“Last month, Craigslist sued 3Taps and Padmapper for scraping and repackaging its classified ads. Since then, it has extracted greater IP rights from its advertisers and reportedly may de-index the listings from Google.”
– Continuing: Craigslist’s Suit Against 3Taps and Padmapper For Scrapping, Repackaging Classifieds
“… The Ninth Circuit’s decision in UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Shelter Capital Partners LLC, 667 F.3d 1022 (9th Cir. 2011) was widely viewed as a major victory for those advocating an expansive view of the DMCA safe harbor. The Ninth Circuit has now replaced that decision with a new superseding opinion, UMG Recordings v. Shelter Capital Partners, No. 09-55902, 2013 WL 1092793, — F.3d.– (9th Cir. March 14, 2013) (“Shelter Capital”), which repeats some of the problematic holdings of its predecessor but also includes some silver linings for copyright plaintiffs.”
– Revised UMG v. Veoh Decision Includes Silver Linings for Copyright Plaintiffs
“[Donald Trump] has called out comedian Bill Maher with a $5 million lawsuit after the comedy show host refused to uphold his part of what Trump considered a weighty bargain. Trump and Maher reportedly put in writing that if Trump could prove he’s not actually the son of an orangutan – yes, the animal – which Maher joked that he is, then the comedian would have to write a large check to a charity of Trump’s choice.”
- Donald Trump suing Bill Maher for $5 million over orangutan joke
“Last month, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ruled in favor of plaintiff CX Digital Media, Inc. in a contract dispute with Smoking Everywhere, Inc. The district court found that an instant message conversation between an employee of CX Digital, an online advertising referral provider, and the Vice President of Marketing at Smoking Everywhere, an electronic cigarette manufacturer, constituted a modification of the companies’ contract for CX Digital to provide online advertising referrals for Smoking Everywhere’s promotional sales offer. The verdict resulted in an award of over $1.2 million in damages plus accrued interest and attorney’s fees for CX Digital.”
“Nearly five years ago, a Chinese man named Xiang Li registered several domain names, including www.crack99.com, and embarked on an ambitious, and ultimately illegal, venture. Mr. Li, who was based in Chengdu, paid a network of computer experts to scour the Internet to find commercial software they could ‘crack,’ meaning they bypassed security protocols designed to prevent unauthorized access or reproduction. Ultimately, Mr. Li offered more than 2,000 pirated software products that could be used as applications in the military, engineering, space exploration, mathematics and explosive simulation, and sold them at a fraction of their retail price, which federal prosecutors said was over $100 million.”
“That could pick out faces and song melodies in our YouTube clips. Now, it might just have the ultimate tool: the technique in a just-granted patent could pick out objects in a video, whether they’re living or not. Instead of asking the creator to label objects every time, Google proposes using a database of “feature vectors” such as color, movement, shape and texture to automatically identify subjects in the frame through their common traits — a cat’s ears and fast movement would separate it from the ball of yarn.”
– Google Lands Patent For Automatic Object Recognition in Videos
“The federal judge refereeing the billion-dollar fight between Oracle and Google over the Android operating system has dismissed Oracle’s claim that the Java APIs used by Android are subject to copyright. The APIs are application program interfaces, code that lets one piece of software talk to another. The general assumption has long been that APIs aren’t subject to copyright. But in suing Google over Android, Oracle insisted that they were, and after a six-week trial, the company’s efforts to win serious damages from Google came down to this single point.”
“The reason is another procedural gaffe by the FBI, but this time, it could bury the entire case and give the United States Government a huge black eye. Specifically, MegaUpload attorney Ira Rothken is raising the question of whether the FBI actually had the authority to pursue this criminal matter overseas. O’Grady is taking notice of the jurisdictional problem.”
“The appellate court for the Second Circuit released an opinion on Thursday finding that the HFT source code did not fit within the scope of the National Stolen Property Act (“NSPA”), which makes it a crime to transport or transmit stolen goods, wares, or merchandise. The court concluded that Aleynikov did not steal physical “goods” per se, but rather, software code which was “purely intangible property embodied in a purely intangible format.” Because the statute was interpreted to apply only to physical goods, the court declined to “stretch or update statutory words of plain and ordinary meaning in order to better accommodate the digital age.” Nor could Aleynikov be punished under the Economic Espionage Act (“EEA”), the court concluded, because the HFT source code was not a product that was “produced for” or “placed in” interstate commerce, as required under the EEA. Goldman Sachs planned to keep the HFT source code secret, having no intention to sell or license it to anyone in the market.”
– Court Rules Software Not Protected By Fed Crime Laws, Overturns Conviction of Goldman Engineer
“Twitter has decided to unveil a program it has been working on, dubbed the Innovator’s Patent Agreement. The IPA is designed to stop patent abuse, and is a way for designers and engineers to be legally guaranteed that their patents will never be used for aggressive litigation. Twitter has been working on the agreement for sometime, and will roll it out later this year, when it will be applied to all past and present Twitter patents. Twitter is looking to get other companies on board with the program, though that will be hard to accomplish with larger companies like Google/Motorola, Microsoft and Apple.”