3 Count: Nintendo Canada

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1: Nintendo Wins a Key Case Against a 3DS Modchip Seller

First off today, Joe Fingas at Engadget reports that Nintendo has won a copyright case in Canada against Go Cyber Shopping (GCS) and its founder Jeramie King.

Nintendo accused GCS of selling flashcarts, modchips and other devices for the 3DS that allows users to circumvent copyright protection on the device and play pirated games. Nintendo claimed that the products were violations of Canadian laws against selling circumvention tools but GCS claimed that the tools were legal since they also enable playing of homemade games.

The court sided with Nintendo and the company will have to pay $12.76 million Canadian ($9.5 million US) in damages and issue a formal apology.

2: Fox News Appears to Have Edge in Showdown That Could Curtail Sharing of Clips

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the case between TVEyes and Fox News was heard before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals and it appears that Fox News may have the advantage in the case.

TVEyes is a news clipping service that allows users to search for and download/share clips from TV news networks. Fox News sued claiming that, since this was done without permission, it was an infringement of their copyright. The lower court had found that TVEyes was adequately transformative for allowing people to search the programming but that the download and sharing functionality was not a fair use.

Both sides appealed and that was heard yesterday. TVEyes compared itself to Google Books but that was met with skepticism from the judges. Still, even as the judges leaned toward affirming the lower court ruling, they said that they were sensitive to the issues of reporting and criticism that the case raises.

3: US Copyright Royalty Board Holds Hearings on Mechanical Rates

Finally today, Emmanuel Legrand at Music Week reports that the US Copyright Royalty Board at the US Copyright Office is holding hearings on the topic of mechanical royalties in a fight over how much songwriters and publishers will be paid when their music is sold on physical and digital platforms.

The battle pits The National Music Publishers’ Association and the Nashville Songwriters Association International against tech companies such as Google, Apple and Amazon. The publishers want the existing statutory rates to be extended while tech companies are hoping to pay lower royalties.

The Copyright Royalty Board has until December 15 to issue a ruling. Regardless of what it decides, the new rates will last from 2018 through 2022.

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.