3 Count: Anti-Anti-Competitive

The wrong kind of competition...

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1: Both Sides Make New Legal Filings in Peloton v the Music Publishers

First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) has responded to Peloton’s allegations anti-competitive practices by saying that its actions are permissible under the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, which allows companies to collude for the purpose of lobbying or litigation.

The NMPA sued Peloton in March 2019 alleging that the exercise company, which also streams fitness classes to users, was using compositions controlled by NMPA publishers in their classes without a license. Originally suing for $150 million, the lawsuit was doubled to $300 million after additional infringements were added. Peloton, however, countered that it had good relationships with many of the publishers until the NMPA began to step in. Peloton claimed that this was anti-competitive behavior and filed a counterclaim to that effect.

The NMPA has now responded to those claims saying that all of their actions have been within the bounds of the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, which allows companies to collude with one another for the purpose of litigation. With that in mind, the NMPA is saying that the only reason Peloton is raising questions about anti-competitive practices is because they know the copyright claims are strong and they are asking the court to dismiss competition-related claims at this time.

2: Criminal Pirate Bay Investigation Closed After Statute of Limitations Expired

Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that Swedish police have closed an investigation into The Pirate Bay after the statute of limitations in the case expired, making it impossible to bring any further action in it.

The story began in December 2014 when police raided a Nacka station a datacenter in Stockholm that prides itself on being nuclear-proof. Though The Pirate Bay denied its servers were taken, the site went offline for nearly two months after it and several other pirate sites went dark as well.

However, according to police, the issue isn’t a lack of evidence. They claim to have gathered enough to pursue a case against a suspect, widely believed to be Fredrik Neij, but they were unable to locate the suspect for “final serving” a practice where a defendant can review the evidence against them. The police did not say whether they had other cases ongoing but the case stemming from that raid has been closed.

3: iPhone Emulation Company Sued by Apple Says It’s Making iPhones Safer

Finally today, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai at Vice reports that Corellium, a startup that enables hackers to find security vulnerabilities in Apple products, has responded to Apple’s copyright infringement lawsuit by saying that its product is a fair use of Apple’s code.

Apple sued Corellium back in August alleging that the company violates its copyright by allowing users to make virtual copies of iOS. The lawsuit came shortly after Apple announced its own invite-only program to offer researchers “pre-hacked” devices that they could perform such testing on.

Corellium, however, has now responded by saying that their use of Apple’s code is fair use and one that benefits users by helping make the software safer. They also claim that Apple owes them $300,000 for bugs they have reported to Apple but have not been paid for.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

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