3 Count: Quad 9 Injunction

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1: Oracle Wins Copyright Case Against Repeat Violator Rimini Street

First off today, a press release by Oracle says that the company has won a key decision against their competitor Rimini Street, with the court finding the company liable for copyright infringement of Oracle software and issuing a permanent injunction against certain activities and certain marketing statements.

Rimini Street is a company that provides third-party support for Oracle products. However, Oracle claims that the company has violated many of its rights in doing so, including illegally copying Oracle software in order to provide updates and other services. According to Oracle, these practices have continued even after past judgments and injunctions have been filed against the company.

According to the release, the court found that Rimini Street had violated Oracle’s copyright “tens of thousands” of times in regard to Oracle’s PeopleSoft application. As such, the court has found Rimini Street, along with the company’s CEO, Seth Ravin, liable for the infringement and ordered the company to cease the infringing practices, cease making certain marketing statements and publish a specific press release clarifying the legal issues. Rimini Street, in a press release of their own, said that the court did find in their favor on several aspects and that they plan to appeal the decisions that went against them.

2: FTC Fines Top Music Copyright Group for Unfair Practices

Next up today, Kang Yoon-seung at the Yonhap News Agency reports that, in South Korea, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has issued a fine of 340 million won (US$266,000) on the Korea Music Copyright Association (KMCA), the nation’s largest copyright collective for administering public performance rights for music.

According to the FTC, the KMCA charged excessively high license fees to some 59 broadcasters, ignoring a statute limiting their royalties and charging higher fees under the threat of withdrawing the music from its catalog.

As of 2021, the KMCA managed over 67% of all copyrighted music in the country. Though current rules limit what they can charge, the FTC alleges the organization pressured broadcasters to pay a higher rate, under fear of losing access to approximately two-thirds of all music.

3: Quad9 Blocks Pirate Site Globally After Sony Demanded €10,000 Fine

Finally today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the domain name service (DNS) resolve Quad9 has blocked access to the pirate website Canna.to worldwide, backing down after the company was facing a €10,000 ($11,000) fine for failing to comply.

The case is unfolding in Germany where Sony Music obtained an injunction ordering it to block access to the site. Initially, that block only applied to German users but, after it was realized users with proxies and virtual private network connections could bypass the block, the court ordered it to be expanded.

Quad9, which considers itself a neutral party, fought the injunction. They felt it was overly broad and treated the company as if they were the ones infringing. However, the court threatened the non-profit with an administrative fine if they didn’t block access to all Germans, making it necessary to block the site worldwide. Quad9 has said they hope to appeal the ruling and get it overturned, but acknowledge that the case could take several years.

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