3 Count: Google Irony

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1: Google Sues SerpApi Over Search Scraping in Copyright Lawsuit

First off today, Luis Rijo at PPC Land reports that Google has filed a lawsuit against SerpApi, alleging that the company engaged in billions of automated queries that circumvented various protection schemes Google uses.

SerpApi was founded in 2017 as a tool that allowed customers to scrape results and other pages from Google. The company prides itself on “creating fake browsers using a multitude of IP addresses that Google sees as normal users.” Beginning in January, Google began implementing tighter controls on its search results, but SerpApi circumvented those as well.

According to Google, this violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) anti-circumvention rules. The company is seeking between $200 and $2,500 per circumvention. This could, theoretically, total over a trillion dollars in damages based on the number of alleged infringements.

2: Reggaeton Artists Challenge Originality of ‘Dembow’ Rhythm in Copyright Battle

Next up today, Edvard Pettersson at Courthouse News Service reports that attorneys representing dozens of reggaeton artists are attempting to convince a court that a 1989 drum rhythm does not qualify for copyright protection.

The rhythm in question was recorded by Cleveland Browne and the late Wycliffe Johnson, better known as Steely and Clevie. The song originally debuted as a b-side, but the rhythm became popular the same year due to Shabba Ranks use of it in the song Dem Bow.

The sample has since been used in dozens of different songs, including by many famous artists in the reggaeton genre. The original artists are now suing, saying the use was unlicensed. However, lawyers and experts for the defendants are arguing that the sample in question does not qualify for copyright protection and that there were earlier examples of that same sample.

3: Nigeria’s Copyright Agency Destroys Pirated Books Valued at N141.5m

Finally today, Adedapo Adesanya at Business Post reports that the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has destroyed pirated books valued at N141,550,000 ($100,000) in multiple raids across the country.

The raids targeted several bookshops cross three years. The NCC says that they were able to distinguish between pirated and original books by looking at various elements such as the binding and color. When asked for purchase receipts, the stores in question were not able to provide any evidence of a legal purchase.

Members of the Nigerian Publishers Association welcomed the action, saying that book piracy had hurt their ability to make a living. The books in question were shredded rather than burned to protect the environment.

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