16 items | 193 visits
The show notes for the 52nd episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show!
Updated on Mar 28, 08
Created on Mar 28, 08
Category: Others
URL:
Long at loggerheads, cable provider Comcast Corp. and popular file-sharing company BitTorrent Inc. now are working together.
The deal comes as BitTorrent, which became known for developing software technology widely used to illegally share files, is trying to reinvent itself.
We have decided on our own, not due to any court order or agreement, to bring the Torrentspy.com search engine to an end and thus we permanently closed down worldwide on March 24, 2008.
The legal climate in the USA for copyright, privacy of search requests, and links to torrent files in search results is simply too hostile. We spent the last two years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, defending the rights of our users and ourselves.
Ultimately the Court demanded actions that in our view were inconsistent with our privacy policy, traditional court rules, and International law; therefore, we now feel compelled to provide the ultimate method of privacy protection for our users - permanent shutdown.
However, justice works swifter in Iceland than it does in the US, and after only 4 months, the case has been to court.
The decision, however, was as surprising as it was swift. Instead of deciding for or against the defendants, the court simply dismissed the case. It is likely, however, that the plaintiffs will appeal the decision to the Icelandic ‘Supreme Court’ (Hæstiréttur).
The verdict, (available in Icelandic here) seems to hinge on the fact that under Icelandic laws, searching for files, or providing accessibility to them, is legal, as long as the files provided by the service are not themselves copyrighted. Torrent files, are not themselves copyrighted, but are instead metadata – data about data- describing copyrighted material, as indeed are reviews.
Svavar Lúthersson, owner of torrents.is, told TorrentFreak in a response to the court ruling “I’m very glad they came to this decision although it came as a surprise for myself and the plaintiffs. I will have to consult with my lawyer as to what this decision means regarding the preliminary injunction but currently it’s still in effect.”
Now that the IFPI has realized that it can’t sue every file-sharer in the world, it tries to force ISPs to block their customers from accessing filesharing sites such as The Pirate Bay. The IFPI recently forced an Israeli ISP to block access to HTTPShare.com - which boosted its visitors significantly - but it’s the block it achieved against The Pirate Bay in Denmark that is currently being used as leverage against other ISPs, this time in Sweden.
One such ISP is Telia Sonera, the dominant internet provider in Sweden with a total of 106 million subscribers across Europe. According to a report, they have received a letter from the IFPI which states that legal measures will be taken against them unless they block The Pirate Bay initially, and also some other (as yet unnamed) sites connected to it.
However, Telia is highly experienced in its field and has a very clear understanding of its obligations under the law, law which does not require them to block sites or filter content.
Cliff Thompson, a San Antonio resident sued by the RIAA for copyright infringement, has asked the Supreme Court to decide whether the record labels should be forced to pay attorneys' fees in cases where they voluntarily dismiss copyright infringement cases. Thompson was sued by the RIAA in 2006 for allegedly using KaZaA to distribute music, but the labels dismissed their case against him once it became apparent that his adult daughter was the KaZaA user in question.
Two ongoing cases illustrate the point. First, the European Union is pushing for the US to change a pair of rules that it calls "long-standing trade irritants." Despite World Trade Organization rulings against it, the US has not yet corrected either case for a period of several years. Ambassador John Bruton, who represents the EU in the US, said in a statement late last week that he wants to see the matters resolved.
Van Heuen is very optimistic that the Blu-ray Disc Association won't be able to squash this crack using technological methods. But what about the law? SlySoft is based on the isle of Antigua, where the only "heat" SlySoft can expect is from the sun.
I recently followed Lifehacker's guide to BitTorrent and set my laptop up with the uTorrent program. Using a combination of PizzaTorrent and uTorrent, I downloaded several movies and albums, perhaps 30 in all. Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from Cablevision (my ISP) saying that Paramount/Dreamworks had filed a complaint with them regarding my illegal download of one of their films.
'The simplest option would be a flat rate under which a monthly payment would provide access to our entire music catalogue for all digital players, including Apple's Ipod,' he added.
With Hulu going live this month, the portals that are distribution partners for this NBC Universal-News Corp. online video joint venture continue to focus on streaming full-length episodes and building out content around popular TV shows.
What may not be so widely recognized, however, is that ABC obtains rates for video ads streamed in association with its content that “are comparable to TV rates.” In excess of $20-per-thousand, in fact.
But reading his opinion piece published in today’s New York Times concerning what he calls “the royalty scam” conducted by Internet music portals like MySpace and Bebo, I can’t help but say: wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.
The most enthusiastically glum was Gerry Faulhaber, a professor at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and the former chief economist for the FCC. According to Faulhaber, copyright is a dead letter.
The makers of World of Warcraft are locked in a legal battle with a firm that has produced a tool to automate many actions in the virtual world.
Blizzard is suing Michael Donnelly, the creator of the MMO Glider program, which performs key tasks in the game automatically, such as fighting.
Mr Donnelly says his tool does not infringe Blizzard's copyright because no "copy" of the Warcraft game client software is ever made.
Blizzard has said the tool infringes copyright because it copies the game into RAM in order to avoid detection by anti-cheat software.
The two parties are now awaiting a summary judgement in the case.
16 items | 193 visits
The show notes for the 52nd episode of the Copyright 2.0 Show!
Updated on Mar 28, 08
Created on Mar 28, 08
Category: Others
URL:
The decision, however, was as surprising as it was swift. Instead of deciding for or against the defendants, the court simply dismissed the case. It is likely, however, that the plaintiffs will appeal the decision to the Icelandic ‘Supreme Court’ (Hæstiréttur).
- Jonathan Bailey on 2008-03-28