Enforcement News

BitTorrent Returns to Google Search’s Auto-Complete (CNET)
After having been blocked for years from showing up in Google’s auto-complete suggestions, BitTorrent was quietly allowed back into the fold. BitTorrent has been striving to rework its image and prove it doesn’t deal in piracy.

Supreme Court Takes on ‘Raging Bull’ Copyright Case (Los Angeles Times)
The U.S. Supreme Court announced it will decide eight new cases, including a copyright dispute over the 1980 Oscar-winning boxing film “Raging Bull” and whether Paula Petrella, whose father Frank Petrella wrote the book and screenplay, waited too long to sue over the renewal of his copyright.

Yahoo Agrees to Pay Damages to Singapore Press Holdings (The Next Web)
Yahoo announced it has paid undisclosed damages and costs to a Singaporean media company after reaching an amicable settlement in a copyright infringement suit where Yahoo’s Singapore news site was accused of reproducing content from Singapore Press Holdings without approval.

Policy News

‘Patent Trolls’ Launch a Lobbying Defense in D.C. (Politico)
‘Patent trolls’ are feeling the heat in Washington — the FTC announced it will investigate them, and Congress is pushing a myriad of bills to curtail their activities — so they are taking steps to defend themselves in D.C.

Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung Plead for a Patent-Troll-Free Europe (GigaOM)
Big tech firms want to make sure that a soon-to-launch unified European patent system doesn’t let trolls game the system on a wide scale, so they’ve asked for modifications to the rules of the new EU patent court.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA. Follow Keith on Twitter at @keithkup and sign up for the Intellectual Property Roundup weekly newsletter here.

Enforcement News

IRS May Be Breaking Software Copyright Laws, Audit Finds (The Washington Times)
A new audit found the IRS is handling its software licenses poorly and may be in violation of copyright laws.

Will Copyright Be Extended 20 More Years? An Old Debate Returns (GigaOM)
In 1998, Congress agreed to grant another 20 years of copyright protection to every film, book and song in the land. Now, the laws are under review once again, raising the question whether another extension will take place.

3-D Printing Pitting Fans Vs. Copyright (San Francisco Chronicle)
As 3-D printing is becoming more ubiquitous, corporations are having to balance protection of their copyrights vs. the potential backlash of taking their fans to court. So far, 3-D printing disputes have been playing out as cease-and-desist orders — no lawsuits have yet been filed.

EBook Sellers Strike Deal To Share Customer Details With Anti-Piracy Outfit (Torrent Freak)
A new digital distribution deal for eBook merchants will see them ‘watermark’ unique codes into the digital eBooks they sell, which will identify a specific transaction number that will be linked directly to a specific customer account.

IP Policy News

Lower House To Consider Public Petition Against ‘Russian SOPA’ (RT)
A top Russian Lower House MP has promised to consider a public petition against the recently passed anti-piracy law which permits web-sites allegedly posting pirated content to be blocked without a court order.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.2

German News Sites Opt For Google Exposure For Now (ABC News)
Major German publishers gave Google permission to keep using their content on its news page as tighter online copyright rules came into force, but insist their dispute over payment for content isn’t over.

Copyright Policy, Creativity and Innovation in the Digital Economy (U.S. Patent & Trademark Office)
The U.S. Department of Commerce released a green paper on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy. The paper is a comprehensive analysis of digital copyright policy intended to advance discussion on the issue. Read the full report here.

SOPA Died in 2012, But Obama Administration Wants to Revive Part of It (The Washington Post)
The report on digital copyright policy issued by the Department of Commerce’s Internet Policy Task Force endorsed one piece of the controversial SOPA proposal – making the streaming of copyrighted works a felony.

Judge Says Patent Lawyers Have Right to Science Articles Under ‘Fair Use’ (GigaOM)
In a case between patent lawyers and copyright lawyers over the scientific articles submitted as part of most patent applications, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Keyes sided with the patent lawyers, ruling that the reason they made unlicensed copies of the articles was to comply with the law for submitting applications to the patent office, not to compete within the market for scientific journals.

Search Engines Not Seen as a Major Player in Music Piracy (The Verge)
A new report from the nonprofit Computer and Communications Industry Association claims that “the solutions to online infringement have little to do with search,” and removing “undesirable” search results would not substantially alter or prevent piracy. Read the full report here.

‘Russian SOPA’ Anti-Piracy Law’s First Day Full of Protests and a Failed Lawsuit (International Business Times)
Russia’s new anti-piracy law went into effect on July 31, and was met with criticism and a failed lawsuit. More than 1,700 sites went dark in a SOPA-style protest.

First Content Ban Imposed Under Anti-Piracy Law (The Moscow Times)
TV channel TNT has become the first company to successfully file claims against illegal distributors of their content under new anti-piracy legislation in Russia.

Comcast Developing Anti-Piracy Alternative to ‘Six Strikes’ (Variety)
Comcast has begun preliminary discussions with both film and TV studios and other leading Internet service providers about employing technology that would provide offending users with opportunities to access legal versions of copyright-infringing videos as they’re being downloaded.

Music Publishers File Copyright Suit Against Big YouTube Channel Operator (The Verge)
A group of music publishers and songwriters have claimed in a copyright lawsuit that Fullscreen, which operates a network of popular YouTube channels, is including unlicensed music in its videos.

Keith Kupferschmid is General Counsel and SVP, Intellectual Property Policy & Enforcement at SIIA.2