The Electronic Frontier Foundation is petitioning a federal judge to protect the anonymity of individuals involved in a copyright lawsuit over porn downloading.

An adult film company wants to determine the identities of 1495 Internet users. The judge ordered the individuals suing to protect their anonymity to reveal their identities before the suit could proceed. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 30, 2012.

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A federal judge says Digital Sin can pressure Internet service providers for names of people illegally downloading “My Little Panties #2.” The company has obtained 176  IPA addresses and now will ask the Internet service providers for the names of those affiliated with the addresses.

The judge is requiring that any names uncovered be sent to the court under seal so those individuals can fight the subpoenas anonymously. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, January 31, 2012, by Adam Klasfeld.

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The U.S. Supreme Court extended copyright protection to foreign works created from 1023 to 1989 and already in the public domain thereby shutting down creative uses of these works to protect profits of the owners of old works.

The overall result, argues Ken Paulson of the First Amendment Center, is a loss of free speech. -db

In a commentary from the First Amendment Center, January 20, 2012, by Ken Paulson.

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In a criminal copyright case, the Justice Department shut down Megaupload, executed search warrants , arrested some executives and seized $50 worth of assets.

The Justice Department claimed that Megaupload violated copyrights of movies, “often before their theatrical release, music, television programs, electronic books, and business and entertainment software on a massive scale.” -db

From Wired, January 19, 2012, by David Kravets.

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In a victory for the technology industry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid postponed a vote on the Protect IP Act, the online piracy bill before the Senate.

In effect, Congress is going back to the drawing board to balance intellectual property rights with openness and innovation on the Internet. -db

From Wired, January 20, 2012, by David Kravets.

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In retaliation for being sued by a major karaoke distributor in California federal court for disrupting the karaoke marketplace, Sony/ATV went to Nashville to sue KTS Karaoke for copyright infringement.

Sony/ATV wants greater compensation in a complicated system of multiple rights and forms of payments but is now suing for damages, an injunction and a recall of all karaoke CDs so they may be destroyed. -db

From the Hollywood Reporter, January 20, 2012,  by Eriq Gardner.

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Rejecting arguments that a 1994 law complying with an international treaty violated U.S. copyright law and free speech rights, the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-2 to extend copyright protection to foreign works.

Google was among those against the law, but the government said that foreign works should receive the same treatment as domestic works under the reciprocal international copyright system. -db

From Reuters, January 18, 2012.

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The Citizen Media Law Project is providing access to information on the SOPA and PIPA, the online piracy bills before Congress, and also to links for summaries and commentaries on the laws. -db

From the Citizen Media Law Project,  January 18, 2012, by CMLP Staff.

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The blackout of websites, including BoingBoing, Reddit and Wikipedia, to protest the online piracy laws before Congress was successful in igniting opposition against the laws writes Ian Paul in PCWorld.

Paul says that there were 2.4 million tweets on the topic during the first 16 hours on Wednesday and that the Los Angeles Times reported that 4.5 million signed Google’s petition against the laws. -db

From a commentary in PCWorld, January 18, 2012, by Ian Paul.

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Sites such as Wikipedia, Craigslist and Reddit, who blacked out their websites in protest against the proposed online piracy laws, have come under criticism for abusing their power.

“It is an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information (or) use their services,” said former Sen. Chris Dodd, president of the Motion Picture Association of America which backs the laws. -db

From a c0mmentary in the National Law Journal, January 18, 2012, by Josh Smith.

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It now appears now that Congressional bills to protect copyright on the Internet will be embroiled in a long, intense struggle even as President Barack Obama declared his opposition to key elements of the bills.

The technology industry opposes the bills out of concern that they will stifle free speech and innovation. -db

From The New York Times, January 15, 2012, by Jenna Wortham and Somini Sengupta with contribution from Nick Bilton.

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The Nevada State Bar is investigating Righthaven’s chief executive and two lawyers who  worked for the company. Righthaven was founded to sue blogs and websites for re-posting newspaper articles without permission.

