The European Parliament has delivered a stunning defeat to the controversial anti-piracy treaty ACTA, voting it down by 478 votes to 39. But although campaigners are claiming victory and the proposals are on the canvas, they’re not quite knocked out yet. Read more at GigaOM »
Under new proposals from the British media regulator Ofcom, internet providers will start sending warning letters to those accused of illegal filesharing in 18 months — and will be forced to handed people’s data over to copyright holders after three successive hits. Read more at GigaOM »
In an act of childishness worthy of his championship players, a minority owner of the Miami Heat NBA team has filed a copyright suit against a blogger for posting a photo of him. He is also suing Google for refusing to take the photo down. Read more »
In a victory for Comcast, a federal judge in Chicago quashed four subpoenas that would have let a porn studio identify hundreds of subscribers accused of using torrent technology to share videos. Read more »
In a move that suggests Google is coming to see itself as a content owner, the company is threatening legal action against sites that let users strip audio from YouTube videos and play them as stand-alone audio clips. Read more »
In a major development in the long-running case over Google’s unauthorized book-scanning, a federal judge ruled today that groups representing authors and photographers could go forward with a class action. Read more »
The judge in the notorious trial between Oracle and Google over Java software declared at the outset that the case was the “World Series” of intellectual property. And no wonder. The two sides have already spent nearly the annual payroll of the San Diego Padres. Read more at GigaOM »
Image-sharing site Pinterest has been in negotiations for months with photo service Getty. A breakthrough could dispel some of the copyright questions hanging over the red-hot start-up — but one expert says not to hold your breath. Read more »
Google is waving its victory in front of French culture makers, after emerging winner from a copyright infringement case brought by France’s largest TV network. Read more »
Here we go again. Another disruptive TV technology, another major lawsuit. This time Dish Network and the major TV networks are suing each other over what Dish calls its “best in class DVR” technology. Read more »
Bloomberg, the mighty news and data empire owned by the mayor of New York City, is an unlikely candidate to strike a blow for flexible copyright laws. Read more »
Russia’s leading social network, Facebook copycat vKontakte, loses an appeal against a copyright conviction – is that an opportunity for Mark Zuckerberg in Moscow? Read more »
Russia’s government has commissioned the building of a system which would let copyright owners identify unauthorised use of their works online. Read more »
In a long-awaited ruling on digital age “coursepacks,” a federal judge drew some bright lines about how professors can share reading materials with their students. Read more »
Verizon Communications has had a history of standing up against publishers seeking to subpoena information about its subscribers and their downloading habits, so it’s not a big surprise to see Big Red telling John Wiley’s lawyers to stuff it. Read more at GigaOM »
The hacking collective claims to have crashed the website of Virgin Media in retribution for complying with an order to block UK Pirate Bay access – but Bay honchos condemn the act. Read more at GigaOM »
In a bitter coincidence, hip-hop great Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys was hit by a copyright lawsuit on the same day he passed away from cancer last week at the age of 47. Read more »
It’s finally happened. In a case with big implications for the booming market in photo-sharing, a publisher is suing popular blogging site Tumblr for copyright infringement. Read more »
Hip-hop icon Adam Yauch (MCA) of the Beastie Boys passed on Friday, leaving a legacy of advocacy and great music. The albums of Yauch and his band taught suburban kids about malt liquor and dust, but were also a wizardly pastiche of music and culture — from Sly & the Family Stone to Mr. Ed to Alfred E. Neuman. Read more »
The UK government has told academic journal publishers it will make freely available online the publicly-funded research they currently charge for, labelling “paywalls” “deeply unhealthy”. Read more »
The lawmaker leading Europe’s digital agenda initiatives is hoping France can liberalise its digital copyright regime, after it introduced a policy to warn and disconnect illegal content downloaders. Read more »
I’ve been interested in both copyright and bears for a long time but this is the first (and probably only) occasion to hit both subjects at the same time. Read more »
In a rite of spring, US trade officials have released a “priority watch list” for copyright that places nations like Canada alongside the likes of China, Russia and Pakistan. Read more »
The estate of a famous photographer is suing Google and an artist named Mr. Brainwash for using images of John Coltrane, Jimi Hendrix and other musicians. The images appeared as merchandise and at a launch party Google hosted last fall in Los Angeles. Read more »
After being unavailable for many decades, Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” will finally be published in Germany. Read more »
The internet is supposed to be about the end of intermediaries. Then why are middlemen so successful? For years, aggregators have ruled the content space and now a new breed of brokers is using technology to redefine the interaction between readers and publishers. Read more »
Copyright lawyers feeding on patent lawyers — it’s not for the faint-hearted. Read more »
Is it legal to buy books or watches overseas and then ship them back to America to sell at a profit? For a long time, the law has been unclear. Now, the Supreme Court is set to weigh in. Read more »
The stereotype of Russia as a haven of copyright infringement could be a thing of the past, after officials in Moscow said they were considering holding internet providers liable for illegal filesharing that takes place on their networks. Read more at GigaOM »
Today’s appeals court ruling in YouTube v. Viacom is the biggest copyright decision of the year and already both sides are proclaiming victory.
The case is about much more than the $1 billion that Viacom says it is owed for John Stewart and South Park clips that appeared on YouTube years ago. Read more »
An influential New York appeals court has resurrected an epic copyright case over whether Google should be liable for movies and tv shows uploaded to YouTube during the video-sharing site’s early days. Read more »
The music industry is battling to stop piracy through Russia’s largest social network so that it can turn the country from a digital backwater in to a top music market. vKontakte, which is often called a Facebook copycat for its similar features and design, includes built-in […] Read more »
Six months after a married Georgia woman sued Match.com for using her photo as a model single lady, the internet is bubbling with a new “OMG… Read more »
Before his death, music legend Ray Charles gave $500,000 in trust to his children on the condition they would seek no claim to his musical e… Read more »
John Wiley has identified some of the anonymous individuals it accuses of downloading books like “Vegetable Gardening for Dummies,” and is p… Read more »
Eighteen months after France implemented one of the world’s first working three-strikes anti-piracy systems, the agency says it has succeede… Read more »
It’s doubtful that the U.S. Supreme Court will ever hear digital movie server maker Kaleidescape’s case against the studio backers of DVD’s… Read more »
Ireland’s largest ISP, which once resisted calls to act against illegal downloaders, has told paidContent its competitors should now join it… Read more »
Aereo, the controversial technology that turns iPhones and iPads into portable TV sets and DVRs, will not disappear anytime soon despite eff… Read more »
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) will accept responsibility for copyright complaints related to popular image-sharing site Pinterest, a photographers’ lo… Read more »
