A company purporting to improve access to local TV stations for people who can’t access the signal via traditional means has been dealt a blow by a New York Court. Locast has lost the courtroom skirmish started by CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox, which said that the company was violating their copyright. Deadline reports that the quartet’s request for summary judgment was granted, saying that it couldn’t use its non-profit status as a defense against further action.The big four, of course, don’t believe Locast’s aims were anywhere near as public-minded as the company made out. The body was reportedly backed, in part, by AT&T and Dish Network, and the networks feel that the whole project was set up as a way of dodging carriage fees. Part of Locast’s defense was that US copyright law allows third parties to boost local signals, and that it acted like a signal booster station.It’s worth noting that Locast’s founder David Goodfriend, a lawyer and former FCC legal advisor, conceived of Locast in the wake of Aero’s destruction at the hands of the big networks. A 2019 New York Times profile explained that he had designed the legal situation to be “compliant within the law.” The profile is even titled that the company would “love to get sued” to act as a test-case for the rules.The court found that Locast’s policy of expanding into new markets runs contrary to the aim of a non-profit, where cash should be used to cover running costs only. Judge Louis Stanton said that the cash raised... Continue reading at 'Engadget'
[ Engadget | 2021-09-01 10:42:15 UTC ]
The Authors Guild is seeking more than $2 billion in damages from Google Books – which may make this one of the most expensive copyright damages cases in litigation history. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor
[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2012-08-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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If there was any question that copyright law in the digital age is reaching a critical point, a coalition of Web sites on January 18 offered a stark reminder. In the largest online protest in Internet history, some 7,000 popular sites went dark or otherwise altered their sites, successfully... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2012-02-27 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 26/10/2011 - 15:03 The Publishers Association applauded today's high court ruling requiring BT to block filesharing site Newzbin2, the first time a website has been blocked by an internet service provider in the UK under copyright law. The... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-10-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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As Don Henley told the New York Times, what's at stake is "fairness" and "parity." The Eagles lead singer, who also heads a group called the Recording Artists Coalition, was referring to a revision to copyright law, made in the 1970s, that could drastically affect the ownership of some of the... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2011-08-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Wed, 03/08/2011 - 09:35 The Government has largely endorsed the recommendations of the Hargreaves Review, though, according to reports, business secretary Vince Cable has admitted that the website blocking clauses of the Digital Economy Act are... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-08-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Written By: Charlotte Williams Publication Date: Thu, 07/04/2011 - 09:06 Introducing an American-style "fair use" exception for intellectual property would result in greater uncertainty for copyright holders, the Society of Authors and Association of Authors Agents have claimed. Both... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2011-04-07 00:00:00 UTC ]
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