3 Count: A Trial Denied

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1: Oracle Denied New Trial in Copyright Dispute with Google over Java

First off today, John Ribeiro at ComputerWorld reports that a judge has denied Oracle’s request for yet another trial against Google, saying that Google did not withhold evidence from Oracle during the trial and that Oracle’s failure to include the new information was their fault.

Oracle sued Google alleging that Google, when making their Android mobile operating system, copied elements of their Java programming language. At particular issue was the APIs, the instructions that allow programs to talk to one another. Initially, following a hung jury, the court ruled that APIs were not copyrightable but that was overturned on appeal. The matter then went to a second trial which found that the use of APIs was a fair use.

However, Oracle almost immediately accused Google of withholding evidence that it was working on a project to bring Android to desktops and, due to that, Oracle sought a third trial. However, the judge has said that Google detailed the project in 9 documents submitted to Oracle and that it was Oracle’s fault they failed to raise the issue. The ruling is also likely to be appealed.

2: Donald Trump Jr.’s Skittles Meme Was Taken Down Thanks to a Copyright Claim

Next up today, Daniel White at Time reports that Twitter has removed an image posted by Donald Trump Jr., son of the Republican nominee for President, due to a copyright infringement claim. 

On September 19, Trump Jr. posted an image of a bowl of Skittles with the tag line “If I had a bowl of Skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem.” However, it was alter revealed that the photographer behind the image, David Kittos, was a refugee himself, having fled Cyprus for England at age 6, and did not give permission to Trump Jr. to use the image.

Now the controversial image has been removed due to a copyright complaint. Kittos has not made any comment as to he was the one to file the takedown notice.

3: BitTorrent’s and uTorrent’s new Altruistic Mode Uploads Double What you Download

Finally today, Emil Protalinski at VentureBeat reports that the company BitTorrent has announced a new feature for its BitTorrent and uTorrent clients: Altruistic Mode.

The way the BitTorrent protocol works is by breaking up large files, such as movies, into smaller pieces. A swarm then downloads and uploads those smaller pieces to each other. While this can increase the speed and reliability of the download, it’s dependent upon members of the swarm uploading as well as downloading content, something many do not do.

However, with Altruistic Mode, the BitTorrent client will not download a new piece of a file unless it has at least two others seeking to download from it. This aims to ensure a 2:1 upload/download ratio but also means that some files with limited interest may never complete as its never able to secure that ratio.

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.