Group items tagged

Ernesto on May 25, 2015 C: 0 Breaking Rightscorp, the piracy monetization company that works with Warner Bros. and other prominent copyright holders, goes to great lengths to reach allegedly pirating subscribers. The company offered Cox Communications a cut of the piracy settlements if they agreed to forward their notices, the ISP revealed in court. (# see Hobbs Act Note...)

Ernesto on May 25, 2015 C: 0 Breaking Rightscorp, the piracy monetization company that works with Warner Bros. and other prominent copyright holders, goes to great lengths to reach allegedly pirating subscribers. The company offered Cox Communications a cut of the piracy settlements if they agreed to forward their notices, the ISP revealed in court. (# see Hobbs Act Note...)

June 29, 2010 Dear College or University President: We write to express concern on the part of the Department of Justice and the Department of Education that colleges and universities are using electronic book readers that are not accessible to students who are blind or have low vision and to seek your help in ensuring that this emerging technology is used in classroom settings in a manner that is permissible under federal law. A serious problem with some of these devices is that they lack an accessible text-to-speech function. Requiring use of an emerging technology in a classroom environment when the technology is inaccessible to an entire population of individuals with disabilities - individuals with visual disabilities - is discrimination prohibited by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) unless those individuals are provided accommodations or modifications that permit them to receive all the educational benefits provided by the technology in an equally effective and equally integrated manner. ... The Department of Justice recently entered into settlement agreements with colleges and universities that used the Kindle DX, an inaccessible, electronic book reader, in the classroom as part of a pilot study with Amazon.com, Inc. In summary, the universities agreed not to purchase, require, or recommend use of the Kindle DX, or any other dedicated electronic book reader, unless or until the device is fully accessible to individuals who are blind or have low vision, or the universities provide reasonable accommodation or modification so that a student can acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students with substantially equivalent ease of use. The texts of these agreements may be viewed on the Department of Justice's ADA Web site, www.ada.gov. (To find these settlements on www.ada.gov, search for "Kindle.") Consisten

[# ! Patents turned into a collecting business instead of a invention promotion mechanism :/ ...] "A few years later, "monetizing" patents through lawsuits turned into an industry of its own. Logan turned his patents into a powerhouse licensing machine, beginning with a case filed against Apple in 2009. He went to trial and won $8 million. Settlements with other industry giants, like Samsung and Amazon, followed."

[# ! Patents a collecting business instead of a invention promotion mechanism :/ ...] "A few years later, "monetizing" patents through lawsuits turned into an industry of its own. Logan turned his patents into a powerhouse licensing machine, beginning with a case filed against Apple in 2009. He went to trial and won $8 million. Settlements with other industry giants, like Samsung and Amazon, followed."

[# ! Patents turned into a collecting business instead of a invention promotion mechanism :/ ...] "A few years later, "monetizing" patents through lawsuits turned into an industry of its own. Logan turned his patents into a powerhouse licensing machine, beginning with a case filed against Apple in 2009. He went to trial and won $8 million. Settlements with other industry giants, like Samsung and Amazon, followed."

"from the [algorithmically-generated-trollface] dept Over the weekend, TorrentFreak covered the discovery of the latest thing in copyright enforcement: algorithmically-generated content created solely for the purpose of extracting infringement settlements and licensing fees. " [# ! The Dark Side of the #Copyright, #unveiled: # ! It's just to #undermine #creation (contrarily to its original #aim…) (# ! #wonder why #copyleft is #rising…)]

"from the [algorithmically-generated-trollface] dept Over the weekend, TorrentFreak covered the discovery of the latest thing in copyright enforcement: algorithmically-generated content created solely for the purpose of extracting infringement settlements and licensing fees. "

" Ernesto on October 9, 2014 C: 0 News Mega and several other file-hosting services are accessible in Italy once again after a negotiated settlement with local law enforcement. Another unnamed site had to appeal its blockade in court but won its case after the court ruled that partial blocking of a specific URL is preferred over site-wide bans."

" Ernesto on October 9, 2014 C: 0 News Mega and several other file-hosting services are accessible in Italy once again after a negotiated settlement with local law enforcement. Another unnamed site had to appeal its blockade in court but won its case after the court ruled that partial blocking of a specific URL is preferred over site-wide bans."

" Ernesto on May 22, 2015 C: 0 News A few days ago it was revealed that Google is forwarding controversial settlement demands from copyright holders to its subscribers. Responding to the news, Google says the notices are forwarded in an effort to be as transparent as possible. However, the company adds that targeting individual downloaders isn't the best way to solve piracy. "

" Ernesto on May 22, 2015 C: 0 News A few days ago it was revealed that Google is forwarding controversial settlement demands from copyright holders to its subscribers. Responding to the news, Google says the notices are forwarded in an effort to be as transparent as possible. However, the company adds that targeting individual downloaders isn't the best way to solve piracy. "

"Brussels, 16 September 2015 The European Commission has approved its proposal for a new and transparent system for resolving disputes between investors and states - the Investment Court System. The Investment Court System would replace the existing investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism in all ongoing and future EU investment negotiations, including the EU-US talks on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)."

[# ! Is this the exemplary IP Enforcement aimed to 'Save The Culture'...? # It seems more a weird #wangle... # ... or, perhaps, it is that a bunch of bucks is what matters.... # ! #artists and #creators shouldn't support such #hoax.] " By Ernesto on December 24, 2014 C: 0 Breaking Last December the MPAA announced one of its biggest victories to date. The Hollywood group won its case against file-hosting site Hotfile, who agreed to a $80 million settlement. However, this figure mostly served to impress and scare the pubic, as we can now reveal that Hotfile agreed to pay 'only' $4 million." [# ! Yup! Why "#secretly"...?]

