3 Count: Additional Arrests

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1: DOJ Widens KickassTorrents Probe, Charges Three Ukrainians in Global Copyright-Infringement Case

First off today, Andrew Blake at the Washington Times reports that the U.S. Justice Department has filed charges against two additional Ukranian citizens alleging that they committed criminal copyright infringement for their role in operating the popular BitTorrent tracker, KickassTorrents.

Last month, Artem Vaulin, a Ukranian, was arrested in Poland on suspicion of operating what was then the world’s most popular BitTorrent site. The site was also shuttered and both its servers and domains were seized.

Now the Justice Department has filed an indictment against Ievgen Kutsenko and Oleksander Radostin, also both Ukrainians, on various charges related to their alleged role in operating the site. It is not clear if the two men have been arrested or where they are if they have not.

2: Internet Companies May Have to Pay Publishers for News Under New EU Rules

Next up today, Natalia Drozdiak at The Wall Street Journal reports that the European Commission is proposing new rules that would allow publishers within the EU the right to directly claim compensation from web aggregators, such as Google, possibly setting the stage for licensing deals between search engines and publishers.

Under the current law, publishers don’t directly hold rights but instead can enforce rights transferred to them by journalists and photographers. By offering the ability to directly control those rights, the European Commission is hoping to allow publishers to negotiate licensing deals with search engines that will bring in fresh revenue.

Similar initiatives have been tried in Spain and Germany, but neither resulted in windfalls for publishers as Google simply refused to aggregate content from publishers who didn’t give their work away to them. However, the Commission is hoping that, with the proposal operating EU-wide, publishers would have greater leverage.

3: Richard Prince and Gagosian Gallery Embroiled in New Lawsuit Over Instagram Image

Finally today, Brian Boucher at Artnet News reports that Los Angeles makeup artist Ashley Salazar, better known as Mynxii White, has filed a lawsuit against appropriation artist Richard Prince and the Gagosian Gallery over Prince’s use of a photo she took as part of his Gagosian show.

The photo was used in Prince’s famous Instagram exhibit where he took photos from Instagram, blew them up to poster size and added his comments below. This is Prince’s third lawsuit related to the exhibition with two other photographers having also filed lawsuits against Prince over it.

Prince has already responded to this lawsuit, asking the court to dismiss it and have it refiled in New York.

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.