The company initially collected several thousand dollars by threatening to sue but slumped after failing to prevail in any of the cases contested in court. -db

From Wired, January 13, 2012, by David Kravets.

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Twenty-nine news companies are forming NewsRight, a for-profit enterprise, to protect copyrighted content and to seek fees in cases of unauthorized use of content.

NewsRight intends to avoid the errors of Righthaven, the so-called copyright troll, who suffered devastating defeats in the courts caused by its shoddy practices. -db

From MediaPost, January 5, 2012, by Erik Sass.

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The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that  court documents in case brought by Apple against a maker of Mac computer clones were public.

Apple claimed that the documents contained “compelling trade secrets”  about the Mac OS X operating system. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 6, 2012, by Kristen Rasmussen.

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A federal judge ruled that Photobucket.com, Kodab’s photo-sharing website, does not have to examine some 9 billion images for possible copyright infringement. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, January 5, 2012, by Adam Klasfeld.

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The Electronic Freedom Foundation takes on what it says are distortions of the positions taken by those opposing the online piracy legislation recently introduced in both houses of Congress.

While acknowledging that the tech industry recognizes the importance of copyright as it applies to the Internet, writes Trevor Timm for EFF, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act already allows copyright holders to direct websites to remove copyrighted content. The new legislation overreaches, says Timm, adversely affecting millions of non-infringing users. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, December 13, 2011 , by Trevor Timm.

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The International Trade Commission may lack the money and staff fight Internet piracy of movies under laws currently under consideration in Congress according to lawyers who handle cases before the commission.

The lawyers point out that few in the commission are qualified to in the area of digital rights and many more employees would have to come aboard for the commission to be effective. -db

From Bloomberg Businessweek, December 7, 2011, by Eric Engleman and Susan Decker.

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The Association of American Publishers and the Recording Industry Association of America are siding with Righthaven in its appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in an attempt to get an adverse ruling on fair use off the books.

They claim in an amicus brief that it was an error to consider whether Righthaven held the copyright. Rather the court should  rule on the basis that the actual copyright owner was Stephens Media. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, December  5, 2011, by Kuyrt Opsahl.

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Congressional critics of the entertainment industry-backed online piracy law have introduced a bill that would change existing trade laws to reflect that illegally downloading copyright content from foreign-owned web sites would constitute foreign imports. That would allow the International Trade Commission the power to decide if the imports violated intellectual property rights.

The critics say this approach would avoid the problems of the proposed online piracy acts which give the government and industry too much power to take down sites. -db

From Broadcasting & Cable, December 2, 2011, by John Eggerton.

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An executive with the Motion Picture Association said that he expects there to be changes in the Stop Online Piracy Act and its senate version in the wake of the clash between the entertainment and technology industries.

The executive indicated that the entertainment  industry wanted to address some of the legitimate concerns of the technology industry. -db

From The New York Times, November 30, 2011, by Michael Cieply.

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Righthaven’s methods in pursuing copyright violations turned out to be bogus and unfair resulting in its bankruptcy, but, says Jeffrey D. Neuburger in MediaShift, it would be too bad if the company did not survive long enough to pursue appeals lest newspapers lose ground in receiving just compensation for their work. -db

From a commentary for MediaShift, December 1, 2011, by Jeffrey D. Neuburger.

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Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Lamar Smith R-Texas, expressed concerns over the scope of the Stop Online Piracy Act by saying that he was uncertain whether the Justice Department should be allowed to obtain court orders demanding that ISPs prevent users from visiting blacklisted websites, websites accused of infringing on intellectual property.

Under intense fire from the technology sector, it now appears that the bill will be amended. -db

From a commentary in Wired, November 16, 2011, by David Kravets.

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The webcast of the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA was of such poor quality that the Internet community was effectively shut out until the question and answer period.

The community is also concerned that the committee is only asking one representative of the technology sector to testify. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Freedom Foundation, November 16, 2011, by Rainey Reitman.

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A federal court in Nevada has given United States marshals authorization to seize over $63,000. in cash and/or assets from Righthaven. The Las Vegas copyright troll failed to pay a court judgment from August 15.

