Displaying items by tag: Copyright

Although we have covered some of the MegaUpload case we have not really followed all of the ins and outs in the troubled and lopsided case. On the one hand almost everyone can agree that people should pay for their content, but in most cases the opinions about what has been done to the cloud storage service are against what the US DoJ has done. On the word of the MPAA and RIAA (yes it was only their accusations) the FBI and others began a costly investigation into MegaUpload and in the end came up with an indictment against a non-US based company (where the US has no jurisdiction) and seven members of its management team (most of which have never entered the US).

Remember the Google V Oracle case? You know that one that had Oracle’s Larry Ellison (and his pack of lawyers) attempting to show how nine-lines of code made it possible for Google to meet a deadline? Oh you do remember, ok well when we left the story the Jury had made one important decision and half of another. They had agreed that Google did not violate Oracle’s Java patents at all while building Android, but in an earlier decision could not agree if APIs (Application Programing Interfaces) were protected under copyright. They did say that if they were, well then Google was guilty.

We have to say that with all of the non-profit organizations out there one of our favorite is the Electronic Frontier Foundation. They have been at the forefront of the battle for user data security, privacy and have fought many battles against the rather abusive (and redundant) copyright system. Now they are doing something very proactive instead of the more typical defense against the increasingly preposterous machine that makes up the corporate world.

When I was a kid I got my first cassette recorder (for those of you that do not know what this is a cassette was… well you can Google it). With this I was able to record music played on the radio onto blank cassettes so I was able to listen to what I wanted without all of the other songs I did not. What I did not know at the time was that the price I paid for those cassettes (and the actual recorder) also included a small royalty fee from the recording industry to cover some of the potential losses that they might incur from someone doing exactly what I did. 

Sometimes things just do not go your way. Apple has been seeing that recently under the guidance of new CEO Tim Cook. We are not going to get into the debate about whether Tim Cook is a better or worse CEO as that is comparing Apples to Oranges. Tim Cook is a different type of CEO; he is a businessman first and foremost. It was one of the reasons that Steve Jobs wanted him in the position he was in. The company needed someone to “mind the back account” more than almost anything else.

Time for the Google news (much like many of our combined reports of Apple’s doings). This time we have a couple of things to talk about. The first is the penultimate decision in the Google Vs Oracle case, followed by a complaint by the RIAA about how little Google is doing to flight piracy and rounding things out with a complaint against Microsoft and Nokia in the EU for patent trolling. Sounds like a lot of fun so let’s get started.

We have been following the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) since it first leaked into the public eye. The agreement (as we have said) appears to be only about counterfeit physical goods, but anyone who really takes a look at the few leaked details (which have been kept pretty secret) will find that it is more about copyright law and protecting the IP of the software and entertainment industry (mostly the US portion of it) and restricting countries rights to enact and change their own laws outside of the agreement.

Well, we knew this would happen when we first heard about the case, but it seems that the lawyers defending MegaUpload have finally dropped the jurisdiction bomb on the US DoJ. The issue at hand is the same one that extended to the Pirate Bay when they were continually harassed by the content industry. If a corporation or individual does not commit the crime on US soil (or one of its protectorates) or have an agent that commits or assists in the commission of the crime they have no legal jurisdiction. In the case of MegaUpload they have no offices in the US and never have.

The EU Parliament will be voting on ACTA this week. If you have been living under a rock lately ACTA (Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement) is a US backed bit of legislation that wants to establish better control over the internet for copyright holders. The agreement has been the subject of controversy not only for the oppressive terms, but also for the secretive way in which it has been presented. In many cases only certain members of a country’s government have been given access why the copyright lobbies have had full access and a hand in setting it up.

There is nothing like a little drama, just as there is nothing quite like seeing the big copyright holders having to actually prove their case. In no other recent case has this been more important than the in the criminal copyright case against MegaUpload. If you remember the Us DoJ went after the file sharing site some of their managers and the owner Kim Dotcom. Since the seizure of all of their servers property and money there have been some pretty major issues with not only actual evidence, but the warrants, seizure and more. There is even some talk that the DoJ committed some pretty bad procedural errors that might get the whole thing thrown out.