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  • Dickens v. Lawyers
    Lawyers appear in 11 of his 15 novels. Some of them even resemble humans. ...At 32 he filed his first suit against a pirate publisher. Dickens told a friend afterward that "it is better to suffer a great wrong than to have recourse to the much greater wrong of the law." - Joseph Tartakovsky, NY Times

  • Judge Denies Initial Effort To Shut Down 'Used' Digital Music Seller ReDigi
    ReDigi, an upstart digital company that sells "used" digital music, has announced that it has successfully fended off the recording industry's motion for a preliminary injunciton....U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan rejected Google's attempts to butt into the case, but seems to have now accepted the underlying notion that there is a lot at stake.

    According to a ReDigi press release, at the hearing today, Judge Sullivan stated, "This is a fascinating issue," adding that the case "raises a lot of technological and statutory issues."

    Among the issues that could be touched upon in the forthcoming case is the meaning of a "copy" for copyright purposes, whether the first sale doctrine applies in the digitial context, whether there's "public" performance in transmission of copies, and the ongoing liability for service providers who allow users to do things like move files around in digital clouds and re-sell them to others.

    Here is a copy of the winning brief [PDF] on the opposition to the preliminary injunction motion, filed by ReDigi's attorney, Ray Beckerman, two weeks ago. - Hollywood Reporter

  • Capitol Records Motion for injunction against ReDigi denied
    In Capitol Records v. ReDigi Judge Richard J. Sullivan, in a ruling delivered from the bench, denied Capitol Records' motion for preliminary injunction.

    We do not yet have a transcript of the decision....

    [The Court denied Google's motion for leave to file an amicus curiae brief.] - Recording Industry v. The People

  • Hardware-software bundling crumbles in France
    Just a few weeks ago, in January 2012, a new judgement was issued to replace the initial one (see ruling) : Lenovo must pay the plaintiff 120 for the software, 800 for personal damage and 1000 for legal expenses. To date, it is the heaviest condemnation in a small claims court for such a case.

    The current victory symbolizes the crumbling of hardware-software bundling in France. But very significantly, the legal ground is European directive 2005/29/CE on unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market. This means that the legal arguments in Mr. Pétrus's case can be used again in any EU country. Many victories were obtained in France through the combination of a dedicated team from AFUL who published a Guide for consumers and of a talented lawyer who is a genuine free software connoisseur. This lawyer in Poitiers, France, defeated one of the top European lawyers, a former Dartmouth graduate who works for Paul Hastings... - No More Racketware

  • Internet giants pull content after warning in India courts
    Internet giants Google Inc and Facebook removed content from some Indian domain websites on Monday following a court directive warning them of a crackdown "like China" if they did not take steps to protect religious sensibilities. - Reuters