3 Count: Reasons Why

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1: Judge Reveals Why Meghan Markle Won Her Tabloid Copyright Case

First off today, Jack Royston at Newsweek reports that the judge in the Meghan Markle case has handed down his final ruling, giving the reasons for why he awarded Markle an unmitigated victory on the copyright issues.

Markle sued the UK tabloid The Mail on Sunday after it published a letter she wrote to her estranged father without her permission. Recently, the judge in the case ruled in favor of Markle, handing her a complete victory in the case but did not release a fully judgment explaining the reasons. That judgment has now come out.

To that end, the judge says he was swayed by a letter her Markle’s communication secretary, where he emphatically told the court he did not write nor had any part in writing the letter. The Mail had argued that the letter was actually owned by The Crown due to his involvement. With that question removed, the judge saw no choice but to award victory to Markle, but The Mail has said they plan to appeal the decision.

2: VPN.ht Asks Court to Dismiss Piracy Lawsuit Over Lack of Jurisdiction

Next up today, Ernesto Han der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that VPN.ht is asking a Virginia court to dismiss a lawsuit filed against it on jurisdictional grounds, noting that the owner of the service is an Algerian citizen that hasn’t even heard of Virginia.

The lawsuit was filed by a group of independent film studios that accuse the VPN service of promoting piracy in its advertising and encouraging users to use apps such as Popcorn Time. The studios involved already successfully received a temporary restraining order that required PayPal to freeze VPN.ht’s assets and that prompted the company to respond.

In his motion to dismiss, the site’s operator argued that he has no substantial connection to Virginia other than they offered their services to anyone in the world and that some in Virginia subscribed. They also further claim that, though they used a host with Virginia-based IP addresses, they never instructed their host to use such addresses and, as such, they are asking for the case to be dismissed and their funds to be unfrozen.

3: Fake Copyright Infringement Warnings Used to Spread Ransomware

Finally today, Josh Kirschner at Techlicious reports that a comment spam attack on their site and elsewhere has targeted users with randomware using the guise of a copyright infringement notice.

The commenter claims to be a photographer or other rightsholder and claims that the site involved is hosting copyright-infringing content. They then claim to provide proof in the form of a link to a Google Drive file that, when downloaded and executed, would install ransomware on the user’s computer.

Though the site says it was directed at them via their comments, they can just as easily see it working through email or any other form of communication. This highlights the main point, don’t click on links in email, including copyright notices.

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