3 Count: Unsafe Harbors

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1: RIAA: Hip-Hop Mixtape Site Has No DMCA Safe Harbor

First off today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that, in its ongoing battle against Spinrilla, the RIAA is arguing the hip hop remix site lacks safe harbor protections for failure to both designate an agent to receive notices of copyright infringement and have a repeat infringer policy.

The RIAA, representing the major 3 record labels, filed the lawsuit against the site earlier this year. According to the RIAA, the site is a haven for pirated content that offers thousands of sound recordings for free without a license. However, Spinrilla countered saying that the files were user uploads and, as such, they were shielded from liability by Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) safe harbors.

However, the RIAA has pointed out that Spinrilla has failed to complete its obligations under the DMCA, namely designating a DMCA agent and having a repeat infringer policy. As such, the RIAA argues the site shouldn’t enjoy safe harbor protection and should be held liable for infringements by its users.

2: Sydney Man Gets Four Years Prison For Counterfeit DVDs

Next up today, Rae Johnston at Gizmodo reports that a Sydney, Australia man has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison for possession and sale of counterfeit DVDs.

Arrested in 2013, the man’s home was raided and some 1.2 million counterfeit DVDs were seized with an estimated value of $21 million ($16.7 million USD). The investigation revealed that he he had been responsible for the sale of over 65,000 such DVDs on eBay, taking in over $1.6 million ($1.27 million USD).

With the way the sentence is structured and the possibility for parole, he will be eligible for release in April 2019.

3: Sony’s Legal Quest to Remove its Leaked Developer’s Kit From the Web

Finally today, Kyle Orland at Ars Technica reports that Sony’s legal quest to remove a leaked PlayStation 4 software development kit (SDK) from the internet has also caught up homebrew SDKs and conversations about the leak.

The SDK is intended for use solely by authorized developers. However, it’s leak on the broader internet raises concern for increased hacking and piracy on PlayStation as it can be used to help jailbreak consoles and install pirated software. As such, Sony has been aggressively removing all mentions and downloads of the SDK it can find, largely successfully scrubbing it from the web.

However, that effort has also ensnared various other pages and downloads that don’t fall under Sony’s copyright. These include conversations about the leak, homebrew SDKs meant to run on jailbroken systems and other posts that contain keywords relevant to the leak. Sony has not responded to requests for comment on the matter.

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.