Friday, December 30, 2011

Actual damages for single unauthorized download of software program held to be cost of single license fee

In Real View v. 20-20, an "actual damages" copyright infringement case, the Court held that the actual damages for an unauthorized download of a computer program was limited to the cost of an actual license fee, and reduced the jury's much higher verdict accordingly.

The judge, in the District of Massachusetts, granted remittitur, reducing the jury's verdict of $1,370,590.00 to $4,200.00, unless the plaintiff seeks a new trial.

Decision on damages




Commentary & discussion:

Technology & Marketing Law Blog
techdirt

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Florida appeals court rules ripoffreport.com absolutely immune from suit for defamatory posting

In Giordano v. Romeo, a Florida appeals court has affirmed dismissal of a case in which ripoffreport.com had published an admittedly false and defamatory posting by one of its users, on the ground that under the Communications Decency Act -- 47 USC 230 -- the site is immune from suit for postings by its users as a provider of an "interactive computer service" within the meaning of the statute.


Decision of 3rd District Court of Appeal of Florida




Commentary & discussion:

Technology & Marketing Law Blog
Slashdot

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Sunday, December 25, 2011

Warner Brothers sued for trademark infringement over use of pirated Louis Vitton bag in movie

Hat tip to Judith Dornstein, Esq., for bringing this to my attention. -R.B.

Louis Vitton has sued Warner Brothers for trademark infringement, for using a knockoff Louis Vitton bag in a movie, "Hangover II":

"Louis Vuitton Sues Warner Bros For Using Fake Bag In Hangover II"

Complaint





Commentary & discussion:

Slashdot

Keywords: lawyer digital copyright law online internet law legal download upload peer to peer p2p file sharing filesharing music movies indie independent label freeculture creative commons pop/rock artists riaa independent mp3 cd favorite songs intellectual property portable music player



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Thursday, December 22, 2011

In New Sensations v Does 1-1474 Court Orders Dismissal Where Plaintiff Cannot Show Jurisdiction & Venue

Hat tip to Law Office of Judith C Dorenstein, Esq., from whom I learned of this decision.

In New Sensations v. Does 1-1474 (San Francisco, CA), the Court has ordered the plaintiff to dismiss as to all defendants over whom it can not show that the Court has jurisdiction, and that the venue is proper.

The Court observed that

all of the available information suggests that this Court does not have personal jurisdiction over at least a large number of Doe Defendants named in this action[,]
observing that the general location of each "John Doe" defendant is readily available by checking each's respective IP address on one of many publicly available web sites, and the Court's own preliminary examination of some random defendants suggested that many of them had been wrongly sued in California. The court went on:
given the ease by which the Court located presumptive geographic data for a random selection of IP Addresses in this case, the Court is troubled that Plaintiff has made no attempt to identify those Doe Defendants for whom it has a good faith belief reside in California

Order directing plaintiff to dismiss as to John Doe defendants for whom it cannot make sufficient showing of jurisdiction and venue

[Ed. note] I have been saying, since 2005, that the Courts should not be allowing the John Doe cases to proceed without factual showings of both jurisdiction and venue. See, e.g. Suggestion #2 in my article, which appeared in the ABA Judges Journal "Large Recording Companies v. The Defenseless". I am pleased to see that some judges are applying this basic legal principle. -R.B.]



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Wednesday, December 21, 2011

9th Circuit affirms judgment dismissing UMG's case against Veoh

Tip of the hat to Naomi Jane Gray, Esq., of Harvey Siskind LLP, who brought this to our attention.

In UMG Recordings v. Veoh Networks, the decision of the District Court dismissing the case on summary judgment, on the basis of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, has been affirmed by the Ninth Circuit.

Ninth Circuit Decision Affirming District Court granting of defendants' motion for summary judgment
September 11, 2009, District Court decision

[Ed. Note. Sadly, despite the meritlessness of UMG's case, it was able to force Veoh to spend so much money on legal fees that it succeeded in putting Veoh out of business. The courts need to recognize that merely enforcing the Digital Millenium Copyright Act safe harbor by costly nonsensical litigation of this nature is the same as not enforcing it at all. Few defendants have the money to spend that the RIAA seems content to waste pursuing frivolous claims. -R.B.]

Commentary & discussion:

Ars Technica
Aaron Sanders Law blog


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Tuesday, December 20, 2011

RIAA files amended complaint in case against Grooveshark, renamed Arista v. Escape Media

In Arista v. Escape Media, the RIAA has filed an amended complaint. The amendment changes the name of the case from UMG v. Escape Media to Arista v. Escape Media.

(Although we were unable to obtain a copy through PACER, Bloomberg Law Products was kind enough to make a copy available to us.)

Amended Complaint, Arista v. Escape Media
Exhibits part 1
Exhibits part 2
Exhibits part 3
Exhibits part 4

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Sunday, December 18, 2011

RIAA files amended complaint in its case against Grooveshark, document not available in PACER

In the RIAA's case against Grooveshark, UMG v. Escape Media, a complaint was filed on November 18th, and then an amended complaint was filed December 15th. Mysteriously, the amended complaint is not available through PACER. The docket entry says simply:

AMENDED COMPLAINT amending [1] Complaint, against Nikola Arabadjiev, John Ashenden, Escape Media Group, Inc., Paul Geller, Joshua Greenberg, Chanel Munezero, Samuel Tarantino, Benjamin Westermann-Clark.Document filed by UMG Recording, Inc., Atlantic Recording Corporation, Zomba Recording L.L.C., Elektra Entertainment Group Inc., Arista Records LLC, LaFace Records, LLC, Warner Bros. Records Inc., Arista Music, Sony Music Entertainment. Related document: [1] Complaint, filed by UMG Recording, Inc. (mro)
A copy of the original complaint is as follows:

Complaint

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Friday, December 16, 2011

Jon Newton's last post at p2pnet.net

The great Jon Newton, who has been a tremendous friend to the victims of the RIAA onslaught, and a great friend of this blog, has decided to call it a day in publishing p2pnet.net, due primarily to his health problems in recovering from complications sustained during heart surgery.

Here is his final post at p2pnet:

"last post"




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Wednesday, December 14, 2011

MegaUpload v. UMG -- file sharing service sues Universal for improper DMCA takedown notice

A new case has been commenced, in federal court in San Jose, California, by filesharing service MegaUpload, against Universal Music Group, accusing it of issuing an improper DMCA takedown notice to YouTube, for the takedown of a promotional video for which MegaUpload claimed to have cleared all necessary rights.

Complaint

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Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Briefing schedule set & hearing scheduled for February 22nd in SONY BMG Music v Tenenbaum

At today's status conference in SONY BMG Music Entertainment v. Tenenbaum, the Court set a briefing schedule, and a February 22nd hearing date.

The Clerk's docket entry reads as follows:

Status Conference held on 12/13/2011; defendants memo 1/3/12; plaintiff's and Goverment's memo 1/27/12; reply 2/6/12; Memo 30 pages; and reply 5 pages; Hearing set for 2/22/2012 02:00 PM in Courtroom 12 before Judge Rya W. Zobel


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