It’s bad enough having a toothache. It’s much worse when your dentist rips you off for $4,000 and then threatens to sue you for complaining…
Read MoreResearch
Google and Mississippi meet in court over secret MPAA lobbying
A devastating hack on Sony late last year exposed embarrassing details about Hollywood’s darker side, including a secret campaign by the movie industry to bring…
Read MoreTwitter and Etsy get high marks in report card on copyright and free speech
When it comes to balancing creative rights on the internet, companies like Twitter and Pinterest play an important role as middlemen. How are they performing?…
Read MoreGoogle imposes new penalty on pirate sites in search results
Google is demoting pirate sites further in its search rankings. That news is one nugget contained in a larger report that details the company's ongoing anti-piracy efforts.…
Read MoreGoogle threatened with $100M lawsuit over nude celebrity photos, but case appears weak
Is Google dodging its legal duties to remove nude celebrity images in order to make a buck? No, but Hollywood lawyers are threatening a $100 million suit anyways.…
Read MoreVictory against Grooveshark shows music industry has upper hand on sharing sites
Why are courts taking such a hardline against music-sharing sites? A judge's decision this week to throw the book at music-sharing site Grooveshark is just the latest example of how the tide has turned.…
Read MoreWordPress shames Janet Jackson for bullying bloggers and issues a new takedown report
Powerful celebrities and companies are bullying some of the millions of bloggers who use the popular WordPress platform with outlandish copyright claims. Wordpress just called attention to some of the worst offenders.…
Read MoreWhy 4Chan created a copyright shield in the wake of the Apple leak
One of the sites at the center of the nude photography scandal just put in place DMCA measures that shield websites from copyright liability. Here's the likely explanation of why it did so.…
Read MoreGermany considers “cyber courts” for judging which Google links should be nixed
The system is one of several options being weighed by Germany after this month's seismic European ruling about the removal of unwelcome information from search results. It sounds ominous, but it beats automated takedown.…
Read MoreCopyright “safe harbors” shrink in wake of MP3Tunes, other red flag rulings
The CEO of a defunct music site is in trouble after a jury ruled he should have known about copyrighted songs on the site. The verdict is partly the result of studios' recent successes in shrinking the scope of so-called safe harbor laws.…
Read MoreFBI arrest “revenge porn” scumbag over alleged hacking conspiracy
Hunter Moore, who tormented hundreds of people through his nude photo website "Is Anyone Up," was arrested this week. The feds appear to have finally found a way to stick him with criminal charges.…
Read MoreLinkedIn sues to stop bots that are stealing its user profiles
LinkedIn says unknown people have been creating a wave of fake profiles in order to scrape the profiles of hundreds of thousands of users, and offer a competing recruiting product. Here's the complaint and some details.…
Read MoreStudios win again in fight over user content: “safe harbors” not so safe, websites find
A new series of court rulings on "red flag" knowledge suggest content owners are getting the upper hand in a long-running battle over when websites should be responsible for copyrighted content uploaded by users.…
Read MoreVimeo lawsuit could decide on legality of lip dub videos
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/record-companies-lawsuit-vimeo-heads-668334 An ongoing legal fight between major record labels and video hoster Vimeo could finally decide whether internet users have the right…
Read MoreHypedmusic shuts down after receiving cease and desist notice from RIAA
Free music streaming app Hypedmusic shut down this month after it got targeted by the RIAA for copyright infringement. Is this the start of a wider crackdown on music startups without licensing agreements?…
Read MoreCritics say the internet’s copyright system is broken: it’s still better than the alternatives
The DMCA, a law intended to protect creative expression on the internet while protecting content owners, is under strain -- but it's still the best system we've got.…
Read MoreMusic labels can press Vimeo on copyright claims — judge denies “safe harbor”
Popular video-sharing site Vimeo claims that a "safe harbor" rule shields it from being liable for copyrighted videos uploaded by its users. A judge isn't so sure -- here's a summary of the latest in the back and forth legal fight over who is responsible for online copyright issues.…
Read MoreInduce me not
What makes the Hotfile decision notable is not simply that it marks the first time the studios have been able to take down a cyberlocker site but because it was done via summary judgment on an inducement standard.…
Read MoreCourt finds Hotfile, and the guy running it, guilty of copyright infringement
File-sharing service Hotfile was found guilty of copyright infringement in a U.S. federal court case decided on Wednesday. But just because Hotfile appears guilty, that doesn't mean cyberlockers are inherently evil -- regardless what the MPAA says.…
Read MoreComcast’s plan to turn pirates into customers: breakthrough or bogus?
Comcast has plans to target illegal downloaders with real-time offers to buy legitimate versions of the shows. Will it work?…
Read MoreU.S. copyright review expands
The Commerce Department recommendations, which represent the views of the Obama Administration, come as the Judiciary Committee remains very much in fact-finding mode in its review, setting up the potential for conflicting agendas and timetables in what will inevitably be a contentious process of revising current copyright law and policy.…
Read MoreGoodreads hit with copyright suit over fan photo
Goodreads is being sued after a member of the book-sharing social network posted a celebrity photo to the site.…
Read MoreWhere the Wild Things Are sequel pulled from Kickstarter for infringing copyright
A sequel to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are was pulled from Kickstarter after publisher HarperCollins issued a takedown notice.…
Read MorePrince would Sue U 4 using Vine
Have you checked out Vine recently? Legendary pop artist Prince has, with his record label filing a copyright notice with Twitter regarding videos on Vine. It seems like the general public might be giving Vine a serious look.…
Read More