Copyright: Innovative software case launched in China

26 January 2012

Microsoft has launched two pioneering copyright lawsuits in China in an attempt to deal with the problem of rampant software piracy. The cases were filed against Shanghai Gome, a branch of one of China's largest retailers, and Beijing Chaoyang Buynow, a shopping mall in, respectively, Shanghai Huangpu District People's Court and Beijing No 2 Intermediate People's Court. Microsoft claimed that it had evidence of pirated copies of Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office being pre-installed in computers sold by Shanghai Gome and by two of the retailers in the Buynow shopping mall. The filing against the Beijing shopping mall is the first time the principle of landlord liability has been applied to copyright infringement in China. If successful, it could lead to a series of similar cases. The US software company has had some notable successes in the last few years in its attempts to crack down on piracy, including sending 11 people to jail after a decision by a court in Shenzhen in January 2009 in a case that involved what the company called the biggest counterfeiting operation it had ever seen.

UK

British man could be extradited. A judge has ruled that British authorities can extradite British citizen Richard O'Dwyer to the US for infringing copyrighted material after he hosted sites that linked to protected films and television programmes. The 23-year-old would be the first British citizen extradited to the US for copyright infringement and could face up to 10 years in a US prison. O'Dwyer has appealed.

Japan

P2P software developer reprieved. The Supreme Court of Japan has upheld a lower court decision to find the creator of peer-to-peer file sharing software Winny not guilty of abetting copyright infringement. The decision ends a seven-year ordeal for Isamu Kaneko, a former researcher at Tokyo University, who was arrested in May 2004 by the Kyoto prefectural police and found guilty by the city's District Court in December 2006.

US

Copyright can apply to the public domain. The US Supreme Court has ruled that Section 514 of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which restored copyright protection to the works at issue in an attempt to implement the Berne Convention and comply with TRIPs, does not exceed the scope of Congress's authority. The 6-2 decision in Golan v Holder marks the end of a 10-year dispute.

US

Google, Wikipedia go black. The English version of Wikipedia, Reddit, Google and other websites went black last month in a protest against rogue sites legislation. Three White House officials have also released a statement on the two Acts – SOPA and PIPA – that highlighted censorship concerns but supported the broad idea of anti-piracy legislation. As Managing IP went to press it was not clear when the bills would next come up for a vote.

Telecoms companies BT and TalkTalk have begun their appeal against a decision to deny judicial review of the UK's Digital Economy Act 2010.

US President Barack Obama has said that he wants to consolidate six government agencies, including the US Trade Representative, into one new authority.

Databases such as football fixture lists cannot be protected under copyright law unless there is an element of creativity in the way they are represented, according to the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU.

European ISPs say new plans from the European Commission to harmonise practice on taking down copyright-infringing websites are long overdue, even though they could leave them with more responsibility to police the internet.

The UK government has published detailed proposals to clarify and extend copyright exceptions, in response to the Hargreaves Review.

For those countries with a 70-year copyright term, works by Virginia Woolf, essayist Louis Bertrand, sculptor John Hughes, French painter Jean Hippolyte Marchand and composer Jurgis Karnavičius came into the public domain on January 1.