In a bit of copyright irony, companies like NBC Universal and Lionsgate have started targeting Google and the DMCA request clearinghouse ChillingEffects.org in their robotically-generated takedown orders simply because the site contains URLs that have been previously taken down. It is, in short, takedowns all the way down. → Read More
Editor’s note: Sid Venkatesan is an IP partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP. James Freedman is an associate in Orrick’s IP group and a recent Stanford Law School graduate.
Online content providers and aggregators are well aware of the potential penalties that can result from a copyright infringement lawsuit. In addition to being expensive to litigate, a copyright lawsuit can… → Read More
All the salacious headlines are (mostly) true — as of today, you can’t unlock a carrier-subsidized smartphone on your own before the contract associated with it runs out without technically running afoul of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Granted, I’d wager that the number of people who faithfully stick to their multi-year wireless contracts far exceeds the number of people who would unlock… → Read More
Ruh-roh. While we were happy to discover a simple Gmail add-on from Grexit called InboxWhiz that keeps us from our email obsession, competitor Baydin was not so happy, as it turns out. Not happy at all. In fact, Baydin is accusing Grexit of copying its code, and Baydin CEO Alex Moore says the company is submitting a DMCA takedown notice to get Grexit’s extension removed. → Read More
YouTube today announced that it is making some important changes to its appeals process for users who think their videos were falsely flagged for copyright infringements by YouTube’s Content ID system. Previously, when users filed an appeal and the copyright owner rejected this appeal, the user was generally left without any recourse for certain types of Content ID claims. Starting today… → Read More
Google just announced that, starting next week, its search algorithm will start taking a new signal into account: the number of valid copyright removal notices it receives for a given site. According to Google, “this ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily.” The idea here is obviously to punish pirate sites by pushing links to them down on Google’s… → Read More
Yesterday’s announcement that Twitter would be selectively censoring tweets based on country was not well-received. But part of that announcement was the assurance that the process would at least be transparent. A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.
They also mentioned that they were working with Chilling Effects to make notices and orders sent to Twitter publicly available. At the… → Read More
The news, I’m afraid, is dire. The Internet is about to be destroyed by big media. It is about be killed by two Congressional bills – The ProtectIP and The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – that all-powerful big media lobbyists are now pushing through Congress. These bills will censor the Internet, turn it into China, censor it, destroy its innovation and value.
“Big media is going… → Read More
When Congress updated copyright laws and passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) in 1998, it ushered an era of investment, innovation and job creation. In the decade since, companies like Google, YouTube and Twitter have emerged thanks to the Act, but in the process, they have disrupted the business models and revenue streams of traditional media companies (TMCs). Today, the TMCs… → Read More
The wheels are in motion for a much needed update to this country’s copyright rules, but the only problem is that these new rules seem to have been written by the very same people who thrust the DMCA upon us so many years ago. What fun! → Read More
Man, they’re still fighting, aren’t they? ChillingEffects’ stats, by way of TorrentFreak, reveal that the “international music industry,” in the form of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, has sent the most DMCA takedowns notices in 2010, with some 1,272 notices sent in the year. In third place is some Brazilian hardware site, Clube do Hardware. In third place we have… → Read More
No idea how this will fly in court, but here we go. Apple says that jailbreaking your iPhone, while now as legal as can be, will still void your warranty. Besides, said Apple, the number of people who actually go to the trouble of jailbreaking their iPhone is so small that it’s really not worth getting too excited over. → Read More
Today’s adjustment of the DMCA has far-reaching legal implications, which will only be evident after a few weeks, months, or even years as various parties exploit them however they can. I’m going to let the experts play in that sandbox. But one of the new rules seems to have had a specific target in mind: Apple. To wit:
“(2) Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute… → Read More
It’s no longer illegal under the DMCA to jailbreak your iPhone or bypass a DVD’s CSS in order to obtain fair use footage for educational purposes or criticism. These are the new rules that were handed down moments ago by the U.S. Copyright Office. This is really big. Like, really big. → Read More
At ease, soldiers. The Pirate Bay is back in the Google search index. I understand this was eating at your very soul for some time now. → Read More
Yesterday, August 11, wasn’t just Joe Rogan’s birthday. Nope, it was also the date when a judge in San Francisco ruled that RealDVD was illegal, and reiterated that it was illegal to manufacture or traffic software that makes it possible to copy DVDs. So, every time you fire up DVD Copier on your PC, make a copy of a DVD that you bought, well, you’re breaking the law. The DMCA just keeps on… → Read More
What’s another phrase for, “meh, who cares?” That’s what I’m thinking when I read that the MPAA tried to argue in court that making a personal copy of a DVD is illegal under the DMCA. Is it shocking to people that the MPAA would argue in favor of its own interests, possibly at the expense of the your ability to make rip a DVD? No. No it’s not. → Read More
It’s no secret that Apple wants everyone to use iTunes, especially to sync with their iPod. I personally can’t stand iTunes and prefer Winamp, and many others share my view but have enjoyed Apple hardware. Some more code-savvy people than myself have in years past determined how to read and write to the proprietary iTunesDB file, allowing non-Apple software to sync with iPods. Apple… → Read More
I knew that printers could copy documents but can they really copy Iron Man? Researchers at the University of Washington were doing some tests to suss out BitTorrent traffic on their local network when they found a way to spoof traffic from certain IP addresses. After spoofing two printers on their network, the printers received DMCA notices from the MPAA for sharing files like Iron Man and the… → Read More
My name is Judge Last week, Jammie Thomas was found guilty of copyright infringement and was ordered to pay $222,000 in fines for sharing MP3s. As a mother and working class citizen like most of us, she most likely cannot afford to pay such a ridiculous amount of money. So, she’s using our justice system to fight back; this time, with an appeal. Thomas argues that the amount of damages… → Read More
With the debate over copyright between YouTube and Viacom heating up, the online video site is hoping that some of its biggest stars will help them out in the debate over fair use of TV clips. YouTube intends to question Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert on what they think about Viacom’s decision to sue YouTube. The company needs 30 depositions from people to keep the legal battle going… → Read More
The current version of iTunes, 7.1.1, has been cracked by the creators of QTFairUse6. QTFairUse6 allows for you to strip your iTMS-purchased songs of their nasty DRM. Currently, the software is only for Windows, so us Mac OS X users will have to wait until someone makes a version for us. Chances are Apple has already been informed and iTunes 7.1.2 is in the works as an update. So if you hate DRM… → Read More
Sometimes it takes bold moves for real action to happen. Lucky for us, Representatives Richard Boucher from Virginia and John Dolittle from California have the guts to stand up to the RIAA and say “We don’t need no stinkin’ DRM!” The digital fair use bill was introduced to Congress today, which is supposed to give customers more rights when buying digital content. → Read More
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