3 Count: Aaand Stay Down!

Will the EU lead the way...?

3 Count LogoHave any suggestions for the 3 Count? Let me know via Twitter @plagiarismtoday.

1: European Commission Backs Takedown-and-Stay-Down for Combating Piracy Online

First off today, Chris Cooke at Complete Music Update reports that the European Commission has published new guidelines on how internet service providers should deal with illegal material uploaded to their servers. With those guidelines it is recommending a major change in how such materials, including copyright-infringing materials, are removed.

Currently in the European Union, much like the United States, there is a notice and takedown system where, once the host is notified of the infringing materials, they are required to remove it pending a counternotice. However, content creators have long sought for a notice-and-staydown system, through which hosts would not only remove an infringing work but set up filters to make re-uploads impossible.

To that end, the European Commission has now shown its support for such a system. Late last week it published a set of guidelines for how internet service providers should be improving their systems to deal with infringing material, including a staydown system. However, for right now the guidelines are just guidelines and not the law, but could be an indication of the direction future legislation might head.

2: ‘Terrified’ 60-Year-Old Woman Told to Pay Up for Illegally Downloading Porn

Next up today, Sophia Harris at the CBC reports that a 60-year-old woman identified only as “Debra” has received two copyright infringement notices for downloading pornography, something she strongly denies. However, she still claims to be losing sleep over the allegations.

The case highlights some of the challenges the Canadian government has faced in explaining how the piracy notices work. In 2015 the government began requiring the nation’s ISPs to forward copyright infringement notices to customers who were suspected of downloading infringing material However, the complaining party does not know the identity of the user and there is no obligation for the user to pay any kind of settlement fee.

Despite this, a 2016 report shows that the notices are creating “consumer anxiety” and that there is the potential for abuse. However, despite this report, the threats have continued and cases like Debra’s are being routinely highlighted in the local media.

3: Football Coach Retweets, Gets Sued for Copyright Infringement

Finally today, Andy at Torrentfreak writes that Jeffery Knarr, the head coach for King’s College football team, has been sued by author Dr. Keith Bell over a retweet of a tweet that featured a page from his book.

The case began on November 6 of 2017 when @NSUBaseball32, the Twitter account for the Northeastern State University baseball team, tweeted a photo from Dr. Bell’s 1982 book entitled Winning Isn’t Normal. Shortly thereafter, Knarr retweeted that tweet, where it stayed online for about 10 months until Dr. Bell filed a cease and desist letter with the original user getting the original tweets and the retweets removed.

But, even though Knarr was just rewteeting another post, Dr. Bell has filed a lawsuit against him for both copyright infringement and trademark infringement over Dr. Bell’s registered trademark in the expression “Winning Isn’t Normal”. He is seeking unspecified damages.

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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