Digital Discourse / Archives for piracy

This Week’s Top IP Enforcement Headlines

September 21, 2011 By

Patent Troll Strikes Bloomberg, NYT and Other News Giants (paidContent)
A shell company with all the markings of a so-called patent troll is suing Bloomberg, the New York Times and four other news giants for infringing a patent related to autocomplete software.

In Orphan Works Squabble, Round One Goes to the Authors Guild (paidContent)
Universities planning to begin digital sharing of orphan works decided to suspend the release of over 100 titles after the Authors Guild tracked down the author of one of the so-called orphan works with a simple Google search.

How Piracy Ruins It For Paid Apps (ZDNet)
App piracy is prevalent in the mobile phone industry and is becoming increasingly burdensome for developers as they have to deal with loss of sales, increased customer complaints and support costs, and damage to their brands.

Nigerian Bookseller Convicted of Piracy (Next)
A bookseller has pleaded guilty to one charge of book piracy after operatives of the Nigerian Copyright Commission raided her bookshop in 2009.

New York City Launches New Anti-Piracy Campaign (The Hollywood Reporter)
In a new anti-piracy campaign, New York City is running a contest for local students to design the next public service announcement to address digital piracy.

Google Won’t Face Some Oracle Copyright Claims, Judge Rules (Bloomberg)
Google won’t have to face part of Oracle’s claim that it infringed copyrights for its Java programming language after U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled some of the material at issue isn’t protected by copyright.

Judge Gives Google More Time to Settle Books Dispute (Chicago Tribune)
Google and the authors and publishers groups have about nine more months to settle their six-year legal dispute over plans to create the world’s largest digital library.

Report incidents of digital piracy to the SIIA here.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Policy - Intellectual Property Tagged With: ,

The week’s top 8 IP enforcement headlines

September 14, 2011 By

Righthaven Terminates Lawyer, Stops Filing New Cases (paidContent)
Following a series of legal setbacks, Righthaven laid off in-house attorney Steven Ganim and says it does not intend to file any new suits in the coming months.

Android Survey Highlights Piracy Problem (Information Week)
A recent survey reports that Android developers do not earn as much as iOS developers, a disparity attributable in part to software piracy.

China Seizes 13 Million Illegal Products in Copyright Crackdown (Washington Post)
China says it seized 13 million illegal video, music, and print products over the past year in a campaign against counterfeits and copyright theft.

FBI Plans to Share Copyright Warning Seal (Courthouse News Service)
The FBI will provide a general authorization allowing all copyright holders to use an FBI Anti-Piracy Warning Seal, which had been available by request only to members of five entertainment and software industry associations.

Righthaven Says it Might Have to File for Bankruptcy (Vegas Inc)
Righthaven warned it may have to file for bankruptcy because of a series of setbacks in its litigation campaign.

How Porno Piracy Cases are Breaking Copyright Ground (Thomson Reuters)
Porn movie producers are filing complaints against anonymous defendants and in some cases, reaching settlements with these John Does. The EFF is now getting involved over concerns of due process.

Lawsuit Seeks Removal of a Digital Book Collection (New York Times)
Three major author’s groups and eight individual authors filed suit against a group of research libraries and universities, arguing their initiative to digitize millions of books constituted copyright infringement.

Circuit Shaves $20 Million Off Louis Vuitton Award (Courthouse News Service)
The 9th Circuit Court upheld Louis Vuitton’s victory over a web-hosting firm that provided support to Chinese copyright and trademark pirates, but reduced the jury’s $32.7 million award by about 60 percent.

Report piracy confidentially to SIIA and you could be eligible for a reward of $10,000 or more.

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SIIA shuts down software pirates, landing six‐figure settlements

April 21, 2011 By

Earlier this month, SIIA settled two copyright infringement lawsuits after defendants selling OEM and academic software, and each agreed to pay six figure sums.

On behalf of SIIA member Adobe Systems Inc., SIIA investigated and filed lawsuits against Matt Lockwood of Denver, CO, and David Polanco of Danville, CA, for selling various Adobe software without authorization and outside the terms of the products’ applicable licenses. Lockwood and Polanco sold the software via the websites discountmountainsoftware.com and ztechsoftware.com, respectively.

During the last three years, SIIA has filed more than 100 lawsuits in the U.S. against illegal eBay sellers as well as sellers on other websites dealing in counterfeit, OEM, academic, region‐specific and other illegal software and publications. Defendants have paid millions of dollars in damages, and, in some cases, criminal charges were pursued and defendants sentenced to jail time.

Sources in the U.S. and in Europe can contact SIIA about a company, Web site or online auction seller’s suspicious business practices in three ways:

• Email
• Telephone: +1‐800‐388‐7478
• Online

 

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy Tagged With: , ,

The week’s top 5 IP enforcement headlines

March 30, 2011 By

1. Baidu Announces New Anti-Piracy Measures (Wall Street Journal)
Chinese online-search provider Baidu announced that it will begin to use new copyright-recognition technology on its online document-sharing platform to prevent sharing of pirated content. 

