The Licensing Plate

Raskally fellows: Are copyright infringers “pirates” and “thieves”?

The habit of relying on metaphors such as “piracy” and “theft” to describe violations of copyright protections can elicit enraged reactions online—“it’s infringement, not theft!” is one common lament. True as that may be, using tough words in the copyright context is a centuries-old practice. Consider the following extracts from a 1704 essay by Daniel Defoe, known for his advocacy for authors’ rights long before Robinson Crusoe was published.

ars technica (full article)

EFF Calls Foul on Robo-Takedowns

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) urged a federal judge Monday to reject arguments from Warner Brothers Entertainment claiming that the company’s automated scheme to send copyright infringement notices absolves it of responsibility for the system’s major flaws.

In this case, Warner is accused of sending thousands of takedown notices for content it did not own to a cyber-locker site called Hotfile. Hotfile asked for damages under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which holds copyright users accountable if they send takedown notices in bad faith. However, Warner insists that while it knew it was issuing some bad takedown requests with its semi-automated system, the errors should be excused by the court because a computer made the mistake – not a human. In an amicus brief filed Monday, EFF argues that Warner cannot wash its hands of its responsibility for the improper removal of content from Hotfile’s servers.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (full article)

Cybersquatting Cases Reached New Record In 2011, WIPO Reports

The number of cybersquatting cases filed with the arbitration body of the World Intellectual Property Organization reached a record high in 2011 with 2,764 cases filed by trademark owners, the UN agency reported today. WIPO also expressed alarm over the potential impact on cybersquatting of a move underway to add more generic domain names to the internet.

WIPO said last year’s number of cases was an increase of 2.5 per cent and 9.4 per cent from 2010 and 2009 numbers, respectively. “The expanding international reach of the Internet is reflected in the diversity of the domain name disputes filed with the WIPO Center in 2011,” it said in a release.

The WIPO panels that worked on the cases found evidence of cybersquatting, which refers to the act of registering names in bad faith, in 88 per cent of the cases filed last year.

The top five areas with the most number of complaints were retail, internet and information technology, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, fashion and banking and finance. WIPO said the cases for last year included many well-known names in business and public interest sectors.

Intellectual Property Watch (full article)

Copyright kings are judge, jury and executioner on YouTube

On Friday, a YouTube user named eeplox posted a question to the support forums, regarding a copyright complaint on one of his videos. YouTube’s automated Content ID system flagged a video of him foraging a salad in a field, claiming the background music matched a composition licensed by Rumblefish, a music licensing firm in Portland, Oregon.

The only problem? There is no music in the video; only bird calls and other sounds of nature.

ars technica (full article)

Music rights agency Merlin wins illegal file sharing battle with LimeWire

Merlin, the rights agency for independent record labels representing acts including Adele and Arctic Monkeys, has reached a landmark deal with LimeWire worth millions of dollars to artists to end a long-running legal battle over illegal file sharing.

The Guardian (full article)

Judges Say No To Crack, Refuse ‘Crackberry’ Trademark

Embattled BlackBerry maker Research In Motion got a rare bit of good news this week after judges refused to let a gadget site trademark the name “Crackberry.”

The ruling came after RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) asked the Trademark and Trial Appeal Board to refuse Crackberry’s request for a trademark covering clothes and internet services.

paidContent.org (full article)

France: All your books are belong to us

If the phrase “digital pirate” conjures up a lone socially challenged male with a large collection of Manga comics and Cory Doctorow ravings, think again. Some of the biggest “pirates” in the world are nation states.

Last week France passed a law that permits the state to seize authors’ rights on books published before 2001.

The Register (full article)

Pin with Caution, Says Lawyer Who Deleted All Her Pinterest Posts

Kirsten Kowalski, a Georgia attorney and photographer, detailed her decision on her photography blog, DDK Portraits. According to her post, Pinterest’s terms of use agreement states that users are responsible for member content they make available, and either accordingly own the content or have consent from the items’ owners.

