1: Controversial Copyright Law Rejected by EU Parliament
First off today, thee BBC reports that controversial EU Copyright Directive was rejected by the European Parliament by a vote of 318-278, setting it up to be renegotiated and, most likely, heavily revised.
The proposed legislation was an attempt to modernize EU copyright law but contained two controversial elements. One, Article 11, would have required search engines and other aggregators to obtain a license before using snippets of content from press media and the second, Article 13, would have required some online service providers to be proactive with preventing copyright infringing material from being uploaded to the service.
The legislation had significant support from rightsholders but also drew protests from the internet. In the end, the protests won out as Parliament narrowly defeated the bill, sending it back to be renegotiated.
2: NZ Court Rules Kim Dotcom Can Be Extradited to US on Copyright Charges
Next up today, Timothy B. Lee at Ars Technica reports that the New Zealand Court of Appeal has ruled against Kim Dotcom, saying that he can be extradited to the United States for his role in operating the site Megaupload.
Dotcom was arrested and his home raided in January 2012. He was accused of running the file sharing site Megaupload, which was one of the most popular destinations for downloading copyrighted works. Dotcom, however, has fought extradition saying that, since New Zealand does not provide criminal copyright penalties, he shouldn’t be sent to the U.S. to face that charge.
The lower court ruled in favor of the U.S. government n 2015 and now that decision has been upheld by the Court of Appeals. However, Dotcom has said that he plans on appealing the matter to the New Zealand Supreme Court. However, the New Zealand Supreme Court, much like the US Supreme Court, only hears a small percentage of cases. If the extradition is upheld, Dotcom would then be sent to the United States, to face a possible trial here.
3: Supreme Court to Resolve Copyright Registration Circuit Split
Finally today, Jake Wharton at IPWatchdog reports that the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com LLC and may finally resolve a circuit split on the issue of whether an application or a registration is necessary to file a copyright infringement lawsuit.
In the United States, a registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is required to file a copyright infringement lawsuit. However, questions remain whether an application for registration is adequate or if you must have the completed registration (which can take over 7 months).
The case itself deals with a relatively mundane issue about articles appearing on the site wall-street.com after a license had expired. However, it addresses a circuit split issue over the nature of registration as various Appeals Courts have said that only an application is necessary where others have said that the completed registration (or rejection thereof) is necessary.
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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