[# ! '#Tricky' IP #enforcement...] " By Ernesto on December 24, 2014 C: 0 Breaking Last December the MPAA announced one of its biggest victories to date. The Hollywood group won its case against file-hosting site Hotfile, who agreed to a $80 million settlement. However, this figure mostly served to impress and scare the pubic, as we can now reveal that Hotfile agreed to pay 'only' $4 million." [# ! Yup! Why "#secretly"...?]

"Rightscorp, a piracy monetization company that works with Warner Bros. and other prominent copyright holders, has been sued for harassment, abuse and deception. A class action suit filed in California accuses the company of breaking several laws in their attempt to extract settlements from alleged pirates."

"Rightscorp, a piracy monetization company that works with Warner Bros. and other prominent copyright holders, has been sued for harassment, abuse and deception. A class action suit filed in California accuses the company of breaking several laws in their attempt to extract settlements from alleged pirates."

" Andy on March 20, 2015 C: 0 Breaking In recent weeks customers of UK ISPs have received letters from copyright trolls demanding settlement for alleged downloading of movies. Today they can fight back. Southampton-based lawyer Michael Coyle informs TorrentFreak that if the accused make a charitable donation in support of his London Marathon run, he will provide his time for free."

" Andy on March 20, 2015 C: 0 Breaking In recent weeks customers of UK ISPs have received letters from copyright trolls demanding settlement for alleged downloading of movies. Today they can fight back. Southampton-based lawyer Michael Coyle informs TorrentFreak that if the accused make a charitable donation in support of his London Marathon run, he will provide his time for free."

" Andy on April 3, 2016 C: 43 Breaking A company assisting US-based copyright troll outfit TCYK LLC has just threatened to report a blogger to the police. Joe Hickster, an anti-troll activist who has helped dozens of wrongfully accused individuals avoid paying settlement fees, was threatened after describing troll services company Hatton and Berkeley as being involved in a smoke-and-mirrors operation."

" Andy on April 3, 2016 C: 43 Breaking A company assisting US-based copyright troll outfit TCYK LLC has just threatened to report a blogger to the police. Joe Hickster, an anti-troll activist who has helped dozens of wrongfully accused individuals avoid paying settlement fees, was threatened after describing troll services company Hatton and Berkeley as being involved in a smoke-and-mirrors operation."

This page includes the opinion of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on an interlocutory appeal from a district court decision to dismiss two California state law causes of action from an ongoing case, leaving only the federal law causes of action. The Ninth Circuit disagreed, vacated the district court's decision, and remanded for consideration of the dismissal issue under the correct legal standard. This was a pro-plaintiff decision that makes it very likely that the case will continue with the state law causes of action reinstated against all or nearly all defendants. This is an unusually important price-fixing case with potentially disruptive effect among mobile device component manufacturers and by such a settlement or judgment's ripple effects, manufacturers of other device components globally. Plaintiffs are several major  voice/data communications services in the U.S. with the defendants being virtually all of the manufacturers of LCD panels used in mobile telephones. One must suspect that if price-fixing is in fact universal in the LCD panel manufacturing industry, price-fixing is likely common among manufacturers of other device components. According to the Ninth Circuit opinion, the plaintiffs' amended complaint includes detailed allegations of specific price-fixing agreements and price sharing actions by principles or agents of each individual defendant company committed within the State of California, which suggests that plaintiffs have very strong evidence that the alleged conspiracy exists. This is a case to watch.    

"from the more-of-this,-please dept Here on Techdirt, we've been writing about the dangers of corporate sovereignty for a while. In recent months, more and more people and organizations have pointed out that the plan to include an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) in the TAFTA/TTIP agreement currently being negotiated is fraught with dangers -- and also completely unnecessary given the fair and efficient legal systems that exist on both sides of the Atlantic. It seems that this chorus of disapproval has finally been noticed, in Brussels at least: "

" Andy on March 18, 2014 C: 8 Breaking Following today's copyright settlement between Google and Viacom, it's interesting to note that YouTube still has plenty of illicit Hollywood content online. The MPAA has certainly noticed, with an effort last week to have several Popcorn Time-style dedicated web interfaces de-listed by Google, a request that was declined."

"from the please-stop-doing-your-job dept The FCC's net neutrality rules don't even go into effect until June 12, but they're already benefiting consumers. You'll recall that the last year or so has been filled with ugly squabbling over interconnection issues, with Level 3 accusing ISPs like Verizon of letting peering points congest to kill settlement-free peering and drive Netflix toward paying for direct interconnection."

" Ernesto on October 2, 2015 C: 0 Breaking Tens of thousands of Internet subscribers are at risk of receiving piracy settlement demands after copyright trolls announced they are preparing to launch one of the largest ever anti-piracy campaigns in the UK. The new wave of enforcement actions is supported"

" Andy on October 8, 2015 C: 0 Breaking Rightscorp has been awarded a patent by the Australian Patent Office which should protect it from competitors looking to muscle in on its business model Down Under. The patent protects a system which helps Rightscorp identify repeat infringers, individuals it is now targeting in the United States with settlement demands and lawsuits."

"A patent lawyer who sued the Electronic Frontier Foundation for defamation for writing about his invention in a "Stupid Patent of the Month" blog post has dropped the lawsuit. "There was no settlement or agreement," EFF general counsel Kurt Opsahl told Ars in an e-mail. "It was a voluntary dismissal of a meritless lawsuit by Scott Horstemeyer.""