The wholly-expected has occurred as a result of Eugene Volokh’s exposure of bogus takedown demands targeting unflattering content — like criminal complaints and factual news articles detailing criminal acts. The Volokh Conspiracy has been targeted by two bogus takedown requests by the same party who engaged in the bogus takedown requests Volokh previously wrote about.
Category: Copyright
Metal Band Bans Photographer After Copyright Clash – TorrentFreak
Metal band Arch Enemy has banned photographer J. Salmeron from shooting any future gigs. The band’s management was not amused when he alerted a clothing sponsor about the unauthorized use of his work. Apparently, the band sees ‘exposure’ as sufficient compensation. But what about people who pirate their latest album?
Source: Metal Band Bans Photographer After Copyright Clash – TorrentFreak
Game Developer Admits It Filed Bogus Copyright Claims, But Says It Had No Other Way To Silence A Critic | Techdirt
If you can’t stand the heat, whip out the DMCA notices, I guess. Earlier this week, in response to criticism, a game developer hit a YouTuber with dozens of bogus DMCA claims. “Eroktic,” who has posted several videos of him playing Battlestate Games’ multiplayer shooter “Escape from Tarkov,” was on the receiving end of nearly 50 claims.Rather than pretend this is about copyright by claiming it didn’t give Eroktic permission to use footage of its game, the Russian developer has been surprisingly open about its abuse of the DMCA system. Comments given to Polygon’s Charlie Hall show Battlestate is well aware it’s misusing YouTube’s copyright claim process, but says that’s the only way it can protect its good name.
RIAA Court Filing In Stairway To Heaven Case Warns Against *OVERPROTECTION* By Copyright | Techdirt
Here’s one you don’t see everyday. The RIAA is telling a court that it needs to be careful about too much copyright protection. Really. This is in the lawsuit over “Stairway to Heaven” that we’ve been covering for a while now. As we noted, the 9th Circuit brought the case back to life after what had appeared to be a good result, saying that Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway” did not infringe on the copyright in the Spirit song “Taurus.” While we were a bit nervous about the case being reopened after a good result, as copyright lawyer Rick Sanders explained in a pair of excellent guest posts, there were good reasons to revisit the case — in part to fix the 9th Circuit’s weird framework for determining if a song has infringed, and in part to fix some bad jury instructions.
Source: RIAA Court Filing In Stairway To Heaven Case Warns Against *OVERPROTECTION* By Copyright | Techdirt
Researchers Report Elsevier to EU Anti-Competition Authority – TorrentFreak
“As a well-known allegory says: ‘Imagine a farmer who owns, feeds and milks his cow in order to give away the milk for free to a dairy company – and then finally buys it back in a milk carton at a very high price’. This is the business model of big research publishers.”
Source: Researchers Report Elsevier to EU Anti-Competition Authority – TorrentFreak
Swedish ISP Protests ‘Site Blocking’ by Blocking Rightsholders Website Too – TorrentFreak
Bahnhof has suffered a major defeat against publisher Elsevier after a court ordered the Swedish ISP to block a series of domain names, including Sci-Hub. The decision goes against everything the company stands for but it can’t ignore the blocking order. Instead, the ISP has gone on the offensive by blocking Elsevier’s own website and barring the court from visiting Bahnhof.se.
Source: Swedish ISP Protests ‘Site Blocking’ by Blocking Rightsholders Website Too – TorrentFreak
Software Company ‘Fines’ Pirates After Monitoring Their Computers – TorrentFreak
Individuals and companies using ‘cracked’ copies of graphics software are receiving worrying emails demanding large cash settlements. Information reviewed by TorrentFreak reveals that UK-based company Foundry is demanding thousands of dollars in compensation after unlicensed software ‘phoned home’ with details of users’ alleged offending.
Source: Software Company ‘Fines’ Pirates After Monitoring Their Computers – TorrentFreak
Monty Python Advent Calendar
I can’t see any mention of them securing the rights to use the Monty Python trademark for their commercial products. The previous calendars were based on themes that were in public domain, but Monty Python is both copyrighted and trademarked.
Epic Games Likely DMCA’d Its Own Fortnite Trailer, Showing The Problems With YouTube’s DMCA Process Yet Again | Techdirt
A Fortnite season 6 trailer was briefly taken down earlier this week, after receiving a strike from YouTube for copyright infringement. That alone would be strange enough, since trailers and promotional videos typically secure the rights to any third-party media ahead of time. But the real kicker here is who issued the claim: according to a screengrab posted to Reddit, it was none other than Fortnite’s own developer, Epic Games.
Guy In Charge Of EU Copyright Directive Claims He Didn’t Know What He Voted On, Needs To Fix Things | Techdirt
Incredibly, after the vote approving the directive, reporter Emanuel Karisten of the Swedish publication Breakit, asked Voss about this and Voss gave a fairly astounding answer, stating that “this was kind of a mistake” and that “no one had been aware of this.”