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U.S. Govt. Should Pay $155m in Piracy Damages, Software Company ArguesErnesto Van der Sar, 15 Jul 09:34 PM The U.S. Government is known to go after

U.S. Govt. Should Pay $155m in Piracy Damages, Software Company Argues Ernesto Van der Sar, 15 Jul 09:34 PM The U.S. Government is known to go after copyright infringing companies and individuals, both domestically and abroad. This doesn't mean that there are no copyright issues within its own ranks. Five years ago the US Navy was sued for mass copyright infringement and accused of causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. Software Company Sues US Navy The lawsuit was filed by the German company Bitmanagement. It's not a typical piracy case in the sense that software was downloaded from shady sources. However, the end result is the same. It all started in 2011 when the US Navy began testing the company's 3D virtual reality application 'BS Contact Geo'. After some testing, the Navy installed the software across its network, assuming that it had permission to do so. This turned out to be a crucial misunderstanding. Bitmanagement said it never authorized this type of use and when it heard that the Navy had installed the software on 558,466 computers, the company took legal action. Bitmanagement Wins Appeal In a complaint filed at the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2016, the German company accused the US Navy of mass copyright infringement and demanded damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The Court initially dismissed the complaint but Bitmanagement appealed. Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with the German software company, concluding that the US Government is indeed liable. This meant that the matter was reverted back to the Federal Claims court, to determine the appropriate damages amount. Over the past weeks, the US submitted several sealed filings hoping to keep the damages under control, but Bitmanagement was having none of it. $155,400,000 in Piracy Damages Unlike the Government's arguments, BitManagement's position is not kept out of the public eye. The company openly argues that it has the right to $155,400,000 in copyright infringement damages. This figure is based on more than 600,000 copies of the software that were installed. This is multiplied by the negotiated $370 license per install, minus a 30% discount. "The evidence at trial showed that the Navy made at least 600,000 copies of BS Contact Geo that were not monitored by Flexera. For these 600,000 copies, unrebutted expert testimony at trial demonstrated that the parties would have agreed in a hypothetical negotiation to a final negotiated price of $259 per copy," Bitmanagement writes. The Government's filings are not public but Bitmanagement's brief suggests that the Government tried to have the damages amount lowered. Among other things, it suggested that a bigger discount should have been possible. Massive Discount Wasn't an Option The software company disputes that. While it did consider bigger discounts for other software, this never was an option for "BS Contact Geo." "[T]he Navy would not have sought, nor would Bitmanagement have accepted, a volume discount greater than 70%. Although years before the hypothetical negotiation Bitmanagement considered selling its software at more discounted prices to the Navy, those preliminary discussions and offers involved less-advanced software than BS Contact Geo" Also, by the time the licensing discussions would have taken place, the Government indicated that the software was hard to replace, which boosted the software company's negotiation position. [B]y the time of the hypothetical negotiation in July 2013, the Navy had determined that BS Contact Geo was a 'critical component' to the Navy for which there were no viable alternatives. According to the Navy, "BS Contact Geo was the only software that could fulfill its needs." It is now up to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to determine if the Government must pay $155 million in damages or if a reduction is warranted. It seems unavoidable that some compensation has to be paid, however. Interestingly this is not the first time that the U.S. military has been "caught" pirating software. A few years ago it was accused of operating unlicensed logistics software, a case the Obama administration eventually settled for $50 million. — A copy of Bitmanagement's brief regarding the damages calculation is available here (pdf). From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Mass Bogus DMCA Takedowns Impersonate Reddit to Attack Downloading Tools Andy Maxwell, 15 Jul 08:46 AM Earlier this week the popular Reddit downloading bot 'SaveVideo' unexpectedly threw in the towel. According to early reports from the operator of the service, which in part operated from RedditSave.com, Reddit sent a rather aggressive copyright infringement complaint warning of a potential lawsuit. Wanting to take no risks, the decision was taken to shut down the SaveVideo bot and the RedditSave website. TorrentFreak contacted SaveVideo and Reddit for comment, with both eventually responding after publication with new pieces of interesting information. Reddit was first to confirm that whatever legal threats SaveVideo had received, the social media platform had nothing to do with them. For his part, the operator of SaveVideo shared the complaint for transparency. While certainly elaborate, many features identified the document as fraudulent and designed to deceive. Part of the bogus complaint Someone, somewhere, clearly has a problem with SaveVideo and by impersonating Reddit, could now have issues with the social giant too. However, with SaveVideo returning online and now back in business, it seemed like the problems would fade away. That hasn't proven to be the case. Imposters Masquerade as Reddit in DMCA Notices to Google With assistance from the Lumen Database, TorrentFreak has obtained four new DMCA notices that were sent to Google this week. Each seeks to delist RedditSave.com URLs (including its homepage) from Google's results on the basis they are infringing copyright. Ominously (and in common with the notice detailed above) these were all sent with claims they originated from Reddit. However, Reddit informs TorrentFreak that it had nothing to do with these notices and is currently conducting an investigation. Why RedditSave is being targeted here is unclear (its operator informs TF he has no idea who is behind the notices) but he will now feel less singled out knowing that these new bogus DMCA notices also attack dozens of similar tools with the ability to download content from Reddit. A small sample is shown below: Trying to determine who is behind these fraudulent complaints isn't an easy task. There are plenty of entities who would like to see downloaders out of business, not least content providers, but it is doubtful that most would be so foolish. Other options include download tool rivals looking to receive a rapid boost in traffic but, at this stage, it is far too early to say with any certainty. One silver lining is that Google might spot the bogus nature of the complaints. At the time of writing, none of the URLs have been removed yet and most are still pending further review. The four DMCA notices attacking dozens of download tools can be found here (1,2,3,4) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2021 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