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1: Peloton Rider Files Lawsuit Against Company Over Removal Of Workouts Involved In Copyright Dispute
First off today, Carrie Bradon at Legel NewsLine reports that the exercise machine company Peleton is facing a class action lawsuit from users that claim the abrupt removal of music from their workouts has diminished their experience with the equipment.
The company makes exercise bikes and treadmills for the consumer market but also offers a subscription service where they provide video workout classes. Previously, Peleton’s classes included a wide variety of music but, following a March lawsuit by the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA), many of those tracks were removed.
According to the NMPA, Peleton doesn’t have the correct license for the music it was using. This prompted Peleton to remove many of the tracks it was using but users almost immediately rebelled, saying that removing the songs made the machines and the classes less fun. This class action lawsuit is just the latest legal front opened up in this particular fight.
2: Operators of ‘Linking’ Sites Walk Free in Criminal Piracy Case
Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that a Spanish court has acquitted four men who were accused of operating a series of pirate linking sites in the country. However, the reason isn’t because they didn’t do it, but because their actions were not illegal at the time.
The case centers around the SeriesYonkis sites, which provided links to a wide variety of pirated content. The site, as well as its sister sites. continue to operate today but not by the defendants of the lawsuit, who had all sold their interest in the site by 2014. However, according to the judge in the case, this particular brand of piracy was not made illegal in Spain until 2015, when the country updated its copyright laws.
That said, the case is not over as industry groups have announced they intend to appeal the ruling, claiming that the EU Court of Justice ruled in 2001 that such linking can create liability under some circumstances.
3: Convert2MP3 Shuts Down Following Record Industry Legal Action
Finally today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that the stream-ripping site Convert2MP3 has agreed to close its doors following legal action by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the German industry group BVMI.
The legal action was filed in Germany but the two sides have reached a settlement. That settlement, according to the IFPI, not only requires the immediate closure of Convert2MP3 but also requires the site to hand over the domains and to cease any future infringement.
The site was one of the most popular stream ripping sites on the internet, allowing users to convert YouTube videos, in particular music videos, into MP3 files. The site is offline as of this writing.
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