compensation
Spanish Culture Minister: No “3-Strikes” for File-Sharers
Says the govt “is not considering punitive measures for the end user of Internet,” and will focus instead on web sites that illegally host copyrighted material and those that profit from them. The Spanish govt has now officially rejected any plans to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet a la a “three-strikes” graduated response system. Speaking to TVE1’s “TVE Breakfasts” morning TV show, Culture Minister Angeles González-Sinde said the govt “is not considering punitive measures for the end user of Internet.” González-Sinde said it instead plans to “attack the origin of all these products that are on the Web sites, as well as those who benefit from them.” It comes after the recent decision by the European Union to drop a crucial amendment (#138) from its much anticipated Telcoms Package that would’ve prevented member countries from disconnecting illegal file-sharers from the Internet.
Continue reading »JUDGE: Ringtone Not a Public Performance
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) had sued Verizon Wireless demanding that it be compensated each time a person’s ringtone played in public, calling it a “public performance.” Back in June it was first mentioned here how the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) had begun suing mobile telephone companies with the argument that the playback of ringtones on a customer’s phone requires a public performance license, and that without one they are committing copyright infringement. “When a ringtone rings in ‘public,’ it is undeniably a “public performance” as those terms are defined in the Copyright Act,” reads a brief submitted to the court. Even further startling is that it argued that they are a public performance even if it’s switched to vibrate, turned off, or located at home.
Continue reading »Spanish Govt to Establish Anti-P2P Commission
Representatives from the J ustice, Industry, Interior and Culture ministries would design a legal framework to to solve the problem of illegal downloading. Much to the chagrin of copyright holders and govt officials, Spanish courts have a long history of recognizing the difference between commercial and noncommercial file-sharing, and looks as though the former intends to change that. It was back in 2006 that a judge ruled in a illegal downloading case that since there “no talk of money or any other compensation beyond the sharing of material available among various users [then] no offense meriting penal sanction has been committed.” That decision has led to the annual inclusion of the country on the US’ Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus Watch List, even going so far as to say Internet piracy there has reached “epidemic” proportions.
Continue reading »Meeting Pirate Pontén
Notorious Antipiratbyrån lawyer Henrik Pontén (right) has been front and centre since day one of efforts to cast file sharers as the villains in a piece designed to present the Hollywood studios which, year after year report record earnings, as being close to ruin. In 2005, “The MPAA is currently going flat out to stomp BitTorrent sites and its Antipiratbyrån clone recently admitted using a paid informant against Sweden’s Bahnhof ISP in what Banhof ceo Jon Karlung described as a ‘badly arranged ambush’,” said p2pnet, adding he said pirated materials found on Bahnhof servers were placed there by an “Antipiratbyrån stooge.” “Henrik, this is truly phenomenal ,” said MPAA factotum Dean Garfield at the time. “We are all very proud of you.
Continue reading »‘Why I praised RIAA lawyer’: Brian Toder
p2pnet news view RIAA News:- In a ‘By the way,’ Jammie Thomas-Rasset’s ex-attorney, Brian Toder, has explained why he was so effusive in praise of Richard Gabriel (right), the Holme Roberts & Owen lawyer who, hired by the RIAA to go after Jammie, no holds barred, is now a judge. A week today, Jammie and her new lawyer, Kiwi K.A.D. Camara , are to go up against Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music’s RIAA for the second time.
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