Switzerland, Italy Join Congressional Watch List on Piracy for First Time (Hollywood Reporter)
The U.S. Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus released its annual Anti-Piracy Watch List, with Italy and Switzerland making the list for the first time.

Jones, Others, Face Copyright Infringement Lawsuit from 2 Leading Publishers in N.Y. (Murray Ledger & Times)
McGraw-Hill Companies and Pearson Education filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Murray businessman Charles Jones and his business College Book Rental Company for reproducing and distributing counterfeit copies of various textbooks.

Microsoft Said to Ask China to Stop Piracy at Four Firms (Bloomberg)
Microsoft filed complaints asking China to stop the alleged use of pirated versions of its Office software at four state-owned companies, including China Post Group and China National Petroleum Corp.

Client Loses Bid to Sue Ex-Lawyer for Copyright Infringement (Thomson Reuters)
A U.S. District Judge tossed a lawsuit brought by Bernard Gelb, a man who claimed his former attorney, Norman Kaplan, committed copyright infringement by using a complaint Gelb authored five years earlier.

France Sees First Conviction Under New Anti-Piracy Law (CNET)
France assessed its first fine under Hadopi against a man found liable for failing to secure his Internet connection that was being used to illegally download copyrighted content.

Microsoft Finds New PCs in China Preinstalled with Malware (PCWorld)
An investigation by Microsoft revealed that brand-new laptop and desktop computers sold in China contained preinstalled malware embedded in counterfeit versions of Windows OS. While consumers in Western countries may not be vulnerable to that kind of tampering, they do face risks if they download counterfeit software from the Internet.

“Six Strikes” Internet Warning System Will Come to US this Year (Ars Technica)
Jill Lesser, head of the newly formed Center for Copyright Information, says the Copyright Alert System, commonly known as the “six strikes” anti-piracy program, is set to launch by the end of this year.

The 3 Myths Behind “Internet Pirates Always Win” (paidContent)
Michael Smith, an economist from Carnegie Mellon, argues that three myths are driving the popular notion that online piracy is inevitable and can’t be stopped.

Judge Suspends Google E-Book Litigation (Reuters)
An appeals court judge suspended trial court litigation involving Google and thousands of authors pending Google’s appeal of an order granting the authors class-action status in the case over Google’s plans to create the world’s largest digital books library.

Piracy May Be Commonplace, But Music’s Outlook is Improving (paidContent)
A recent report says more than three billion songs were downloaded illegally around the world via torrent in the first half of 2012, and while that is a huge number, it is likely shrinking and moving in the direction the industry wants.

SIIA Defends Publishers’ Copyright Before Supreme Court
SIIA last week filed an amicus brief in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. — a hotly contested case that could undermine U.S. publishers’ competitiveness in the global marketplace. The case involves the legality of purchasing copyrighted works that are made and sold overseas and reselling them into the U.S. without authorization from the publisher. SIIA has taken the lead in previous court filings to defend the flexibility for publishers to employ the most effective and efficient market strategies by controlling their content and price structures from country to country, and in this brief we argue that there are a variety of beneficial reasons for a publisher to prevent copies made for sale abroad from entering the United States.

Read more: SIIA Tells Supreme Court that ‘First Sale Doctrine’ Should Not Apply to Copies of Copyrighted Works Made Abroad & Resold in U.S.
SIIA Amicus Brief in Kirtsaeng v Wiley & Sons

Will 3-D Printing Lead to a New Wave of Piracy? (GigaOM)
New, cheap 3-D printers could inaugurate a technological revolution, but at the same time lead to massive new piracy problems.

Mobile Carriers and Consumers Are All Pirates in South Africa (paidContent)
A new report on digital content in South Africa highlights a significant problem regarding some of the nation’s largest online music providers’ refusal to pay licensing fees, and proposes the same kind of “three-strikes” penalty system being leveled against infringers in other countries.

Google Restricts Pirate Bay From Autocomplete, Instant Search Features (PCWorld)
Google is making it more difficult to find The Pirate Bay by reducing its appearance in the Autocomplete and Google Instant search features; users must now type out nearly the entire name of the site before seeing any Autocomplete suggestions.

Appeals Court Sides with RIAA, Jammie Thomas Owes $222,000 (CNET)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated a lower court’s decision and ruled that a Minnesota woman, found by a judge to have lied about illegally uploading music, must pay the top four record labels $222,000.

Pirate Bay Founder Accused of New Crime in Sweden (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was arrested in a new hacking investigation as he returned home to Sweden from Cambodia to serve a prison sentence for his involvement with The Pirate Bay.

China’s Taobao E-Commerce Site Signs Deal with U.S. Film Rep to Curb Piracy (Reuters)
China’s largest e-commerce site, Taobao Marketplace, signed an agreement with the Motion Picture Association to curb the sale of counterfeit goods and goods that infringe the copyrights of the MPA’s members.

Cambodia to Deport Pirate Bay Co-Founder Sought by Sweden (Reuters)
Cambodia will deport Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, who was convicted and sentenced to prison in Sweden for breaking copyright laws. Warg was arrested in Phnom Penh where he had been living for several years.

Oracle Appeals SAP Case, Seeks $1.3 Billion Jury Award (Information Week)
Oracle is appealing the outcome of the five-year-old court case involving copyright infringement by SAP’s TomorrowNow services business, seeking the $1.3 billion jury award over the $306 million settlement already in place.

New York Times Tangles With Patent Trolls (paidContent)
Two “patent trolls” are targeting media companies like The New York Times for licensing fees, but the Times is fighting back and asking the U.S. Patent Office to re-examine some of the patents at issue.

U.S. Government Dismisses Piracy Case Against Rojadirecta Site (The Hill)
The U.S. government dismissed its piracy case against Spanish website Rojadirecta, after authorities seized the sites last year as part of its “Operation in our Sites” effort.

Chinese Firms Put Intellectual Property Lawsuits to Work (The Washington Post)
U.S. companies have long accused the Chinese of stealing their intellectual property, but now the Chinese are turning it around and filing patent and trademark infringement lawsuits in Chinese courts against U.S. firms like Apple.

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

Court Affirms $675,000 Penalty in Music-Downloading Case (CNET)
A Massachusetts federal court upheld a $675,000 damages award against Joel Tenenbaum, who was accused of illegally downloading and distributing 31 songs over a two-year period

Genius or Troll? Patent Owner Sues Dozens Over Anti-Piracy Method (GigaOM)
A Miami man who says he invented a form of cryptography to fight online piracy is suing Google, Shazam and dozens of others that use common digital water-marking techniques to prevent copyright infringement.

New Yorker Pleads Guilty in Virginia Criminal Copyright Case (Bloomberg Businessweek)
Dennis Newsome entered a guilty plea in federal court in Virginia to four counts relating to criminal copyright infringement. Newsome allegedly sold illegal copies of computer software and training materials from John Wiley & Sons and CBT Nuggets.

RapidShare: We’ll help Hollywood, but ‘not at all costs’ (Q&A) (CNET)
Daniel Raimer, general counsel of media-hosting site Rapidshare, talked to CNET about the techniques the company uses to detect and curb piracy.

Jury Awards $1 Billion to Apple in Samsung Patent Case (The New York Times)
A jury found that Samsung infringed on a series of Apple’s patents on mobile devices, and awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages in a decision that could force smartphone makers to redesign their products to be less Apple-like.

Samsung Case Puts Apple Closer to Google Fight (The New York Times)
Though Apple has not directly pursued Google, and instead sued the cellphone makers that use Android in their products, the jury verdict against Samsung puts apple closer to a Google fight.