White House Unveils New Piracy Awareness Campaign (Reuters)
Attorney General Eric Holder announced a new campaign to raise public awareness about the damaging consequences of intellectual property theft. The campaign will consist of TV public service announcements and print ads and will target everything from illegal music and movie downloads to counterfeit pharmaceuticals.
Grooveshark Responds to Universal’s Copyright Lawsuit (CNET)
Following a lawsuit filed by Universal, in which Universal claims Grooveshark execs led an effort to post more than 100,000 pirated songs onto the music service (previously reported here), Grooveshark responded, stating the lawsuit is based on a “gross mischaracterization of information.”
Judge Orders Google, Facebook to Remove Fake Sites (BBC)
In a case brought by luxury goods maker Chanel against 600 websites, a Nevada judge ordered Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and others to delist domain names linked to websites selling counterfeit goods.
John Wiley Expands Lawsuit Against File-Sharing ‘Dummies’ (paidContent)
John Wiley filed a new lawsuit against 46 more John Does who were allegedly participating in unauthorized file-sharing of the “For Dummies” series online.
Authorities Seize 131 Domains Associated With Piracy and Counterfeiting (VentureBeat)
Leading up to Cyber Monday, the U.S. government seized 131 domains allegedly associated with counterfeiting and piracy-related websites, signaling authorities have resumed “Operation in Our Sites.”
Hartford Courant Settles Copyright and Hot News Claims (paidContent)
The Hartford Courant quietly settled with the small newspaper that sued it over its news aggregation editor, which means media outlets will not get a further chance to test-drive the controversial “hot news” doctrine in court.
Google Adds More Words to List of Piracy Related Terms (Ubergizmo)
Google has added more words and websites to its list of piracy-related terms, including uTorrent, Bitorrent, and combinations of the word torrent.
Apple Wins Control Over ‘iPhone’ Porn Domain Names (CNET)
Apple has won its dispute with a domain name squatter and dropped the case after the domain name owner agreed to turn over the seven iPhone porn domain names.
Porn Company Sues ICANN Over .xxx Domain (The Wall Street Journal)
Manwin Licensing International, one of the largest purveyors of pornography on the web, filed suit against ICANN to block the new dot-xxx suffix on web addresses, alleging “monopolistic conduct, price gouging, and anticompetitive and unfair practices.”