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'Copyright Troll Identified the Wrong Facebook Account in Piracy Case'Ernesto, 24 Mar 09:39 PM Over the past three years, adult entertainment compan

'Copyright Troll Identified the Wrong Facebook Account in Piracy Case' Ernesto, 24 Mar 09:39 PM Over the past three years, adult entertainment company Strike 3 Holdings has filed thousands of cases in US federal courts. These lawsuits target people whose Internet connections were allegedly used to download and share copyright-infringing content via BitTorrent. While many of these cases resulted in private settlements, Strike 3 has also experienced some setbacks. For example, in the 'Cobbler' case, the Court of Appeals previously ruled that copyright holders need "something more" than an IP-address for a viable case. These and other rulings have motivated Strike 3 to adapt its business. As reported earlier this month, we noticed that the company had started to add information from social media services to its complaints, to 'prove' that the defendant is likely the infringer. In theory, this could be a fruitful strategy but it is certainly not without flaws. This is what defense attorney Steven C. Vondran highlights in a recent BitTorrent piracy-related filing. Vondran represents a defendant who is being sued by Strike 3 in a California federal court. This happened after the company first tried to expose this person at a Florida state court, through a controversial discovery request. Among other things, the attorney argues that Strike 3 engages in "cut and run" tactics and that it fails to present "something more" than just an IP-address. In making this argument, Vondran also draws attention to the social media tactic. While that wasn't used in the case at issue, the attorney highlights it to show what can go wrong when Strike 3 tries to find "something more" than just an IP-address. "If they can line up or match or correlate the movies being downloaded with a person's Facebook 'likes' they figure this will overcome Cobbler and give them the 'something more' needed," he points out. According to the defense attorney, "this is total junk science" which he plans to make clear in a separate case he's handling. Apparently, in that case the defendant's interest in "Star Wars" on Facebook was brought up as relevant information. "For example, in one case they stated that a Defendant is more likely to have downloaded their clients Blacked, Tushy, and Vixen videos because their social media likes indicate they have an interest in 'Star Wars'," Vondran writes. Vondran informs the court that this is "a total joke." Not just that, Strike 3 apparently also managed to identify the wrong account on Facebook, from someone who happens to carry a similar name. "Making matters worse for them, the Defendant in that case will show that the Facebook account used was that of another person with a similar same," Vondran writes. "These are the type of callous intentional abuses that are going on and the Courts have the inherent power to quash the subpoena and dismiss the case for improper delay," the attorney adds. If this is indeed true, Strike 3's attempt to present "something more" to the court has the potential to backfire. In any case, it's worth keeping an eye on this motion to quash, as well as the upcoming filings about the wrongly identified Facebook account. — A copy of Steven C. Vondran reply to Strike 3's opposition to the motion to quash is available here (pdf). Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review. Nintendo Shuts Down Kickstarter Campaign For Violating Animal Crossing Copyrights Andy, 24 Mar 11:18 AM Anyone with a cool idea that could potentially develop into a great product or business can raise funding on Kickstarter. Launched in 2009, the crowdfunding platform has helped to fund almost 180,000 projects with an impressive $4.85 billion in pledges. But while many projects go on to enjoy success, others can fail at an early stage due to basic errors. The 'New Adventures Passport Travel Holder' fundraiser launched with a modest target of just £1,000. The aim was to offer an RFID-protected passport holder and luggage tags along with a matching lanyard, which doesn't sound especially exciting in the grand scheme of things. Nevertheless, the project quickly amassed 1,823 backers pledging more than £34,000 between them, 34 times the original target. While there may have been other factors contributing to this success, a quick view of the promotional material provides a fairly obvious clue as to why it was so popular. For reasons best known to those behind the crowdfunding campaign, creating original artwork for the products wasn't high on the agenda. As the image shows, all of the products are adorned with characters from the highly successful Animal Crossing video game series created by Nintendo. History has shown us that this kind of move is a bad idea. Nintendo is known to aggressively protect its copyrights and trademarks and this case was no different. In a letter and DMCA notice to Kickstarter, a law firm acting for Nintendo explained that the project must be shut down. "Nintendo owns copyrights in all aspects of its Animal Crossing video game franchise, including but not limited to the audio-visual work, imagery, and fictional character depictions covered by [various U.S. Copyright Registration numbers relating to Animal Crossing, Animal Crossing: City Folk, New Leaf, and Wild World]," the complaint reads. "The reported campaign displays images of Nintendo's copyright-protected Animal Crossing characters and images in connection with the creation of products that make unauthorized use of Nintendo's Animal Crossing characters and images, all in violation of Nintendo's rights." In response, Kickstarter swiftly shut down the campaign, noting that it had been rendered unavailable due to an "intellectual property dispute". Considering the text used to draw attention to the UK-launched campaign, the use of Nintendo's works appears to have been intentional. Advertising the "New Adventures" travel holder, those behind the project described their product as a "cute animal pattern passport cover for your new adventures crossing the horizons!" Almost all words in that description relate to Animal Crossing which makes the project easy to find in search engines by gaming fans. "All or nothing. This project will only be funded if it reaches its goal by Tue, March 31 2020," the campaign read before being taken down. Clearly, that will not happen now. At any one time, Nintendo is involved with multiple intellectual property disputes which are tackled using various means. In recent months the gaming company has resorted to site-blocking measures in the UK to tackle Switch piracy, filed a complaint against Github to tackle a remake developer, obtained an injunction in the US to restrain a mod seller, filed DMCA anti-circumvention notices, and continued with a full-blown lawsuit against download portal RomUniverse. Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review. ©2020 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company