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“FACT may have opted for this charge rather than copyright infringement (maximum two years in prison) because of its longer sentence,” said Mark Dennis, media lawyer at Taylor Wessing. “Given the substantial revenues generated by surſthechannel’s unlawful activities, FACT no doubt wanted to use this case as a deterrent to others.”


Te decision follows two similar cases in which the accused were both found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud. In 2010, the operators of two separate linking sites, Oink and Tv-links, were cleared of the offence.


But Dennis said linking websites are not necessarily immune from liability, even if they do not host content themselves or directly facilitate file-sharing. “Linking websites are at risk of liability for authorising infringement or making the copyright content available, particularly if it appears that piracy is at the core of their business models,” he said.


He said although this case may deter others from operating similar sites, they may simply relocate


to jurisdictions “perceived to immune from prosecution”. be


Te case reemphasises that copyright owners are willing to pursue the owners of linking sites, and not just file-sharing sites, in the criminal courts. Earlier this year, a court ruled that British student Richard O’Dwyer can be extradited to the US on copyright infringement charges. His website, Tvshack, hosted links to other sites in the same way as Vickerman’s. It is unclear how, if at all, this case will affect O’Dwyer’s appeal, which is due to begin in October 2012. 


Google begins relegating pirated content in search rankings


According to Amit Singhal, senior vice president of engineering at Google, the company was asked to remove more than 4.4 million URLs in the 30 days up to August 10, 2012. “We will now be using this data as a signal in our search rankings,” he said.


But Google has admitted that YouTube, which it owns, will not be affected by the changes.


In the past Google has typically blocked links to alleged illegal content, but not the websites themselves. Singhal said in the blog post that only the courts can decide whether sites violate copyright law or not.


Google has begun modifying its algorithms to relegate websites in its search rankings that are subject to high numbers of “valid copyright removal requests”.


Coming amid increasing requests to remove pirated content, Google said in a blog post that the changes will help Internet users find legitimate and quality material more easily. It has not explained what constitutes a “valid” request.


While there are around 200 other signals affecting search results, the recording and movie industry have welcomed the move, saying it is something they have urged Google to do for a long time.


“We are optimistic that Google’s actions will help steer consumers to the myriad legitimate ways for them to access movies and TV shows online, and away from the rogue cyberlockers, P2P sites and other outlaw enterprises,” said


France plans to scale back anti-piracy body Hadopi


The French government is planning to scale back the body responsible for monitoring illegal downloading and implementing three-strike law,


a saying it is too expensive


and ineffective. Introduced in 2009, Hadopi


tracks illegal


downloading on P2P networks. It has issued around one million emailed warnings (first strike) and 99,000 letters


(second strike) to


Internet users. According to reports it has hauled 314 people before prosecutors, who can terminate users’ Internet connections for a month or fine them €1,500 (£1,300).


10 Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 1, Issue 3


But to date, no-one has received either punishment, and culture minister Aurélie Filippetti has told French media that Hadopi is too expensive. It has cost around €12 million so far and employs 60 agents. She added it has not fulfilled its mission to encourage legal downloading.


Te government has launched a consultation period, led by businessman Pierre Lescure, to decide how to revise Hadopi. It will hear from groups including the creative


industry and


consumers, and Lescure is expected to produce a report detailing recommendations within six months. According to reports, ministers want a new-look Hadopi in place by 2013.


www.worldipreview.com


Michael O’Leary, vice president for global policy and external affairs of the Motion Picture Association of America.


But pointing to the need for more clarity on Google’s new approach he said “the devil is always in the detail”.


Cary Sherman, chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), added that “this is not the only approach” and “there are many more actions we hope Google will take”.


In July and August, the RIAA demanded that Google must remove almost 850,000 links, more than any other copyright owner. Te two most common sites subject to removal requests in the same period were file-sharing sites filestube.com and downloads.nl.


Google’s new approach raises questions about how it might manipulate search results around other sites in the future. Some commentators have remained cautious, saying Google should not interfere too greatly with its users’ preferences. 


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