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A gushing press release from the record label's trade body IFPI tells us that Plácido Domingo, the world renowned artist and chairman of IFPI, has addressed the International IP Enforcement Summit being held in London where he urged governments not to allow copyright to be eroded in the digital age and highlighted the importance of intellectual property enforcement for protection of creators and culture. He told the meeting that protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights “is one of the most important missions in our society and for our culture today.” Domingo added: “There is a view – mistaken in my opinion - that in the digital world copyright matters less than in the physical world. It is emphatically not so. In fact, copyright needs protecting as vigorously – if not more vigorously – on the internet.” He addressed the debate around copyright reform in the EU. “Europe will this year have new Commissioners and a new Parliament. I urge them, in their review of copyright, to promote and protect copyright, not to weaken it. Please, do not allow artist and producers’ rights to be eroded. Rather, look at how they can be better enforced.” Domingo stressed the need for collaboration to protect intellectual property rights in the online world. “We, in the creative world, cannot protect our rights alone. We need help from the bigger actors. The search engines, for example. When someone uses a search engine to find music, they should not be directed to illegal sources of music. This directly hurts artists and other creators.” He also called for help from governments. “Enlightened governments will understand that strong, properly-enforced intellectual property rights lead to a rich culture and economic prosperity.”
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Techdirt tells us about a fascinating court filing made by lawyers acting for Malibu Media who, depending on whose camp you in, are either quite rightly defending the copyrights it owns and represents - or copyright trolls out to extract unneeded dollars from unsullied individuals having filed thirteen hundred lawsuits in the US in the last year. To be fair one US federal judge did support the erotic film company saying “Malibu [Media] is not what has been referred to … as a ‘copyright troll’ ”. Judge Michael Baylson added, “rather, Malibu is an actual producer of adult films and owns valid copyrights.” But now Malibu attorney Mary K Schultz has filed papers that seems to suggest a massive conspiracy against the fikm company - and that conspiracy includes opposing counsel saying: "Plaintiff is the target of a fanatical Internet hate group. The hate group is comprised of BitTorrent users, anti-copyright extremists, former BitTorrent copyright defendants and a few attorneys. Opposing counsel is one of its few members. Indeed, as shown below, opposing counsel communicates regularly with the hate group’s leader. Members of the hate group physically threaten, defame and cyber-stalk Plaintiff as well everyone associated with Plaintiff. Their psychopathy is criminal and scary"
and "By administering and using the defamatory blog www.fightcopyrighttrolls.com, “Sophisticated Jane Doe” (“SJD”) leads the hate group. SJD is a former defendant is a suit brought by another copyright owner... She is a self-admitted BitTorrent copyright infringer. SJD’s dedicates her life to stopping peer-to-peer infringement suits" and "Opposing counsel regularly Tweets with the other members of the hate group. Further, his Tweets are often part of a series of Tweets intended to harass Plaintiff and its counsel. Opposing counsel also Tweets about on-going litigation including this case and disparages Plaintiff... He even called Plaintiff a liar." and "Opposing counsel is SJD’s and the other hate group members’ darling. They give him Kudos as he works toward trying to criminalize peer-to-peer copyright infringement suits."
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And finally, a US court has granted a request from MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom to put two lawsuits being pursued against him from the film and recorded music sectors on hold pending the ongoing criminal investigation into his former business. The stay will be reconsidered in August. Under the motion, the MPAA and RIAA are still free to add extra defendants and otherwise modify their lawsuits while the matter is on hold. Judge Liam O'Grady also agreed that the RIAA and MPAA were free to take action to stop moves in New Zealand and Hong Kong to return previously frozen MegaUpload assets to Dotcom and his colleagues saying "[T]he court finds that each of the plaintiffs' proposed conditions are reasonable under the circumstances of this case because of the possibility that defendants' assets abroad may become unfrozen. Plaintiffs may institute and pursue any action in the United States or a foreign jurisdiction to preserve defendants' assets in the event that such action becomes necessary".
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