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1: Computer, Content Companies Battle Over Vicarious Copyright
First off today, John Eggerton at Multichannel News reports that several major technology groups have filed a brief in the Perfect 10 v. Giganews case asking the appeals court to allow a lower court ruling to stand and protect providers from claims of vicarious copyright infringement.
Giganews was a service that made it simple for users to access Usenet newsgroups via the web. Today, many of those newsgroups are heavily used for piracy, including of Perfect 10’s content, which is pornographic images and video. Perfect 10 sued but the lower court found that Giganews was not responsible because a claim of vicarious copyright infringement required a causal relationship between the defendant and the infringer, something the court did not feel existed with Giganews.
However, Perfect 10 has appealed that ruling and now many different coalitions and technology groups are asking the appeals court to let the lower court ruling stand. Those organizations include: the Internet Infrastructure Coalition, the Internet Association, the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Consumer Technology Association.
2: Six Street Artists Threaten McDonald’s with Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
Next up today, Anna Louise Sussman at Artsy reports that McDonalds is being accused of copyright infringement and false endorsement by a group of New York City street artists who say that their work was featured in a promotional video for the company without their permission.
The allegations come from a promotional video that McDonalds created where they hired a team of graffiti artists to go around the city and paint its bagel sandwich in various locations. While the video primarily featured the hired artists, there were also clips of other works of graffiti art shown.
Now six of those artists have banded together to send McDonald’s a letter accusing them of copyright infringement. Though no lawsuit has been filed yet, such a letter is often the first step, especially if the two sides can not work out an agreement to resolve the dispute.
3: MPAA Tracks ‘The Fate of the Furious’ Pirates, Two Men Arrested
Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that two Maryland men have been arrested and accused of camming the film Fate of the Furious to pirate websites.
According to the MPAA, they were monitoring the theater they went to when investigators observed the two of them handling recording equipment outside as they were preparing to go in. According to the MPAA Buchanan was already known to them as a piracy suspect.
The pair were charged with unauthorized recording of a movie in a theater, a crime that can leave them with a $2,500 fine and/or a year in prison. However, the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act makes it so that first time offenders can be imprisoned for up to three years and repeat offenders for up to six.
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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