3 Count: Second Bite
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1: Judge: Jehovah’s Witness Parodies Are Fair Use. Watch Tower: So What?
First off today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that Watch Tower, is pushing ahead with a copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTuber “Kevin McFree” (not his real name) in hopes of revealing the YouTuber’s real name.
The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society is an organization that is operated by the Jehovah’s Witness religious group and serves as their publisher and as a supervising body. They are also publishers of the Watch Tower publication. Kevin McFree, a heavy critic of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, featured some Watch Tower material in a series of critical Lego YouTube videos, prompting Watch Tower to first file for a DMCA Subpoena in hopes of unmasking Kevin McFree’s real identity.
However, that attempt failed when the YouTuber claimed that Watch Tower was only seeking to obtain his identity for the purpose of disfellowship. The judge ultimately ruled that any use of Watch Tower material was a fair use and ordered the subpoena quashed. But that hasn’t stopped Watch Tower, which also filed and is currently pursuing a separate lawsuit over the issue. However, they asked the defendant to waive service of the case, which he refused to do. As a result, they are asking the court to allow them to serve him as “John Doe” pending his full identification.
2: German Court Case Could Have Huge Repercussions for Anyone Who Uses the Internet
Next up today, Ken Carnesi at The Hill reports that a German court has ordered DNS resolver Quad9 to block access to a site containing copyright-infringing material.
DNS resolvers provide a service to users that convert domain names (domainname.com) into an IP address that computers can use (123.456.789.123). Normally, such services are considered mere conduits and aren’t considered in copyright disputes. However, Sony Entertainment sought to change that, filing a legal act in hopes a court would agree to compel Quad9 to block the site.
This move effectively makes the site inaccessible to anyone who uses Quad9’s DNS services. Quad9 is a small, non-profit service that has a small legal budget, making them an easy target for the action.
3: Google Drive Users Stung by macOS ‘.DS_Store’ Copyright Infringement Issue
Finally today, Malcolm Owen at Apple Insider reports that macOS users who also use Google Drive are running into a problem as their “.DS_Store” files are being flagged as copyright infringing by Google.
The files are part of the macOS operating system and store information and settings for the folder they are in. However, sometimes, when those files are uploaded to Google Drive, the file is flagged as copyright infringing.
Google has acknowledged that the flagging is incorrect and is taking steps to stop it. In the meantime, macOS users may wish to stop uploading full folders to Google Drive to avoid the file being uploaded with the content.
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