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UK ISP Talk Talk Says it 'Refuses to Become Internet Police'
TalkTalk is the first ISP to reject the British Phonographic Industry's(BPI) proposed "three-strikes-and-your-out"' scheme which would require it to disconnect customers who had been deemed by the music industry body to have shared content with others illegally.
Lawyer Who Threatened File-Sharers is Banned For 6 months | TorrentFreak
A lawyer who sent out hundreds of thousands of threatening letters demanding that alleged file-sharers pay 400 euros, has been banned from operating for 6 months. Elizabeth Martin, who had been working with Swiss anti-piracy outfit, Logistep, was condemned by the Paris Bar Council.
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For anti-piracy company, Logistep, life is becoming more and more difficult by the day. They have been deemed to be operating illegally in Italy and have been slammed over privacy issues in the home country, Switzerland. Now, according to a report - and to add further insult to this growing pile of misery - a lawyer they’ve been working with in France has just found herself in an awful lot of trouble.
Lawyer Elizabeth Martin had been demanding 400 Euros from hundreds of thousands of file-sharers who Logistep say had been infringing the rights of software company Techland, on their game ‘Call of Juarez’.
ISP Will Protect File-Sharers From Music Industry Disconnection Threat | TorrentFreak
After getting an “unbelievably rude letter” from the British Phonographic Industry which demanded that ISPs disconnect file-sharers from the internet, the UK’s third largest ISP, Talk Talk, is in fighting mood. “Talk Talk rejects music industry threats and refuses to become internet police” says their statement.
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The BPI has been writing to all the major ISPs just lately, on the subject of unauthorized file-sharing. The BPI wants ISPs to work with them to disconnect persistent file-sharers from the internet. Trouble is, like most music industry bodies, the BPI think that muscle flexing and posturing will get them the results they demand. Not so.
When Rory Cellan-Jones of the BBC went to see Charles Dunstone, CEO of Talk Talk owners Carphone Warehouse, he didn’t find a happy man. Speaking of the BPI, Dunstone said: “They’ve sent us the most unbelievably rude letter” . True to form, the demands from the BPI carried a threat - comply in 14 days or face legal action, something which has not been well received by one of the UK’s richest men. “Talk Talk rejects music industry threats and refuses to become internet police” said a statement.
Lawsuit Claim: Students' Lecture Notes Infringe on Professor's Copyright | Threat Level from Wired.com
University of Florida professor Michael Moulton thinks copyright law protects the lectures he gives to his students, and he's headed to court to prove it.
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Those notes are illegal, Faulkner and Moulton contend, since they are derivative works of the professor's copyrighted lectures.
If successful, the suit
(.pdf) could put an end to a lucrative, but ethically murky businesses
that have grown up around large universities to profit from students
who don't always want to go to the classes they are paying for.The suit could also have ramifications for more longstanding
businesses such as Cliffs Notes, which summarize copyrighted novels.
MySpace Officially Announces Music Venture with Three of the Major Labels
MySpace has officially announced their new music venture, and as reported yesterday, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group are all in as launch partners, leaving EMI as the only major record label not participating
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Also confirmed by the company, MySpace Music will offer:
- DRM-free downloads
- Ad-supported audio and video streaming
- Artists merchandise
- Concert tickets
- Mobile content (ringtones, wallpapers, etc.)Already, MySpace Music claims more than 5 million artist profiles and 30 million monthly unique visitors. The plan is to integrate these new features directly into artist pages, as well as through user homepages. However, don’t expect to see all of these new features today – MySpace says they will be rolled out gradually over the next few months.
The Patry Copyright Blog: The recent making available cases
There have been three opinions in six weeks on the suits brought by RIAA in which the issue of the alleged making available right as well as infringement of the distribution right have been raised. They are not the first opinions, nor will they be the last, but they are interesting in their own right, and are noteworthy because the judges involved took the time to address the issues seriously and thoughtfully.
Computerworld - US Feds lie about link between software piracy and terrorism
The US Justice Department seems to believe that if you tell a big enough lie, people will listen. Here's the latest: Attorney General Michael Mukasey claims that terrorists sell pirated software as a way to finance their operations, without presenting a shred of evidence for his case. He's doing it to push through a controversial piece of legislation that's bad for you.
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Mukasey went on to cite numerous cases in which the US Justice Department has arrested those who pirate software, and in which the department has cooperated with other countries in investigations. He mentioned arrests in Florida, investigations in China, and warned about the Russian mob being involved in selling pirated software.
