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Every year rightsholders collect many thousands of dollars in settlements from alleged copyright infringers. However, these enforcement efforts can backfire as well. Photographer and attorney Richard Bell, who filed dozens of lawsuits over a single photo, has lost one of his legal battles and is now ordered to pay $172,173 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Over the past years, dozens of independent photographers have taken their copyright disputes to court, accusing companies of using their work without permission.
While many of them have a legitimate claim, these ‘photo’ lawsuits generally have a bad reputation. This is in part due to the tactics employed both in and outside of court.
One of the most active attorneys, Richard Liebowitz, made a name for himself through such controversial practices. Courts have repeatedly reprimanded the attorney for various types of misconduct, including a $100,000 sanction a few weeks ago.
Another common name in federal courts is Richard Bell, who’s both a photographer and attorney. Over the years he filed more than 100 lawsuits for the unauthorized use of an Indianapolis skyline photo he claims to own the rights to.
To outsiders, these cases may appear to be regular copyright claims, but they also show the hallmarks of “copyright trolling.” The attorneys use the pressure of federal lawsuits and potential statutory damages of $150,000 to extract high settlement fees from defendants, without fighting a case on its merits.
While it’s unclear what the success rate of this practice is, most cases are indeed settled outside of court, suggesting that the strategy pays off. However, that’s not always the case. For Richard Bell it recently backfired.
In 2016 Bell filed one of his many lawsuits. The target, in this case, was Carmen Commercial Real Estate Services who used the contested skyline photo in a blog post.
When Bell contacted Carmen Commercial he was offered a $1,000 settlement. However, the attorney wanted more and requested $5,000. He threatened a lawsuit if the real estate company failed to pay up.
This type of settlement pressure is not new. However, Carmen Commercial chose not to pay up and opted for a court battle instead. There, the company argued that Bell couldn’t prove that he owns the rights to the photo. And if he took it, it was made under the “work for hire” doctrine.
The case eventually went to trial where the jury sided with the real estate company. Bell obviously wasn’t happy with the outcome and demanded a new trial.
This request was recently denied by a federal court in Indianapolis. Not only that, the court also awarded $172,173 in attorneys’ fees and costs to the real estate company. This is justified, the court argued, in part due to the pressure tactics that were used.
“Defendant here offered to settle the matter for $1,000 before suit was filed. Yet Bell proceeded to trial seeking $150,000 in statutory damages on scant evidence of willful infringement,” Judge James Sweeney writes.
The court correctly mentions that Bell has filed many lawsuits over the ‘skyline’ photograph. It also notes that other judges have mentioned that his motive appears to be to extract quick and easy settlements instead of protecting his copyrights.
“Here, the record similarly reflects that Bell used the threat of litigation costs to extract quick settlements,” Judge Sweeney writes, highlighting two letters where Bell threatened legal action and even higher costs if Carmen Commercial didn’t pay up.
These settlement demands can be quite lucrative. They can reach 1,000 times the market value of an actual license, the court mentioned. The defendant, however, will always have costs, whether they choose to pay up or if the matter ends up in court.
This means that defendants in these cases are at a disadvantage, so compensation for their costs, which are way higher than the initial settlement offer, is appropriate. Otherwise, it would be a hollow victory. At the same time, it should deter the attorney from filing similar lawsuits in the future.
In this case, Carmen Commercial calculated its costs to be $172,173, which the court deemed to be reasonable. While it wasn’t a quick and easy win for the real estate company, it’s certainly a big one.
As for that skyline photo which started this four-year legal battle, Carmen Commercial still uses that in its blog posts. With proper permission from the rightsholder, we presume.
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A copy of Judge Sweeney’s order, denying a new trial and granting the motion for fees and costs, is available here (pdf)
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The Spanish pirate streaming giant Megadede will shut down within a week. The site’s operators announced their surprise decision without providing any further detail. Megadede is among the 100 most visited sites in the country and will be missed by many. However, there certainly is no shortage of alternatives, as other sites are queuing up to welcome stranded pirates.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Spain is an interesting country when it comes to piracy. On the one hand, it has one of the highest piracy rates worldwide, but there is no shortage of enforcement actions either.
