Tech Policy Summit blog

Inventor Files More Patent Suits Involving Visual Voicemail

Klausner Technologies has once again set its sights on a long list of companies that it claims are violating its patents for visual voicemail technology. 

After settling patent suits with Apple, AT&T, eBay/Skype and Comcast earlier this year, Klausner filed a new patent infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Texas today against nine more companies, including Google, Verizon, LG Electronics, Citrix Systems and Embarq.

And there may be others. According to Reuters, inventor Judah Klausner "said he would consider filing lawsuits against additional companies that failed to license his patents, including Web-based phone service providers, but that many smaller companies have opened settlement talks recently." 

Reuters also reported that one company that doesn't seem willing to settle, at this point, is Verizon. The telco filed its own lawsuit against Klausner earlier this month, asking a federal judge in New York to "declare the inventor's visual voicemail patent invalid."

Coincidentally, visual voicemail on my cellphone was malfunctioning today, which made me realize just how much I've come to rely on it as a quicker way to check who's left a message...hopefully, the technology won't be derailed by the litigation.

Court Bolsters Enforcement of Open Source Licenses

Supporters of free/open source licenses like the GNU General Public License and Creative Commons are celebrating yesterday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which ruled violating such public licenses can be considered copyright infringement.

The case involved commercial software developers who had allegedly used code that was made available with the open source Artistic License without meeting the terms of the original license. The defendents had successfully argued in District Court that the license requirements that stated they needed to credit the program's developer and document any modifications were a matter of contract, not copyright, law.

However, the Court of Appeals overturned the District Court decision and, in doing so, stiffened the penalties for violating the terms of public licenses.

Stanford Law professor Larry Lessig, a founding board member of Creative Commons, described the ruling as a "very important victory" and said it offered "important clarity and certainty by a critically important U.S. Court." Stanford's Center for Internet and Society also played a key role in the case by preparing an amicus brief.

For more background, you can download a PDF of the Court's opinion.

Court Lifts Ban on Cablevision DVR Service

Cablevision won a legal victory yesterday that enables the company to move ahead with its plans for a remote storage digital video recording (RS-DVR) service that allows consumers to record programs using their existing cable box.

Cablevision first announced the RS-DVR technology, which is kind of a hybrid of video-on-demand and DVR, in March 2006. But the company was quickly sued by a number of film and television studios, including Paramount Pictures, Disney, CBS, ABC and NBC.

The content owners alleged that the RS-DVR service violated copyright by creating and storing a temporary buffer of programs on Cablevision's servers, and they won a lower court injunction that prevented Cablevision from marketing the service. However, yesterday's ruling by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision and cleared the way for RS-DVR.

For more info, check out Ars Technica or download a PDF of the Court of Appeals' decision from the Center for Democracy and Technology.

British ISPs Agree To Landmark Copyright Enforcement Deal

Following negotiations brokered by the United Kingdom's Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), six major Internet service providers in the UK have signed a memorandum of understanding with British music industry group BPI and the Motion Picture Association to curb illegal peer-to-peer file sharing significantly within two to three years. 

The agreement is particularly significant because it marks the first time that ISPs will be "required to work with music and other rights holders" to fight digital piracy. The ISPs, which include BSkyB, BT, Virgin, Carphone Warehouse, Orange and Tiscali, will launch a pilot program that begins by sending warning letters to individuals that have been identified as suspected copyright infringers.

British telecom regulator Ofcom has been charged with overseeing the process and working with the parties to develop and approve a Code of Practice within four months that determines what actions should be taken against alleged "repeat offenders," i.e. suspension or cancellation of users' Internet accounts or criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, while the British government says it prefers voluntary industry-led efforts, BERR is continuing to explore what it calls a co-regulatory approach that could lead to legislation. Among the regulatory options being considered by the government are:

• Requiring ISPs to provide personal data relating to a given IP address to rights holders on request, without them needing to go to Court.
• Requiring ISPs to take direct action against users who are identified by the rights holder as infringing copyright through file sharing.
• Requiring that ISPs allow the installation of filtering equipment that will block infringing content, or requiring ISPs themselves to install such filtering equipment.
• Allocating a third party body to consider evidence provided by rights holders and to direct ISPs to take action against individual users as required, or to take action directly against individual users.

BERR is seeking comment on the proposed options between now and October 30th; more information can be found in the consultation document released by the government. The 66-page PDF is available for download here.

p.s. We've previously written these posts about ISPs in the U.S. cooperating with the entertainment industry to police for copyright violations.

Qualcomm and Nokia Call Truce In Patent Battle

Wireless communications leaders Qualcomm and Nokia have announced that they're burying the hatchet in their long-standing, trans-Atlantic patent dispute. The companies have signed a 15-year licensing deal that, according to a Qualcomm news release, will "result in settlement of all litigation between the companies, including the withdrawal by Nokia of its complaint to the European Commission."

Specific financial terms remain confidential, but Nokia received a license enabling it to use all of Qualcomm's patents in its mobile devices and infrastructure equipment. In turn, Nokia agreed to allow Qualcomm to use Nokia's technology in its chipsets.

Businessweek columnist Steve Wildstrom, emcee for Tech Policy Summit '08, interviewed Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs at the 2008 Summit earlier this year and his opening question for Dr. Jacobs was about the company's patent litigation. You can hear a podcast of that interview in the Media Vault. 

