3 Count: Owning the Doge

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1: Ex-Amazon Exec Claims She Was Asked to Ignore Copyright Law in Race to AI

First off today, Lindsay Clark at The Register reports that a former Amazon AI researcher is claiming that the company pressured her to ignore copyright issues in their race to improve their AI systems.

The lawsuit was filed by Viviane Ghaderi, who alleges that Amazon demoted and then fired her after learning that she was pregnant. As part of this case over alleged unlawful termination, she’s alleged that her supervisors pressured her to ignore their legal department on issues of copyright press on despite the risks.

According to Ghaderi, upper management told her that it was acceptable to ignore the advice from the legal department because “Everyone else is doing it.” The information comes out as rightsholders have filed a series of lawsuits against AI companies, including Amazon, alleging copyright infringement of their work.

2: ‘BestBuyIPTV’ Operator Sentenced in Vietnam’s First Ever Online Piracy Conviction

Next up today, Ernesto Van der Sar at Torrentfreak writes that the operator of the pirate service BestBuyIPTY has been given a 30-month suspended sentence in Vietnam’s first criminal conviction for online piracy.

The case began with referrals from the Premier League and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). This resulted in the arrest of Le Hai Nam, who was later convicted in The People’s Court of Hanoi. In addition to the suspended sentence, he must pay approximately $16,000 in fines and restitution.

The site itself appears to be still online, though likely with other operators. The case represents the first criminal conviction for online piracy in the country, which has been regularly criticized for being a haven for piracy.

3: “Own The Doge” Acquires Doge Meme Copyright

Finally today, Gabriel Mael at The Crypto Times reports that the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the “Own the Doge” group announced that it has purchased the rights to the original Shibu image featured on Dogecoin.

The image was posted by Atsuko Sato in 2010 and instantly became a popular meme for the confused look on the dog’s face. It was turned into the mascot of a now-popular meme coin named Dogecoin. However, Sato continued to hold the rights to the image, creating the potential for copyright issues down the road.

However, the group says that it has now acquired the rights to it. They say they will not restrict others from creating memes based on the image but wanted to make it so that developers could use the image without concern in the future.

The 3 Count Logo was created by Justin Goff and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License.