Google Settles Belgian Papers’ Copyright Dispute (Reuters)
Settling a six-year copyright dispute, Google reached an agreement with a group of Belgian newspaper publishers and authors to help them generate revenues from their online content.

The Right to Resell: A Ticking Time Bomb Over Digital Goods (paidContent)
With a conflict brewing over consumers’ rights to use platforms like ReDigi to resell their books, music and other digital property, libraries and companies are joining together to lobby for Digital First Sale rights.

Alibaba Group’s Taobao Removed From “Notorious Markets” List by U.S. (TechCrunch)
The U.S. government announced that it has removed China’s Taobao Marketplace from its yearly list of the world’s most “notorious markets,” a distinction Taobao earned for being rampant with pirated and counterfeit goods.

Anti-Piracy Chief Patents “Pay Up or Disconnect” Scheme (TorrentFreak)
One of the top executives of the U.S.-based anti-piracy outfit Digital Rights Corp has submitted a patent application for a system that will demand a fee from Internet users caught downloading copyrighted material.

U.S. Report Slams Russia’s VKontakte Over Copyright Infringement (RT)
A USTR report has accused Russia’s largest social network site of copyright infringement, claiming the site allows users to access and share copyright-protected content without right-holders’ permission.

Spain Launches First Legal Online Registry for Content (The Hollywood Reporter)
Spain announced the creation of Registro On Line, a free online copyright registry trumpeted as the first in the world to offer a legally binding guarantee in the United States and Spain.

Hurt Pirates by Targeting Their Ad Money, Says Rock Star (paidContent)
David Lowery, lead singer of the rock band Cracker, says the best way to fight piracy is to hurt the pirates in the pocket book by cutting off their ad money, and specifically by naming and shaming the advertisers who allow the pirates to make money.

Google: Copyright Removal Requests Spike to 2.5 Million Per Week (The Hill)
Google announced that the number of requests it receives each week to remove links to allegedly infringing websites has risen from 250,000 per week to more than 2.5 million per week over the past six months.

Content Delivery Booms: Outbrain Buys Firm that Brings Media to Brands (paidContent)
The way content is being passed around the internet is changing, with companies like Outbrain that are making it possible for businesses to access and host content without engaging in costly licensing negotiations or piracy.

BRICs Score Lowest on IP Protection Index (Reuters)
A new U.S. Chamber of Commerce index intended as a tool for U.S. policymakers to push for tough protections of U.S. intellectual property gave Brazil, Russia, India and China the worst scores for protecting intellectual property.

Publishers Brace for Authors to Reclaim Book Rights in 2013 (paidContent)

A copyright law that lets authors break contracts after 35 years will start taking effect in January. These so-called “termination rights” could provide yet another disruption for traditional publishers who may face the loss of their back lists as authors begin using the Copyright Act to reclaim works they assigned years ago.

BPI Requests UK Pirate Party Shut Down Pirate Bay Proxy (Ars Technica)

The British Phonographic Industry sent a letter demanding the UK Pirate Party shut down their Pirate Bay proxy service that was launched earlier in the year when ISPs began blocking access to the original Pirate Bay site.

“Six Strikes” Copyright Enforcement Postponed Until 2013 (Ars Technica)

The Center for Copyright Information announced that the rollout of the “six strikes” warning system will be delayed until early 2013 due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, which affected their testing schedules.

Google Mobilizes Users in Fight for Robots’ Core Values (paidContent)
Facing challenges to its core values that it is not a publisher and only excerpts parts of articles, Google is asking users in Germany to oppose government-proposed copyright reforms and complain to elected representatives on its behalf.

Facebook Privacy Chain Letter Resurfaces (The Washington Post)
The latest Facebook hoax claims users can change their copyright rights by simply posting a status message. The post illustrates how much users want clear control over content they post to Facebook.

Cable Companies Say They Won’t Disconnect Accused Pirates (CNET)
Verizon and Time Warner Cable said that after they repeatedly inform customers through the forthcoming “six strikes” program that their activities appear to violate copyright law, the companies’ obligation is fulfilled, and no account termination will take place.

UK Student Escapes U.S. Extradition in Copyright Case (Reuters)
Richard O’Dwyer, a British university student who launched a website linking to free films and TV shows, reached an agreement to avoid extradition to the U.S. and possible jail over copyright infringement allegations.

ICANN Issues Early Warnings Over Controversial Top Level Domains (Techworld)
The Government Advisory Committee, a panel representing about 50 of the world’s national governments that provides advice to ICANN on public policy issues, has filed 242 “Early Warnings” on applications that are thought to be controversial or sensitive.

