MediaTech Law

By MIRSKY & COMPANY, PLLC

MegaUpload – Where is my Data?

Posted June 26, 2012 by Andrew Mirsky 0

A not-insignificant consequence of the federal government’s move in January to shut down the popular file-sharing site MegaUpload is that customers are blocked from being able to access their files.

First, some background. In January, the government charged that MegaUpload and its founder Kim Dotcom operated an organization dedicated to copyright infringement, or in other words operated for the purpose of a criminal enterprise.  The site provided a number of online services related to file storage and viewing, which (among other things) allowed users to download copyrighted material.  The government also claimed in its indictment that the site was also used for other criminal purposes including money laundering.

Not surprisingly, the file-sharing activities caught the unpleased eye of prominent content ownership groups

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Podcast #10: BitTorrent Copyright Infringement: Trouble for DMCA?

Posted June 20, 2011 by Andrew Mirsky 0

 

Today, I discuss BitTorrents, and a particular case in California challenging the copyright validity of what one service provider is doing.  BitTorrent has been in the (copyright) news lately – and not surprisingly – after the movie studios set their sites on bringing down yet the latest iteration of file-sharing technology.

Some of the issues I discuss are these:

  • What is the BitTorrent file sharing technology? And how is it different from Napster and its peer-to-peer progeny?
  • What are the 2 biggest distinctions between BitTorrent and peer-to-peer and, in particular, BitTorrent’s distributive approach to file-sharing?
  • Why is bitTorrent in the (copyright) news? I will particularly discuss a case in federal court in California, involving Columbia Pictures and other film studios who sued a bitTorrent company called isoHunt, together with its founder, Gary Fung.
  • What were the relevant legal issues in this case? Several important copyright arguments were made, but of most significance were 2 particular issues: inducement of copyright infringement, and the safe harbor for providers of “information location tools” under Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the DMCA).
  • Why did Google get involved? I discuss how this case was an unusual instance where a court ruled that DMCA safe harbor protection was not available to a provider of “information location tools” who knew or should have known about potential or actual copyright infringement happening on its service.

Please click below for the podcast.

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BitTorrent Copyright Infringement: Trouble for DMCA?

Posted June 3, 2011 by Andrew Mirsky 0

BitTorrent has been in the (copyright) news lately – and not surprisingly – after the movie studios set their sites on bringing down yet the latest iteration of file-sharing technology.

2 great background sources on what BitTorrent is and how it works can be found here and here.  In short terms, BitTorrent is a file sharing technology, different from Napster and its peer-to-peer progeny in that it draws down pieces of large data files from multiple computers – rather than single computer to single computer peer-to-peer – based on a “community” structure of participating individual users.  The two biggest distinctions are (1) no single source for the compiled total file contributes more than a very small portion of the total file and (2) the distributive structure finesses the constant file-sharing problem of large data transfers demanding large broadband resources.

Why is bitTorrent in the (copyright) news?

BitTorrent is in the news not simply because Netflix’ CEO stated that “we’ve finally beaten bitTorrent.”  (“We”, by the way, presumably refers to Netflix’ full-file streaming capabilities.)

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