WebProNews

Perfect 10 Comes Out Swinging at Google Again
By Chris Crum · December 2, 2009 · 1

Those who have been following the search industry for some time, may recall that Google had some legal issues with the (former) magazine Perfect 10 (nsfw). The company, which ceased publication of its magazine, but still operates on the web, has issued a press release saying that its five year battle with the search giant is "about to heat up."

Justin.tv Steps Up Copyright Protection Efforts
By Chris Crum · August 12, 2009 · 4

Justin.tv has just announced a new copyright protection process it is initiating. The site is working with Vobile to filter content on Justin.tv using their database of content.

AP Determined To Protect Online Content
By Mike Sachoff · July 23, 2009 · 3

The Associated Press has announced it is taking measures to protect its online content with a creation of a news registry to tag and track all AP content "to assure compliance with terms of use."

The AP says the system will register key information about each piece of content it distributes as well as terms of use of that content, and feature a built-in beacon to alert the AP about how the content is used.

EFF Posts Gripe Site Legal Guide
By WebProNews Staff · May 22, 2009 · 2

Because copyright and trademark lawyers have had such itchy trigger fingers when it comes to issuing DMCA takedown notices, there’s a lot of confusion out there what exactly constitutes infringement, and what webmasters can and can’t do with intellectual property.

Part of the problem is that websites hosting other people’s content—YouTube, Blogger, eBay, etc.—remove the content at the slightest whiff of a DMCA notice to avoid trouble. This leads, of course, to abuse and to targets without any great recourse.

The Slow Checkmate Of Internet Control
By WebProNews Staff · April 30, 2009 · 9

The specious arguments made and overly harsh penalties sought by the copyright (Big Media) industry would be comically absurd if systemic corruption didn’t immediately transform them into tragedies.
Pirate Bay

Pirate Bay Defenders Launch The Pirate Google
By WebProNews Staff · April 30, 2009

One thing’s for sure, Google doesn’t want to be associated with pirates; the company has enough copyright troubles as it is in its battles with Viacom and the AP. But defenders of The Pirate Bay argue there is precious little difference between two engines both capable of retrieving existing .torrent files on the Internet.

Stanford Takes Up Case Against AP
By WebProNews Staff · February 9, 2009 · 3

Well, if Google (or any number of other cost-conscious corporations) isn’t going to do something about overreaching copyright enforcement, it may be up to nonprofits and legal scholars at our best law schools. First up, a pair of acronyms, next Congress for encouraging them.

YouTube Mutes (Some) Copyrighted Music
By Doug Caverly · January 14, 2009 · 9

If you happen to come across some silent YouTube videos today, there’s no need to start investigating your speaker settings and browser defaults. It seems that the "problem" is on YouTube’s end; the site’s owners have chosen to mute certain clips as a way of dealing with copyright violations.

RIAA Has Facebook And MySpace Ban Project Playlist
By Bruce Houghton · December 29, 2008

Late last week MySpace responded to notices from the RIAA by banning all ProjectPlaylist widgets from its site. Yesterday Facebook followed suit.

MTVmusic.com Censors Weird Al
By WebProNews Staff · October 31, 2008 · 8

MTV, which recently made a super smart and exciting YouTube-combating move by making its music video collection available online, just ruined it. They’ve censored Weird Al.

EFF Echoes McCain
By WebProNews Staff · October 20, 2008

Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.

EFF Echoes McCain
By WebProNews Staff · October 20, 2008

Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.

EFF Echoes McCain
By WebProNews Staff · October 20, 2008

Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.

EFF Echoes McCain
By WebProNews Staff · October 20, 2008

Though initially critical of the McCain campaign’s request for special treatment, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has echoed parts of a letter to YouTube by calling for immediate fair use review of videos uploaded to the site upon the receipt of a counter-notice to a DMCA takedown notice.

YouTube Rejects McCain Campaign Request
By WebProNews Staff · October 16, 2008 · 1

Earlier this week, general counsel for the McCain campaign petitioned YouTube to give special treatment to political ads scrubbed from the site because of DMCA take down notices. General counsel for YouTube roundly rejected that request.

McCain Asks YouTube to Ignore DMCA Claims
By WebProNews Staff · October 14, 2008 · 2

After a slew of political ads from the McCain-Palin campaign were taken down from YouTube because of copyright holder DMCA complaints, the campaign sent a letter to YouTube (PDF) urging the company to be less immediate with its compliance with the letters and to subject videos to full legal review.

German Court Comes Down On Google’s Thumbnail Images
By Doug Caverly · October 13, 2008

Either Google Germany’s lawyers aren’t up to snuff, or they’re just stuck in a really hostile environment. Regardless, a new report indicates that two court rulings would have Google stop showing certain thumbnail images in its search results.

YouTube’s Video ID Successful So Far
By Doug Caverly · August 27, 2008 · 5

Lawsuits have long been the main way through which copyright owners have interacted with YouTube. It seems that the Video ID program has achieved a sort of miracle, though, and made some owners like YouTube after all.

Apple Takes the “Tris” Out of iPhone Tetris
By Chris Crum · August 26, 2008 · 11

It’s not been a good week for developers of well-established game knock-offs. Facebook favorite Scrabulous, a Scrabble-like game developed by two brothers in India was just removed in the UK and Australia, after already being forced down from the social network in North America last month.

IOC Forces YouTube Removal Of Tibet Protest Video
By WebProNews Staff · August 14, 2008 · 2

The presence of the Olympic’s five interlocking rings in a video of a protest against Chinese control of Tibet led to the International Olympic Committee claiming copyright infringement.

Google Copyright Lawyer Seals His Blog
By WebProNews Staff · August 6, 2008 · 1

Highly public position allegedly caused confusion with readers who attributed his personal views to be Google’s opinions.