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1: California Supreme Court Revives Libel Suit Over Warnings of Content Piracy
First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that the California State Supreme Court has revived a libel lawsuit filed by FilmOn saying that DoubleVerify, an organization that provides reports to advertisers about questionable sites, does not qualify for anti-SLAPP protection in this case.
FilmOn is an online streaming service that has had a checkered legal past but, currently, hosts legally-licensed content. However, DoubleVerify, in one of its reports, said that the FilmOn was engaged in both piracy and adult content, claims FilmOn denies. FilmOn sued for defamation but a lower court tossed the lawsuit under SLAPP grounds, which is designed to be a way to end lawsuits that aim to stifle public participation.
However, the California Supreme Court has overturned that ruling saying that, since DoubleVerify’s reports were for a commercial purpose and not for public consumption, the anti-SLAPP statute doesn’t apply. This sends the case back to the lower court where the actual libel issues will be looked at, where a judge has already indicated that he doesn’t feel FilmOn has a good chance of prevailing in the case.
2: Judge Rules Against Indian Streaming Service Wynk In Case With Big Repercussions For Spotify & Warner Music
Next up today, Richard Smirke at Billboard reports that, in India, a judge has ruled against the local music streaming service Wynk in their battle with the record label Tips and the decision could have major implications for Spotify and its planned expansion into the country.
Tips sued Wynk alleging that the service had not obtained the needed licenses to stream the label’s music. Wynk, however, claimed that they were a broadcasting organization and were granted a statutory license under Indian law. However, the court has ruled that to be not the case and has issued an injunction against Wynk that bars them from playing Tips’ music.
This creates a problem for Spotify, which is making the exact same argument in its case against Warner Brothers Music in the country. If this decision holds up, streaming services will have to negotiate directly with labels to obtain the needed licenses to stream music in the country.
3: Nintendo Shuts Down Its Anti-Piracy Website
Finally today, Liam Doolan at NintendoLife reports that, sometime back in February, Nintendo shut down it’s specialized anti-piracy site, which had been active since at least 2002.
The site was designed to give users information about piracy including how to report it to Nintendo, how to detect it and relevant news about Nintendo’s ongoing anti-piracy campaign. However, the site had not been significantly updated since 2008 and had fallen into disrepair.
The URL now forwards to the main Nintendo website and it led to jokes on Twitter about both Nintendo winning the warn on piracy and giving up on the war on piracy. However, as we often see in this column, Nintendo’s war on piracy is still very much ongoing, it just doesn’t have a website from the mid-2000s as its home base.
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