3 Count: Verisigned

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1: Lawmakers Press Verisign To Join ‘Trusted Notifier’ Program And Take More Action To Combat Piracy

First off today, Ted Johnson at Deadline reports that a group of six United States Senators have signed a letter to the domain name registry Verisign calling upon the service to suspend the domains of pirate websites and generally do more to combat copyright infringement.

According to the letter, Verisign is the registry for nearly half of all domains, and that the company is “uniquely positioned” to help curb copyright infringement. Specifically, they want the company to enter into a “trusted notifier” partnership similar to other domain registrars that would see it receive notices of regarding problematic sites and then revoke those domains.

However, Verisign says that such a system would be problematic for them, since they entered into an agreement with the Department of Commerce that requires them to operate in a “content-neutral manner.” Furthermore, Verisign has raised concerns relating to due process and transparency in setting up the process. However, the Senators not the other registrars have had similar relationships in place for years and have had few issues.

2: Maine Costume Maker Claims Retail Giants Undercut Her Business Through Copyright Theft

Next up today, Judy Harrison at the Bangor Daily News reports that Maine costume designer Ellen Okolita has filed a lawsuit against Walmart, Amazon and eBay alleging that the three sites are unlawfully using photos and descriptions of her costumes on their site.

Okolita began making costumes in 2014 for her own children and turned that into a business the following year. In 2020 she claims to have sold over 8,000 pieces, mostly through her Etsy store. However, since then, she claims that the retail giants have been using her images and descriptions to sell similar costumes and hurt her business.

She claims that her sales have “dropped to a trickle” and that the defendants were using her marketing material to promote costumes that were cheaper than she could ever sell. As such, she is seeking unspecified damages and an injunction that would force the retailers to use technology to detect and remove infringing material.

3: Texas A&M Copyright Claims Took Down Clips Bashing Midnight Yell App State Mockery, but Full Video Remains

Finally today, Andrew Bucholtz at Awful Announcing reports that Texas A&M University has filed a series of takedowns against videos that mocked its Midnight Yell tradition following their football team’s loss to Appalachian State.

Texas A&M observes a Midnight Yell tradition where students mock the opposing school. However, many felt that the Midnight Yell before the Appalachian State game went too far. However, once Texas A&M lost the game in a surprise upset, videos criticizing the event began disappearing from Twitter and other platforms.

The move only seems to have drawn more attention to the Midnight Yell itself, and Texas A&M, for their part, have left the full 22-minute version online on their own YouTube channel.

Header Image: ​english Wikipedia user Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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