copyright

BitTorrent: We don't deal in pirated content

It's pretty well established that torrent files can be used for downloading pirated music, movies, games, and more. But, the company BitTorrent wants it to be known that it has nothing to do with such piracy.

The company's vice president of marketing Matt Mason penned a blog post on Tuesday saying that while BitTorrent built the open-source, peer-to-peer technology used for content sharing, it does not endorse piracy in any shape or form.

"We don't host infringing content. We don't point to it. It's literally impossible to 'illegally download something on BitTorrent,'" Mason … Read more

Woman sues doc for revealing her nose job on clinic site

Before, she didn't like her nose. After, she was happy.

Before, she had a nose job. After, she sued.

What happened in between was that 24-year-old Catherine Manzione's nose job was there for all to see on the Modern Contours Web site of Dr. Grigoriy Mashkevich.

Manzione had her surgery in 2010. It was only this year, however, that she discovered that her "before" and "after" contours were displayed to the general public.

You might have heard the following word before (it's a favorite of those suing for unlawful use of their images): … Read more

Oracle appeal in Google API copyright suit hit with criticism

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is throwing in its two cents in the ongoing legal battle between Oracle and Google over whether APIs should or shouldn't be copyrightable.

Gathering together 32 computer scientists and tech industry leaders, the Internet advocacy organization submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Thursday. The brief is signed by tech leaders like MS-DOS author Tim Paterson and ARPANET developer Larry Roberts.

EFF and the brief's signatories are trying to convince the court that APIs should not be copyrightable because they are critical to spurring innovation … Read more

Review: Place watermarks on photos with copyrightInserter for Mac

The aptly named copyrightInserter for Mac adds a copyright watermark to your online images with a minimum of fuss.

This freeware program lacks an installer, which requires the user to click and drag the file to the Applications folder. The folder containing the program also held readme, licensing agreement, and tutorial files. The tutorial file helped, even though the application had an easy-to-use menu. copyrightInserter for Mac has clearly labeled areas where the user can drag folders containing image files. A second box shows where the watermark image may be dragged. The user can also select the general location of … Read more

Twisted Sister's legal threats over coffee shop's URL

Are they going to take it? Are they going to take it? Are they going to take it anymore?

These are the fundamental questions surrounding a legal threat presented by a lawyer for Twister Sister's founder, John Jay French, to a tiny coffee shop in Mission, Kan.

The coffee shop is called Twister Sisters. It is run by two sisters. They are twisted. Actually, as The Prairie Village Post reports, Sandi Russell and her sister Nancy Hansen were first called "twisted" by their brother in the 1960s.

The 1960s came before 1973, the year when the band … Read more

Google, authors wrangle in court again over digital books

Google and the Authors Guild are wrangling in court again, with the latter asking for $3 billion in damages related to Google's digital books project.

Lawyers for the two companies on Wednesday presented their oral arguments in an appeal hearing related to class action status for the suit. A judge in the Second Circuit Court in New York last year had granted the Authors Guild the ability to sue Google as a group, but the search giant on Wednesday argued that such status shouldn't be granted.

The company in the past has cited a survey that showed more than half of the authors polled approved of Google scanning their books … Read more

Craigslist wins early legal victory against PadMapper, 3Taps

Craigslist has won the first round in its federal lawsuit against PadMapper and two other companies, which extracted and used real estate listings from the world's most popular classifieds site.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco on Tuesday rejected attempts by the defendants to dismiss Craigslist's lawsuit, which alleged a slew of unlawful acts -- including terms of use violations, copyright violations, trespass, and civil violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

"Defendants' continued use of Craigslist after the clear statements regarding authorization in the cease and desist letters and the technological … Read more

YouTube defeats Viacom copyright lawsuit -- again

For the second time in the past three years, YouTube has beaten Viacom in a long-running copyright infringement case that accused the video-sharing site of turning a blind eye to illegally uploaded videos.

U.S. District Judge Louis Stanton granted the Google-owned video site's request for summary judgment on Thursday, agreeing that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's "safe harbor" provisions protected YouTube from liability.

Viacom, parent company of Paramount Pictures and MTV, filed a $1 billion lawsuit in 2007, accusing YouTube of encouraging copyright infringement and profiting when users upload unauthorized TV and movie clips. Google … Read more

Aereo throws punch in streaming battle by publishing ad in NYT

Live-television streaming service Aereo is revving up its fight against major U.S. broadcasters.

The company took out a full-page ad in the front section of The New York Times on Tuesday, making a case as to why its business isn't breaking copyright law.

"People have enjoyed the right to access over-the-air broadcast television using an antenna for over 70 years," the ad says. "About 54 million Americans use some sort of antenna to watch TV. This is not piracy. This has been part of the American way since the beginning of broadcasting."

Aereo is … Read more

Prince to Twitter: Take down those vines

Twitter has taken down eight Vine videos associated with the artist Prince, after his record label sent a letter warning of copyright infringement.

The notice, posted on Chilling Effects last week and noticed by The Next Web today, described the Vines in question as "unauthorized recordings" and "unauthorized synchronizations." The label, NPG Records, requested that Twitter immediately remove the Vines and any future Vines featuring Prince. The Vine is a mobile service that allows people to create and share short, looping videos.

The links to the Vines in the request no longer work. A Twitter spokesman … Read more