3 Count: Combo Breaker

Seeing Redbox...

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1: Redbox Accuses Disney Of Attempting to Stifle Competition With Lawsuit

First off today, Dawn C. Chmielewski at Deadline reports that Redbox is hitting back at Disney accusing the movie giant of attempting to stifle competition in their bid to shut down Redbox’s service that resells digital codes at a reduced cost.

Redbox, best known for its DVD rental kiosks, recently launched a service that sold digital access codes to customers at a reduced price. This was done by buying DVD combo packs, which contained both a physical disk and a download code, and splitting them. Redbox would rent the disc in its kiosks and resell the digital access code. Disney filed a lawsuit saying that this was a violation of the license of those codes, making the resale a copyright infringement.

However, Redbox has hit back, responding to the lawsuit by saying that Disney is engaging in anti-competitive practices. They further claim that the right of first sale guarantees their right to resell legally-purchased goods, including digital codes.

2: Alibaba’s Taobao Back on the List of Most Notorious Markets

Next up today, Nasdaq reports that Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace was placed on the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) list of “notorious markets”, joining 24 other online marketplaces and 18 physical ones.

This represents the second consecutive year that Taobao has been placed on the list, but it follows a year in which Taobao has attempted to clean up its issues with counterfeit and copyright-infringing works. This has included efforts to simplify the process of reporting infringing works and drastically reducing the number of transactions where there is a suspicion of fake goods being sold.

Though the inclusion on the report doesn’t indicate any direct action from the U.S. government or the USTR, Alibaba has expressed concern that it may hurt the reputation of Taobao and may cause private entities to blacklist the service for fear of doing business the any of the alleged notorious markets.

3: YouTube Singer Chrissy Chambers Wins Revenge Porn Case

Finally today, the BBC is reporting that US YouTube personality Chrissy Chambers has emerged victorious in her lawsuit against her British ex-boyfriend who posted sexual videos of her online without her consent.

According to the lawsuit, the ex-boyfriend, who can not be named for legal reasons, secretly recorded sexual video of her in 2009 and posted it online in 2012 after they broke up. At least some of the videos included her name. Chambers attempted to get the videos removed but didn’t own the copyright in them so she could not take action. She also attempted to take criminal action against him but England did not outlaw revenge pornography until 2015 and did not make the law retroactive.

Following that, she crowdfunded a civil case against him and the two sides have now reached a settlement. While the exact terms are unknown, Chambers’ lawyer said it includes a “substantial” sum of money and the transfer of copyright in the videos. As such, Chambers can take direct action to remove other copies of the videos that surface on the internet.

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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