday to You is far from over as Warner/Chappell Music has filed a motion asking the judge to reconsider the previous ruling and, failing that, allow them to file an appeal.

Previously, the judge had ruled that Warner/Chappell did not have a legitimate copyright registration in the work, meaning that their claim to it was invalid. However, since the judge ruled that the copyright registration they had was “flawed”, Warner/Chappell believes the judge may have overstepped his bounds since a copyright registration is supposed to come with a presumption of copyright validity.

The lawsuit was brought by a filmmaker who wanted to make a documentary about the song but was ordered to pay a large licensing fee for its use. She then sued alleging that the song is in the public domain and that Warner/Chappell should repay all of the royalties it has collected from the song in recent years.

3: Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ to Return to German Bookstores

Finally today, Andy Eckardt at NBC News reports that the copyright to Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf is set to expire at the end of this year, 70 years after his death and the Munich-based Institute of Contemporary History (IFZ) is preparing an annotated edition that will go on sale, the first time the book has been available in Germany since World War 2.

After World War 2 and the death of Hitler, copyright in the book was transferred to the German state of Bavaria, which has prohibited any publication of the book in the country. Though widely available online, in other languages and in other countries, the book has been effectively banned from printing in Germany.

However, the proposal would provide an official release of the book, albeit with heavy annotations. The German government has emphasized that non-annotated publication of the book in the country may be a criminal offense under the nation’s rules against inciting racial hatred.

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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