3 Count: A Humble Ending

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1: Internet Archive Copyright Case Ends Without Supreme Court Review

First off, today, Andre Albanese at Publishers Weekly reports that the Internet Archive has missed a deadline to appeal its case with publishers to the Supreme Court, bringing an end to the litigation.

A collection of book publishers filed the lawsuit in June 2020. They alleged that the Internet Archive’s “National Emergency Library” was a copyright infringement of their books. Historically, the Internet Archive had scanned books for its online “library,” lending them out one-to-one with the copies it held. However, during the early days of the pandemic, it removed those restrictions, prompting the lawsuit.

In addition to the National Emergency Library, the lawsuit challenged the practice of controlled digital lending as a concept. The lower court agreed, issuing a summary judgment in favor of the publishers. The Internet Archive appealed, but the Second Circuit upheld the lower court decision, ruling against controlled digital lending. The Internet Archive could have appealed to the Supreme Court but failed to do so before a December 3rd deadline. As such, litigation in the case has been brought to a close.

2: NetEase Is Considering Legal Action Against HoYoVerse For Copyright Infringement

Next up today, Stephanie Liu at Siliconera reports that the Chinese technology company NetEase has threatened to sue its competitor HoYoVerse over similarities between trailers the companies have released.

Earlier this month, HoYoVerse released a trailer for an upcoming character release in Honkai: Star Rail. Users immediately noticed similarities between that trailer and another published by NetEase for the game Onmyoji.

In a post on the official page for Onmyoji, NetEase announced that it is considering taking legal action against HoYoVerse. They say they have turned the information over to authorities and will move forward if there is a case.

3: Apple Stealth Piracy App Trio, Combined Age 215 Years, Face $18.5m Damages Claim

Finally, today, Andy Maxwell at Torrentfreak writes that three men in Taiwan have been arrested and are identified as suspects in publishing “stealth piracy” apps on the Apple App Store.

Stealth piracy apps appear innocuous but have a hidden feature that enables a user to access pirated content. Since piracy apps are banned in the iOS App Store, this tactic bypasses those controls.

The three men were identified by one name and their ages, which ranged from 62 to 80. In addition to the arrests, police confiscated various pieces of technology. According to the anonymous rightsholder who filed the complaint, the trio is responsible for NT$600 million ($18.5m) in financial harm.

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