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Showing posts from March, 2013

Sunk! The Court of Human Rights rejects the Pirate Bay's Complaint

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Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi founded one of the world's largest file sharing sites known as The Pirate Bay . They were prosecuted for offences under the Swedish copyright act ( Upphovsrättslagen , 1960:729)  and in the same process sued by various record companies and other copyright owners for copyright infringement in the Stockholm district cour t ( Tingsrätt ). After a hearing that lasted from the 16 Feb until 3 March 2009 they were found guilty of the charges and sentenced to a year's imprisonment on 17 April 2009. They were also ordered to pay damages of SEK30 million to the copyright owners. They appealed to the Swedish court of appeal ( ( Svea hovrätt ) which upheld their convictions but reduced their sentences and increased the damages award on 26 Nov 2010. They applied for permission to appeal to the Swedish supreme court ( Högsta domstolen ) but that court rejected their application on 1 Feb 2012. On 20 June 2012 Mr. Neij and Mr. Kolmisoppi complaine

The Samsung and Apple Litigation - Round 2 to Apple

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According to Wikipedia ,  Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, is the world's largest information technology company in terms of revenue. Apple Inc . is number two. Samsung supplies the famous Galaxy smart phone  and Apple the well known iPhone .  Over the last few years Samsung and Apple have fought each other in the world's court rooms.(see "Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd" in Wikipedia).  In the last round over Apple's registered Community design, Apple came off second best (see Jane Lambert "Apple v Samsung - the Appeal" 26 Oct 2012) and was made to eat humble pie (see Jane Lambert "Samsung v Apple: 'Be you never so high ....'." 2 Nov 2012 and "Samsung v Apple: the Reasons" 30 Dec 2012).  In  Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd v Apple Retail UK Ltd and Another (No. 1) [2013] EWHC 467 (Pat) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd v Apple Retail UK Ltd and Another   (No. 2) [2013] EWHC 468 (Pat) Apple did rather better. Mr. Ju

Injunctions against ISPs Part V: EMI Records Ltd and Others v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd and Others

It is perhaps eccentric if not downright ungrateful to promote a different business model for the music and motion picture industries having rebuilt my practice on advising and representing defendants to copyright infringement claims by trade associations in those industries but a flower is a great deal cheaper than an intellectual property lawyer and not necessarily less effective.  Before considering Mr.Justice Arnold's judgment in  EMI Records Ltd and Others v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd and Others     [2013] EWHC 379 (Ch), [2013] WLR(D) 86 it is perhaps worth watching Amanda Palmer's video on The Art of Asking and pondering her message which I have reproduced from the TED website : "Don't make people pay for music, says Amanda Palmer: Let them. In a passionate talk that begins in her days as a street performer (drop a dollar in the hat for the Eight-Foot Bride!), she examines the new relationship between artist and fan. Alt-rock icon Amanda Fucking Palmer b