Jonathan Bailey's List: Episode 88

• Viva La Vida is credited to the band's four members - singer Chris Martin, bass player Guy Berryman, guitarist Johnny Buckland and drummer Will Champion.

• "In the most dire scenario, MGA can't sell Bratz at all and a humongous chunk of their business disappears," said Needham & Co. analyst Sean McGowan. "But it's likely they will work out a way for MGA to stay in business but Mattel to profit."
• The jury verdict form asked panelists only to find whether there was infringement and assign a dollar reward, but did not ask them to specify which dolls violated the law.
• "They'll go back to business as if nothing happened, except they spent a lot of money," McGowan said. "Meanwhile, the market has softened for Bratz anyway, so they're not going to go back to what it was. And that's the best possible outcome."

1 more annotation...

• But Public Knowledge, which has been following this proceeding for months, quickly filed a response to MPAA's latest comments, noting that various studios plan to roll out early-run movies without SOC. "MPAA has presented no evidence that analog or protected digital outputs are the source of copyright infringement or that the waiver would have any effect on infringement," PK's Jef Pearlman concluded, "while there is significant evidence that neither is true."

• "It's the embarrassment factor," he said. "One lady told us she fainted when she opened her letter. Teenagers right up to old-age pensioners have been accused of downloading hardcore porn. The overriding feeling is one of outrage."
• "Because it is porn, the person who's being accused won't want to go to court and is more likely to pay up to make the matter go away even if they are completely innocent."

• When contacted, Mister Stagliano appeared to be unaware of the £500 DigiProtect is demanding from alleged file-sharers to settle out of court. 

  "It's not my understanding that they ask for anything near that. I think the amount was $50 (£34) or €50 (£43)," he said.
• "There is no compulsion on the individual to accept this settlement if he is innocent."

2 more annotations...

• Steam is its own form of DRM, one that makes programs like SecuROM redundant. "You'd have to ask Valve for specific numbers," PC Gaming Alliance President Randy Stude told Ars, "but I believe piracy on Steam is very low."
• "I think the problem with DRM is not so much the particular method used, but the attitude behind it. It makes us feel like we're all being punished for the sins of the few,"
• While Steam is a step in the right direction, giving gamers the ability to play games on multiple systems without having to worry about losing discs or CD keys, some gamers have reported issues getting their games to work in offline mode, and worry about Valve shutting down the servers at some point in the future.

1 more annotation...

• "In the end I said to the church that Getty was not playing ball or following the normal litigation or dispute resolution procedures and to ignore them. We don't deal with bullies; we deal with legal threats appropriately. I told them by letter that's what they were doing, that we were not going to play, and didn't hear any more." Drake now regularly reminds all churches to ensure that all the images they use are fully licensed.
• The virtual law firm Limeone has dealt with more than 300 of Getty's infringement claims, plus some from Corbis, primarily for clients where the original source of the images is unclear. Says Janine Hughes of Limeone: "Once we get involved generally Getty does back off. I think the main problem Getty has is proving when images came into their possession. It's clear in some of our dealings with them that they have practical problems in establishing that. It's a massive problem for them with respect to evidence.
• Ultimately, she adds: "My goal is to make my job obsolete. The ideal scenario is we have businesses properly licensing these images through sales channels."
• "If they can get $10 a day for a licence for five years and people are actually paying them, then there is a genuine market out there and they have a basis for saying this is what it's worth." But, he says: "The numbers mentioned don't seem plausible to me."

2 more annotations...

• Cooper granted summary judgment on all claims for Midway Games, represented in the case by Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, agreeing with the Chicago-based publisher that “few, if any, similarities between the works at issue that are protectable."