U.S. Warns Antigua Against Government-Authorized Piracy (Reuters)
The United States warned Antigua and Barbuda not to retaliate against U.S. restrictions on Internet gambling by suspending American copyrights or patents, a move it said would authorize theft of intellectual property.

German Rights Holders Sue YouTube in Escalating Royalty Fight (paidContent)
German music rights group GEMA filed a lawsuit against YouTube, alleging that the video site is misleading users about the details of an ongoing licensing dispute between the two parties, and asking a Munich-based court to issue a cease-and-desist order to prevent YouTube from blaming GEMA for the mess.

Software Pirate Walks Plank in Federal Court (DelawareOnline)
Jamie Lynn Snyder was sentenced to nearly five years in prison for selling pirated copies of software from companies like Microsoft, Adobe and Apple, and embezzling more than $40,000 from her employer.

California AG Sues Apparel Makers in China and India Over Pirated Software (Insurance Journal)
California Attorney General Kamala Harris filed lawsuits against two international apparel manufacturers for gaining an unfair advantage over American companies by using pirated software in the production of clothing imported and sold in the state.

Apple’s $1 Billion Verdict Against Samsung Left Intact (Bloomberg)
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose yesterday declined to increase the award after she found Samsung’s infringement wasn’t willful.

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

A Revamped Myspace Site Faces a Problem with Rights (The New York Times)
A group representing thousands of small music labels says Myspace is using its members’ music without permission because the deal they had expired over a year ago and yet songs from more than 100 of its labels are still available on the site.

Kim Dotcom Marks Raid Anniversary by Unveiling New File-Sharing Site (Bloomberg)
Marking one year since his Megaupload site was shut down and his home raided, Kim Dotcom launched a new site, Mega, which will let users upload, download and share files, and allow file encryption with the user having the only key, preventing governments and storage providers from viewing the contents.

China to Establish Center to Resolve IP Disputes (ZDNet)
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will be establishing a digital dispute-resolution center to deal with disagreements over intellectual property and online copyright issues. The center will provide third-party mediation services and dispute resolution services to technology companies.

New Music Survey: P2P Users Buy the Most, No One Wants Disconnection Penalties (Ars Technica)
A new survey from the American Assembly at Columbia University suggests P2P users buy 30% more music than those who do not use P2P software, and also finds that Americans overwhelmingly oppose the use of disconnection and rate-limiting as penalties for unauthorized file-sharing.

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

CFAA Reform Gets Boost from Schwartz Suicide
An issue that already had momentum in the last Congress, efforts to reform the 1986 the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) has received increased attention in the wake of Aaron Schwartz’ recent suicide. Schwartz was facing charges under the CFAA for unauthorized access to the MIT website, where he downloaded academic articles from its online archive, called JSTOR, and made them publicly available. The CFAA was the subject of several proposed legislative reforms in 2012, and SIIA has been engaged, seeking to preserve the ability of SIIA members to use the CFAA to deter and prevent unauthorized access to or misuse of databases, subscription services and cloud services. While we knew this issue was going to remain ripe for debate again in 2013, Swartz’ recent suicide has likely increased support among policymakers to reform the CFAA sooner, rather than later.

Verizon’s “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Measures Unveiled (TorrentFreak)
After more than a year of delays the “six strikes” anti-piracy system will officially roll out in the first weeks of this year. A copy of Verizon’s full policy was leaked and shows how the scheme will work and details of the mitigation measures they intend to put in place.

Judge Rules Twitter Images are Protected by Copyright (Examiner)
In one of the first cases to address intellectual property as it pertains to social media sites, a Manhattan judge ruled that two news organizations infringed on the copyrights of a photographer when they published images he had published on Twitter.

Sony Files Patent to Curb Access to Used Video Games (International Business Times)
Sony has patented new technology to prevent the use of second-hand video game discs on its consoles. The disc-tagging technology could stop games from being played on more than one version of the video game console.

BlackBerry App World Said to Hawk Pirated Android Apps (CNET)
Weeks before the release of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry 10, pirated Android apps are reportedly being found and sold in RIM’s app store.

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

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.