2. ICANN Asks to be Set Free (The Inquirer)
ICANN sent a letter to the Department of Commerce last week asking NTIA to privatize ICANN, saying that the security and stability of the Internet would be enhanced by moving to a cooperative agreement.

3. U.S. Internet Piracy on the Decline? (USAToday)
A report by the NPD Group says that Internet piracy is on the decline in the United States.

4. Have Microsoft’s Anti-Piracy Efforts Gone Too Far? (ZDNet)
The article questions whether Microsoft’s efforts to get new anti-piracy legislation passed in the state of Washington go too far.

5. Photobucket Rebuffs A Copyright Lawsuit—A Pattern Likely To Continue (paidcontent.org)
In Wolk v. Eastman Kodak, a visual artist lost her suit against Photobucket and Kodak, in which she alleged that her copyrighted illustrations were uploaded to the photo-sharing network without her permission.  As in similar cases brought against Veoh and YouTube, the court found that Photobucket was immune from liability under the “safe harbor” of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Content, Copyright, Government, Policy, Policy - Intellectual Property, Software Tagged With: , , , ,

Just released: Don’t Copy That 2 – School Version

February 15, 2011 By

Don't Copy That Floppy 2 - School Version

For today’s tech-savvy youth, software piracy can be an easy and tempting option. But it’s an option that’s not only wrong–it’s illegal. That’s why it’s so important to reach out to kids and teens about the ethical and legal use of copyrighted materials.

SIIA created Don’t Copy That 2–School Version to educate 6 through 12th grade students about the use of copyrighted materials, such as software, books, articles, music, and movies. The program includes classroom resources and a rap video that addresses the dangers of engaging in piracy and the importance of respecting the creative output of others.

The acommpanying classroom resources include support materials for the video, lesson plans for middle and high school teachers, a glossary, and other resources that can be helpful to educators in teaching these complex and important concepts. The course materials include many of the same concepts for middle and high school students, but use age-appropriate methods. The lesson plans serve as models that educators can customize to their students’ needs. The learning materials have been designed as a series of presentations, discussions, and student activities.

Watch the Don’t Copy That 2–School Version video to learn more about copyright compliance:

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Education Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

‘It’s Time to Sell the Yugo,’ or ‘Why Software Compliance and Piracy Enforcement Needs a 25 Year Upgrade’

February 1, 2011 By

Written by Jim Nauen, VP, Global Sales

A few weeks ago as I was getting ready to speak at a local HTCIA chapter in California, I started thinking about how little progress has been made in Software Compliance over the last 25 years. Having recovered over $130 million in compliance revenue over the last 20+ years for a number of large and small software vendors, it seems in 2011 that Software Compliance and Piracy Enforcement is still largely a matter of blind luck for many software vendors.

Hit or miss manual audits, whistle blower leads, channel partner tip offs, even mystery dialing are still the main source of overuse and piracy enforcement leads 25 years later, which is like driving in the dark with your headlights off and hoping to find the road. In keeping with the 80s, let’s call it the Yugo strategy of compliance revenue recovery. Why would you wait and hope that these leads come to you, instead of using modern methods of aggressively tracking and pursuing companies illegally using your software?

To continue reading this post, please visit the V.i. Labs blog.

Jim Nauen

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Filed Under: Cloud Computing, Government, Security, Software Tagged With: , , , , ,

Which organizations are most likely to pirate software?

January 31, 2011 By

Eliminating corporate software piracy is one of SIIA’s biggest missions. Our members depend on our expertise when it comes to tracking down the organizations which, knowingly or not, shirk software license laws. Over the years, we’ve learned a lot about why and how organizations steal software. And next month, we’re giving you a chance to learn more about the underbelly of corporate piracy. 

Keith Kupferschmid, who heads SIIA’s Anti-Piracy Department, will share his expertise in an online panel hosted by V.i. Labs. The webcast, taking place Wednesday, Feb. 16 at 11 am ET, will cover everything from geographic trends in software piracy to the impact of the recession on compliance. 

Here’s a glimpse at Keith’s take on the average infringing organization: 

Key Characteristics: 
* Over 567 employees
* Average annual sales of $441 million

Most Common Industries: 
* 12% IT
* 10% Healthcare
* 10% Education
* 7% Real Estate & Retail
* 6% Insurance
* 3-4% Finance/Telcom/Engineering/Media Publishing/Legal/Construction

Curious why an IT company with over 500 employees would risk getting caught pirating software? You’ll have to sign up for the free webcast to find out more.

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Filed Under: Anti-Piracy, Corporate-End User Piracy, Policy Tagged With: , ,
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