3 Count: Time’s Side
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1: Court of Appeals Rules That a Timely Filed Copyright Infringement Lawsuit Can Recover All Damages, No Matter How Long Ago They Occurred
First off today, Stephen Carlisle at NOVA Southern University reports that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a ruling in the Starz v. MGM case that allows Starz to recover damages for the past nine years, much longer than the five years some argued that it should.
The dispute deals with allegations that MGM improperly made its own films available on competing platforms despite signing an exclusivity agreement with Starz. However, Starz was unaware of the infringements and only learned about them in August 2019. Through discovery, Starz learned that these infringements went all the way back to 2013. However, under the conventional theory of damages, Starz would have only been eligible for damages on infringements going back to May 2017, three years before the lawsuit was filed in May 2020.
However, the Ninth Circuit has ruled that is not the case. In doing so, it set up a showdown with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which previously adopted a blanket three-year rule for damages. However, the Ninth Circuit noted that such a rule encourages an ongoing infringer to hide their activity and delay a potential case, something the rules around timely filing were supposed to discourage both sides to do.
2: BREIN Settles With Pirate IPTV Seller After Global Chase
Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has reached a €70,000 ($71,000) settlement with a Brazilian IPTV operator that, reportedly, has shuttered hundreds of sites that offered its services.
The group in question was known as GOFASTIPTV.eu, which offered unauthorized access to movies and pay TV channels. BREIN had been attempted to track down the operator of the service and, in a recent court case, learned the identity of the man behind it. With that, they began pushing for a settlement.
That settlement has now gone through and, in addition to closing the service, the individual has been ordered to pay the damages and agreed to pay additional damages if the service is restored. According to BREIN, this is just one of more than 50 such services it has shuttered since 2017.
3: Authors Advised to Lodge Police Complaints on Copyright Violations
Finally today, Chhun Sunly at the Khmer Times reports that, in the nation of Cambodia, the government is encouraging authors to report issues of copyright infringement to the local police, not the Department of Copyright and Related Rights (DCRR).
The move comes after the Khmer Writers Association raised objections over rampant infringement in the country and the lack of any action by the DCRR. However, according to the government, the DCRR is strictly for recording copyright and is not responsible for enforcement.
However, many authors say that is simply not enough as infringement is rampant in the country, both online and off, and the police are ill-equipped to deal with such cases.
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