1
07
2010
Can a law firm sue up to 5,000 accused P2P users from across the US at once, and in a single DC court? For now, at least, it can.
In a 45-minute hearing yesterday before federal judge Rosemary Collyer of the Washington, DC District Court, lawyers from the ACLU, EFF, and Time Warner Cable squared off with Thomas Dunlap of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver, the firm behind the “US Copyright Group.”
US Copyright Group has spent the last year partnering with indie film producers like German video game auteur Uwe Boll and the producers of The Hurt Locker, offering to go after P2P downloaders of their films. Those who settle for $1,500-$2,500 can avoid a threatened court case that would seek $150,000 in damages.
The content in this post was found at http://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/BAaf and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright
30
06
2010
Most likely, Craig Vernor had no idea the firestorm he would create when he decided to put used copies of AutoCAD, a 3-D modeling software often used by architects, up for sale on E-Bay. He wanted to sell the $4,000 software (when new) for about $400 online. (Vernor’s actions on E-Bay are by no means the first of their kind. At present, E-Bay has 19 sub-categories of software for sale.)
Autodesk, the software’s creator and parent company, immediately demanded that the items be removed from E-Bay due to copyright infringement.
more
The content in this post was found at http://redmountainlaw.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/ownership-or-license-where-to-draw-the-line-on-copyright-infringement/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright, First Sale Doctrine, Terms of Service
30
06
2010
We all remember Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the first person to ever respond to an RIAA file-sharing lawsuit by going to trial, rather than settling for a few thousand dollars (as the vast majority of individuals sued by the RIAA typically do.) Well, the litigation continues, and the RIAA’s initial award of $1.92 million keeps going down.
more
The content in this post was found at http://jetl.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/keeping-the-riaas-gun-loaded-the-thomas-rasset-saga-continues/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright
27
06
2010
Nate Anderson
Ars Technica
June, 2010
Has file-sharing helped society? Looked at from the narrow perspective of existing record labels, the question must seem absurd; profits have dropped sharply in the years since tools like Napster first appeared. But a pair of well-known academics argue peer-to-peer file sharing has weakened copyright in the US… and managed to benefit all of us at the same time.
“Consumer welfare increased substantially due to new technology,” write Felix Oberholzer-Gee of Harvard and Koleman Strumpf of the University of Kansas. “Weaker copyright protection, it seems, has benefited society.”
more
The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/file-sharing-has-weakened-copyrightand-helped-society.ars and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright
26
06
2010
For the last several months, I’ve been covering the tens of thousands of “John Doe” lawsuits brought against accused peer-to-peer movie swappers by the law firm of Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver. With so many developments and so many different cases, it can sometimes be hard for newcomers to the story to get a high-level overview of what’s going on—and why it matters.
Fortunately, National Public Radio’s On the Media is on the case. In this week’s episode, On the Media aired an interview between myself and host Bob Garfield
more
The content in this post was found at http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/06/25/05 and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright
25
06
2010
This week, the Southern District of New York granted summary judgment for Google in its one billion dollar case against Viacom, finding that YouTube, which is owned by Google, is protected under the safe harbor of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Viacom, along with other plaintiffs, sued YouTube for copyright infringement..
– Theresa Weisenberger
more
The content in this post was found at http://jetl.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/google-defeats-viacoms-copyright-case-with-dmca-safe-harbor/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright, Copyright Safe Harbor, DMCA, Fair Use
24
06
2010
“Walking On Eggshells: Borrowing Culture in the Remix Age.” (video)
Elizabeth Stark: Several students in my Intellectual Property in the Digital Age at Yale recently made this kickass Creative Commons-licensed film on remix culture and appropriation. The film features interviews from DJ Earworm, Jonathan Lethem, DJ Ripley, Eclectic Method, Joy Garnett, Michael Cunningham, and others.
“Walking on Eggshells” is a 24-minute documentary about appropriation, creative influence, re-use and intellectual property in the remix age. It is a conversation among various musicians, visual artists, writers and lawyers, all sharing their views on why and how we use and create culture, and how intellectual property law, originally designed to provide people with incentives to create, sometimes hinders creative production far more than it enhances it.
more
The content in this post was found at http://bibliolicious.wordpress.com/2010/06/25/walking-on-eggshells-borrowing-culture-in-the-remix-age-video/ and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright, Fair Use
22
06
2010
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright, Fair Use
22
06
2010
The US Copyright Group, a business name for the group of Virginia lawyers filing suits against tens of thousands of alleged US peer-to-peer movie downloaders, has been sharply criticized by the EFF and ACLU for suing up to 5,000 anonymous defendants at once. The suits were “improperly joined,” said the groups. At least one of the federal judges overseeing these cases wanted to hear more, telling lawyers from Dunlap, Grubb, & Weaver to convince her that all of the anonymous defendants had participated in the same transaction.
Yesterday, lawyer Tom Dunlap tried his hand at the task, filing a 29-page document in the Washington, DC District Court. According to Dunlap, suing 5,000 anonymous users at once is proper because of how BitTorrent works.
The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/p2p-lawyers-tell-judge-suing-5000-does-at-once-is-fine.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright
17
06
2010
LimeWire continues to take a beating from the music industry, as eight members of the National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA) have filed a new lawsuit against the company. The organization announced the lawsuit during its annual meeting in New York, saying that LimeWire facilitated “pervasive online infringement” and that it affected everyone in the music industry.
more
The content in this post was found at http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/music-industry-dogpiles-on-limewire-with-new-lawsuit.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss and was not authored by the moderators of freeforafee.com. Clicking the title link will take you to the source of the post.
Comments : No Comments »
Categories : Copyright