Public Interest Groups File Opposition to MPAA Petition

As we wrote about last month, members of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) are interested in making high definition movies available for in-home viewing ahead of the typical release dates for DVDs, and MPAA is seeking permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use selectable output control (SOC) technology to prevent consumers from recording those films.

Despite MPAA's assertions that the arrangement would not only benefit its members by protecting their intellectual property but that it would also help consumers get access to high definition content and major theatrical releases earlier than usual, a number of public interest groups have banded together to voice their opposition to the FCC.

In a document filed with the Commission on Monday, seven organizations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, New America Foundation and Media Access Project urged the FCC to reject MPAA's petition on grounds that it's "unnecessary and contrary to the public interest." They argue that MPAA hasn't provided evidence that use of SOC technology would in fact curb copyright infringement; that it would frustrate consumers who wouldn't be able to use their electronics equipment as expected and that it would give "MPAA members unprecedented and undesirable control over consumer device design."

The full 25-page document is available for download.

EU Extends Copyright Terms; Introduces New IP Report

The European Commission adopted two important copyright measures yesterday.

The first is a controversial proposal to extend the copyright protections on musical recordings from 50 years to 95 years to bring it in line with the term already offered to authors (whose works are protected for their lifetime, plus 70 years).

The initiative has been lauded by the EU's Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy as a way to offer aging musicians additional income as they reach retirement. However, critics of the measure dismiss that argument as an excuse to keep copyright in the hands of recording companies. 

As a compromise, the Commission approved a so-called "use it or lose it" provision that would return copyright to the performer, if after 50 years, the record producer failed to market the song again. If neither the producer nor the performer took action within that time period, it would return to the public domain. 

Separately, the Commission also adopted a Green Paper on "Copyright in the Knowledge Economy" that is intended to open up debate on long-term copyright policy in areas like scientific and scholarly publishing by exploring what types of exceptions might be necessary to accommodate libraries, researchers, individuals with disabilities and others. The Commission is seeking comments on the issues discussed in the 22-page report through November 30th. To learn more, you can download the report here (the email address to submit comments is provided on the final page).

Blizzard's WoW Copyright Case

Videogame publisher Blizzard Entertainment, maker of the popular World of Warcraft franchise, won a legal victory yesterday. Though the outcome wasn't quite what Blizzard's legal aces had hoped for.

Blizzard had claimed that a startup named MDY Industries violated copyright law, specifically the Digital Milllennium Copyright Act (DMCA), when it created a product that allows World of Warcraft users to cheat and automatically improve their gameplay.

According to reports by News.com and Ars Technica, U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell agreed in his summary judgement that MDY Industries' MMOGlider software infringes on Blizzard's copyrights. However, he said that it does so not because it violates DMCA but because it breaks the licensing agreement that gamers must adhere to when using World of Warcraft.

Ars Technica writes, "Judge Campbell found Blizzard's argument that [MMO]Glider violates the DMCA unconvincing, and the question of whether it does will be settled at trial. That trial will also determine whether MDY violated Blizzard's copyrights, trademarks, and Blizzard's unjust enrichment claims, as well as putting a dollar figure on the damages." 

Public Knowledge had filed a 25-page amicus brief in support of MDY, which can be downloaded here.

eBay's Legal Victory May Help Other Sites

After losing a similar trademark battle in France only two weeks ago, eBay had reason to celebrate yesterday when U.S. District judge Richard Sullivan sided with the company in its longstanding dispute with Tiffany & Co. over who should be responsible for policing counterfeit merchandise in the online marketplace.

Unlike the French court, which ordered eBay to pay luxury goods giant LVMH over $60 million to compensate it for trademark violations, Judge Sullivan ruled that eBay had done enough through its Verified Rights Owner program to deter the sale of counterfeit goods on its site, concluding that "the law is clear: it is the trademark owner's burden to police its mark."

As Declan McCullagh wrote in News.com, while Tiffany may appeal the ruling, "for now...the decision relieves eBay--and companies such as Amazon.com, Yahoo and Google that provide auction listings or product search results--of what would have been a significant financial burden and legal uncertainty."

The full News.com article is available here, and eBay issued the following statement.

EU Parliament's Telecom Reform Raises "Three-Strikes" Concerns

According to BBC News, members of the European Parliament voted yesterday in favor of advancing new telecom reform legislation known as the Telecoms Package that includes a series of controverisal amendments that digital rights activists say would pave the way for a 'three-strikes' law against online copyright infringers in Europe.

MEP Malcolm Harbour, a key backer of the Telecoms Package, dismissed that idea, telling BBC that the amendments "have nothing to do with copyright enforcement. The interpretation of them is alarmist and scare-mongering and deflects from the intention which was to improve consumers' rights."

Opponents, led by a French group called La Quadrature du Net, warn that the legislation designed to harmonize Europe's telecom laws would instead threaten the openness of the Internet by requiring ISPs to give individuals suspected of downloading unauthorized copyright material two warnings before cutting off their Net access entirely. Another organization, Free Internet Infrastructure (FFII), went a step further, saying that a provision that would give the government the power to determine what type of software can be used online (and what can't) would lead to a "Soviet Internet" in Europe.

The European Parliament will vote on the legislation in September.

For more, read the full BBC article here.