3 Count: Guitar Zero

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1: Arista Countersues Cisco, Claiming Antitrust Violations

First off today, Jim Duffy at Network World reports that, just ahead of a ruling in a patent infringement lawsuit, Artista Networks has filed a countersuit against Cisco Systems alleging that Cisco abuses its copyright to engage in antitrust behavior and unfair competition.

Artista Networks is a company that specializes in switches and other Internet hardware. Cisco, a larger competitor, sued them in 2014 alleging that the company violated various patents and copyrights. One of the cases being pursued by Cisco before the International Trade Commission (ITC) is due to be ruled upon tomorrow, a decision that could lead to a possible injunction against Artista products on patent infringement grounds.

One of the copyright issues in the original case centers around command line interface commands (CLIs) created by Cisco, which Artista admits to using in its products. However, Artista claims that Cisco encouraged competitors to use the commands to build them as an industry standard, now they claim it was a “deliberate scheme to use monopoly power illegally to suppress competition.” Cisco, however, has long claimed that other competitors copy a “trivial” amount of its CLI and that there is a difference between compatibility and infringement.

2: Regal Ordered to Stop Blocking One Movie Theater’s Access to Studio Films

Next up today, Eriq Gardner at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a judge in Texas has ordered Regal Cinemas to stop demanding exclusive licenses from film distributors and shutting out a nearby smaller competitor from showing big release movies.

The dispute pitted Regal Cinema against iPic, a company that operates a theater in Houston, Texas. iPic claimed that Regal had used “clearance” pacts with filmmakers to block competitors from getting major releases in the same geographic region as a regal theater, thus locking out iPic from getting access to The Hateful Eight, Ride Along 2 and The Revenant among others.

The case is the latest in a series of similar lawsuits against larger theater chains. One lawsuit in California was a victory for Regal but another case in Georgia against AMC is moving forward. However, this represents the first time a judge has stepped in against a theater on this issue.

3: ​A True Guitar Hero Finds a Hilarious Way Around YouTube’s Copyright Rules

Finally today, Rachel Pick at Motherboard reports that one YouTube user found a creative way of getting around some of the site’s ContentID controls, creating a video that has gone viral in the process.

YouTuber GuitarHeroFailure uploaded a video of him scoring 100% on Ozzy Osbourne’s Bark at the Moon, a challenging feat in the game. However, Youtube’s ContentID system, which checks uploaded video for copyright infringing content, detected the use of the song and blocked the video.

That, in turn prompted GuitarHeroFailure to reupload the video with the audio silenced. In its place he vocalized the guitar sounds for the entire song. To date, YouTube nor Ozzy Osbourne has responded to the video but several other YouTube stars, including Tay Zonday, have commented on the video offering support. The video itself now has over 1.6 million views.

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.

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

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