3 Count: Brankruptcy Ahoy

Rightscorp making some left turns...

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

1: Judge Asked to Order Jimmy Page and Robert Plant to Attend ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Trial

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that both Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin will be in attendance for at least some of the June 14th trial over their hit song Stairway to Heaven.

Heirs to the estate of Randy Wolfe, the former lead singer of the band Spirit, claim that the song is a infringement of Spirit’s 1968 song Taurus. However, as the two sides have prepared for the trial, the plaintiffs have alleged that lack of certainty about whether Page and Plant will be there are hindering their case.

They claim that, since they aren’t sure whether Page or Plant will be available to testify, that they don’t know if they should rely on videotaped depositions or an in person examination. They are asking the judge to compel both of them to be present. The defense has said that they’ve already agreed to have both of them there but that, since they will be coming from England to California, that they can not be sure of the exact date.

2: Music Industry Delays Piracy Site Blocking Battle

Next up today, Allie Coyne at itnews reports that, in Australia, record labels have successfully gotten the courts to delay their case in which they were seeking to have Kickass Torrents blocked by local ISPs so that a similar case filed by the film studios can move forward.

Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music all filed to have eight Kickass Torrents domains to be blocked in Australia. The lawsuit was the industry’s first test of new site blocking legislation in the country that allows courts to order ISPs in the country to block access to sites primarily used for copyright infringement.

In February the movie studios filed a similar lawsuit seeking the blocking of The Pirate Bay, SolarMovie, Torrentz and others. However, Kickass Torrents was not on the movie studio’s list. ISPs in the country are arguing against the blockade and are seeking compensation for costs related to implementing it if they are forced to comply.

3: Rightscorp Revenue Plummets, Has ‘Substantial Doubts’ About Its Future

Finally today, Marc Schneider at Billboard reports that the anti-piracy firm Rightscorp has released its first quarter results and the company has run an operating loss of $784,180 which, while an improvement over the company’s losses a year earlier, it’s left the company with serious doubts about its future.

Rightscorp is a company that specializes in detecting alleged infringements via BitTorrent sending settlement notices to suspected file sharers. The notices, which are sent through the infringers’ ISPs, demand small settlements for the infringement, the proceeds of which are split with copyright holders that Rightscorp represents.

Though the company suffered fewer losses, it also only brought in about 22% of the revenue it did in the first quarter of 2015, dropping from $307,904 to $68,283. Rightscorp blames the drop on a combination of better efforts by suspected pirates to evade detection and less cooperation from ISPs.

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.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

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