In not a single instance did Mukasey include a link to terrorism. Not one. You can be sure that if there were any links, Mukasey would make sure to get them on the nightly news.
So why is Mukasey trying to convince people there's a link between software piracy and terrorism, even though one doesn't exist? To force US Congress to pass controversial intellectual property (IP) legislation that would increase IP penalties, increase police power, set up a new agency to investigate IP theft, and more.
Judge kills RIAA subpoena: making available not infringement
Earlier this week, a decision by the judge presiding over Elektra v. Barker was widely misreported as providing substantial support for the argument that making a song available over a P2P network constitutes copyright infringement. Another decision rendered the same day and just brought to light by the EFF actually does come to that conclusion, and the judge in that case has quashed a subpoena issued by the RIAA to learn the identities of four anonymous Boston University students.
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Judge Gertner did find another EFF argument unconvincing, however. In this and other cases, the EFF had argued that the Copyright Act mandates that an actually, physical copy change hands in order for infringement to occur. Not so, according to the judge, who ruled that the EFF was relying on an "overly literal" definition of "material object." Whether the distribution takes place electronically or physical makes no difference.
As was the case in Elektra v. Barker, the judge did note that an "offer to distribute" is sufficient basis for a copyright infringement claim, which means that the RIAA can continue to make that allegation in its lawsuits. There is, however, a big difference between having evidence for a copyright infringement claim and showing by a preponderance of evidence that infringement actually took place.
Movie Director Says it is OK to Pirate His Movie | TorrentFreak
Last weekend, a CAM version of the Norwegian movie “Lange Flate Ballær II” leaked onto several BitTorrent sites. Quite surprisingly, the producer doesn’t hold a grudge against the person who leaked the film. Instead, he thinks it’s an honor that someone took the effort to record it in a movie theater.
Maine law students try to derail RIAA lawsuit express
Students at the University of Maine School of Law's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic are continuing their fight against the RIAA's legal tactics. A motion filed earlier this week on behalf of two "John Doe" University of Maine students sued by the RIAA seeks to not only have the John Doe lawsuit filed against the 27 U of M students thrown out, but to bar the RIAA from bringing any such lawsuits in the future.
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At issue is the RIAA's practice of clumping a number of Does into a single lawsuit for the sole purpose of serving subpoenas on a single school or ISP. The only relationship between the Does is that they attend the same school or all subscribe to the same broadband provider. The RIAA argues that's a sufficient relationship for the purposes of its lawsuits, but once it obtains names and addresses, that relationship suddenly disappears as individual lawsuits are filed.
Internet book piracy will drive authors to stop writing - Times Online
Book piracy on the internet will ultimately drive authors to stop writing unless radical methods are devised to compensate them for lost sales.
Perez Premieres New Litigation Tactic « Popsquire
o get even for a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Zomba Records, Perez Hilton announced last night that he will not blog about any Zomba-related artists, including Leona Lewis, Jennifer Lopez, Whitney Houston, Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, Pink, and many more. Zomba filed a lawsuit against Perez on October 11, 2007, because Perez allegedly leaked approximately ten songs from Britney Spears’ Blackout album before its release date.
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- Perez claims that Sony BMG — which owns Zomba — is making “outrageous demands” to settle the lawsuit. This means that the parties are discussing settlement, which always starts with “outrageous demands.” Expect Perez to cough up some dinero to make the case go away, although he may be kicking and screaming the whole time.
- Perez writes, “Sony BMG may win this battle, but at the end of the day we will be the ones laughing.” If Zomba’s attorneys are awake, they will grill Perez about this statement in deposition. Perez clearly has reached the conclusion that he may be held liable. Find out why!
Perez makes two big admissions in his strategy announcement:
Person Charged with fine amounting to Dh 10K for infringing copyright | An Intellectual Property (IP) And Internet Law Resource.
A 23 year old Dubai national has been fined for Dh. 10,000 for illegally downloading and using programmes from Showtime, Art and Orbit on his website.It was also ordered by the court to shut down the website of the convict with immediate effect.He was charged of unlawfully deciphering the encrypted channels — Art, Showtime and Orbit and downloading different programmes, which he broadcast in special forums on the website for a price.
