Are you on social networking sites? Do you use Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Flickr or a combination of the four? Perhaps you are on a smaller, niche social networking site. No matter what sites you are using, you are probably uploading photos – photos of yourself, your pets, scenic spots on your vacations – that you […]
Category: Cyberspace
Roughly a month ago, I discussed the announcement that starting in 2012, there will be many new top-level domains (TLDs) available for the public. Whereas now you can buy domain names with a restricted number of top-level domain tags such as .com, .net, .org, in the near future, you will be able to customize your […]
Large internet copyright infringement lawsuits have been filed in 2011, and not all of them relate to movies consumers pay to see at the theaters. In fact, pornographic film studios are suing downloaders with regularity this year, creating a new revenue stream out of lawsuit settlements. Sometimes it is worthwhile for accused infringers to settle […]
The Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act (OCILLA), also known as DMCA 512 was passed in 1998 as part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). OCILLA is also known as the “Safe Harbor” provision in the DMCA, which shields internet service providers (ISPs) from being forced to pay any monetary damages as a result of […]
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) include .com, .net, .org, .edu, and other variations in what is considered to be the back-end of a domain name. In 2000, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) introduced .aero, .biz, .coop, .inof, .museum, .name, and .pro. Then, in 2005, .cat, .jobs, .mobi, .tel, and .travel were added […]
Ever since domain names have been open for public registration, domain owners have been guilty of cybersquatting on other peoples’/companies names. Some cybersquatting cases are more clear than others. If I register the domain name BurgerKing.com, it is unlikely that I can defend it by showing a legitimate use for owning the URL. However, if […]
The most active group of movie producers in the realm of litigating apparent copyright infringement in 2011 seems to be producers of pornographic material. I have no hard evidence that this is the case, but from the sheer amount of cases I hear about, including some demand letters that clients have brought to my attention, […]
Download a copyrighted movie using the popular downloader BitTorrent? That action is considered copyright infringement. Movie studios are becoming increasingly active in protecting their copyrights, requesting courts to approve their subpoenas on internet service providers to find out the personal private information about people who are supposedly tied to IP addresses of infringers. Movie studios […]
2011 has been a year of very large copyright infringement complaint filings. First came word that the makers of The Expendables are suing 23,322 John Does who allegedly downloaded the movie online for free using a program called BitTorrent. Roughly a week later, a new lawsuit against 24,583 John Does who allegedly illegally downloaded the movie […]
Zediva does not have name recognition among the general public yet, but it certainly has plans to enter every American household. Movie studios will do everything in their power to prevent that from happening. On April 4, 2011, multiple movie studios filed a complaint for copyright infringement in the United States District Court Central District […]