In recent years there have been several criminal investigations into unauthorized IPTV streaming, torrent and streaming portals have been taken to court, and ISPs have been ordered to block pirate sites as well.
It appears that, despite all the legal pressure and threats, new pirate sites and services continue to appear online. Unlike in some other countries, these are often localized as well.
Names such as “Don Torrent,” “DivxTotaL,” and “Megadede” are relatively unknown in most parts of the world. However, in Spain, they are listed among the 100 most visited sites in the country, mixed in with major brands such as Google, Wikipedia, Amazon, Facebook, and Netflix.
This week one of these giants announced its demise. In a message posted on the site, Megadede.com’s operators write that they are “forced” to announce that the site shuts down within a week.
“The members of the team are forced to announce that in less than a week megadede will come to an end. We hope you have enjoyed this time with us and take the opportunity to download your lists. Thanks for everything #megabye.”
It’s not clear who forced the operators to take action, but it is possible that legal pressure played a role. Unlike many other streaming sites, Megadede required an account to view all content. It didn’t rely on search traffic but had a dedicated user base.
Megadede is one of the largest sites in Spain but has only been around for two years. It took over from Plusdede in 2018 after that site was ordered to shut down by the authorities. Plusdede, wasn’t unique either, as it was reportedly built based on the database of Pordede, which shut down after being hacked.
While Megadede will soon be gone, there is room for a takeover of the domain name or even the entire project. In the site’s help and support section the operators write that they are willing to sell to a good bidder.
“If someone wants to buy the domain or the project, you can send an offer through the contact page. We will only answer offers that may interest us,” they write.
This means that Megadede may possibly continue under new ownership. However, there is no shortage of alternatives either. After the site announced its shutdown decision several competitors said they were ready to take over the traffic.
Some, including DivMax.com, even offered to enable support for Megadede user ‘playlists’ to enable a smooth transition.
“The DixMax administration welcomes you. Due to the recent closure of Megadede we invite you to meet and discover DixMax.com and all its applications available for free. Downloaded Megadede playlists will soon be added,” the site writes on Twitter.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Comparing 2009 ARPA-E winners to peers yields a mixed bag.
Enlarge / Former Energy Secretary Ernst Moniz speaks at an ARPA-E event in 2016. (credit: DOE / Flickr)
In 2009, the US Department of Energy started funding energy research through the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (or ARPA-E) program. The goal was take more risks than traditional federal efforts and help new renewable energy technologies get off the ground. Private investment had been flagging due to slow returns, but the huge societal benefits of clean energy was deemed to justify government support. The hope was that the funding could accelerate the timeline for new technology to mature to the point that private investors would find the technology more attractive.
At least, that was the idea. A team led by University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Anna Goldstein figured that ARPA-E’s first class is now old enough to check in on. She and her colleagues looked at a limited sample of 25 startups and found some interesting ways in which these companies seem to have beaten out the competition—and some in which they haven’t.
The 25 startups selected in ARPA-E’s first round were compared to several other groups of companies that were born around the same time. The first group consists of the 39 companies that applied for ARPA-E funding and didn’t get it but still received an “encouraged” runner-up rating. In the next group are the 70 companies that received funding from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) with related government stimulus spending. And finally, there are almost 1,200 other clean energy startups that found their funding elsewhere.
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The White House is now 0 for 2 on enforcing bans on China-owned apps today.
Enlarge / There both is and is not a ban in effect on WeChat. (credit: Budrul Chukrut | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images)
A federal judge in California put a temporary halt on the White House's efforts to ban WeChat inside the United States, preventing that ban from going into effect at midnight tonight.
"The plaintiffs have shown serious questions going to the merits of their First Amendment Claim," US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler wrote in her ruling (PDF) early this morning.
