“BitTorrent index Isohunt can be held liable for any copyright infringement committed by its members, according to a new ruling from a federal appeals court. The decision states that the service is not protected under the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The judges hearing the case said that Isohunt founder Gary Fung possessed “red flag” knowledge that illegal activities were taking place on his site. To qualify for protection under the DMCA, Fung would have had to not have any knowledge that copyright infringement was occurring, and have removed any offending materials once notified of the problem by the rights owner.”
– Isohunt Not Protected By DMCA, Can Be Held Liable For Member Copyright Infringement
“[The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers] is launching the clearinghouse as a way for trademark owners to protect their intellectual property as the organization prepares to allow hundreds of new gTLDs (generic top-level domains) in the coming months. The clearinghouse will allow trademark owners to register their marks before a new TLD is launched and protect their trademarks if other companies try to register a website using their trademarks after a TLD is operating.”
“The Recording Industry Association of America said Thursday that Google’s algorithm change to lower rankings of sites with ‘high numbers’ of copyright-infringing removal notices has had no ‘demonstrable impact on demoting sites with large amounts of piracy … The report concluded that pirate sites are much more likely to appear in top search rankings than are legitimate music sites.”
“Merlin, a group that negotiates deals worldwide for smaller independent record labels, had a long-standing agreement with Myspace–but this deal has lapsed over a year ago and not been renegotiated. Meanwhile Merlin notes that music from over a hundred of its clients is still published on Myspace. According to the Times Myspace is placing the blame on individual users uploading infringing content.”
“On Friday, Capitol Records and other big record labels asked a judge for a summary-judgment win in a lawsuit against the popular user-generated video website Vimeo, owned by Barry Diller’s IAC/Interactive Corp … When the lawsuit was first filed, ‘lipdubs’ on Vimeo’s network were hot, and the record companies alleged that Vimeo needed licenses to the sound recordings when users posted their lip-synching … What’s particularly noteworthy is how the plaintiffs present Vimeo as being worse than other UGC sites out there. The 2nd Circuit might have revived Viacom’s lawsuit against YouTube, but the plaintiffs want to make clear that they have evidence of Vimeo’s actual knowledge that passes legal muster.”
