©opyBites: Copyright Law Blog

Software Pirate Convicted

Cadalyst:

At the end of last week, CAD software developer Autodesk announced that Nathan Peterson, owner and operator of iBackups, was sentenced on September 8 to seven years and three months in federal prison, and required to pay $5.4 million in restitution for selling pirated software. Peterson plead guilty to two counts of criminal copyright infringement for illegally copying and selling software developed legitimately by Autodesk, Adobe, Macromedia and Symantec that was worth approximately $7-20 million. Peterson must also forfeit any assets related to the infringement offenses, as well as any assets traceable to proceeds from the offenses. The sentencing occurred in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

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YouTube Announces New Copyright Management Infrastructure

MarketWire:

By the end of the year, professional content creators, including record labels, TV networks and movie studios, will have the opportunity to authorize the use of their content within the YouTube community by taking advantage of YouTube's new tools and architecture. YouTube has been actively working on the operational details and building the infrastructure for this innovative new framework, which will offer media companies the following:

-- Sophisticated tools to help content owners identify their content on
the site;
-- Automated audio identification technology to help prevent works
previously removed from the site at the request of the copyright owner from
reappearing on the site;
-- The opportunity to authorize and monetize the use of their works
within the user-generated content on the site;
-- Reporting and tracking systems for royalties, etc.

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LimeWire Files Countersuit

ZDNet.com:

Lime Wire, which was hit with a lawsuit in August by Warner Bros. Records, Virgin Records America, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and other music labels, filed a counterclaim in U.S. District Court in New York on Monday. The software company alleges in court filings that the record companies have engaged in unfair business practices to scare away its users.

Lime Wire develops peer-to-peer technology, which is often used by individuals to create copies of music and distribute it over the Internet. More than a dozen record companies have joined in the lawsuit against Lime Wire, alleging that its technology provides a means for copyright infringement.

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Google News Loses in Belgium Court

ISEdb:

Last Friday (Sept 15th) a Belgium court dealt a stunning blow against Google and its Google News search service. The court is now forbidding the popular search engine from indexing Belgian newspaper content without paying each newspaper for the use of their content.

The ruling requires Google to remove the plaintiff's newspaper content from its search engine database within 10 days or face threatened fines of 1,000,000- € per day

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Seven Year Sentence For Software Piracy

U.S. Newswire:

The owner of a massive for-profit software piracy Web site was sentenced today in federal court to 87 months in prison, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Chuck Rosenberg of the Eastern District of Virginia announced.

Nathan L. Peterson, 27, of Antelope Acres, Calif. was also ordered by Judge T.S. Ellis, III of the Eastern District of Virginia to forfeit the proceeds of his illegal conduct and pay restitution of more than $5.4 million. The forfeiture involves a wide array of assets, including homes, numerous cars and a boat, which Peterson had purchased with the profits from his illegal enterprise. Today's sentence is the second recent major prison sentence received for software piracy. In August 2006, Danny Ferrer, 37, the operator of http://www.BuysUSA.com received a six-year prison sentence.

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