3 Count: Opened Eyes

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1: Judge Lifts Some Restrictions On TVEyes

First off today, Wendy Davis at Media Post reports that a judge, at the request of both sides, has temporarily lifted some of the restrictions on the TV monitoring service TVEyes so that an appeal can be heard in the case.

TVEyes is a TV streaming service that, for a $500 month fee, allows users to search a catalog of recored TV to find relevant clips. It then lets users download the clips, share them on social media as well as via email. The company was sued by Fox, which accused it of copyright infringement, in particular of its Fox News channel, though TVEyes claimed to be covered by fair use.

The judge initially agreed with TVEyes, ruling the core of the service to be a fair use but then ruled against many of the sharing functionality was not. Both TVEyes and Fox are now hoping to stay the injunction pending an appeal. The judge agreed to stay the orders on the sharing functionality, including social media and email, but has declined to do so for TVEyes download functionality, which is scheduled to go offline on December 14.

2: Foxtel Looking to Block Piracy Websites Through Court

Next up today, Corinne Reichert at ZDNet reports that, in Australia, local pay TV company Foxtel is planning to take to the courts in a bid to order the blocking of several pirate websites in early 2016 though it did not say which sites would be targeted.

Earlier this year Australia passed controversial legislation that allowed rightsholders to ask the courts to order local ISPs to block foreign sites that were trading in copyright infringing material. However, to date, no rightsholders have taken advantage of the legislation claiming that the process was too cumbersome.

However, questions remain about how the blocking will be put into effect including whether entire sites or individuals pages will be blocked and what content will be displayed on the landing page users are redirected to. That page, according to the law, should contain educational information about where works can be obtained legally.

3: Online Piracy, Ad Fraud Cost U.S. Media Firms $8.2B a Year: Report

Finally today, Michelle Castillo at NBC News reports that a new report by EY at the request of the Interactive Advertising Bureau says that the media industry loses about $8.2 billion each year due to fake traffic, pirated content and malware.

The report says that the industry is losing some $4.6 billion due to invalid traffic, ads being paid for though not looked at. Illegal downloads cost the industry some $2.5 billion in lost advertising and subscription revenue and another $1.1 billion was lost in ad blocking.

As far as pirated content goes, the report estimated that the content industry would earn an additional $2 billion from subscription services and $456 million from ad-supported platforms if pirated content were eliminated.

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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