Some of the most prolific examples of digital piracy can be traced not to hackers, but to universities and college professors, a series of lawsuits seems to assert. In each case, the schools and professors claim that fair use applies…

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Technologist Andrew Chow, JD

I’ll be reading this decision, issued today, more carefully in the next day or two, but my first impression is that it’s a win for supporters of the DMCA safeharbor statute based on various legal rulings, and a loss for Youtube based on the really dumb behavior of Youtube’s founders.  Of course, these guys didn’t know, back in 2005, that seven years later the courts would be judging whether they were aware that they were hosting copyrighted videos.  If they had known, they might not have emailed each other comments like these:

• “[W]e need views, [but] I’m a little concerned with the recent [S]upreme [C]ourt ruling on copyrighted material”
• “[S]ave your meal money for some lawsuits!”
• “concentrate all of our efforts in building up our numbers as aggressively as we can through whatever tactics, however evil”
• “our dirty little secret . . . is that we actually just want to sell out quickly”

And there’s more like that. Ouch!

In the future companies with Youtube-like businesses will, one hopes, not create evidentiary grist of this sort for content owners to use in lawsuits against them.  So, this case may turn out to be a great lesson for the online industry (careful what you say), and an expensive lesson for Google, which will likely have to add some dollars to the $1.65 billion it paid for Youtube in 2006.

Second Circuit decision in Viacom v. Youtube

Mass Law Blog Lee Gesmer

In the wake of the FBI’s takedown of Megaupload, FileSonic, a popular cyberlocker site, has disabled its “sharing” feature. FileSonic users are now only able to download files they personally uploaded. And it seems that other sites may soon follow….

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Technologist Cynthia Hsu, Esq.

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. There is little doubt that Steve Jobs was at the forefront of the tech revolution. He was an innovator in the realms of…

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Technologist Andrew Chow, JD

Last August, video game maker Bethesda filed a trademark infringement complaint against the makers of Minecraft, a sandbox-style game. Minecraft developers were creating a new game called Scrolls, which Bethesda believed to be a little too similar to their own…

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Technologist Cynthia Hsu

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has a new target in its crosshairs: ReDigi, a newcomer to the digital music world. ReDigi offers users the ability to sell their “used” digital music. Think about it this way, it’s just…

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Technologist Cynthia Hsu

A number of Silicon Valley heavyweights joined forces on Tuesday to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261), a new bill introduced late last month. Google, Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Yahoo, AOL, Zynga and LinkedIn are urging members of the…

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Technologist Stephanie Rabiner

This is neither a trademark case nor a California case, but I think the folks at techdirt raise some interesting food for thought…

What What (In the Butt)? What What (Fair Use Doesn’t Need a Trial)?

Trademark Law Briefs Trademark Law Briefs

This is neither a trademark case nor a California case, but I think the folks at techdirt raise some interesting food for thought…

What What (In the Butt)? What What (Fair Use Doesn’t Need a Trial)?

Trademark Law Briefs Trademark Law Briefs

Is Twittersquatting the new cybersquatting? It might not be, but it’s certainly proven to be more than annoying for Coventry First. Coventry First is a leading company in the secondary life insurance market. Essentially, Coventry buys rights to life insurance…

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Technologist Cynthia Hsu