Tag Archives: court

Google vs. Viacom

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which has been discussed at various points throughout the semester, has recently played a key role in the ongoing legal battle between major companies Google and Viacom. Viacom’s claim is that Google is guilty of copyright infringement, with Youtube.com containing clips of many Viacom shows that were posted without permission. It seems however that Google has won a major victory in this struggle, for a U.S. District Judge has ruled that the “safe harbor” provisions of the Copyright Act protects Youtube videos in this circumstance. It is unclear if the issue is finally settled once and for all, but it seems that, for the time being, Google has the upper hand in this drawn-out power struggle.

http://business.time.com/2013/04/19/how-google-beat-viacom-in-the-landmark-youtube-copyright-case-again/

Online pirate websites in the courts again

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It seems like every time I sit down to do these posts, another one of those pirate websites (Megaupload, The Pirate Bay, etc.) is losing a court case. This time, the unlucky party is BitTorrent. Recently, this website and its associates lost a major ruling against Disney, Fox, Paramount, and a slew of other major producers. The ruling was that BitTorrent was allowing for people to illegally download and distribute films and television shows. The ruling was unanimous, and charges will be named soon. It seems as if a new change is coming for the internet. These websites, which once were major powers on the internet, are now being slowly taken apart. It will be interesting to see how this long developments unfolds, and if the legal system is able to truly eliminate these entities.

http://www.deadline.com/2013/03/hollywood-studios-score-appeals-court-win-in-copyright-case/

Blog Prompt – The Pirate Bay

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Recently, a situation arose in Europe involving the Pirate Bay, a website known for redistributing materials without regarding copyrights or authorship. A Swedish court had ruled that the website was guilty of making copyrighted work freely available without consulting the original authors. The result was a fine of 3.3 million euros. The founders of the website tried to have the European Court of Human Rights re-examine the case, claiming that the ruling was in violation of free-speech. However, this request was denied, with the reason being that the ruling in Sweden had already settled the matter. This relates to what has been discussed in class recently, specifically in Copyright’s Highway. Truly, the founders of the website were at fault here. Freedom of expression does not allow for the stealing of ideas.

http://rt.com/news/pirate-bay-case-rejected-strasbourg-240/