Earlier today Director David Kappos sent an email to USPTO employees, announced that his departure from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office around the end of January 2013. In the email he wrote:

Dear Colleagues,

It has been an immense privilege to lead the PTO, our nation’s innovation agency, over the last three and a half years-and it is with deep gratitude for your dedication and hard work that I write to inform you that I will be leaving the Agency around the end of January 2013.

I cannot thank you enough for your hard work over the years-and I wish you all the very best ahead.

Prior to joining the PTO in 2009, Director Kappos worked for SIIA-member IBM as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property Law. During his tenure with the PTO he oversaw enactment of the most significant reforms to the patent system this century. We are grateful to Director Kappos for all the improvements to the patent system that he spearheaded during his term as Director and all the hard work and leadership he provided as the “face of the patent system” in the U.S. and abroad.

Google Presses Fair Use Case in Book Scanning Appeal (paidContent)
Google asked an appeals court to throw out a ruling that let the Authors Guild move forward with a long-running class action case over Google’s book scanning project. Google renewed its fair use argument and says the case should be decided on a book-by-book basis.

China Official Defends Record on Fighting IPR Thieves (Variety)
The head of China’s State Intellectual Property Office acknowledged a piracy problem in China, but says the Western media has ignored the government’s efforts to combat piracy, and instead has highlighted the negatives.

iOS Apps Hijack Twitter Accounts, Post False”Confessions” of Piracy (Ars Technica)
iOS application developer Enfour is fighting piracy by auto-posting tweets to users’ accounts to shame them for being pirates, but a “glitch in the anti-piracy measures” caused the auto-tweeting to affect a huge portion of its paid user base.

Man Sentenced to 36 Months for $2.5M in Software Piracy (Equities.com)
A Virginia man was sentenced to 36 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution of $2.5 million for selling thousands of units of counterfeit and pirated software.

D.C. Circuit Voids $743K Restitution Order in Pirated Software Case (LegalTimes)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit unanimously ruled to vacate a court order that required the defendant pay Adobe $743,098 (the amount equivalent to the sale of pirated software), because the government failed to show Adobe’s actual losses from the copyright infringement.

High Court Hears Key Copyright Case

While Hurricane Sandy battered the region, the Supreme Court proceeded to hear arguments in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Co. on Monday, Oct. 29th. The issue in this hotly contested case is whether the copyright law’s “First Sale Doctrine” allows someone who purchased copyrighted works overseas may sell them here in the U.S. without authorization from the publisher. SIIA’s amicus brief in the case defended the view that these purchases violate U.S. copyright law, since the first sale doctrine does not apply to a work made and sold abroad. The Kirtsaeng case will likely be a monumental case for both the content publishing and software industries — it will affect the distribution, market segmenting, and licensing practices on which their businesses are significantly built. Within the Supreme Court, the Justices seem fairly split on the issues (see full transcript). SIIA has been actively pushing our position on this issue in the press, releasing press statements and publishing various blog posts on the topic. Additionally, SIIA’s Keith Kupferschmid participated in a panel discussion last week on HuffPo Live. Read more here.

IP News

Hosting Site Found Liable for SumoTorrent’s Infringement (PCMag)
A Dutch court found that hosting company XS Networks is liable for the activity of SumoTorrent, a torrent site it hosted.

New Twitter Policy Lets Users See Tweets Pulled Down for Copyright (GigaOM)
Twitter is changing the way it responds to DMCA copyright notices. Instead of removing tweets, it is “withdrawing” them in order to help show when and why tweets go missing, and bring transparency to the DMCA process.

Porn Downloader Ordered to Pay $1.5 Million Fine in BitTorrent Decision (Forbes)
A Virginia man was ordered by an Illinois federal court to pay $1.5 million to adult film company Flava Works. In the default judgment entered last week, the judge set the maximum penalty of ten times statutory damages, the biggest penalty to date in a BitTorrent case.

Donuts’ Grab for Domains Raises Fears of Cybersquatting (Bloomberg)
A little-known company called Donuts Inc. is making a grab for valuable new domain names, a move that opponents say could fuel the practice of stealing website identities. A lawyer representing TLD holders is asking ICANN to investigate the company.

Two Members of Piracy Group IMAGINE Get Prison Terms (CNET)
Two members of a group that wanted to be known for being first to release the latest Hollywood films to the Web were sentenced to prison and ordered to pay thousands in restitution.

Piracy Cuts Into Paid App Sales (Bloomberg)
Pirates are turning to apps and making a significant dent in mobile-app store sales, which researcher Yankee Group expects to generate $10.1 billion this year. While app stores are trying to beef up security, startups are also producing software to help developers thwart piracy.