Weeks after a court ruled that Cox Communications had deliberately ignored repeat piracy offenders and put up roadblocks to prevent certain copyright holders from filing infringement claims, a jury has handed down a $25 million verdict against the cable and Internet provider. [More]
copyright
Grumpy Cat Is Also A Legal Eagle, Files Copyright Lawsuit Against Coffee Company
By 12.14.15
Grumpy Cat (real name: Tardar Sauce) isn’t just a feline with a perma-frown; it’s also the face of a multimillion-dollar merchandising brand. Now the sourpuss cat is involved in a legal dispute with a company that sells Grumpy Cat coffee beans. [More]
Disney Decides To Be Evil Again, Re-Sends Copyright Takedown For Star Wars Figure Pic
By 12.11.15
This morning, it seemed like Disney had realized that sending copyright takedown notices for legally obtained and posted photos of Star Wars action figures was maybe not a good idea. But the Dark Side apparently has Mickey in its grips, as Disney continues to send takedown notices for copyright claims the company had already retracted. [More]
Disney Forces Takedown Of Star Wars Figure Photos; Realizes Maybe That’s Not A Good Idea
By 12.11.15
UPDATE: Within hours of issuing the retraction on the copyright claim, Disney re-sent the same claim to Facebook, this time demanding the removal of the entire post (which didn’t violate copyright to begin with). Not only is the original post gone, but the Facebook user who took the photo is currently under a three-day ban from posting anything to the site. [More]
Settlement Means “Happy Birthday” Song Will Finally Enter Public Domain
By 12.10.15
The next time you decide to perform a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday To You” on TV, or in a movie or on your debut album, you won’t have to worry about paying anyone for the right to do so: after two years of legal wrangling over who owns the copyright to the classic tune, the parties involved have agreed to settle their differences. [More]
Judge Says Cox Refused To Pull Plug On Known Copyright Pirates
By 12.3.15
Earlier this year we told you how apparently innocent Cox cable/Internet customers had gotten caught up in a piracy lawsuit filed against the company by a music publisher. While some of those customers were able to remove themselves from the dispute, a judge has ruled that Cox knowingly allowed pirates to continue using their broadband accounts in violation of the law. [More]
Even Pirated Media Files Are Now Upgrading To 4K
By 11.30.15
The grainy bootleg tapes and even DVDs of yesteryear are gone, gone, gone. Among today’s daily signs that we all are, indeed, now living in a bright, shiny future: Even pirated video is apparently now in pixel-perfect ultra-HD. [More]
Comcast Can Interrupt Your Web Browsing With Warnings About Potentially Illegal File-Sharing
By 11.23.15
Did you miss last night’s episode of The Walking Dead (where they finally reveal that Glenn shot J.R., but didn’t kill Laura Palmer) because you don’t have cable and just plan on grabbing a pirated version of it from the Internet? If you’re a Comcast customer who has been flagged a potential copyright violator, your web-browsing experience may be interrupted with pop-up warnings. [More]
YouTube Is Helping Some Video Creators To Fight Unfair Copyright Claims
By 11.19.15
Copyright is pretty murky territory. We all know you can’t steal someone’s stuff, but there are times when you’re allowed to use it. Unfortunately, some copyright holders don’t seem to get that “fair use” exists, and respond with takedown claims and legal threats. For some YouTube users facing threats over legal work, though, that fight may just have gotten a little easier. [More]
Court Ruling On Trade Dispute Also Prevents MPAA From Blocking File-Sharing Sites
By 11.12.15
The internet can be very weird sometimes, as can the massive patchwork of regulation and case law that holds the world together. And so it came to pass this summer that we found ourselves looking at an otherwise-obscure court case about braces — yes, the teeth kind — that could upend the way the entire internet works in the name of preventing media piracy. Happily, it looks like the internet, in all its chaotic and sometimes illegal glory, gets to keep marching on for the time being. [More]
You Can Record Movies Off Netflix, Or Music Off Spotify, But You’re Not Allowed To
By 11.6.15
Once upon a time, in the long-long ago bygone years of the 20th century, teenagers communicated their feelings through a medium known as the mix tape. Those of us who can remember tape cassettes can remember hitting “record” on a boom box at exactly the right moment when a favorite song started on the radio or, as the ’90s waned into the shadow of Y2K, recording tracks off a bunch of CDs into one themed tape to play in the car or slip into the hand of a not-so-secret crush. [More]
Virginia Artist Accuses Target Of Ripping Off Designs For Cellphone Covers
By 10.29.15
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but that’s not how one Virginia artist sees it. At least not in the case of cellphone covers she says Target and one of its suppliers copied from her designs. [More]
“1984” T-Shirt Designs Taken Down After Demand From George Orwell Estate
By 10.27.15
George Orwell’s 1984 imagined a bleak bureaucratic future where free speech was easily inhibited. Perhaps the people who run his estate (and certainly the people at Cafe Press) should read the book; or at least brush up on copyright basics. [More]
Copyright Office Rules: Yes, Security Researchers May Hack Cars (And A Couple Other Things) For Science
By 10.27.15
Copyright law is surprisingly pervasive. It affects everything from computers to cars (and tractors). The law says you’re not allowed to circumvent DRM on anything for any reason… except for a big pile of things you actually legally can. Those exemptions get re-evaluated every three years, and today the new list is out. [More]
Authors Guild Says Google Books Is “Serious Threat To Writers”
By 10.19.15
Last week, a federal appeals court upheld a district court ruling that Google Books — the search engine that uses scans of actual books for its results — is a legal “fair use” under U.S. copyright laws. This decision is not sitting well with the professional authors trade group that sued Google, and which intends to take its argument before the U.S. Supreme Court. [More]
Appeals Court Says Google’s Book-Scanning Project Is Legal Fair Use
By 10.16.15
A federal appeals court has sided with Google in a lawsuit filed by the nation’s largest trade group for professional writers, ruling that the Internet giant’s large-scale book-scanning project is a legal fair use of these texts and not a violation of the authors’ copyright. [More]
TPP: Leaked Chapter Shows Trade Agreement Could Have Big Effects On Drug Prices, Privacy
By 10.13.15
The 12 countries participating in the Trans-Pacific Partnership finally came to an agreement on the more-or-less final draft on October 6. Each member nation soon gets to kick off its own ratifying process, but until that formally begins, the entire text is still a closely-held secret. [More]
Verizon Tells Judge: Porn Copyright Troll Is Wasting Everyone’s Time With “Defective” Subpoenas
By 10.2.15
Porn producer Malibu Media, which has filed more than 4,000 copyright lawsuits since 2009 — several times more than any other company — is currently trying to compel Verizon to reveal the identities of Internet users Malibu believes are illegally sharing its movies. But lawyers for the telecom titan are telling the court they’ve had enough of Malibu’s “defective” and “unenforceable” subpoenas. [More]
