Month: June 2016

Große Smartphones und Tablets lange zu halten, kann unangenehm werden. Mit dem Tablet Gecko hat ein deutsches Unternehmen eine Lösung vorgestellt, die durch ihre Simplizität besticht und das Gerät an die Hand fesselt. (Smartphone, Tablet)

As the former operators of Megaupload are only too aware, hosting user-uploaded content can be a perilous activity, even when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is followed to the letter. Sun Social Media (SSM), a US-based company behind several video platforms, have also had a taste of the risks.

In addition to dating sites, SSM owns four so-called tube sites – Playvid.com, Playvids.com, Peekvids.com, and Feedvid.com. Adult video company Hydentra HLP (also known as MetArt Network), the operator of more than a dozen porn sites, sued SSM claiming that more than 70 of its videos appeared on SSM’s sites without permission.

According to court papers, SSM sites host more than 475,000 adult videos uploaded by their users. Each must agree only to upload videos to which they have the rights. Once uploaded, an independent outside contractor checks every video to ensure they don’t contain criminally illegal content or spam. If they do they are blocked.

In addition to SSM and its four videos sites, Hydentra named two other defendants in the case, SSM director Konstantin Bolotin and Constantin Luchian of IncorporateNow Inc, a company that among other things acts as SSM’s registered DMCA agent. Documents show that SSM accepts copyright claims in various formats, from email and fax, their ‘contact us’ page, through to the unlikely option of posting claims through the mail. Claims are processed within 48 hours.

Importantly, SSM also has a repeat infringer policy operating on a “three strikes in six months and you’re out” basis. To date, SSM has reportedly terminated more than 1,000 users for multiple infringements.

Hydentra hired anti-piracy company Battleship Stance LLC to tackle infringement on various platforms including those operated by SSM. In the majority of cases these were sent electronically and actioned quickly. However, on one occasion the company chose to send 56 DMCA notices to SSM’s DMCA agent IncorporateNow. Printed on paper, delivered through the mail.

The package was signed for on January 20, 2015 by IncorporateNow’s landlord’s receptionist but for reasons that aren’t clear, DMCA agent Constantin Luchian never personally received the package. As a result the content stayed up.

On June 4, 2015, Hydentra filed a complaint against SSM, who at this point became aware of the allegedly infringing content. SSM disabled the files as appropriate but the lawsuit continued.

Hydentra filed claims for direct infringement, contributory infringement, vicarious copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement plus various claims related to trademarks.

Later, both parties filed Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment on each of the plaintiff’s claims. At the Federal Court in Miami, things didn’t go well for Hydentra.

“The Court agrees with Defendants that in imposing liability upon an internet service provider for third-party users’ uploading of copyrighted material, Plaintiff must establish that Defendants engaged in a volitional act to cause the illegal copying,” the judge wrote.

“To find otherwise would impose liability upon an otherwise passive internet service provider for conduct that is simply out of its control.”

No such acts were established resulting in SSM’s motion for Summary Judgment being granted and Hydentra’s being denied.

In respect of the claims of contributory infringement, SSM said that it could not be held liable since it had no knowledge of the paper-based DMCA notices. Once notified via lawsuit, all of the videos were removed. The judge said the matter of lost notices couldn’t be resolved during a motion for Summary Judgment.

“Neither party has cited cases, nor has the Court been able to locate cases, where a DMCA Designated Agent lost take-down notices, causing an internet service provider to incur liability for copyright infringement based upon constructive knowledge,” the judge wrote.

Furthermore, for a contributory infringement claim to succeed, Hydentra would need to show that SSM’s tube sites were not capable of “substantial noninfringing uses.” The company failed to do so.

“While the record is clear that at times, third-party users of Defendants’ Websites upload copyrighted material, there is record evidence that the Websites are capable of being used for purposes other than copyright infringement,” the judge noted.

SSM’s motion to dismiss was granted. The claim of Vicarious Copyright Infringement received the same treatment.

“To prevail on a claim for vicarious infringement, a plaintiff must allege that the defendant ‘infringes vicariously by profiting from direct infringement while declining to exercise a right to stop or limit it’,” the judge wrote.

“Plaintiff’s argument that the infringed videos somehow attracted and
drew more visitors to Defendants’ Websites, which allowed Defendants to receive more revenue in advertisements, is not supported by record evidence and is highly speculative.”

The claim of Inducement of Copyright Infringement was dealt with even more swiftly.

