3 Count: Disappearing Act

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1: Study Finds That Streaming And Spyware Are Killing Music Piracy

First off today, Alex Knapp at Forbes reports that the NPD Group has released their annual music study for 2012 and has shown a surprising drop in the amount of music that’s pirated on the Web.

According to the study, music files were downloaded 26% less in 2012 when compared to 2011 and 40% of the people surveyed who had said they’d pirated content in 2011 did not in 2012. The biggest driver for the move seems to have been the adoption of legal services, such as Spotify, and another 20% said that they’d stopped because their site was shut down and other sites were unsafe.

Also in the study found that nearly half of the survey’s respondents said that they also stopped ripping CDs, including from friends and family, due to having a steady supply of legal, streaming content.

2: Former Uploaded.to Admin Fined $188,000 For Copyright Infringement

Next up today, Enigmax at Torrentfreak writes that, in Germany, a man known in court filings as Deniz C, has been found guilty of commercial copyright infringement and has been sentenced to pay a total of 144,000 euros ($188,000) in fines.

The man was the former head of the site Uploaded.to, a cyberlocker site that hosted files uploaded by users. However, he also owned a site named DC Remix, which encouraged users to upload infringing files to Uploaded.to for publication on the DC Remix site. Since the court found the two sites were in cooperation, the case became more than a straightforward one of a provider being responsible for actions of uploaders.

Uploaded.to was founded in 2006 and the original rightsholder complaint was filed in 2007. Uploaded.to has since moved to a new domain and remains open under new management.

3: Teller Learns Why It’s Not So Easy to Sue a Magician for Stealing a Trick

Finally today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter writes that Raymond Teller, one half of the comedy and magic duo Penn & Teller, has had some trouble with his lawsuit against a magician that he believes was trying to sell a trick he helped make famous.

Teller had sued Dutch magician Gerard Dogge for allegedly ripping off his copyrighted magic act “Shadows” and putting it on YouTube with an offer to reveal the secret for $3,050. However, so far, the entertainer has eluded attempts to serve him court papers, making it difficult for the lawsuit, and its copyright questions, to move forward.

However, Dogge has not been silent and has actually filed a lawsuit against Teller in Belgiumclaiming defamation, prompting Teller to seek an injunction against the suit. The judge, however, is allowing both lawsuits to proceed, noting that Dogge is clearly aware of the lawsuit.

Suggestions

That’s it for the three count today. We will be back tomorrow with three more copyright links. If you have a link that you want to suggest a link for the column or have any proposals to make it better. Feel free to leave a comment or send me an email. I hope to hear from you.

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