ABA Journal (full article)

UK Gets Ball Rolling On Digital Copyright Exchange

UK business secretary Vince Cable has appointed former Ofcom deputy chairman Richard Hooper to lead a feasibility study on establishing a Digital Copyright Exchange.

paidContent.org (full story)

Anti-piracy bill meets Web-freedom backlash

A bill moving through Congress is intended, on its surface at least, to do something relatively simple: Crack down on the illegal pirating of movies, music and other copyrighted material.

But a major online backlash has evolved, with everyone from lawmakers to Web-freedom advocates to some of technology’s biggest players calling it a greedy and dangerous overreach that could have a chilling effect on free speech and innovation.

CNN (full article)

YouTube agrees to share ad revenues with Belgian royalties collector

Belgian music royalties collector Sabam has agreed licensing terms with YouTube which it said will enable Belgian artists to obtain compensation when their music is used on the site.

Pinsent Masons LLP (full article)

Apple Fights on for “App Store” Trademark Against Amazon

Apple Inc., owner of the trademark “App Store,” has formally amended its trademark complaint against Amazon. Apple accuses Amazon of false advertisement for Amazon’s use of the term “App Store” in a recent promotion for the Kindle Fire tablet

How The Stop Online Piracy Act Will Kill Innovation

Without safe harbor and several related provisions, much of the internet as we know it could not exist, because forcing websites to pre-screen everything that comes from users is untenable. And that is one reason why the copyright cartel’s friends and puppets in Congress have introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa), a bill designed, among other things, as an end run around safe harbor.

paidContent.org (full article)

Google Opens Music Store To US, Challenge To Apple

Google unveiled its much-anticipated digital music store Wednesday as it opened a new front in its battle with Apple to provide services over mobile devices.

Pollstar (full article)

House Judiciary Hearing on Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) Focuses on DCMA; Google Opposes Bill

At Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), opponents of the act avoided familiar claims that the legislation would “break the Internet.” But the hearing did highlight Internet companies’ fears that the bill would undermine the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the law granting “safe harbor” protections against Internet services that allow users to upload content.

Billboard (full article)

(UK) Social media users must disclose payments, say ad trade bodies

Social media users that have been paid to promote products must tell readers that this is the case, according to new advertising guidelines. The businesses that pay them must make sure that notice is given, the guidelines said

Pinsent Masons LLP (full article)

Republicans, Democrats, Google, and Church of Sweden unite to halt Hollywood

“A basic tenet is that the platforms and the pipes don’t have responsibility for the content that others put in them,” explained Lofgren. “Once there’s a notice of a problem, then you have an obligation to act. That important principle would be put at risk if this bill were adopted. The implications for our economy would be dire.”

ars technica (full article)

Warner Bros: we issued takedowns for files we never saw, didn’t own copyright to

In a Monday court filing, Warner Brothers admitted that it has issued takedown notices for files without looking at them first. The studio also acknowledged that it issued takedown notices for a number of URLs that its adversary, the locker site Hotfile, says were obviously not Warner Brothers’ content.

ars technica (full article)

Righthaven Takes $120K Hit in Latest Lawsuit

Righthaven has been ordered to pay nearly $119,488 in attorney fees, court costs after losing a lawsuit against former federal prosecutor Thomas DiBiase.

GamePolitics (full article)

FreeBieber campaign is not afraid of Justin Bieber or his lawyers

In 2007, a 12-year-old Justin Bieber began recording videos of himself singing covers of popular songs and uploading them to YouTube. A copyright reform organization called Fight for the Future created a website called FreeBieber.org to highlight the danger that a pending anti-streaming bill could make the creation of such videos a felony. The 17-year-old Justin Bieber, now an international superstar, apparently doesn’t appreciate the unauthorized campaign. So he (apparently) had his lawyers send out a cease-and-desist order.

ars technica (full article)