copyright infringement

Read the latest copyright infringement news, cases, and stories on Newser.com

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Fed-Up Photog Ready to Sue Moore

Filmmaker used iconic pic without permission

(Newser) - Michael Moore may have gone too far this time: Prize-winning photographer Michael Yon is readying a lawsuit against the filmmaker for using one of his iconic photos from Iraq without permission, the New York Post reports. The image of an American soldier carrying the bloody body of an Iraqi child...

Suit: Spielberg Copied Hitchcock

Copyright owner says Disturbia rips off Rear Window

(Newser) - Steven Spielberg ripped off Rear Window when he made last year’s thriller Disturbia, a lawsuit filed yesterday alleges. The 1954 Alfred Hitchcock classic was based on a 1942 short story, and the owner of the rights to the story has sued for compensation from Spielberg, DreamWorks, and Paramount Pictures,...

Rowling Wins Copyright Case
 Rowling Wins Copyright Case 

Rowling Wins Copyright Case

Judge rules publishing Potter encyclopedia would cause creator 'irreparable harm'

(Newser) - A fan-written "Harry Potter lexicon" will not be published, a federal judge in New York ruled today, finding for author JK Rowling that the reference guide was an infringement of copyright. The ruling held that the book would cause Rowling irreparable harm as a writer, the BBC reports. The...

Clone-Maker Files Countersuit Against Apple

Psystar alleges trust violations, tries to open market for OS X

(Newser) - Mac clone-maker Psystar countersued Apple this week and charged it with violating antitrust law, PC Magazine reports. The battle centers on a provision in Apple’s end user agreement that prohibits non-Mac hardware from running its operating system. Psystar admits to selling computers with such hardware, and says they can...

Northwestern Using Emails to Combat File Sharing

Campus prefers education campaign to punishment

(Newser) - Northwestern University has a way to decrease peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted files: send students emails. The system, called Be Aware You’re Uploading, delivers email notifications to active p2p users on the network, Ars Technica reports. BAYU has a successful track record of reducing p2p usage and copyright violations. It’...

Bratz Dolls Must Pay Barbie $100M in Copyright Suit

(Newser) - Barbie will get $100 million from her saucier cousins, the Bratz dolls, for copyright infringement, the AP reports. A federal jury ordered Bratz maker MGA to pay Mattel the sum, but it did not award punitive damages and gave Mattel only a fraction of what it sought. Last month, the...

Ex-Bush Aide: Swing Vote Stole My Story

Talking head sues, saying he gave similar script to Grammer

(Newser) - An ex-Bush aide has sued Kevin Costner, Kelsey Grammer, and Disney, claiming the plot and marketing elements of the recently released movie Swing Vote were originally his, the AP reports. Bradley Blakeman, now a TV commentator, says in a federal lawsuit that he gave Grammer a screenplay that the Frasier...

Google Agrees to Give Viacom Encrypted Data

YouTube visitor data will be 'anonymized' before release

(Newser) - In a deal reached last night, Google has agreed to hand over YouTube user data Viacom had demanded in its copyright lawsuit, but only after replacing user names and IP addresses with unique substitutes to protect users’ privacy, the Wall Street Journal reports. The move will allow Viacom and other...

Google Refuses to Hand Over Employee Data

Viacom wants to see what YouTube workers are uploading

(Newser) - Google is refusing to turn over records of content its employees at YouTube have uploaded, CNET reports. Two weeks ago, a judge ordered the company to disclose a huge set of user data, along with information on employees, as part of Viacom’s copyright claim. If workers uploaded copyright-protected material,...

Google Must Turn Over YouTube Records: Judge

Data dump includes users' names and IP addresses

(Newser) - A judge has ordered Google to give Viacom records of all videos ever watched on YouTube, including users’ names and IP addresses, Wired reports. Viacom is seeking the data to bolster its $1 billion lawsuit against Google for allowing copyrighted Viacom clips on YouTube. The media giant believes the data...

Footprints Poem Leads to Authorship Suit

Long Island man claims his mom wrote poem in Great Depression

(Newser) - A religious poem that adorns coffee mugs and T-shirts worldwide may now inspire a court battle, the Washington Post reports. A Long Island man has filed suit claiming that his mother wrote the inspirational work, "Footprints in the Sand." At least a dozen others have claimed authorship of...

Networks Aiming to Rein in RedLasso
Networks Aiming to Rein in RedLasso

Networks Aiming to Rein in RedLasso

Copyright showdown looms for video streaming site

(Newser) - Three of the big networks are trying to get a handle on video syndication website RedLasso, cNet reports. The site records and indexes clips from TV and radio shows, making it easy for bloggers to share and embed them. NBC, CBS and Fox News have issued a cease-and-desist letter ordering...

YouTomb Knows Where the Videos Are Buried

Site monitors YouTube's castoffs

(Newser) - When YouTube videos get taken down, YouTomb is watching. The new site, the brainchild of a group of MIT students, tracks every video removed from YouTube, along with who requested its removal. YouTomb doesn’t archive the videos—“We’re not interested in bootlegged videos of Naruto,” says...

Woman May Get New Trial in File-Sharing Conviction

Judge says he gave faulty instructions

(Newser) - The judge who presided over America's first music file-sharing trial might call for a do-over, the AP reports. A Minnesota mom was penalized $222,000 for illegal dowloads last fall, but the judge has since discovered that he may have issued faulty jury instructions. That's because a 1993 ruling said...

Google Book Scans Go Slow at Research Libraries

No speedy way to digitize the rarest of volumes, search giant finding

(Newser) - In its ongoing effort to digitize the world's 50-100 million books for online book searching, Google is funding scanning efforts for rare volumes at leading libraries. The AP observed one such digitizing—the oldest Bible with Arabic type, scanned manually at 600 pages per day—which, to protect the work,...

Stormtrooper Designer, Lucas Head to Court

Lucasfilm plays hardball with costume creator over rights

(Newser) - George Lucas and the man who invented the stormtrooper costume are headed for a court battle over who has the right to make it, the Guardian reports. Lucasfilm is suing British prop designer Andrew Ainsworth, who recently discovered his original stormtrooper molds, and began selling replicas for some $3,600...

Tiffany Presses eBay to Police Forgeries

Showdown may force online auctioneer to monitor—at a big cost

(Newser) - A legal battle between Tiffany & Co and eBay could change the face of online auctioneering forever, the Wall Street Journal reports. The jeweler says eBay should be responsible for checking its millions of listings for counterfeit goods, while eBay maintains that it's up to the trademark holder to flag...

In Surprise Turn, Verizon Embraces File Sharing

'The problem is not peer-to-peer technology, the problem is how you deploy it.'

(Newser) - Verizon announced today that it plans to use peer-to-peer software to speed the deployment of legitimate content over its networks, in a break from the industry’s usually negative stance towards file sharing, the AP reports. Working with a P2P company named Pando Networks, Verizon found that when an ISP...

Internet Activists Target Scientology

Church can no longer control its image

(Newser) - Scientology is increasingly under attack on the Internet, where critics and dropouts are undermining the church's traditionally tight control of its public image, reports the LA Times. Three ex-Scientologists, including the niece of the church's head, launched ExScientologyKids.com last week. Its motto: "We were born. We grew up....

Swedish Police Crack Down on File Sharing Site

But defiant Pirate Bay owners vow that nothing will change

(Newser) - Swedish authorities have taken action to sink Pirate Bay, one of the world's most popular file-sharing site, by leveling charges of copyright infringement against four of its administrators, DailyTech reports. Prosecutors allege the site, which boasts almost 15 million users, exploits copyrighted material like music and movies by collecting some...

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