For several years VKontakte, or VK, has been branded as a piracy facilitator by copyright holders and even the U.S. Government.
In common with many user-generated sites, VK allows its millions of users to upload anything from movies and TV shows to their entire music collections. However, copyright holders often claim that Russia’s social network has failed to adopt proper anti-piracy measures.
Two years ago this resulted in a lawsuit filed at the Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region Arbitration Court, in which Universal Music and Warner Music demanded countermeasures and compensation for the large-scale copyright infringement VK allegedly facilitates.
Last year, the labels scored an important victory. The Saint Petersburg & Leningradsky Region Arbitration Court ruled that although VK could not be held liable for infringement, it was obliged to implement “effective” filtering or other technology to prevent infringement of the labels’ rights.
However, a few months later this decision was overturned. The region’s Appeal Court decided that VKontakte is not required to implement broad anti-piracy measures, and maintained the position that the social network is not responsible for infringements committed by its users.
The labels were clearly disappointed by the overturned verdict and this week Universal Music officially lodged an appeal, Rapsi reports.
The music label hopes that VK will be held accountable and is demanding damages for the incurred losses. In the original complaint Universal asked for 13 music tracks to be removed from the site while seeking compensation of around 15.6 million rubles ($241,900).
Whether Warner Music has filed a similar appeal is unknown at this point, but industry sources previously said that the label was likely to pursue the case at a higher court.
A third record label, Sony Music, already ended its proceedings against VKontakte at an earlier stage. The company dropped its complaints last summer after reaching a confidential settlement with the social network.
Responding to various piracy allegations last year, VK director Dmitry Sergeev promised that the company would do its best to tackle the problem.
Sergeev admitted that the service has a history of being used for piracy, especially audio, but added that the company has put a lot of effort into its anti-piracy measures, often in cooperation with rightsholders.
“Over the last years, especially in 2013 and 2014, VK took numerous steps to address copyright holders’ concerns. These steps were part of the VK long-term plan of improvement and cooperation with the rightsholders and copyright industry associations,” Sergeev noted.
It’s now up to the court to decide whether VK’s efforts are indeed sufficient.
Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.
Eine neue Version der Ransomware Jigsaw verschlüsselt Dateien mit der Endung .porno und hat auch einen Hintergrundbildschirm mit pornographischem Material. Wessen Rechner befallen ist, kann jetzt auch ohne Zahlung der geforderten Bitcoin seine Dateien retten. (
Microsoft will mehr Werbeplätze in das Startmenü von Windows 10 integrieren. Die Verdoppelung der Werbeplätze ist für das große Update im Sommer dieses Jahres geplant. (
Mit Linux vorinstallierte Laptops waren früher oft lieblos zusammengestellte Kisten. Das Tuxedo Infinitybook versucht dem etwas entgegenzusetzen - mit hoher Leistung, voller Linux-Kompatibilität und dennoch vielen Konfigurationsoptionen. Bis auf einige Kleinigkeiten funktioniert das sogar sehr gut. (
Das TV-Kabelnetz ist bisher schnell im Download, doch nicht so leistungsfähig im Upload. Die Bell Labs haben bewiesen, dass das nicht so bleiben muss: Sie haben mit XG-Cable und Docsis 3.1. 10 GBit/s im Upload und im Download übertragen. (
Amazon will künftig Lebensmittel unter Eigenmarken auf den Markt bringen. Schon bald könnte es dann Tee, Kaffee, Babynahrung und Chips vom ursprünglichen Onlinebuchhändler geben. (
BMW-Chef Harald Krüger hat auf der Hauptversammlung angekündigt, ab 2021 ein autonom fahrendes Elektroauto auf den Markt zu bringen. Einige Aktionäre befürchten, dass der Autohersteller gegenüber Tesla ins Hintertreffen gerate. (
Kaum ist es da, schon macht es Probleme: Das Update auf iOS 9.3.2 hat zahlreichen Berichten zufolge das iPad Pro 9,7 Zoll lahmgelegt. Von der Installation kann derzeit nur abgeraten werden. (