John Furrier Says Google’s CIO is Leaving for EMI
Google’s CIO Douglas Merrill is leaving to start as the new president at EMI, the record label giant. This bit of information was confirmed by folks that John Furrier knows close to the issue, however unbelievable it may be. It was so unbelievable, given that it’s April 1st, that I gave him a ring to chat about it.
New ruling may "grease the wheels" of RIAA litigation machine
One of the biggest questions facing both defendants and the RIAA in the record labels' legal campaign against P2P users is whether making a file available for download over a P2P network equates to distribution as defined under the Copyright Act. In a long-awaited ruling, a federal judge essentially validated the RIAA's position that having songs available in a KaZaA shared folder violates the distribution right under the Copyright Act.
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Von Lohmann called the decision well-reasoned, but unfortunate. "I understand how the court went wrong and the unfortunate result," he told Ars. "And he admits that his decision is not without disagreement; he understands the contours of the issue. But clearly, he really engaged the subject and read all of the law."
Ray Beckerman, who is representing Barker, called the ruling a mixed bag. "We're gratified to see the court reject the making available theory and disappointed to see that he didn't throw out the case altogether," he told Ars. "I think the ruling had some positive aspects to it and was also flawed." (Beckerman broke the story and the decision is available from his site.)
The RIAA is pleased with the ruling. "As we expected, the court rejected the defendant’s motion to dismiss and is allowing this case to proceed," RIAA spokesperson Cara Duckworth told Ars. "The court also agreed with the record companies that merely offering to distribute copies for the purposes of further distribution—even without an actual dissemination—can violate the distribution right."
LegalTorrents - What, No Phat Warez?
I’ve just chuckled as I realized that the recently relaunched oldschool legal torrent site, excitingly named LegalTorrents, is in beta. I don’t see why a simple torrent site such as this one needs the beta badge; I guess that the devs felt it’s not quite finished yet.
Joi Ito Takes Lead At Creative Commons
The five year old Creative Commons nonprofit organization announced a new CEO this afternoon as founding CEO Lawrence Lessig steps down: Joi Ito.
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Joi Ito, who was born in Kyoto, Japan, is a well known investor and Creative Commons board member. Founding board member and Duke law professor James Boyle will become chair of the board, replacing Ito.
Sparks fly over copyright at Tech Policy Summit | Lawgarithms | ZDNet.com
The group of copyright scholars and advocates gathered Wednesday at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood demonstrated that while copyright must function in a converged world, opinions on how it should function are as divergent as ever. The panel (pictured from left to right) consisted of Patrick Ross (Executive Director, Copyright Alliance), Fred von Lohmann (Senior Staff Attorney, EFF), Matt Zinn (VP and general counsel, TiVo), and moderator Doug Lichtman of UCLA Law School.
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Ross: You’re talking about civil actions.
Von Lohmann: If 30,000 Americans were in jail, that wouldn’t be getting artists paid either.
YouTube to Use JRC Copyrighted Songs -- Tech-On!
Japan Rights Clearance Inc (JRC), a company managing musical copyrights and Google Inc, which runs the "YouTube" video sharing Website, announced March 27, 2008, that they had reached a comprehensive agreement to allow YouTube to use music under JRC's management.
EMI Suffers A Setback In Case Against MP3Tunes
EMI is suing MP3Tunes for copyright infringement and demanded that the service turn over the more than 100 million music files stored in all 125,000 MP3Tunes accounts. (The argument is that even if there is no sharing between lockers, users are transferring music to MP3Tunes, which is the same as distributing the music—a right only EMI has). A court in New York has denied that request, Robertson writes on his blog.
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All access to a music Locker requires a unique username and password, and there is absolutely no sharing between Lockers. . . . MP3tunes strongly objected to EMI’s request, because it was both an invasion of user’s personal storage, and because it would create a huge technical and financial burden, with more than 300 terabytes of files in personal Lockers. Files are not MP3tunes’ possessions any more than the contents of a safety deposit box are owned by the bank that houses them.
No corporation should have the right to demand the content of tens of thousands of personal accounts be turned over to them. There’s no reason to suggest that the users are doing anything but listening to their own music collections in a modern manner. There are millions of Gmail accounts that have MP3 files stored in them � same with Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft’s email and hosting services. If EMI can gain unfettered access to wantonly look through personal accounts on MP3tunes those services will be next.
EMI is trying to eliminate online storage and take people back to a prehistoric time before Internet services existed.
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