The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of WeChat users inside the US. The group, organized as the US WeChat Users Alliance, argued in their complaint that the ban violated their First and Fifth Amendment rights as well as the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the Administrative Procedures Act. The group also argues that the law cited in the executive order banning WeChat does not in fact give President Donald Trump the authority claimed in the order.
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BMW’s M-powered SUVs scorch the road and your checking account.
BMW has given the current X5 and X6 SUVs the M treatment. [credit: BMW ]
Yes. Another SUV review. Sorry, but couples, families, singles, alt-lifestylers, outdoor-seekers, bankers, lawyers, doctors, musicians, actors, and even website developers are continuing to drive the SUV segment into utter dominance. And it doesn't matter where you live: the sales figures in Europe are accelerating more swiftly to the SUV camp than in North America, where it's dominated for many years already. This is not a value judgment on the goodness or evil of SUVs. It just is. And consider this: of BMW's 15 different lines of automobiles, seven of them are SUVs. Mercedes has a staggering eight lines of SUVs.
But BMW is nothing if not a company aware of and amenable to splitting niches, be they product lines (like all those hatchback variations on sedans) or ultra-high-performance flavors of big SUVs. That's where we pick up this particular train coming into the station: the 2020 X5 M and the related X6 M. These two add the engine and legs of a thoroughbred sports sedan to the sport-utility, resulting in SUVs with not just room and girth but also abilities in the twisties and the vast open road on the order of a top sports sedan.
The new Ms snarl with 600hp (447kW) from their twin-turbo, 4.4L V8 engines, though that figure can be boosted even more to 617hp (460kW) with the lily-gilding optional Competition Package. (We can't help thinking that any 5,200-plus-pound SUV wearing a badge that reads "Competition" is just a trifle incongruous, unless it's an eating competition.) And yes, that's damn near twice the output of the base X5 and X6 powertrain (in the US market), which puffs out a comparatively paltry 335hp (250kW), though no one would could legitimately call that engine deficient.
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Eine aktuelle Studie konnte einen starken Zusammenhang zwischen der Umverteilung von Ressourcen innerhalb einer Gesellschaft und der durchschnittlichen Lebenserwartung belegen
UBS looks at recreating busy trading floors with HoloLens experiment.
Enlarge (credit: Thomas Barwick / Getty Images)
Spare bedrooms and living rooms could soon become part of vibrant trading floors as one of the world’s biggest investment banks considers providing staff with augmented reality headsets.
UBS has experimented with issuing its London-based traders with Microsoft HoloLenses, which would allow staff to recreate the experience of working in a packed trading floor without leaving their homes.
Banks have been desperate to bring workers back to the office, especially for regulatory-sensitive roles such as trading, but surges in coronavirus infection rates have meant many staff are wary about using public transport.
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Android engineers Dave Burke and Iliyan Malchev are back for our yearly Q&A.
(credit: Aurich Lawson / Getty Images)
We've established a bit of a tradition here at Ars. Every year at Google I/O, we have a sit-down talk to learn more about Android directly from the people that make it. Of course, this year, just about every major event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, nothing is really normal, and Google I/O never happened.
We can still do interviews over the Internet though! So while it happened later in the year than normal, we were still able to hold our annual chat with some of the most important Googlers at Android HQ: Dave Burke, Android's VP of Engineering, and Iliyan Malchev, Principal Engineer at Android and the lead of Project Treble.
We came prepped with questions about the more mysterious corners of Android 11, which actually led to a lot of interesting talk about the future. You'll learn about a coming re-write of the Bluetooth stack, and there's lots of talk about modularity and easy updating (like plans will hopefully, someday, allow you to update the Linux kernel and developer APIs as easily as you download an app update).
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Der Berlin-Tag lief in diesem Jahr digital ab, Besucher konnten ihn per Stream verfolgen – allerdings nicht unbedingt, wenn sie ein Apple-Gerät besitzen. (Berlin, Apple)
Der Berlin-Tag lief in diesem Jahr digital ab, Besucher konnten ihn per Stream verfolgen - allerdings nicht unbedingt, wenn sie ein Apple-Gerät besitzen. (
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