Righthaven tried to make an enterprise out of suing bloggers over copied newspaper articles, but it was revealed in court proceedings that Righthaven had not actually bought the copyrights of the articles. -db

From a commentary in Ars Technica, November 3, 2011, by Nate Anderson.

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A bipartisan anti-piracy bill introduced in the House of Representatives has the backing of the entertainment industry who want to expel copyright-infringing web sites from the Internet.

Internet companies and digital rights groups say the bill is heavy handed and poses a serious threat to free speech and innovation. -db

From CNet News, October 26, 2011, by Declan McCullagh.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is asking the U.S Supreme Court to rescind a law passed by Congress in 1994 that granted copyright protection to books, movies and music previously in the public domain.

The ACLU has filed a brief arguing that the First Amendment should not permit Congress to end the public’s right to use speech that has previously been in the public domain. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, October 7, 2011, by Sarah Roberts.

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Righthaven has lost again with a Colorado court ruling that a suit against a blogger was baseless and ordering the copyright troll to pay court costs and attorneys’ fees.

In addition, the court put a stay on over 50 cases Righthaven filed in Colorado for copyright infringements. -db

From the Electronic Frontier Foundation, September 28, 2011, by Julie Samuels.

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A man awarded legal fees for defending himself against a Righthaven copyright lawsuit asked a judge to authorize  U.S. Marshalls to seize Righthaven’s bank accounts, property and other assets. Righthaven missed the deadline to pay the $34,000 in fees.

Righthaven CEO Steve Gibson said his firm would be vindicated for suing the man who had published an editorial verbatim on the website to prompt discussion of public employee pensions. -db

From Wired, September 19, 2011, by David Kravets.

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The CEO of MediaNews Group declared it “a dumb idea” to sign up with the copyright troll Righthaven. Righthaven was founded over a year ago to make money by buying copyrights from news outlets then suing for copyright infringement.

Courts have recently ruled that the Righthaven agreements with the media did not actually result in true acquisition of the copyrights so Righthaven had no standing to sue for copyright infringement. -db

From Wired, September 8, 2011, by David Kravets.

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The controversial copyright  troll, Righthaven, has not filed a lawsuit in two months after punishing court rulings against the company. The firm began over a year ago supposedly to buy copyrights from news media and file suits to stop copyright infringements.

Although Righthaven is appealing the court decisions that held that it had no legal standing to file the suits, its operations are at a standstill as the appeal cases take months and years to come before a judge. -db

From Wired, September 7, 2011, by David Kravets.

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Righthaven has lost another legal battle this time over lawyer’s fees. A federal judge order the copyright enforcement firm to pay over $3,800 to lawyers for Michael Leon whom Righthaven sued for infringment of copyright.

In June a Nevada federal district judge ruled that Righthaven had no standing to sue for copyright violations of Las Vegas Review-Journal articles because the newspaper had not granted Righthaven the ability to license the pieces. -db

From the Online Media Daily, July 7, 2011, by Wendy Davis.

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After dropping a similar suit in California in January, IHOP the restaurant chain is filing a new suit in Kansas City against the International House of Prayer (IHOP). IHOP the restaurant started to use the initials in 1973 and said it must protect its trademark with 45 of its 1500 restaurants in Missouri.

From The Kansas City Star, June 1, 2011, by Mark Morris.

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Righthaven is stubbornly digging in as Buzzfeed files a counter claim against them for faulty lawsuits. Buzzfeed is arguing that Righthavens suits, filed after news outlets transfer the right to sue to Righthaven to exact monetary damages, are an “abuse of process”.

Mike Masnick writes in TechDirt, “After documents were unsealed that show that the transfer of copyrights from the Las Vegas Journal-Review (and its parent company, Stephens Media) to Righthaven were almost certainly a sham transfer, designed solely to pass along ‘the right to sue’ (which is not a separately transferable right under copyright law), it seemed like Righthaven might finally have to suck it up and realize that its business model might be a disaster. Instead, it’s chosen to fight on, even as other courts have publicly raised concerns about the legitimacy of Righthaven’s efforts.” -db

From TechDirt, May 18, 2011, by Mike Masnick.

