3 Count: Mega Chatty

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1: Lionsgate Reaches Across the Globe to Punish ‘Expendables 3’ Leak

First off today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that Lionsgate, the film studio behind The Expendables franchise, has amended a lawsuit against sites and services accused of sharing a leaked copy of The Expendables 3 to change the names from “John Doe” to the names of the actual defendants.

The Expendables 3 leaked online weeks before its theatrical release. The move went on to perform poorly at the box office, with the leak attributed to at least some of the shortfall. Lionsgate quickly filed a lawsuit against various sites and services that were distributing the film and, though it won a quick injunction, has been trying to learn the names and locations of the defendants.

With the update the lawsuit takes an international bend with defendants in Pakistan, Egypt, Israel, Spain and Singapore. The motion also asked for the opportunity to serve the defendants via email, indicating that Lionsgate is going to continue pushing this litigation forward.

2: Cox: We’re Not Responsible for Pirating Customers

Next up today, Ernesto at Torrentfreak writes that American ISP Cox has responded to a lawsuit filed by a pair of music publishers and is saying that it does not control the infringement that takes place on its network and, furthermore, the companies involved may not hold some of the copyrights at issue the service.

Last month, two music publishers sued Cox alleging that the service was not terminating repeat infringers and had thus sacrificed it’s protections under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, making Cox partly responsible for the infringements. Cox, has responded and is saying that it has no controlling relationship with its customers and, furthermore, that some of the copyrights at issue in the case may not be owned by the plaintiffs.

Cox also argues that copyright misuse bars the claim, saying that the companies are engaging in improper copyright practices or are exploiting the law to gain improper benefits.

3: Kim Dotcom Aims to ‘Kill Skype’ with Encrypted MegaChat

Finally today, Rex Santus at Mashable reports that former Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom has launched yet another service, this one entitles “MegaChat” and it aims to be a browser-based encrypted chat program that will compete with Skype.

Dotcom was arrested in January 2012 after his then-site, Megaupload, was shuttered over allegations of piracy. Dotcom has since been facing extradition to the United States from his current home in New Zealand but the case has dragged on for more than three years.

In the meantime, Dotcom has launched a series of new services including Mega, an encrypted cyberlocker service intended as a replacement for Megaupload and Baboom, a music store. The current MegaChat service uses a similar browser-based encryption system as Mega, one that’s been widely criticized by security experts as being highly vulnerable.

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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