3 Count: Morally Correct

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1: $291 Adobe Cancelation Fee Sees Twitter Users Argue it’s ‘Morally Correct’ to Pirate Software

First off today, Aatif Sulleyman at Newsweek reports that Adobe has caused a social media backlash after a user shared a screenshot of a $291 cancellation fee for his Adobe Creative Cloud account and that has many users saying it is “morally correct” to pirate Adobe’s software.

The original post came from Twitter user @Mrdaddguy that included a screenshot of him attempting to cancel his Adobe Creative Cloud and being hit with a $291.45 cancellation fee. That tweet has been retweeted more than 13,000 times and has received more than 70,000 likes.

Adobe, for their part, has not commented on the controversy though other fans have taken to social media to complain about Adobe’s billing practices including additional charges and confusion about whether they are on a monthly contract or an annual one.

2: Philippines Government & ISPs Reach Agreement to Rapidly Block Pirate Sites

Next up today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that the Philippines government has reached a deal with local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) on an approach that it hopes will more effectively block suspected pirate websites by reducing the time it takes to execute a block to just two hours.

What this plan does is divide up the country’s site blocking regime into two systems, the first is a court-ordered one involving injunctions and the second is a voluntary arrangement between ISPs and the government. The new voluntary one will involve rightsholders making a complaint to the country’s intellectual property office, which will verify the complaint, and will then forward the requests to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), which will then forward it to ISPs through a set of agreed-upon protocols.

As comparatively streamlined as this process is, parties involved see an opportunity to further speed along the process by eliminating the NTC from the process and have complaints go straight from the intellectual property office to ISPs. However, that would likely require additional legislation and won’t be an option for some time.

3: Salt Bae Faces Allegations of Copyright Infringement in Latest Legal Battle

Finally today, Luke Fortney and Erika Adams at Eater NY reports that Nusret Gökçe, a Turkish butcher commonly referred to as Salt Bae, has been hit with a lawsuit by Brooklyn-based artist William Hicks after Gökçe reportedly used his art on menus, takeout bags, signs and more without his permission.

The lawsuit alleges that Gökçe commissioned Hicks in September 2017 to create and install a mural of him at several of Gökçe’s restaurants in Miami. The mural featured his famous salt-sprinkling pose that is an internet meme unto itself.

However, according to Hicks, after he installed the murals, Gökçe went on to use the work in a myriad of ways that was not covered in the original agreement. As such, Hicks is seeking some $5 million in damages for copyright infringement.

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