By Tyler Lacey Wiki Operator Seeks Right to Host Discussions About Circumvention of iPhone’s DRM System Wired reports that on April 27, BluWiki operator OdioWorks filed a declaratory judgment lawsuit against Apple in order to “clarify the rights of the parties.” Last November, Apple threatened OdioWorks with legal action over a thread discussing how to use unapproved software on both the iPod and iPhone. Apple claimed that the content was “designed to circumvent Apple’s FairPlay digital rights management system” in ... Read More...

Federal Circuit Addresses Patent Pools and Antitrust Violations By Sharona Hakimi – Edited by Chris Kulawik Princo Corp. v. International Trade Commission, April 20, 2009, No. 07-1386 Slip Opinion On April 20th, the Federal Circuit affirmed in part and vacated in part a decision by the International Trade Commission in a suit regarding a patent pool for the “Orange Book” technology used to produce recordable and rewritable CDs. At the ITC, Princo conceded that it violated six patents owned by ... Read More...

First Circuit Bans Webcast in Trial Court By Debbie Rosenbaum* – Edited by Chris Kulawik In Re: Sony BMG Music Entertainment Et Al., April 16, 2009, No. 09-1090 Opinion On Thursday, April 16, The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, MA overturned a motion granted  by the district court which would have permitted the oral arguments in the case of Joel Tenenbaum vs. the Record Industry Association of America to be broadcast live over the ... Read More...

To Students’ Dismay, Plagiarism Detection Website Protected by “Fair Use” By Sharona Hakimi – Edited by Stephanie Weiner A.V. v. iParadigms, L.L.C., April 16, 2009, No. 08-1424 Opinion On April 16, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed a summary judgment ruling by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, holding that archiving of student works by commercial plagiarism detection website TurnItIn.com is a “fair use” under the Copyright Act, and therefore does not ... Read More...

By Tyler Lacey Founders of The Pirate Bay Internet Piracy Site Convicted, Sentenced to Prison The New York Times reports that on April 17, a Swedish court convicted four men, including the three founders of The Pirate Bay website, on charges of promoting copyright infringement. The men were sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay the equivalent of $3.6 million in damages to the holders of the infringed copyrights. The Pirate Bay continues to provide links that ... Read More...