Two men who allegedly used 65 Google accounts to bombard Google with fraudulent DMCA takedown notices targeting up to 620,000 URLs, have been named in a Google lawsuit filed in California on Monday. Google says the men weaponized copyright law’s notice-and-takedown system to sabotage competitors’ trade, while damaging the search engine’s business and those of Read more about Google Sues Men Who Weaponized DMCA Notices to Crush Competition[…]

[…] Many courts have already dealt with these lawsuits-come-lately filed by opportunistic people who failed to capitalize on their own pop culture cache but thought it was worth throwing a few hundred dollars in filing fees towards a federal court in hopes that the eventual payoff would be millions. Most of these efforts have failed. Read more about 9th Circuit Advances Lawsuit Over Fortnite ‘Emotes;’ Says Dance Moves Are As Protected As Songs[…]

It truly is amazing that the video game industry is so heavily divided on the topic of user-made game mods. I truly don’t understand it. My take has always been very simple: mods are good for gamers and even better for game makers. Why? Simple, mods serve to extend the useful life of video games Read more about Capcom: PC Game Mods Are Essentially Just Cheats By A Different Name – uhm… what’s wrong with cheats (if it’s offline)?[…]

I am so frequently confused by companies that sue other companies for making their own sites and services more useful. It happens quite often. And quite often, the lawsuits are questionable CFAA claims against websites that scrape data to provide a better consumer experience, but one that still ultimately benefits the originating site. Over the Read more about Air Canada Sues Website That Helps People Book More Flights simultaneously Calls own website team incompetent beyond belief[…]

This blog has written a number of times about the reaction of creators to generative AI. Legal academic and copyright expert Andres Guadamuz has spotted what may be the first attempt to draw up a new law to regulate generative AI. It comes from French politicians, who have developed something of a habit of bringing in new laws attempting Read more about New French AI Copyright Law Would Effectively Tax AI Companies, Enrich French taxman[…]

[…] the informal nature of their collections means that they are exposed to serious threats from copyright, as the recent experience of The Museum of Classic Chicago Television makes clear. The Museum explains why it exists: The Museum of Classic Chicago Television (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is constantly searching out vintage material on old videotapes saved in basements or Read more about Museum Collection Of Historical TV Culture At Risk Due To Copyright Takedowns[…]

Rick Klein and his team have been preserving TV adverts, forgotten tapes, and decades-old TV programming for years. Now operating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, the Museum of Classic Chicago Television has called YouTube home since 2007. However, copyright notices sent on behalf of Sony, protecting TV shows between 40 and 60 years old, could shut Read more about TV Museum Will Die in 48 Hours Unless Sony Retracts YouTube Copyright Strikes on 40 – 60 year old TV shows[…]

More and more, as the video game industry matures, we find ourselves talking about game preservation and the disappearing culture of some older games as the original publishers abandon them. Often times leaving the public with no actual legit method for purchasing these old games, copyright law conspires with the situation to also prevent the Read more about One Fan Ports Abandoned PS1 Classic ‘WipeOut’, Tells Sony To either let it be or make it available for the world again. Sony will because copyright and assholes.[…]

On Friday, the Internet Archive put up a blog post noting that its digital book lending program was likely to change as it continues to fight the book publishers’ efforts to kill the Internet Archive. As you’ll recall, all the big book publishers teamed up to sue the Internet Archive over its Open Library project, Read more about RIAA Attempts To Kill The World’s Greatest Library whilst it is down: Sues Internet Archive For Making It Possible To Hear Old 78s[…]

And here we go again. we’ve been talking about how copyright has gotten in the way of cultural preservation generally for a while, and more specifically lately when it comes to the video game industry. The way this problem manifests itself is quite simple: video game publishers support the games they release for some period Read more about Preservation Fail: Hasbro Wants Old ‘Transformers’ Games Re-Released, Except Activision Might Have Lost Them[…]

Mozilla’s Open Policy & Advocacy blog has news about a worrying proposal from the French government: In a well-intentioned yet dangerous move to fight online fraud, France is on the verge of forcing browsers to create a dystopian technical capability. Article 6 (para II and III) of the SREN Bill would force browser providers to create Read more about Will Browsers Be Required By Law To Stop You From Visiting Infringing Sites?[…]

Jieun Kiaer, an Oxford professor of Korean linguistics, recently published an academic book called Emoji Speak: Communications and Behaviours on Social Media. As you can tell from the name, it’s a book about emoji, and about how people communicate with them: Exploring why and how emojis are born, and the different ways in which people Read more about Academic Book About Emojis Can’t Include The Emojis It Talks About Because Of Copyright[…]

There’s an interesting post on TorrentFreak that concerns so-called “pirate” subtitles for films. It’s absurd that anyone could consider subtitles to be piracy in any way. They are a good example of how ordinary people can add value by generously helping others enjoy films and TV programs in languages they don’t understand. In no sense do “pirate” Read more about That Which Copyright Destroys, ‘Pirates’ Can Save[…]

Taco Bell succeeded in its petition to remove the “Taco Tuesday” trademark held by Taco John’s, claiming it held an unfair monopoly over the phrase. Taco John’s CEO Jim Creel backed down from the fight on Tuesday, saying it isn’t worth the legal fees to retain the regional chain’s trademark. “We’ve always prided ourselves on Read more about ‘Taco Tuesday’ is no longer a copyrighted phrase – wait you can copyright a phrase like that?![…]

Copyright is still high on the list of censorial weapons. When you live in (or target) a country that protects free speech rights and offers intermediaries immunity via Section 230, you quickly surmise there’s a soft target lying between the First Amendment and the CDA. That soft target is the DMCA. Thanks to plenty of Read more about People Are Using Forged Court Orders To Disappear Content They Don’t Like using DMCA[…]