“The Court agrees with Defendants that there is no record evidence that Defendants induced the third-party users into uploading copyrighted
material. To the contrary, the record is clear that Defendants operated as passive internet service providers,” the judge wrote.

Val Gurvits of Boston Law Group, who along with local counsel Brady Cobb defended the tube sites, is pleased with the result.

“SunSocial had a strong record of responding to DMCA notices and of terminating repeat infringers. Of note is that in dismissing their copyright claims, the court actually ruled on the underlying merits of the case, and not on DMCA safe-harbor,” he informs TF.

Nevertheless, Gurvits says that the sending of the paper notices was a troubling development.

“Plaintiff intentionally manufactured a DMCA ‘non-compliance’ situation by interjecting paper DMCA notices into an established course of dealings via electronic ones. They first sent all DMCA notices electronically, and SunSocial diligently acted on all of them. Then for some reason they sent 56 paper notices (allegedly in one FedEx package). Then they continued to send electronic notices,” Gurvits says.

“The only reason for Hydentra to interject paper notices into an established exchange of electronic notices is because they hope that recipient will mistakenly miss some of them. It seems they used this process as a pretext for filing some of their other presently pending lawsuits.”

Meanwhile, Hydentra is extremely active taking down content from Google, with more than 2.4 million URLs removed to date.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 7 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 6 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Eigene Welten erschaffen oder andere besuchen: Valves neue Destinations Workshop Tools für Head-mounted Displays entführen auf den Mars oder in eine englische Kirche. (Steam, Valve)

Mobilfunknetz-Authentifizierung fehlerhaft: Wegen Störungen bei der Deutschen Telekom hatten am Samstagvormittag ihre Kunden keinen Zugang zum Internet. Mittlerweile ist das Problem behoben. (Telekom, Congstar)

Nachdem einige defekte Radaufhängungen bei Tesla-Autos aufgetreten sind, führen ein Blogger und der Elektroautohersteller eine Schlammschlacht. Ein böser Vorwurf lautet, Tesla habe kostenlose Reparaturen durchgeführt, um die Fahrer zum Schweigen zu verpflichten. Die Behörden wollen prüfen. (Tesla Motors, Technologie)

Megaupload was shutdown nearly half a decade ago, but data from hundreds of the site’s servers are still in storage.

This is also true for the files that were placed at Cogent.

While the original machines are no longer intact, the hosting company has backed up all data which it will keep in storage pending the various lawsuits against the company and its operators.

However, as time has gone by the condition of the harddrives has deteriorated. A few weeks ago Cogent warned that sixteen of them have actually become unreadable, which is a serious concern since they contain important evidence.

To resolve the issue the RIAA and MPAA, representing various major copyright holders, asked if they could preserve a copy of the data themselves. Alternatively, they were also open to bringing in an independent computer forensics vendor, to copy and preserve the data.

Megaupload disagreed, arguing that rightsholders or other outsiders shouldn’t get their hands on possibly privacy sensitive user data, and opted to simply repair the failing disks.

This week District Court Judge Liam O’Grady ruled on the matter at hand. He rejected the copying proposal by the rightsholders, and went with Megaupload’s suggestion instead.

Judge O’Grady’s order

“The Court finds Defendants’ proposal is the more appropriate remedy for the issue at hand,” Judge O’Grady writes in his order.

The Judge instructs all stakeholders in the civil and criminal cases, including the U.S. Government and Cogent, to come together and agree on a repair process.

“[All parties] shall meet and confer with United States Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson to discuss and devise an appropriate solution to repair the Cogent drives and preserve the evidence on the Cogent servers, as well as to secure and preserve other digital evidence.”

While none of the parties are likely to disagree to a repair, they do have to determine who should pick up the tab.

Megaupload previously said that it doesn’t have the financial resources to do so, and suggested that either the copyright holders or the Government must take care of this. The Government is unlikely to pay though, and previously said that it no longer has an interest in the data.

The fact that the recent filings in the Megaupload proceedings are about data loss is exemplary of the slow progress in the cases, which are still a long way from trial.

Last December a New Zealand District Court judge ruled that Kim Dotcom and his colleagues can be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges. This decision was appealed and will be heard later this summer, so until then not much is expected to happen.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Kabelnetzbetreiber debattierten über Glasfaser und Kupfer, Lenovo zerstückelte ein Smartphone, der Verfassungsschutz-Chef beschuldigte Edward Snowden - und die Vorwürfe gegen Jacob Appelbaum wurden lauter. Sieben Tage und viele Meldungen im Überblick. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Business-Notebooks)