An Ars Technica story provides more information about the U.S Copyright Group’s litigation campaign against movie downloaders. As mentioned here in March (see Bit Torrent-ers Beware) the Group is the revenue-generating brainchild of a Virgina law firm. As reported by Ars Technica it’s a simple idea: identify downloads of an independent film, team up with [...]
A story in today’s Globe is a lock to appear in the coming academic year’s copyright law discussions. Titled “Pay to Play–Strict enforcement of copyrights jeopardizing live music in small venues,” the story addresses campaigns by Performance Rights Organizations (PROs)–ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC–to require coffeehouses, cafes, and other small dining venues to obtain performance licenses [...]
Discussing copyright law and file-sharing over the years I’ve lost track of how many times students have asked “what about Limewire? Why does it still exist?” The answer has always been “because a court hasn’t shut it down yet.” While a court still hasn’t enjoined Limewire from operating, it took a giant step in that [...]
The title to Eriq Gardner’s article states its content efficiently: New Litigation Campaign Quietly Downloads Tens of Thousands of Movie Downloaders. The U.S. Copyright Group–”a company owned by intellectual property lawyers that has one singular mission and focus: to stop movie copyright infringement and make illegal downloaders pay damages for the content they have stolen”–, [...]
Joel Tenenbaum, BU’s own music pirate found liable last summer for copyright infringement in a case that attracted considerable media attention, is in the news again. A federal court jury ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000 in damages to copyright holders for downloading 30 songs. That’s $22,500 a song. Tenenbaum’s pro bono lawyer Charlie Nesson [...]
PC World reports that a draft treaty leaked from the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement talks would make ISPs liable for civil damages for user-generated uploads and downloads of copyrighted content. According to PC World, the draft treaty would require ISPs to take affirmative steps, such as terminating violators’ accounts, to avoid being liable for their users’ [...]
In 2007 RIAA v Jammie Thomas-Rasset (she was just Jammie Thomas then) resulted in a jury verdict and damages of $222,000 in favor of the RIAA. A few months later the trial judge had second thoughts about his instructions to the jury and ordered a new trial. In 2009 RIAA v Jammie Thomas-Rasset II: Oops [...]