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The creator of former boxer Mike Tyson’s tribal face tattoo has filed a copyright infringement suit against Warner Bros. who reproduced the tattoo on the face of an actor in the movie,” Hangover 2.”

Writing in On Point, Matthew Heller says that although there are recent cases granting copyright protection to distinctive tattoos, this case may hinge on whether the tattoo in “Hangover 2″ is a parody, a statement of humor and irony, since Tyson appeared in the original movie. -db

From a commentary in On Point, May 2, 2011, by Matthew Heller.

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In ruling against Righthaven in their suit against an Oregon nonprofit who posted an immigration article from the Las Vegas Review Journal, a U.S. District Court judge wrote, “[Righthaven's] litigation strategy has a chilling effect on potential fair uses of Righthaven-owned articles, diminishes public access to the facts contained therein, and does nothing to advance the Copyright Act’s purpose of promoting artistic creation.”

The judge wrote that the article was informational and deserved less protection than a creative entertainment piece and that Righthaven had not shown any harm to the value of the copyright since it was not operating as a traditional newspaper. -db

From the Courthouse News Service, April 25, 2011, by Tim Hull.

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Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl says that in obtaining  from a federal district court an agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media, it discovered that although Righthaven claimed in its suits for copyright infringement that it held exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute Stephens Media news articles, that the agreement stated that Righthaven “shall have no right or license to Exploit or participate in the receipt of royalties from the Exploitation of the Stephens Media Assigned Copyrights other than the right to proceeds in association with a Recovery.”

Opsahl thinks Righthaven lacks standing to sue since copyright law does not allow suits for infringement unless  rights to reproduce and distribute a work are actually being infringed.

Righthaven is attempting to create a business model of  suing bloggers for copyright infringement. It does not write the news articles but instead trolls the Internet, looking for news articles published by Stephens Media or Media News Group and then gets the publisher to “assign” the copyright so it can file a lawsuit. -db

From a commentary from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, April 18, 2011, by Kurt Opsahl.

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A Nevada federal district judge ruled that an Oregon non-profit organization had fair use right to an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal that it posted on its website.

In making the ruling, the judge explained that the article was being used by Righthaven only for the sake of bringing lawsuits and was not serving the intention of the Copyright Act, “to encourage and protect creativity.” -db
From the Electronic Freedom Foundation, March 21, 2011, by Kurt Opsahl.

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In a thorough analysis of the Righthaven enterprise, Jeffrey D. Neuburger, a lawyer specializing in technology and media business, says it is not likely that Righthaven litigation will significantly curtail the re-posting of online news content with links to the source.

But the likelihood is getting sued by Righthaven for copyright violations is real so, says Neuburger, it is important for website providers who allow third party content to protect themselves with DMCA safe harbor provisions.-db

From an analysis in MediaShift, March 3, 2011, by Jeffrey D. Neuburger.

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Pop stars routinely limit photojournalists at concerts imposing rules including allowing only three shots, forbidding flashes, and pushing them far from the stage, but Lady Gaga has gone to the extreme by demanding ownership of the shots.

From her Photo Release Form: “Photographer hereby acknowledges and agrees that all right, title and interest (including copyright) in and to the Photograph(s) shall be owned by Lady Gaga and Photographer hereby transfers and assigns any such rights to Lady Gaga.” -db

From TBD, March3, 2011, by Andrew Beaujon, Jay Westcott.

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The Media Bloggers Association has asked a federal judge in Nevada to award only minimal damages and no lawyer’s fees to Righthaven who is suing a blogger for violating copyright in publishing an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal on his website.

The lawyers for the bloggers argued in the brief that the damages asked, $150,000, and $1,850 in lawyer’s fees were excessive in light of nature of the alleged infringement. -db

From a commentary in Citizens Media Law Center,  February 24, 2011 by David Ardia.

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