All in all the Court sees no other option than to deny the request for expedited discovery. This is good news for the people who were targeted by these lawsuits, as they won’t be identified. At the same time, it means that Strike 3 can’t continue these cases, as it can’t name a defendant.
Source: US Court Shields Internet Subscribers From Futile Piracy Complaints – TorrentFreak
YouTube first sued Brady in August after learning that he targeted a couple of Minecraft and gaming creators — “Kenzo” and “ObbyRaidz” — by using false copyright claim takedowns. The company removed the videos, as the company is required to do when a claim is submitted. YouTube only pursued legal action after it was informed that Brady was allegedly using copyright strikes as a way to pressure creators into paying a lump sum of cash. Brady would allegedly strike two videos on a channel and then demand cash; three strikes on a channel result in it being terminated.
Source: YouTube gets alleged copyright troll to agree to stop trolling YouTubers – The Verge
According to a slashdot comment this could be criminal.
According to Spanish newspaper El País, the league told authorities that when its apps detected users were in bars the apps would record audio through phone microphones.
Source: Popular Soccer App Spied on Fans Through Phone Microphone to Catch Bars Pirating Game Streams
The CoH Survivors Facebook page has absolutely exploded in fury and hurt over the news. While some folks are feeling vindicated because their previous claims about the secret server have been proven true, others are concerned that the publicity will bring a(nother) NCsoft C&D down on the operators’ heads.
“The National and Commercial Space Program Act requires a commercial remote sensing license for companies having the capacity to take an image of Earth while on orbit,” NOAA said in a statement last week. “Now that launch companies are putting video cameras on stage 2 rockets that reach an on-orbit status, all such launches will be held to the requirements of the law and its conditions.”
What’s odd is that the law in question has been on the books in its current form since at least 2010. SpaceX has been broadcasting video back to Earth from orbit for years without issue or, apparently, license.
Source: SpaceX Falcon 9 camera blackout still seems strange – CNET
A Council of the European Union document leaked by Statewatch on 30 August reveals that during the summer months, that Estonia (current EU Presidency) has been pushing the other Member States to strengthen indiscriminate internet surveillance, and to follow in the footsteps of China regarding online censorship.
Source: Leaked document: EU Presidency calls for massive internet filtering – EDRi
According to the leaked document, the text suggests two options for each of the two most controversial proposals: the so-called “link tax” or ancillary copyright and the upload filter.
That’s as it should be, advocates of open research say. They argue, among other things, that a substantial portion of the research that publishers attempt to lock behind paywalls was funded with grants paid for by taxpayers, and that the public should therefore have unfettered access to it.
Source: A pirating service for academic journal articles could bring down the whole establishment — Quartz
We’re looking for prior art on 100% of the Blackbird Tech patents. If you are interested in helping, take some time to look into those patents where we don’t have anything yet. We’ll update the chart as we review the submissions with additional information about the number we receive, and their quality, to help focus the search. After the initial review, we’ll start to color code the patents (i.e., red/yellow/green) to demonstrate the number and quality of submissions we’ve received on each patent.
Source: Patent Troll Battle Update: Doubling Down on Project Jengo
The justices sided 8-0 with beverage flavoring company TC Heartland in its legal battle with food and beverage company Kraft Heinz, ruling that patent infringement suits can be filed only in courts located in the jurisdiction where the targeted company is incorporated. Justice Neil Gorsuch did not participate in the decision.
Source: Supreme Court Overturns Patent Ruling in Blow Against Trolls | Fortune.com
There’s no social value here. There’s no support for a maligned inventor. There’s no competing business or product. There’s no validation of an incentive structure that supports innovation. This is a shakedown where a patent troll, Blackbird Technologies, creates as much nuisance as it can so its attorney-principals can try to grab some cash.
Source: Standing Up to a Dangerous New Breed of Patent Troll
Cloudflare does not intend to play along. As explained later in this blog post, we plan to (i) contest the patent lawsuit vigorously, (ii) fund an award for a crowdsourced search for prior art that can be used to invalidate Blackbird patents, and (iii) ask the relevant bar associations to investigate what we consider to be violations of the rules of professional conduct by Blackbird and its attorneys.